Man's free will must line up with God's Sovereign will. John 15:16.Title: Don’t let the details of life make you lose sight of your election in Christ; John 15:16.
Last night in Matt 17 we witnessed the transfiguration of Christ along with Peter, James, and John and we concluded after they came down from the mountain into the valley where there was failure on the part of the other 8 disciples and a resultant lack of faith on the part of all of them that:
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.
You might ask “When have I ever been to the mountain top, or seen Jesus transfigured?” I would reply, “Right in this room, 5 nights a week.”
“Every house of God is a gate of heaven where the impossible and the miraculous become the natural breath.” Oswald Chambers.
No matter where you are, your free will must line up with His Sovereign will.
The unbeliever’s free will must line up with God’s Sovereign will [He desires all men to be saved; 1Ti 2:4a].
The believer’s free will must line up with God’s Sovereign will after salvation [He desires all men to come to an epignosis knowledge of the truth, 1Ti 2:4b].
If it is the truth that you know, then you know who you are, and who you are is not determined by your surroundings or your circumstances. This is the faith of the advancing and mature. Do you have it? Do you want it? If you want that more than anything then you will glorify Christ to the maximum in your life and through you will live a very abnormal life, and what is normal anyway?, you will live a life beyond dreams and you be conformed to the image of Christ who lived the most abnormal life ever!
However, there is confusion as mankind tries to rationalize what God does. It is only a manifestation of arrogance that man attempts to figure out God outside of faith.
Here in lies the confusion. God does not make the unbeliever what he is, but He uses the unbeliever to His own purpose.
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 55:10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth, And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
Isa 55:11 So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent 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. |