There is no retirement in the work of Christ. None. We are never where we should be: there is always time and room for improvement. We cannot sit on our laurels.
Our qualifications are of little value: the traditions of faith within our family are of similar worth. We need to strive for righteousness this day and every day. The arguments we have about free will or predestination are of about as much use as our qualifications.
What matters is that we gain the upward call of God, and that God is glorified.
For we rejoice, not for our circumstances, but that we have been redeemed despite ourselves.
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.
Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
There is a temptation within those of Reformed Faith. It is to consider that God is completely sovereign — that is true, and right — and thus we should do nothing. We are elect: he will draw those he calls to him. To not have empathy with the damned. To not realize that we could be the SJW becoming less human as they fit into an approved model of transgression, or a Muslim yelling for Shari’a. To forget that without Christ, those he died for will not be saved.
To not preach, to not care about holiness: because I am saved and I now need to nothing. If we do not have missions, and goals, and duties. And as if sloth, doing nothing, is not a benefit, but bad for us.
I watched a silly programme on TV about fish tank installers. They were going to Shaq’s place: he is now retired from basketball, with a pile of toys, a broken body, and little to do. The technical parts about the fish I enjoyed. But the lack of mission I saw for Shaq was frightening and scary. There is something sad about a former elite athlete resting on the glory they got as they manage their injuries.
The mature think less about the theory and more about the practice. And it may be that this is because we realize there are some things that we can only grasp in part: we will not be capable of understanding them. Quantum physics, Brain physiology. Cosmology. Higher mathematics (which is a subset of theology). And the mind of God.