This past Sunday was a special day. God in His goodness and mercy chose to move in a marvelous way and bring several to a place of assurance in their salvation. After everyone of our three services, I had the privilege to talk with a person about their standing in Christ. Many of them were already redeemed in Christ, but uncertain of it.
Over and over again I sought to help people merely seek and receive what Jesus had already given them or wanted to give them.
Over and over again people would ask, "but how can I know for certain that what you explained is true in me?"
I simply told them to look to Christ and trust in Him. In so doing He would reveal their standing over time and give them His rest.
In my devotion this morning C.H. Spurgeon said it like this.
“Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.”
— 1 Thessalonians 1:4
Many persons want to know their election before they look to Christ, but they cannot learn it thus, it is only to be discovered by “looking unto Jesus.” If you desire to ascertain your own election;—after the following manner, shall you assure your heart before God. Do you feel yourself to be a lost, guilty sinner? go straightway to the cross of Christ, and tell Jesus so, and tell him that you have read in the Bible, “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” Tell him that he has said, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Look to Jesus and believe on him, and you shall make proof of your election directly, for so surely as thou believest, thou art elect. If you will give yourself wholly up to Christ and trust him, then you are one of God’s chosen ones; but if you stop and say, “I want to know first whether I am elect,” you ask you know not what. Go to Jesus, be you never so guilty, just as you are. Leave all curious inquiry about election alone. Go straight to Christ and hide in his wounds, and you shall know your election. The assurance of the Holy Spirit shall be given to you, so that you shall be able to say, “I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him.” Christ was at the everlasting council: he can tell you whether you were chosen or not; but you cannot find it out in any other way. Go and put your trust in him, and his answer will be—“I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” There will be no doubt about his having chosen you, when you have chosen him.
“Sons we are through God’s election,
Who in Jesus Christ believe.”
This concept of election is not an easy one. D.A. Carson says in his devotion that we read togeher as a congregation last year that human responsibility and divine sovereignty (which includes God's electing power) are compatible. Here is how he describes it in referencing the death of Christ. He explains that the death of Jesus was God's plan before the creation of the world, but that people had to choose to put Him to death. Those who put Him to death are responsible even though God in His sovereignty destined the death of Jesus.
Carson writes:
God’s sovereignty over the death of Christ does not mitigate the guilt of the human conspirators. On the other hand, the malice of their conspiracy has not caught God flat-footed, as if he had not foreseen the cross, much less planned it. The text plainly insists that God’s sovereignty is not mitigated by human actions, and human guilt is not exculpated by appeal to divine sovereignty. This duality is sometimes called compatibilism: God’s utter sovereignty and human moral responsibility are compatible. Complex issues are involved, but there can be no serious doubt that this stance is either taught or presupposed by the biblical writers.. If Jesus died solely as a result of human conspiracy, and not by the design and purpose of God, it is difficult to see how his death can be the long-planned divine response to our desperate need. If God’s sovereignty over Jesus’ death means that the human perpetrators are thereby exonerated, should this not also be true wherever God is sovereign? And then where is the sin that needs to be paid for by Jesus’ death? The integrity of the Gospel hangs on that element of Christian theism called compatibilism.
This whole idea of election and human responsibility came to be true and reasonable to me my second year in college when I read C.H. Spurgeon's sermon "Election." Click on the word and you can read the entire sermon.
Here is the section of the sermon that hammered the nail in my theological coffin regarding the sovereignty of God and human responsibility.
But there are some who say, "It is hard for God to choose some and leave others." Now, I will ask you one question. Is there any of you here this morning who wishes to be holy, who wishes to be regenerate, to leave off sin and walk in holiness? "Yes, there is," says some one, "I do." Then God has elected you. But another says, "No; I don't want to be holy; I don't want to give up my lusts and my vices." Why should you grumble, then, that God has not elected you to it? For if you were elected you would not like it, according to your own confession. If God this morning had chosen you to holiness, you say you would not care for it. Do you not acknowledge that you prefer drunkenness to sobriety, dishonesty to honesty? You love this world's pleasures better than religion; then why should you grumble that God has not chosen you to religion? If you love religion, he has chosen you to it. If you desire it, he has chosen you to it. If you do not, what right have you to say that God ought to have given you what you do not wish for? Supposing I had in my hand something which you do not value, and I said I shall give it to such-and-such a person, you would have no right to grumble that I did not give to you. You could not be so foolish as to grumble that the other has got what you do not care about. According to your own confession, many of you do not want religion, do not want a new heart and a right spirit, do not want the forgiveness of sins, do not want sanctification; you do not want to be elected to these things: then why should you grumble? You count these things but as husks, and why should you complain of God who has given them to those whom he has chosen? If you believe them to be good and desire them, they are there for thee. God gives liberally to all those who desire; and first of all, he makes them desire, otherwise they never would. If you love these things, he has elected you to them, and you may have them; but if you do not, who are you that you should find fault with God, when it is your own desperate will that keeps you from loving these things—your own simple self that makes you hate them?
One man in particular stands out in my mind who talked with me Sunday. He explained that he felt terrible about his sin and was not sure about his salvation because he seemed to like sin so much. I asked him if he wanted to be free of it. He said, "more than anything." I told him that the desire to be free of sin is supernatural. This desire to be free of sin is a gift God had given him in the process of his salvation. It is a gift God gives to all followers of Jesus. I also explained that having received grace and God's indwelling Spirit, sin would be found in him less and less and one day God would restore the world and we (all who are in Christ) would live sin-free in a sinless new world where God dwells with man - heaven (Revelation 21).
3 comments:
Hi. I am just learning about the fun that blogs can be. I have bookmarked yours and this entry was so interesting. Thank you for sharing that insight. I bookmarked the spurgeon sermon and will read it soon. :-)
What if we thought we were a Christian, but have serious doubts if we are. Maybe Satan led us to believe that were and that were safe. But, maybe we aren't. I guess if we question it in the first place we propbaly aren't?????
Anonymous,
Not at all. I've always thought that people who were lost could care less. If you care about where you stand with God, it is usually a good indication that your standing with Him.
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