Ephesians; 1:4 – The calling of the elect, part 6: Does your sin diminish the hope of your calling?

Thursday, February 7, 2019

 

A believer cannot grasp the full scope of his election in Christ in one go.

 

PRO 13:4 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,

But the soul of the diligent is made fat.

 

Notice the wisdom that every man craves or desires, but not every soul is fat and overflowing.

 

PRO 21:5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage,

But everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.

 

Hasty means that they want it fast. They want it refined, processed, and pressed into a small bite-size piece that is quickly consumed.

 

God has made it so that our souls can only come to a deep comprehension over many years. A man, Christian or not, who says that they are not willing to put that much time into it are saying that they don’t want to put years investing in life.

 

The hasty don’t want to put too much time into life.

 

What is it that they want? I doubt they know. They want prosperity, but part of prosperity of soul is perseverance, determination, patience, toughness, strength, and many others that the hope to by-pass in order to get prosperity.

 

What is prosperity without strength or character? What does it look like without determination and perseverance? The first picture that comes to my mind is a spoiled rich kid who did nothing but inherit wealth and position. This is a universal law that God has set in His universe. No one, not Satan, can overturn it.

 

2TI 2:15 Be diligent [spoudazo = make every effort] to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.

 

We also spent quite a bit of time on the elect royal priest who is told in HEB 4:11 to make every effort to enter into God’s rest and is repeatedly warned of the danger of turning back as Israel did at Kadesh-Barnea.

 

Election is such an enormous subject in the Word of God. I don’t know how any of us could fully grasp what is revealed about it in one go. We have been on the subject since Nov. 4. Four months of learning, and I would think that we should start it over, but no subject like this is fully known and comprehended in a few months, or even years. We will return to it before long as Paul mentions it a few more times in Ephesians.

 

EPH 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

 

Knowing God’s calling and electing you, mixed with your faith in it, is to have hope in it. Faith becomes hope which becomes love for the One who called. Remember, hope in God is to hope in a sure thing. There is no question of fulfillment as so often accompanies the promises of people. God promises to lead you to that to which you were called, and if your heart is enlightened so that you follow the Lord, you have perfect hope that it will be fulfilled.

 

A believer, even after a few classes on election could confidently say, “I don’t know much, but I know this, I’m confident that the Lord God is going to make something extraordinary, rich, and rewarding with my life.”

 

“I was blind, but now I see,” said the man born blind to Pharisees who questioned him about details.

 

EPH 1:19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.

 

In EPH 4:1, 4 Paul uses both the noun and the verb of “call.”

 

EPH 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,

 

EPH 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love,

 

EPH 4:3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

 

EPH 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;

 

EPH 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

 

EPH 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

 

EPH 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.