You can have it all and still blow it with negative volition; John 15:16.

Title:You can have it all and still blow it with negative volition; John 15:16.

 

Contrast Abraham and Cyrus. Contrast Paul and Judas.

 

ISA 45:8

"Drip down, O heavens, from above, And let the clouds pour down righteousness [TLJC]; Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit, And righteousness spring up with it [by faith in Christ]. I, the Lord, have created it.

 

ISA 45:9

"Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker — An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?' Or the thing you are making say, 'He has no hands'?

 

ISA 45:10

"Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' Or to a woman, 'To what are you giving birth?'"

 

The potter is obviously God the Father. Can we quarrel with Him about what He is doing? If we did we would be comparing our intellect to His. So does that mean that He has predestined some people to the LOF? That is a huge leap.

 

The potter molds for His use both the believer and unbeliever, but God does not predetermine faith in a person. Faith is a matter of free will.

 

Verse nine is quoted in Rom 9, the chapter that is magnanimous to the hyper and moderate Calvinist.

 

ROM 9:1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,

 

ROM 9:2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.

 

No believer in the client nation should rejoice over the destruction of that nation. The RFHC demands patriotism.

 

ROM 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,

 

 “according to the flesh” only, indicates a racial Jew, born in the line of Jacob, who is not a born again Jew.

 

This is impossible for Paul. Under the principle of individual self-determination and free will, there is no sacrifice that Paul can give that will save all the Jews.

 

Paul as an unbeliever tried to keep the Jews away from Christ and now as a believer he is burdened for the Jews to come to Christ, but he understands that not all will believe.

 

The more you advance spiritually the more you separate from the world and the more you separate from the world the more you recognize the tragedy of those who remain slaves to it through rejection of Christ. Therefore, as you advance spiritually you become more sensitive to the tragedy of that life and the people who are willingly enslaved to it.

 

If the atonement is limited to the elect and God has predetermined some to the LOF without choice then Paul is more gracious, merciful, and compassionate than God.

 

ROM 9:4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,

 

Israelites: racial and spiritual heritage as a covenant people and the first client nation. Only believing Jews would realize the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant.

 

Abraham wasn’t great because of his genes. He was great because of his PVTD and his attainment of spiritual maturity. The Jews began as a spiritual race when Abraham was circumcised at 100 years old. After years passed, the Jews saw themselves as a racial heritage and rejected the spiritual heritage.

 

Negative volition towards the gospel blinded the Jews to their origin.

 

Adoption: regenerate Jews would be in the second family of Christ forever.

 

Glory: Shekinah glory [TLJC]. Covenants: God’s faithfulness and integrity. Law: divine establishment prosperity.

 

The glory between the two cherubs in the holy of holies left Israel, but returned in the person of JC.

 

Temple services: Levitical sacrifices revealing soteriology. Promises: all will be fulfilled.

 

ROM 9:5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

 

Fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

 

This is a wonderful verse for the deity of Christ. He is true humanity and undiminished deity in one person forever.

 

Verses four and five show us that Israel had it all. You can have it all and still blow it with negative volition.

 

Having so many gifts from God is not the issue; it is your volition that counts.

 

Unbelievers don’t see the need for a Savior and so they reject Him and they lose. Believers who become apathetic towards the word of God lose.

 

This reveals the need for a first and a second advent for Christ.

 

There has to be a demonstration to Israel, which in effect becomes a demonstration to the entire world, that even though the Lord personally comes to visit you and talks to you personally, performs miracles for you, does everything so that you can actually see grace and doctrine, man still has free will. Man still has self-determination, man is still a free agent, a free agent rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. There is the tragedy. What a ghastly thing it is to realise how evil man is. And to put that evil on God as the source of it is despicable.

 

Man is at his worst at the cross; God is at His best at the cross. The one who was hanging on the cross was not only the Shekinah glory, the God of Israel, the son of David, the future ruler of Israel, God, ruler over all, but at the same time He was the only saviour. Who said no? Dumb Gentiles? No, smart Jews!

 

The true Jew can never be a Jew by simply possessing the genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The true Jew must possess the spiritual heritage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which is the new birth.

 

The spiritual heritage is the new birth.

 

ROM 9:6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;

 

ROM 9:7 neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "through Isaac your descendants will be named."

 

ROM 9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

 

ROM 9:9 For this is a word of promise: "At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son."

 

ROM 9:10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac;

 

ROM 9:11 for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls,

 

ROM 9:12 it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger."

 

ROM 9:13 Just as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

 

ROM 9:14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!

 

ROM 9:15 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

 

God’s mercy is the cross and God’s compassion is the application of election in time to the one who through faith has salvation adjustment to the justice of God.

 

This isn’t an arbitrary election, but an election based on foreseen faith in Christ.

 

ROM 9:16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

 

ROM 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth."

 

The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart evangelized the world, Josh 2:10-11.