SPIRITUAL DIARY
Date: 11-25-03
My Worship Time Focus: God’s plan for my salvation
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: 1Peter 1b-2
1. Message of the
verse: “--who are chosen according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit,
that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and
peace be yours in fullest measure.”
(NASB) “--who have been chosen according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the
Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and
peace be yours in abundance.” (NIV)
In this second verse Peter is
telling his readers how salvation was made possible for them, and it took the
involvement of all three Persons of the Godhead. God the Father choose us in eternity past and
this involved His foreknowledge. This
word does not refer to awareness of what is going to happen, “but it clearly
means a predetermined relationship in the knowledge of God. God brought the salvation relationship into
existence by decreeing it into existence ahead of time. Christians are foreknown for salvation in the
same way Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world to be a sacrifice
for sins. (See Acts 2:23) “this Man, delivered
up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by
the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” ‘Foreknowledge’ means that God planned
before, not that He observed before.
Thus, God pre-thought and pre-determined or predestined each Christian’s
salvation.” Jesus Christ is the One
who did this work of salvation for the believer when He died in the believers
place at Calvary. This verse goes on to
talk about the sanctification of the Spirit.
2Thessalonians 2:13-14 gives more details to this. “13 ¶ But we should always give thanks to God for
you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the
beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the
truth. 14 And it was for this He called you through our
gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Holy Spirit gives us an offer that we
cannot refuse, and that offer is salvation.
As far as God the Father was concerned the believer was saved in
eternity past when he chose him.
2.
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
I must say that there are times when I do struggle with all of this, but
I do know in my heart that it is true.
God has not told us everything as Deu. 29:29 says, but this I do know
that God cannot do anything wrong and all of His attributes are filtered
through His holiness, so because of this I can trust the truth of this doctrine
even though I do not know all that there is to know about it. My responsibility in all of this is to tell
others the Gospel message. 1Peter 1:23
says that we are born again through the living and abiding Word of God, and it
is the responsibility of every believer to show others that Word so the Holy
Spirit can show them the Truth of it.
The Word of
God has challenged my heart this morning as I read it.
My Steps of Faith Today: I do not want to go ahead of the Lord or try to help Him,
but trust Him and obey Him in all things that I do.
Memory
verse for the week: Philippians 2:12b
12b.
“—but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has
also laid hold of me.”
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