SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2018 10:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The Method—Election
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
1:4-6a
Message of the verses: “4 just as He chose
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and
blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through
Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the
praise of the glory of His grace,”
As
we begin to look at verses 4-6a of Ephesians chapter one we will be looking at
a controversial subject, a subject that has divided households and churches for
a long time. One of the ways that has
caused me to better understand this subject is studying the attributes of God,
seeing as best I can who God is and what He can and cannot do. Yes there are things God cannot do, and one
of them is sin, God cannot sin. God
cannot do things that are not a part of His characteristics or attributes. God is perfect and God does not or cannot
change. Keep this in mind as we study
this subject of election.
Let
us begin by looking at three kinds of election that are found in
Scripture. The first one we will look at
is what is “God’s theocratic election.”
We see this when God chose Israel “"For you are a holy people to the LORD
your God; the LORD your
God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples
who are on the face of the earth (Deu. 7:6).” This election has no bearing on personal
salvation. “6 But it is not as
though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;
7 nor are they all
children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: "THROUGH
ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED (Romans 9:6-7).’” Because you are physically descended from
Abraham does not mean, as Paul stated, “For they are not all Israel who are descended from
Israel.” “And he received the
sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had
yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though
they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also
(Romans 4:11).”
Let
us move on to the second kind of election that the Bible speaks of and that is
vocational election. Once again this has
nothing to do with personal salvation as we will see. Two examples of this are the Levites who are
the priestly tribe of Israel, from where the priests come from, but that does
not mean they were all believers.
Second, from the NT as Christ chose twelve men to be apostles but only
eleven of them to salvation. John
MacArthur writes “After Paul came to Christ because of God’s election to
salvation, God then chose him in another way to be His special apostle to the
Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Rom. 1:5).”
Now
the third kind of election that is taught in the Bible is the election to
salvation, which is the kind Paul is speaking in our present text. “No one can come to Me,’ Jesus said, ‘Unless
the Father who sent me draws him’ (John 6:44).
MacArthur goes on saying “Helkuo’
(draws) carries the idea of an irresistible force and was used in ancient Greek
literature of a desperately hungry man being drawn to food and of demonic
forces being drawn to animals when they were not able to possess men.
“Salvage
yards use giant electromagnets to lift and partially sort scrap metal. When the magnet is turned on, a tremendous
magnetic force draws all the ferrous metals that are near it, but has no effect
on other metals such as aluminum and brass.
“In
a similar way, God’s elective will irresistibly draws to Himself those whom He
has predetermined to love and forgive, while having no effect on those whom He
has not.
“From
all eternity, before the foundation of the word, and therefore completely apart
from any merit or deserving that any person could have, God ‘chose us in Him,’
‘in Christ’ (v.3). By God’s sovereign
election, those who are saved were placed in eternal union with Christ before
creation even took place.” When I first
began to look at this subject I heard my first Pastor that I had after becoming
a believer say that election has nothing to do with unbelievers.
In
our next SD we will begin by talking about man’s free will, or perhaps man does
not really have a free will. I heard my
second Pastor that I had after being saved state that the only two people who
had a free will were Adam and Eve, and they lost that free will pretty fast
when they sinned.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Although I never and perhaps will never
completely understand election I am thankful that God has called me to be a
believer in Jesus Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Be thankful that I am a child of God through
the blood of my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Preaching” (Titus 1:3).
Today’s Bible question: “After walking and talking with His disciples
for 40 days after His resurrection, what happened to Jesus?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/26/2018 11:14 AM
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