SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11-25-03
My Worship Time Focus: God’s plan for my Salvation
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: 1Peter 1b-2
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.
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.
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