Don’t let the details of life make you lose sight of your election in Christ; John 15:16.Title: Don’t let the details of life make you lose sight of your election in Christ; John 15:16.
“Every house of God is a gate of heaven where the impossible and the miraculous become the natural breath.” Oswald Chambers.
“Thus His unique Birth was a coming, an advent, God coming into human nature: ‘He did not come from the human race, He came into it from above.’ So our New Birth means the coming of the Divine Life into our human personalities. Have we allowed our personal lives to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God?” Oswald Chambers
John 15:16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, Aorist middle indicative of evkle,gomai[eklegomai] = election in Christ, which is God’s will for you to receive His highest and best.
We have established that election follows faith in Christ, though practically instantaneous, it is based on foreseen faith by God.
Rom 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
Rom 8:30 and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. We have also noted that not every choice by God or election by God is the same. Some elections are similar and some are very different, but all elections bring glory to Jesus Christ who controls human history.
For instance, Abraham is said to be elected. Cyrus is said to be elected. Judas is said to be chosen and Paul is said to be chosen. We will also contrast Isaac and Ishmael as well as Jacob and Esau.
We have also noted that: God has not created sin and evil. God does sovereignly administer discipline on evil people and evil nations, and He does judge sin. Discipline and judgment are represented by darkness and calamity in the scripture.
And we proved this with the much documented unlimited atonement from the Scripture, where the most significant creation of darkness in all history was created by God the Father.
Go back to: Isa 45:7 The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.
Now, it is also true that sin and evil are often represented by the same descriptive nouns, but that does not equate God as the creator of them. God cannot be unrighteous.
Rom 3:5-6 The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise how will God judge the world?
God certainly inflicts wrath, and if He inflicts wrath on sin and evil and is also the author and creator of it, then He is unrighteous and unjust. But His wrath is judgment of sin. That wrath was poured out on His son for the sins of the entire world. To those who have believed, no wrath will come upon them, and to those who have rejected Christ, they have chosen to accept that wrath, which they ultimately will at the GWTJ.
God’s divine discipline, warning, intensive, and dying, comprise His overruling will.
Deut 30:15 "See, I have set before you [placed before your face] today life and prosperity, and death and adversity [ra];
Deut 30:13 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
Life, prosperity, blessing = God’s Sovereign will. Death, adversity, cursing = God’s permissive will. Divine discipline = God’s overruling will.
Lining up your free will with God’s permissive with great regularity will inevitably usher in God’s overruling will.
Therefore, God’s overruling will is a function of His love. If He was uncaring He would let all creatures run amuck, since it wouldn’t matter to Him.
A good natural father would not let his children perish from their own bad decisions without counsel or warning and teaching.
Matt 7:11 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
Heb 12:9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits [by His discipline], and live?
Therefore, your volition or free will becomes a key aspect of the Angelic Conflict and its impact on your inner love and joy. You were once without Him, now you are with Him. You must avoid being pulled back into the mire of the kosmos and the details of life and learn how to fully embrace who you are in Christ.
Matt 17:1 And six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves.
Matt 17:2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
Matt 17:3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
Matt 17:4 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here [it's not the environment but the truth behind this event]; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah [three tents so that we can stay here]."
Peter is all about the environment and how nice it is. Let's leave the other eight down there and lets stay here, but it is the truth that makes one happy, not the environment.
Matt 17:5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!"
The Father is interrupting Peter, who has a lot more to say, as usual. The Father is telling Peter to stop talking and listen.
Matt 17:6 And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were much afraid.
Matt 17:7 And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, "Arise, and do not be afraid."
Matt 17:8 And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus Himself alone.
It's only the Lord that is important and He is the word of God. Elijah and Moses are gone and so now they can continue to see the real issue, Christ. Many people never get with doctrine because they have their eyes in the wrong place, they have their eyes on people rather than doctrine. People disillusion them and they never pick up the word of God.
Matt 17:9 And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead."
Our only record of Peter talking about the transfiguration is right before his death when he writes 2Pe 1, in which he relates his true understanding of the event, doctrine was, is, and always will be the true source of God's power.
Matt 17:10 And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"
Matt 17:11 And He answered and said, "Elijah is coming and will restore all things [second advent];
Matt 17:12 but I say to you, that Elijah already came [first advent], and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands. "
Matt 17:13 Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.
Now that is one heck of an experience and a guarantee that Christ will be glorified, more than Moses or Elijah. No one is asking Peter, James, and John to be so heavenly minded that their no earthly good, but this event is something that they were privileged to see and should remember, but what happens next [they stayed on the mountain and this is the next day].
Matt 17:14 And when they came to the multitude, a man came up to Him, falling on his knees before Him, and saying,
Matt 17:15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire, and often into the water.
Matt 17:16 "And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him."
Matt 17:17 And Jesus answered and said, "O unbelieving and perverted [corrupted] generation [disciples], how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me."
Matt 17:18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.
Matt 17:19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"
Matt 17:20 And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.
These words fell upon the ears of Peter, James, and John as well, but the evidence of their behavior soon after their witness of the transfiguration shows that the mountain experience gave way and was overrun by the details of failure, not even their own, in the valley.
Look at their response to sound doctrine, post transfiguration [verse 21 not in the original]
Matt 17:22 And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men;
Matt 17:23 and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day." And they were deeply grieved.
He will repeat this and they will still not believe it or see its significance. He will say He must go away in the upper room and they will ask where and why?
Witnessed victory in the mountain became witnessed failure in the valley. What was beautiful on the mountain became the silly details of life in the valley.
We can’t always live on the mountain top, nor can we always be ecstatic about the things of God, but we have to learn how to bring what we witness on the mountain, down into the valley.
You are what God has elected you to be in Christ as a believer. Whether you see it in glory today as you sit on a meadow full of daffodils or whether you’re at work in a boring stale environment, you’re position in the One who transfigured Himself before you, does not ever change.
We lose what we’ve seen on the mountain top when we fail to apply the doctrine we’ve seen and instead we go right back into the details of life like we always did and like everyone else does. |