Selection plus imputed sin forces God’s justice to leap into action; John 15:16Title: Selection plus imputed sin forces God’s justice to leap into action; John 15:16.
John 15:16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.
The 5 elective decrees. Lapsarianism.
Supralapsarianism [heresy], Sublapsarianism is moderate Calvinism [limited atonement], Infralapsarianism, Arminian lapsarianism is salvation by works.
The decree of God is Sovereign, but it is also permissive, allowing for the free will of man and the results of man’s decisions. All of the secondary results of choice are in the decree.
Election is the expression of God’s will for every believer, which is to possess eternal life as well as to receive God’s highest and best.
Man’s destiny is the outworking of his own thinking, his motivation, his decisions, and his actions, all of which God knew simultaneously in eternity past. Man’s volition or self-determination is the immediate cause. But God knew in eternity past what this decision would be and what our thoughts and motives that preceded it would be, and what the actions that followed it would be. That is omniscience. The decree of God removes no man from what within the sphere of his own experience is the outworking of his own choice, acting from his own judgment — based on his own desires, his own motives, his own thoughts and his own circumstances. Whatever free will choice anyone makes on a given occasion in time is the execution of the divine decrees. There are no surprises to the omniscience of God. No decree itself, therefore, opposes human freedom.
And so we append infralapsarianism with one more decree as is revealed in Eph 1:3. This is Thieme lapsarianism.
1. To create all mankind for the purpose of bringing many sons into glory, Hebrews 2;10, and resolving the angelic conflict.
2. To permit the fall of mankind and the extension of the angelic conflict to the human race thereby.
3. To provide salvation for all mankind, unlimited atonement.
So far this is technically infralapsarianism, but the next point is different
4. The first primary asset: The decree to provide a portfolio of invisible assets for every believer by depositing escrow blessings for every believer for time and eternity.
5. The second primary asset: The simultaneous decrees of election and predestination, Ephesians 1:4,5.
6. To apply salvation to those who believe in Christ in time.
What is decreed in eternity past, election and predestination, become the primary assets for those who believe in time. Those believers who capitalize on their primary assets move on to enjoy secondary assets, like the production of divine good, reception of escrow blessings, function of the spiritual gift, undeserved suffering and evidence testing, and blessing by association.
Salvation is not arbitrarily doled out to persons based on God’s whim or pleasure due to His +S. Yes, God is Sovereign, but He is also fair, just, and righteous.
Ps 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Thy throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before Thee.
If we are going to understand what you have been elected to we must understand what you have been created for.
Selection: God imputed human life to your body at birth. God also imputed Adam’s original sin to your genetically formed old sin nature.
God selected every member of the human race. But due to the fall all of us are born spiritually dead and separate from God; not from our person sins, rather from our position in Adam.
Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin [imputed sin] entered into the world, and death [spiritual death] through sin [imputed sin], and so death [spiritual death] spread to all men, because all sinned [in the same way as Adam]
This is the genius of God. Allowing the fall gave God carte blache over all fallen creatures. Either they would die in what they did not do or they would be saved through the immaculate display of God’s grace. In one way we all fall into the pit, but in another way, we all have an opportunity to accept God’s deliverance. God chose to take all our sins upon Himself. And this, He made a public display of so that all of us could see it. His love was opened to the eyes of the whole world through a sacrifice and death that superabounded beyond anything that any person could do.
Rom 5:13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
There are three forms of sin. Imputed sin, inherent sin, and personal sin.
Imputed sin – Adam’s original sin is imputed to the genetically formed OSN at birth. Adam is the federal head of the human race so all sinned when Adam sinned.
This is genius on the part of God.
Adam did not have imputed righteousness. Adam did not have eternal security. Adam was perfect, but he was not imputed with God’s righteous; only God can make one righteous.
So Adam was perfect and his wife was perfect, without sin and would lose that perfection when the sin was committed. Would you rather that over imputed righteousness which is through non-meritorious faith in Christ? Would you rather take a shot at perfection in the Garden or would you rather have eternal life and eternal security through one decision to believe in Christ?
The fall and subsequent imputed sin means that man is born condemned and that God can only deal with Him through His Justice. |