Sovereign Election pt 1

Sovereign Election pt 1

-                     Dr. Grudem’s definition of election is:

o      “Election is an act of God before creation in which He chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of His sovereign good pleasure.”

·       Grudem’s definition specifically talks about certain people being chosen unto salvation.

o      We will see the New Testament speaks clearly about this (in part 2), but do we see the general concept of God choosing people based only on His good pleasure?

·       Do we see God selecting people for various purposes not because of anything they have done but only because He desired to choose them for a particular purpose?

·       The answer is a definitive YES!

-                     We see this throughout the scriptures – See the multitude of examples:

o      Abraham

·       Genesis 18:19 - For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice.

·       Nehemiah 9:7 – You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.

·       See also Isaiah 51:2

o      Israel

·       Deuteronomy 7:6-8 - For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

·       See also Amos 3:2, Psalm 147:20

o      David

·       Psalm 78:70-71 - He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance.

·       See also 1 Samuel 16:1, 2 Samuel 7:8, 1 Kings 8:16

o      Jeremiah

·       Jeremiah 1:5 - Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

o      John the Baptist was chosen

o      Jesus chose the 12 apostles – John 15:16 & 19, 13:18, 6:70

o      Paul was chosen – Galatians 1:15

o      The Lord assures Elijah in 1 Kings 19:18 - I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.

·       Psalm 65:4 - Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple

-                     Election for judgment & restoration

o      Pharaoh – Exodus 9:14-16; 12:12; 14:17-18, God raised up Pharaoh to judge Egypt’s gods and show forth His power and glory in delivering Israel.

o      Assyria against Israel in judgment – Isaiah 10:5-6

o      Babylon against Judah in judgment – Jeremiah 27:2-7

o      Cyrus of Persia to restore the Jews post judgment – Isaiah 45:1-4

·       You could also argue that ALL the great prophets and judges were chosen to perform their tasks.

o      These examples are enough to show that election is not a new concept found in the New Testament but is found throughout the scriptures.

From the paper - Trust God in His Righteousness

For a very brief introduction read the first paragraph here.

Trust God in His Righteousness

How many of us have had jobs where we earned money or some other type of wage? Probably all of us have earned wages at one time and we all believe we should be compensated for our work. It’s just common sense, right? Well, maybe in the business world it is, but when we speak of our salvation, particularly justification, we should think again. In the context of salvation, we read of wages in this manner, “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). The only wages all of us earn in this life is sin and it leads to death. We are told that all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) and that there is no one righteous or good (Romans 3:10-12). We might wonder why this is the case, even if we are truly sincere in our works. The reason being is that our work is a self-centered endeavor before God and rejects His work to bring us near to Him. This is why our good works are worthless regardless of how good they look. There is no charitable deed, ritual to perform, or anything you can physically do to make you right with God and bring you to Him.

Then we should ask, if our good works cannot bring us near to God, if they are of no use to justify us, then how does God declare us righteous? “To the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (Romans 4:5) For those who trust in Christ, God takes His heavenly ledger that details all their sin and wipes it away. In its place, He writes in His righteousness and justifies them on that basis alone. This is imputation. In other words, God credits or imputes Jesus’ righteousness to the Christian. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This goes against the grain of our human nature. We just want to be a good person and try to do our best and hope God accepts us. God says, “Your righteousness is as filthy rags! (Isaiah 64:6) Trust in what I have done through my Son, Jesus Christ, and I will accept you as perfectly righteous.” This is what makes the good news so wonderful – we can be with God based on what He has done for us! Our problem is we want to do everything ourselves when our work is a slap in the face of God who accomplished everything in Christ. We must lay down all our religious works, efforts, and good deeds and humbly come to God trusting only in His work of righteousness. Whose righteousness do you stand in?

Hear the contrast

Todd Friel, from Way of the Master radio, takes us through two preachers, both of whom claim to be preachers of the gospel, but only one preaches the gospel of the Bible.  The other is a false teacher, a wolf in sheep's clothing (Hint: the false teacher's initials are JO). It might make you chuckle on one level given how sharp the contrast, but on another level it makes you sad and outright disgusted over such false teaching.

James White - Theology Matters: Peace with God

From the paper - God's justice, love save sinners

For a very brief introduction read the first paragraph here.

God's justice, love save sinners

Just-as-if-I’d-never sinned. This is how a number of people learned what justified means and there is truth in the expression, but when we look at what the scriptures say regarding this priceless truth we see it is lacking. Last time, we saw how vital justification is to the church at-large, but unfortunately it is either distorted or people don’t understand it or are ignorant of it. The word justified, like any word in the New Testament, has a range of meanings. Not too different from our own English language. The spring springs into the air and falls into the spring on a beautiful spring day. There are four different meanings for spring in that sentence and according to dictionary.com, I am not using anywhere close to all the meanings for spring. The same is true with the way words are used in the New Testament. We see wisdom is justified in Luke 7:35, though surely this does not have anything to do with sin. Obviously when we talk about God being justified in Romans 3:4, we know it is different than the justification Christians receive. This also helps us with our friend James chapter 2, since so many Christians scratch their heads over its content, not realizing Paul and James are not in conflict a bit! Rather, we are looking at two different uses of the same word. We’ll get back to that in a future column.

As we intimated last time, Paul uses justification in regards to our standing before a judge. You can see this in Romans 8:33, “Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.” No matter the mountain of evidence the prosecution has against the elect, the charges fall flat for it is God who justifies. Any Roman reading this letter during the 1st century would have recognized the legal language Paul used. Paul is conveying to us the perfect standing we have in the court of heaven.

How can God do this? Any judge who is worth his weight in salt should condemn us for all the times we have broken God’s law, and forsook God for our own pleasures. “But God,” is one of the most wonderful phrases in all of scripture. Romans 5:8 “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Anyone who feels worthy of condemnation and has lost hope for eternal life should embrace this in faith and lay the sin that condemns them on the substitute who can save them. The judge counts the sin of the sinner to the Savior, and the righteousness of the Savior to the sinner. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” This is where the justice and love of God find perfect harmony to save sinners like us. This is justification we receive by faith alone. Do you believe?

How Free is the Will? pt 3

How Free is the Will pt 3

- There are two common accusations against this teaching.

o Man cannot be responsible if he is not able.

§ Fallen men do have the mental and physical ability, but deliberately reject God and His gospel.

· They love sin more than God.

§ They freely and willingly oppose the God of the scriptures and this is precisely why man is responsible.

- What about “Whosoever will”?

o Does this imply ability?

§ This is not about man’s ability, but about God’s promise to those who do come.

o God commands us to do things everyday that we do not have the ability to accomplish.

- For the unbeliever, the command to love God with all their being is just as much applicable to them as us…

o Not to mention the rest of the commandments and…

- Yet no unbelieving person can love God OR come close to obeying Him without the Spirit of God!

o Even as Christians, we cannot fulfill a single command without God.

- Jesus says you can do nothing apart from Him in John 15:5 - that is, you cannot bear fruit apart from Christ and...

§ We do not rely on our natural ability, but upon Christ for everything we do!

o The general command is a promise for those who do come to God through Christ.

§ Are these people unknown to God? NO!

· God is omniscient and He knows who will come to Him AND He draws those who come to Him (John 6:44)

- What is the purpose of these commands and truisms?

o One is to describe what it means to come to Christ.

§ We must repent and believe in Him.

· This describes the attitude of the heart of a true believer.

o There are two distortions of this teaching.

§ First, there are men who genuinely want to come, but can’t come to Christ because they are not the elect.

§ Second, men are forced against their will to come to Christ even though they do not want to come.

· They are the elect so too bad!

o This is a BAD caricature of the teaching and is only meant to poison the well.

§ Those who do want to come to Christ represent those who are the elect.

§ Those who do NOT want to come to Christ may represent those who are not elect.

o I use the word may because until someone dies there is hope for their salvation.

§ If you do not know whether you are the elect, do not delay, but repent and trust in Christ ALONE for your salvation.

· Not in works of religion, works of good deeds, being a faithful church member BUT in Jesus Christ and nothing else.

How Free is the Will? pt 2

How Free is the Will pt 2

- We should speak of free agency instead of free will.

o Free-will, generally speaking, refers to man’s inherit ability to choose either good or evil.

§ This affects the scriptural view of man which states man does NOT have any ability to choose good.

· Romans 9:16 - So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

o Free agency refers to man’s ability to make free choices in accordance with who he is.

§ Our choices are always a reflection of the heart, agreeing with what we think and feel.

· Another way of saying it–man will choose what he pleases.

§ This is the kind of freedom everyone has and is the reason we are accountable for our choices.

- God does not prevent man from coming to Him or believing in Him.

o Man has the physical ability and mental capacity to come and believe in Him BUT….

§ Man loves his sin and hates God.

o In fact, because man does understand God’s truth and realizes the demands of the gospel, he does NOT want to come.

§ Look at the Pharisees and the Jews in the gospel of John who understood Jesus’ teaching.

· They were offended by what Jesus was saying.

o They understood it and rejected it.

§ See also Romans 1:18-21.

o So man’s problem does not relate to his physical or mental ability - man's problem is his moral inability.

§ Man has NO innate desire to repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.

· For a fuller study see our original study on sin and its effects.

o Do we deny that people have a choice? No!

§ Everyone has a choice

· What’s the problem then?

§ People do not want to choose God, but they do want their sin.

How Free is the Will? pt 1

How Free is the Will pt 1

- Much of this was based off of Mitch Cervinka’s excellent article on free will found here.

- Do we have a free will? If so, how free is the will? What do the scriptures say about our will?

o As we looked at here, the scriptures clearly teach we are all sinners by nature.

§ We are not sinners because we sin, but sin because we are sinners.

· Because of our sinfulness we sin willingly and constantly by choice.

§ Until we are converted to Christ, we will always choose sin instead of righteousness.

o What about good works then? How about unbelievers who feed & provide for the poor? Who do many beneficial things for those less fortunate?

§ Romans 14:23 - …whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

§ Hebrews 11:6 - And without faith it is impossible to please him (God)…

§ Isaiah 64:6 – Righteous acts = filthy rags.

§ Romans 3:10,12 – There is none righteous, not even one. There is none good, not even one.

o Again, any so-called good works done by an unbeliever are done for reasons other than for the glory of God.

§ They are not done to magnify God’s Name and exalt Jesus Christ.

· There is none good, not even one.

o Until we realize that our character, our nature, the essence of our being is utterly sinful, then we will never see ourselves as God sees us, nor will we fully appreciate the depth of our sin and our desperate need for Christ.

- What about the will?

o It is not autonomous, being independent of all other things.

§ Our choices are always based on rational and emotional considerations.

o For example, given a choice of a beefy burger or a salad, we might choose one or the other or both for various reasons.

§ We consider our health, our desire for juicy burgers, our financial situation, or even our dislike for either one.

o We do not make random choices, but our choices are based on values or priorities at any given time.

§ An evil or sinful value system pits our desires, goals, etc, over against God’s.

§ A godly value system is based ultimately on the love for God and desire to glorify Him.

· Our will or choices are a reflection of the heart

o An evil heart will reflect self-centered sinful choices.

o A godly heart will display choices that honor God.

The Deeps - The Valley of Vision

Taken from the treasure trove of Puritan prayers, The Valley of Vision.

THE DEEPS

Lord Jesus, give me a deeper repentance, a horror of sin, a dread of its approach. Help me chastely to flee it and jealously to resolve that my heart shall be Thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust, that I may lose myself to find myself in Thee, the ground of my rest, the spring of my being. Give me a deeper knowledge of Thyself as saviour, master, lord, and king. Give me deeper power in private prayer, more sweetness in Thy Word, more steadfast grip on its truth. Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, and let me not seek moral virtue apart from Thee.

Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly husbandman, that my being may be a tilled field, the roots of grace spreading far and wide, until Thou alone art seen in me, Thy beauty golden like summer harvest, Thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty.

I have no master but Thee, no law but Thy will, no delight but Thyself, no wealth but that Thou givest, no good but that Thou blessest, no peace but that Thou bestowest. I am nothing but that Thou makest me. I have nothing but that I receive from Thee. I can be nothing but that grace adorns me. Quarry me deep, dear Lord, and then fill me to overflowing with living water.

From the paper - 'Justification' is a key Christian issue

For a very brief introduction read the first paragraph here.

'Justification' is a key Christian issue

How important is justification? Many in the church would probably acknowledge its importance because it is in the Bible, but we might wonder how important it is. It does not sound nearly as fascinating as the end times or spiritual gifts, or as practical as to-do lists for living the Christian life, so why waste the paper and ink for this article? It might surprise some people that justification was one of the key issues that sparked the Reformation in the 16th century. It is the truth that Martin Luther, the man whom God used to spark the Reformation, believed was so crucial that the church would either stand with its teaching or fall without it. We might ask, is it really so vital that a church would actually fall without it? The answer is a resounding, yes!

To understand this we must realize that apart from Christ, we are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1) and at enmity with God (Romans 5:9-10). This is not a good position to be in considering we all will have to face him as our judge some day (Hebrews 9:27). What can we do? How do we come to terms with the one who will have more than enough evidence to condemn us? We might try community service so the judge might be lenient on us and let us squeak into heaven. Or we might think God will just overlook all the bad things we did. The problem with this mindset is that God is just (Daniel 9:14, Psalm 9:7-8) and He will judge us all through His Son Jesus Christ with perfect equity (Romans 2:5-6, Acts 17:31).

There is only one solution to this serious problem. It can be seen in Luke 18:9-14 - the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee thought well of himself and showed utter contempt for the publican, but the publican would not even lift up his eyes. He beat his chest and cried out “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Jesus said the publican was justified and the “good” person was not. What happened to the publican? He was justified before God, meaning he was declared righteous by the judge. Justification in salvation is the judicial act of God whereby He declares sinners not guilty and positively righteous based on Christ’s death on the cross. We receive justification through faith alone. “To the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:5). The one who stops working and trusts in Christ and nothing else to remove their sins, will be counted righteous by God. This is the foundation of the church, the joy of the believer and the great hope of every lost sinner. In a future column we will look at how God can be righteous and justify the wicked (Us!) through Jesus’ death, but for now let us be in awe and wonder at the unspeakable gift of justification.