The Scripture is written for us to believe that there is a God who created the heavens and the earth. It is also written for us to believe that the Creator God so loved the world that he sent his Son and whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Furthermore, it is written for us to believe in the Person of Jesus Christ and the Father God in heaven, so that we may have life, a true and abundant life, yes eternal life. “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31) There are many things we do not know. There are many things we do not understand. There are full of mysteries in the Scriptures. The mysteries of God can be known and revealed when he has made known and revealed. One of the mysteries of God is the elect.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in
Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship
through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise
of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” (Ephesians
1:3-6)
God knows all. He teaches and reveals what is in depth and
height. The elect are those who are predestined for adoption to sonship through
Christ. The elect are those who are chosen in love by God even before the
creation of the world. It is true that God knows the elect those who are not even
born in time and space. It is hard for us to contemplate and fathom, but it is
what the Scripture says. One of the most abused interpretation of the mystery
of the elect is that God has determined who is going to be saved and who is
going to be condemned. That is not what predestination means at all. If so, it immediately
contradict to truth that God so loves the world that he sent his Son Jesus
Christ as the ransom sacrifice for the sin of the world. Predestination is
applied to those who would respond to the loving kindness of God that he sent
his Son to get away of the sin of the world and whoever believes in the Son
Jesus Christ shall have eternal life. No one knows who are predestined for
adoption to sonship but God himself. Every human being is given a fair and
impartial opportunity throughout lifetime to respond to the loving kindness of
God who gives, gives, and gives sunshine and rain to all.
One thing God does not do is to force anyone to respond to
his lavishing love. Instead, he draws them to come unto him with joy and
thanksgiving. So, God pleas and beseeches humanity to come to him and have life
in full. In truth, no one can come to the Son Jesus Christ unless the Father draws
them (John 6:44). He does invite humanity to see who he is and what he is and
why he is and how he is. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle
and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) At the end of the Feast of the
Tabernacle, Jesus earnestly invites the people who is thirsty to come and
drink. “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a
loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes
in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within
them.’” (John 7:37-38) Jesus Christ is constantly knocking at the door of our heart
to come in and dine with those who hear his voice and open their heart. “Here I
am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20)
God knows who would respond and who would not. God who is
the Creator of the universe foreknew. “For those God foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also
called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also
glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30) The same number of people God predestined are
called, the same number of people who are called are justified, and the same
number of people who are justified are glorified. God predestined his children
to be conformed to the image of his Son. In order to conform to the image of
the Son, our sins must be forgiven and cleansed. It implies though the death of
the Son Jesus Christ as Prophet Isaiah saw the vision of the suffering servant who
would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities and slaughtered
like a lamb. Jesus Christ is King who rules over all nations, not with military
power but with humility and peace. Jesus Christ is Lord over all peoples on
earth, not forcing them to submit but serving and giving his life as a ransom for
many. Jesus Christ is High Priest for the poor and needy, who is able to
emphasize our weaknesses for he has been tempted in every way and yet he did
not sin. Jesus Christ is Son of God who emptied himself and obeyed the Father
even to the point of death and was exalted to the highest place and given the
name that is above every name in heaven and on earth and under the earth. It was
the will of the Lord God to crush the Son and cause him to suffer on a cross. Jesus
Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). The way is the cross of
Calvary. The truth is the forgiveness of our sins through the death of the Son
Jesus Christ God sent. The life is the resurrection on the third day from the
dead. Conformation to the image of the Son means to love others as he loved us
first.
“Who has
believed our message
and to whom
has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
He grew up
before him like a tender shoot,
and like a
root out of dry ground.
He had no
beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in
his appearance that we should desire him.
He was
despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of
suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one
from whom people hide their faces
he was
despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he
took up our pain
and bore our
suffering,
yet we
considered him punished by God,
stricken by
him, and afflicted.
But he was
pierced for our transgressions,
he was
crushed for our iniquities;
the
punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his
wounds we are healed.
We all, like
sheep, have gone astray,
each of us
has turned to our own way;
and the LORD
has laid on him
the iniquity
of us all.
He was
oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did
not open his mouth;
he was led
like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a
sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did
not open his mouth.
By
oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of
his generation protested?
For he was
cut off from the land of the living;
for the
transgression of my people he was punished.
He was
assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the
rich in his death,
though he
had done no violence,
nor was any
deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was
the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though
the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see
his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.” (Isaiah
53:1-10)
A logical question is then why God allows everyone to live a
good amount of time if he foreknew who would respond and who would not. Because
God wants humanity to learn and grow and eventually conform to the image of the
Son. Though a new born babe is fully human, what is anxiously needed is growth.
They need to grow not only physically and psychologically but most importantly spiritually.
There are elementary truths to learn in the early stage of life in Christ. These
are called spiritual milk, a soft food in the Scripture. “Therefore let us move
beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity,
not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and
of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the
resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” (Hebrews 6:1-2) The list is
the foundation and bedrock of our faith. But the author of the Scripture urges
to move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to
maturity, a whole person in Christ. Grow up in Christ! Those are like ABCs in
Christian learning and experience. There are much more to learn and grow in
Christ who is Eternal God. The mature does not eat milk any longer but hard
meat, difficult and challenging topics like love our enemies.
One area most Christians are struggling is suffering in
life. The people of Israel complained and murmured throughout the wilderness
wonderings for forty years. They complained water, food, enemies, leadership,
virtually everything. We are just like them. How much do we complain and murmur
about unfortunate circumstances, neighbors, communities, politicians, friends, and
even families? No one likes suffering at all. However, it is coming to all
humanity. No one is exempt from suffering. In fact, God pronounced a solemn
statement when Adam failed to obey him. “To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened
to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must
not eat from it,” Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you
will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and
thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of
your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you
were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:17-19) Many
say, “Life is tough.” Yes, it is precisely. Life itself is full of troubles and
aches. From the moment of birth to the last breath of air, life is one trouble
after another. One down and here comes another and on and on. It doesn’t discriminate
anyone whether they are rich or poor, white, black, brown, or yellow, learned
or not, and what continent they live. Christians are not exempt either. Jesus
says so upfront as our Lord himself received all kinds of persecutions without
cause. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you
belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong
to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world
hates you.” (John 15:18-19)
Conforming to the image of the Son is to listen and obey him
just as he obeyed the Father even to the point of death. So, our Lord Jesus
says to his disciples, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of
righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people
insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because
of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the
same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12)
Growing to maturity in Christ means to rejoice and be glad in sufferings for great
is our reward in heaven. Life is complex and complicated and thus no person is
able to give a simple remedy or solution for all humanity. We are learning and
growing in Christ one at a time through life experience, especially sufferings
and troubles. Suffering in life is a Gods’ great vehicle to teach us to see the
invisible realities and truths. We do not see yet what we will be like. But a
time is coming to see what we are in Christ when we shall see him as he is (1
John 3:2). The Scripture is given us to be thoroughly equipped for every good
work as the elect. This is a truly good news for humanity. All we need to do is
come unto the gentle and humble Shepherd and receive rest and peace through the
faith in Christ. This we shall keep on doing now and forever. “And without
faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews
11:6)
May 18, 2017
© 2015-2017 David
Lee Ministries – All Rights Reserved.
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