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timewithgod.blog-city.com — March 2007
Jeremiah 34-35 Hearing But Not Listening
just like a kid
The people of Judah weren't even practicing "selective hearing" at this time. In fact, they failed to listen at all to what God was saying.
In the past they'd followed God's rule of freeing Hebrew slaves every 7 years, but that practice had stopped long ago. With Jerusalem embattled, the king had ordered the slaves freed, possibly to assist with the defense of the city. And there was an immediate, noticeable effect -- the Babylonian army withdrew, due to pressure from the Egyptian army. But as soon as the heat was off, the yolk was back on, as slave owners who'd performed a sacred covenant ritual reneged on their promises.
God said, "Now you have changed your minds. You have shown you do not honor Me.... You have not obeyed Me .... Even though the Babylonian army has left Jerusalem, I will give the order to bring them back. It will fight against Jerusalem, capture it, set it on fire, and burn it down."
God then brought attention to a family which had always obeyed His commands, comparing them to the rest of the Israelites. He said, "You should learn a lesson and obey My message .... I have given you messages again and again, but you did not obey Me. I sent all My servants the prophets to you again and again, saying, "Each of you must stop doing evil. You must change and be good. Do not follow other gods to serve them. If you obey Me, you will live in the land I have given to you and your ancestors. But you have not listened to Me or paid attention to My message....I spoke to those people, but they refused to listen. I called out to them, but they did not answer me."
In my sidebar, Oswald Chambers writes: "We don't consciously and deliberately disobey God -- we simply don't listen to Him. God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them -- not because of willful disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him .... Why are we so terrified for God to speak to us? It is because we know that when God speaks we must either do what He asks or tell Him we will not obey.....Am I constantly humiliating God by ignoring Him, while He lovingly continues to treat me as His child?"
Father, thank You for finally getting my attention all those years ago. I know there are still times when I do consciously and deliberately disobey You -- not because I'm not listening, but because I'm choosing to shut my ears to something I don't want to hear. And in doing so, I feel terrible when I do it, knowing I'm turning away from You. Help me not to do that anymore. When You call out to me, don't let me cover my ears. Help me instead to listen and obey.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
In the past they'd followed God's rule of freeing Hebrew slaves every 7 years, but that practice had stopped long ago. With Jerusalem embattled, the king had ordered the slaves freed, possibly to assist with the defense of the city. And there was an immediate, noticeable effect -- the Babylonian army withdrew, due to pressure from the Egyptian army. But as soon as the heat was off, the yolk was back on, as slave owners who'd performed a sacred covenant ritual reneged on their promises.
God said, "Now you have changed your minds. You have shown you do not honor Me.... You have not obeyed Me .... Even though the Babylonian army has left Jerusalem, I will give the order to bring them back. It will fight against Jerusalem, capture it, set it on fire, and burn it down."
God then brought attention to a family which had always obeyed His commands, comparing them to the rest of the Israelites. He said, "You should learn a lesson and obey My message .... I have given you messages again and again, but you did not obey Me. I sent all My servants the prophets to you again and again, saying, "Each of you must stop doing evil. You must change and be good. Do not follow other gods to serve them. If you obey Me, you will live in the land I have given to you and your ancestors. But you have not listened to Me or paid attention to My message....I spoke to those people, but they refused to listen. I called out to them, but they did not answer me."
In my sidebar, Oswald Chambers writes: "We don't consciously and deliberately disobey God -- we simply don't listen to Him. God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them -- not because of willful disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him .... Why are we so terrified for God to speak to us? It is because we know that when God speaks we must either do what He asks or tell Him we will not obey.....Am I constantly humiliating God by ignoring Him, while He lovingly continues to treat me as His child?"
Father, thank You for finally getting my attention all those years ago. I know there are still times when I do consciously and deliberately disobey You -- not because I'm not listening, but because I'm choosing to shut my ears to something I don't want to hear. And in doing so, I feel terrible when I do it, knowing I'm turning away from You. Help me not to do that anymore. When You call out to me, don't let me cover my ears. Help me instead to listen and obey.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Jeremiah 36 Picking at the buffet line?
We cannot pick and choose which parts of God's word we will obey
God ordered Jeremiah to produce a scroll with everything God had told him on it, so that it could be read before the people during a time of fasting. God said, "Maybe the family of Judah will hear what disasters I am planning to bring on them and will stop doing wicked things. Then I would forgive them for the sins and evil things they have done."
God is still desiring that they return to Him, in spite of the fact that He's ordered their defeat, destruction, and exile. What amazed me was that God said "maybe" (did you notice the italics?) That almost seems to imply that He has not let Himself know what their eventual response will be (that's the best way I could find to word the fact that He doesn't seem to know in advance what their response will be). Of course, God could and usually does still plan to have us suffer the consequences of our sins (in their case, exile to Babylon or destruction) even though He forgives our sins if we repent.
The scroll is prepared and it's at least 9 months later before it is publicly read. One man, Micaiah, heard it all and ran to tell his friends, who were leaders (or perhaps even princes, my commentary says). They too see the importance of the message and have it brought to the king, who was seated near a fire in his winter palace. After hearing 3 or 4 columns of Jeremiah's prophecies from God, King Jehoiakim stopped the reader, took the scroll, and sliced off those columns and threw them into the fire, then asked the reader to proceed. This continued, despite the protests of those around the king, until the entire scroll had been read, ignored, and cut up and burned.
My commentary said that this was a perfect picture of what liberals and rationalists have been doing with the Word of God ever since. If we ignore or toss out parts of God's word that do not suit us, we are just as guilty as Jehoiakim.
Father, please help me never to be guilty of discarding what I may not like in Your word. Help me to see value where it is not readily apparent. Help me not to count anything dedicated to You as worthless.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
God is still desiring that they return to Him, in spite of the fact that He's ordered their defeat, destruction, and exile. What amazed me was that God said "maybe" (did you notice the italics?) That almost seems to imply that He has not let Himself know what their eventual response will be (that's the best way I could find to word the fact that He doesn't seem to know in advance what their response will be). Of course, God could and usually does still plan to have us suffer the consequences of our sins (in their case, exile to Babylon or destruction) even though He forgives our sins if we repent.
The scroll is prepared and it's at least 9 months later before it is publicly read. One man, Micaiah, heard it all and ran to tell his friends, who were leaders (or perhaps even princes, my commentary says). They too see the importance of the message and have it brought to the king, who was seated near a fire in his winter palace. After hearing 3 or 4 columns of Jeremiah's prophecies from God, King Jehoiakim stopped the reader, took the scroll, and sliced off those columns and threw them into the fire, then asked the reader to proceed. This continued, despite the protests of those around the king, until the entire scroll had been read, ignored, and cut up and burned.
My commentary said that this was a perfect picture of what liberals and rationalists have been doing with the Word of God ever since. If we ignore or toss out parts of God's word that do not suit us, we are just as guilty as Jehoiakim.
Father, please help me never to be guilty of discarding what I may not like in Your word. Help me to see value where it is not readily apparent. Help me not to count anything dedicated to You as worthless.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Jeremiah 37-39 Strength for the minute, not the hour
That's how God provisions us
Jeremiah was really put through the ringer in those last days before Jerusalem fell. He was falsely accused of desertion when he tried to leave the city on family business, then almost starved in the makeshift prison he was sent to. After being summoned to King Zedekiah, he was at least transferred to the courtyard of the guard in the palace and given bread every day.
But it wasn't long before the king's grandson and others branded him a traitor and in almost a repeat of Joseph's story, lowered him into a muddy well to die. God sent him rescue in the form of an Ethiopian eunuch -- a man who would have not been allowed by the Jews to worship in God's Temple. As a result, God later saved that man from destruction as Jerusalem fell.
Although King Zedekiah kept asking Jeremiah about the future, he never heeded his advice, and ended up as a blind, lonely prisoner in Babylon, having watched his son's being put to death before losing his eyesight, while Jeremiah was treated well and allowed to remain in the land.
My sidebar, again by Oswald Chambers, had a lot to say about persevering:
"God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome. The strain is the strength. If you spend yourself physically, you become exhausted; but spend yourself spiritually, and you get more strength. God never gives strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute....The saint is hilarious when he is crushed with difficulties because the thing is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God."
In the last few weeks, I have been struggling a lot spiritually and I've been left feeling so spiritually dry in my worship time. It has been a very tough struggle to see what God will be doing in it all. Additionally, the messages I seem to be pulling out of my quiet times aren't appearing to be validated by those I ask about them. Yet I have found myself strengthened each minute that I needed it.
Father, I'm struggling spiritually, and I definitely need Your strength for the strain of the minute now. Please meet me at each sticking point and bring resolution and clarity to this time of confusion.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
But it wasn't long before the king's grandson and others branded him a traitor and in almost a repeat of Joseph's story, lowered him into a muddy well to die. God sent him rescue in the form of an Ethiopian eunuch -- a man who would have not been allowed by the Jews to worship in God's Temple. As a result, God later saved that man from destruction as Jerusalem fell.
Although King Zedekiah kept asking Jeremiah about the future, he never heeded his advice, and ended up as a blind, lonely prisoner in Babylon, having watched his son's being put to death before losing his eyesight, while Jeremiah was treated well and allowed to remain in the land.
My sidebar, again by Oswald Chambers, had a lot to say about persevering:
"God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome. The strain is the strength. If you spend yourself physically, you become exhausted; but spend yourself spiritually, and you get more strength. God never gives strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute....The saint is hilarious when he is crushed with difficulties because the thing is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God."
In the last few weeks, I have been struggling a lot spiritually and I've been left feeling so spiritually dry in my worship time. It has been a very tough struggle to see what God will be doing in it all. Additionally, the messages I seem to be pulling out of my quiet times aren't appearing to be validated by those I ask about them. Yet I have found myself strengthened each minute that I needed it.
Father, I'm struggling spiritually, and I definitely need Your strength for the strain of the minute now. Please meet me at each sticking point and bring resolution and clarity to this time of confusion.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Jeremiah 40-42 The Intent of the Heart
It's the thought that counts
Jeremiah had been caught up in the roundup of prisoners headed for Babylon, and it wasn't until they reached Ramah that he was discovered and set free with food and a gift from the king of Babylon. It was interesting that the king of Babylon and his men seemed to acknowledge and obey the Lord much more than God's own people did.
Jeremiah stayed with Gedaliah, the appointed governor, until he was assassinated by a rival, then followed the people left behind almost to Jerusalem.
There, their hearts were telling them to flee to Egypt, but they asked Jeremiah to speak to the Lord for them, and they promised to do exactly as He advised. God responded that they must not go to Egypt, for if they did, the very things they feared would happen to them in Judah would not only follow them to Egypt, but would also kill them. As dire as God's warnings were, and as fervent as the promises to obey had been, it seems that God already knew their answer would be to go to Egypt anyway. He said, "When you go....", not "if", and He added, "I have told you, but you have not obeyed."
My commentary added, "Modern Christians often do the same thing: they ask God for guidance -- and they often request counsel from parents, S.S. teachers, elders, pastor, and others -- yet their mind is already made up to do what they want. Unfortunately, such "seeking counsel" is all window dressing."
Father, I can read every Christian book in the world and seek counsel from everyone, including You, but until I make up my mind to actually obey You in a particular area, I am simply faking it. Also, as Jesus indicated, it's the thought that counts. Even if I do not commit an actual sin through my actions, if I "thrive" on that sin in my thought life, I am just as guilty. Help me not to get trapped into believing that I am doing better than I really am, because before You I am simply a sinner in need of grace, and any holiness I attain to is nothing but dirt compared to Yours.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Jeremiah stayed with Gedaliah, the appointed governor, until he was assassinated by a rival, then followed the people left behind almost to Jerusalem.
There, their hearts were telling them to flee to Egypt, but they asked Jeremiah to speak to the Lord for them, and they promised to do exactly as He advised. God responded that they must not go to Egypt, for if they did, the very things they feared would happen to them in Judah would not only follow them to Egypt, but would also kill them. As dire as God's warnings were, and as fervent as the promises to obey had been, it seems that God already knew their answer would be to go to Egypt anyway. He said, "When you go....", not "if", and He added, "I have told you, but you have not obeyed."
My commentary added, "Modern Christians often do the same thing: they ask God for guidance -- and they often request counsel from parents, S.S. teachers, elders, pastor, and others -- yet their mind is already made up to do what they want. Unfortunately, such "seeking counsel" is all window dressing."
Father, I can read every Christian book in the world and seek counsel from everyone, including You, but until I make up my mind to actually obey You in a particular area, I am simply faking it. Also, as Jesus indicated, it's the thought that counts. Even if I do not commit an actual sin through my actions, if I "thrive" on that sin in my thought life, I am just as guilty. Help me not to get trapped into believing that I am doing better than I really am, because before You I am simply a sinner in need of grace, and any holiness I attain to is nothing but dirt compared to Yours.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Jeremiah 43-45 An ominous shout from God
What are you DOING to yourself?
Once they heard God's message from Jeremiah, they said, "You're lying!" These people had already run away once, so it was easy to make the same mistake again. That's the thing about sin.... if we ever cross a line once, we've given in to the devil and it takes an incredible effort not to cross that same line again. Jeremiah was forced to go with them to Egypt, despite his dire warnings that they would never return.
What these people admitted stunned me: The women admitted that in Judah they'd been burning incense to the Queen Goddess -- that their people had done so in Egypt before and had never stopped. They cited their sacrifices to her as the reason they'd had plenty of food and success in life!
And they repeated the same reason for continuing in their sin that sinners have said since Day 1: "Nothing bad happened to us!" How they failed to understand that their sin had already caught up with them. That phrase ought to be the warning signal to people today as well. The fleeting enjoyment they feel in their sin will be far outweighed by what they will have brought upon themselves by their disobedience.
God's response to all this blares out from the pages, exposing sinners everywhere to the fact that they are practicing reckless endangerment: "Why are you doing such great harm to YOURSELVES??.....Why do you want to make Me angry??... You will destroy yourselves!"
Sin so blinds us to the Truth that we become incapable of seeing that we are doing great harm to ourselves. Short-term pleasure quickly outweighs and overshadows the long-term results of sin. And we close our eyes so that we won't notice how angry God is becoming with us.
It was too late for these people....
Father, please let it never be too late for me. Help me always to recognize and deal with sin in my life, and help me to do the same for my sons. Don't let me ever remain stuck in sin and as a result fail to grow in You. Show me when I am considering something that will do great harm to me, and give me the wisdom and strength not to let it happen. I need You, Father, every day, and more and more as the days go by!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
What these people admitted stunned me: The women admitted that in Judah they'd been burning incense to the Queen Goddess -- that their people had done so in Egypt before and had never stopped. They cited their sacrifices to her as the reason they'd had plenty of food and success in life!
And they repeated the same reason for continuing in their sin that sinners have said since Day 1: "Nothing bad happened to us!" How they failed to understand that their sin had already caught up with them. That phrase ought to be the warning signal to people today as well. The fleeting enjoyment they feel in their sin will be far outweighed by what they will have brought upon themselves by their disobedience.
God's response to all this blares out from the pages, exposing sinners everywhere to the fact that they are practicing reckless endangerment: "Why are you doing such great harm to YOURSELVES??.....Why do you want to make Me angry??... You will destroy yourselves!"
Sin so blinds us to the Truth that we become incapable of seeing that we are doing great harm to ourselves. Short-term pleasure quickly outweighs and overshadows the long-term results of sin. And we close our eyes so that we won't notice how angry God is becoming with us.
It was too late for these people....
Father, please let it never be too late for me. Help me always to recognize and deal with sin in my life, and help me to do the same for my sons. Don't let me ever remain stuck in sin and as a result fail to grow in You. Show me when I am considering something that will do great harm to me, and give me the wisdom and strength not to let it happen. I need You, Father, every day, and more and more as the days go by!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Jeremiah 46 - 48 God deals with sin
He must because He IS God
I saw God's justice and correction in these chapters, but I also saw His love. That seems like an odd mix when you're reading prophecies of His impending discipline.
There was no love for Egypt at that time. God predicted invasion, exile, and destruction for their long history of sinning against Him. But His love was promised again in their future: "But in the future, Egypt will live in peace as it once did."
Israel still had to pay for her sins as well, but like a good Father, God said, "Don't be afraid, for I am with you .... I will not completely destroy you. I will punish you fairly, but I will not let you escape your punishment." (If He did, He wouldn't be a fair and just God.)
Moving westward, God takes aim at the Philistines. He's had enough of their idolatry: "The time has come to destroy all the Philistines....all who are left alive." The people there will cry, "Sword of the Lord, how long will You keep fighting? Return to your holder and be still." They would beg God to stop. His reply? "But how can His sword rest when the Lord has given it a command?"
I feel that should be our response as well, particularly if God gives us a message to deliver about sin. We can't disobey Him.
Moab, farther west, has no idea what God has planned for it! Using America as an example, 9/11 was terrible, but our nation was never threatened with extinction. Imagine instead destruction and chaos so complete that our nation literally collapses, government effectively shuts down, and there are no more states to be united. That's what Moab is facing.
Moab had never been put to the test by being attacked, and as a result, the nation itself did not have strong character to pull it through. And following the attacks, they won't respond with "We've been attacked!" but instead there will be incredibly deep mourning when they realize that their country has ceased to exist! All of this happened simply because they thought they were greater than the Lord, it says. "They are proud, very proud, and in their hearts they think they are important."
Despite their great sin, though, it pains God to do this: "My heart cries sadly for Moab," God says. And then His love shines through: "But in days to come, I will make good things happen again to Moab," says the Lord.
There was a dire warning I noticed in 48:10: "A curse will be on anyone who doesn't do what the Lord says, and a curse will be on anyone who holds back his sword from killing." This could also be "a warning to us against doing the work of God negligently and failing to declare all the counsel of God, no matter how unpopular it might be," my commentary added.
Picking up that thought, my sidebar said, "Thee is no way that we can be faithful to God and avoid the judgmental aspects of our ministry. We must recognize that sin must be dealt with. It is impossible to be biblical and at that same time sugar-coat the message of the Gospel."
Father God, Your holiness demands that we recognize sin and call it what it is, particularly when we see it in the mirror. Help me as I teach, especially this coming Wednesday night, to not pull any punches if You give me words to speak about sin. Don't let me neglect Your message.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Jeremiah 49-50 What God knows...
every detail of every minute of every day of your life
Many of the prophecies in these chapters have only partially been fulfilled, my commentary says, and many are still future. What a heads-up a reporter could get reading this! It's almost like a Middle East primer. Many of these countries are promised prosperity later by God, but several are slated to be wiped off the face of the earth. One thing is clear -- when God decides to do it, it will happen, and nothing will be able to stop Him. I'm certainly glad that America has the sense to support Israel, because many of these dire consequences are meted out against those who've fought her.
So what's in here for me today? As an adopted son of God, I loved hearing, "My people have been like lost sheep. Their leaders have led them in the wrong way....They forgot where their resting place was .... the Lord, their true resting place, the God their fathers trusted..... I will forgive their sins."
Because God has so intricately planned all of the details of the destruction of His enemies, and led Jeremiah to write about them several thousand years ago, we can be certain that He also knows every minute detail of every minute of our lives. My sidebar listed a great exercise that ties in with that: "When you pray, go over each detail of your [coming] day. Who will you see and talk to? What projects need to get done? Where will you drive? Don't live any part of your day without letting God know you are looking to Him for stamina."
Father, You are amazing to know the details of not just my day, but those of the billions on this planet, whether they know and acknowledge You or not. Thank You for being such a big God and an all-knowing God. Guide me through this day.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Jeremiah 51 & 52 The effect of remaining away from God
not worth it
There are two tales of great tragedy in this book. God's own people continued their idolatry all the way from Egypt, through the 40-year wandering in the wilderness, into the Promised Land, and finally to the point they were removed by God from it. From a family of 14 or so, they grew to be millions, yet only 4600 remained to travel into captivity, with a few poorest of the poor left to tend the country.
The other story was of a great nation, Babylon, which became the superpower of its day. No coalition could stand against it, and God used it as His instrument of punishment against His own people. But Babylon wasn't a godly nation. It never sought after the Lord. It did not know Him. It was simply used by Him. In the end, it too was utterly destroyed.
Matthew Henry summed it up well:
1) It is no new thing for churches and persons... to degenerate and become very corrupt.
2) That iniquity tends to the ruin of those that harbor it; and if it be not repented of and forsaken, will certainly end in their ruin.
3) External professions and privileges will not only amount to an excuse for sin and an exemption from ruin, but will be a very great aggravation of both.
4) No word of God shall fall to the ground.... and the unbelief of man shall not make God's threatenings, any more than His promises, of no effect.....Let them not be deceived, God is not mocked.
In a person's life, walking without God will only lead to ruin. Yet so will starting with God and walking and remaining away from Him, or harboring sin from the beginning, and being unwilling to have it removed. Yet God is faithful, and those He has called, though they may stray, He never lets go of. He wants more for us than we most certainly want for ourselves, and certainly more than we feel we deserve. Maybe that's the root of our problem -- we believe the lie of Satan that, because of our sin, we cannot possibly be worthy of that kind of love, and that is coupled with another lie of Satan -- that, because of our sin, we dare not within ourselves think or hope that we have any right to claim that kind of love from God. Yet God disproves both of those in John 3:16.
Father, thank you for loving me enough to never give up on me, for drawing me out of my time of rebellion against You and bringing me back home. Father, I too, like the Israelites, have not come completely clean, harboring sins that maintain that distance between us. Help me to give them all up now, and experience a downpour of grace from You.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Ephesians 1:1-3 Swallowing an elephant .... one bite at a time
Wow, there's a lot here!
I've rarely had to chop a chapter up into tiny pieces. This may be a first. Chapter 1 is 4 paragraphs long, but my commentary devoted 10 pages to it.
"Grace and peace to you" is loaded with meaning. Grace always comes first for a reason. Only after grace has dealt with the sin question can peace be known, it says. They'd already experienced God's grace in saving them; and here grace means divine assistance for daily living -- strength from God to face the problems, trials, and sorrows of life, it says.
Peace means a spirit at rest in all the changing circumstances of life. Believers have already experienced peace with God .... but day by day they need the peace of God.
Even the names of God and Jesus used here are chock full of meaning: God -- one who is infinitely high and unapproachable, mixed with Father -- one who is infinitely near and accessible. And Lord Jesus Christ -- Lord, as absolute Master with full rights to all we are and have; Jesus -- our Savior from sin; and Christ -- our divinely anointed Prophet, Priest, and King.
In verse 3, it mentions that God has given believers "every spiritual blessing in Christ in the heavenly places". "Every" shows how He doesn't hold anything back. "Spiritual" shows that, unlike the Jews, who knew only physical blessings, today we have spiritual blessings. And they are "in Christ" because He got them for us by what He did on the cross.
Finally, it discussed the phrase "in Christ", which had stumped me for so long, and it involves two truths:
1) The believer's position, and
2) The believer's practice.
Position is either "in Adam" (dead because of sin), or "in Christ" (no longer condemned before God because He sees them in their new position in Christ and accepts them on that basis)
"The believer's position, then, is what he is in Christ .... the believer's practice, though, is what he is in himself." His position is perfect, but not his practice. God wants that to change, and He works to increase that, but we won't be fully there until we are in heaven.
As we go through Ephesians, it says, we first discover our position in Christ, then our practice. The first part is doctrine and the second part is duty. The first part contains the phrase "in Christ" a lot. The second part mentions "in the Lord" more -- showing us that Paul is talking about our practice of making Him Lord of our lives and turning over everything we are to Him.
Father, I know my position. And I know that my practice doesn't fully match up to it. Please show me how to fully relinquish control over my life to You to get the two more closely aligned.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Ephesian 1:4 You can only cut some elephant parts up so small....
election
It somehow makes sense that this should be a mystery. I guess most people would have trouble with the doctrine of election (God chooses those He wants to save, we'll say) because we can't fully get our minds around that whole concept. I learned a lot from my commentary this morning and I'll let it do most of the talking. Verse 4 says, "That is, in Christ He chose us before the world was made so that we would be His holy people -- people without blame before Him. (NCV)"
The fact is that God chose us, and our position in that choosing is "in Christ". The timing of our being chosen was "before the world was made" -- in other words, way before we were ever born, so that we couldn't say it had anything to do with us. And His purpose in doing so is that we should be "holy and without blame" before Him in love. This won't be completed until we are with Him in Heaven, but we are to be continually working on it down here.
Here is some very plain and simple logic, with verses to back it up, regarding election:
1) God does choose men to salvation (2 Thess. 2:13)
2) People can know whether they are elect by their response to the gospel: those who hear and believe are elect (1 Thess 1:4-7)
3) The Bible never teaches that God chooses men to be lost. We can't imply that since He chooses some to be saved, He is therefore also choosing others to be lost. (Of course there will be no verses to cite if it's not in there).
4) In Romans 9:23, Paul speaks of the elect as "vessels of mercy which He had prepared beforehand for glory. The verse before it describes the lost as "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction." God prepares vessels of mercy to glory, but He does not prepare men for destruction.: they do that for themselves by their own unbelief.
5) Election lets God be God ... If left alone, all men would be lost. Does God have the right to show mercy to some? Of course He does.
6) The same Bible that teaches election also teaches human responsibility. No one can use the doctrine of election as an excuse for not being saved. In John 3:16 and other verses, God makes a bona fide offer of salvation to all people. Anyone can be saved by repenting of his sins and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, if a person is lost, it is because he chooses to be lost, not because God desires it.
7) In a single verse (John 6:37) the Bible teaches both election and free salvation -- "All that the Father gives me (election) will come to me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out (free salvation)."The first half speaks of God's sovereign choice, while the second half extends the offer of mercy to all.
Here's the kink for our limited minds -- How can god choose some and yet offer salvation freely to all? It's a mystery on our side, but not on God's. It's something our minds just can't grasp. But God's can! The truth isn't found somewhere between the two, but in both extremes.
Father, You said it, so I believe it. Just because it's hard to understand doesn't make it untrue. Only You will ever know how special it makes a sinner like me feel to know that You chose ME before the world began for Your team! From one who was usually always picked last for any team, I thank You more than I can express !!
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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