Subject: many are called but only few are chosen |
Bible Note: Dear itiswritten, The potter makes each vessel for the purpose to which he intends (Romans 9:21). The problem is this fundamental presupposition that God is either enabled or stymied by man's will. God is not only the author of our faith, He is the finisher of it as well (1 Corinthians 1:7-8; Hebrews 12:2). This thing of "yielded personalities" is not a Biblical concept. The Christian is one chosen by the Father (Ephesians 1:4), regenerated by the the Holy Spirit (John 1:13), made righteous through the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24-26). The image of God is restored in the believer (Colossians 3:10). Christ is not savior one day, and then becomes -- optionally -- Lord on some other day. That is false teaching called -- pejoratively, but I think, appropriately -- "easy believism." The church is being built actively by the Lord (Matthew 16:18). We aren't lucky because the disciples decided to toss in with Jesus. No, the Lord says, "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain..." (John 15:16a NASB) Redemptive history is all about what the Lord God has done. He has made dead men living (Ephesians 2:1) and brought estranged men together (Ephesians 2:15), building them together as a temple, made without hands, of which they are living stones, with Christ as the corner stone (Ephesians 2:20). This isn't a matter of man's doing, but entirely a matter of God's doing. In Him, Doc |