The work of saving and converting someone will always remain to be an arena of God Himself, and He does this through His sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Consider the following Scriptures... Joh_15:16 YOU HAVE NOT CHOSEN ME, BUT I CHOSE YOU out and planted you, that you should go and should bear fruit… POINT 1: We do not choose Christ, we do not choose to get saved, we do not get saved because we have mentally “understood” the logic of the gospel. Joh 6:44 NO ONE IS ABLE TO COME TO ME UNLESS THE FATHER WHO SENT ME DRAWS HIM, and I will raise him up in the last day. - LITV POINT 2: No one is able to come to Christ without the Father drawing him. The Greek root word for “DRAWS” is “HELKOO”, which means “TO FORCIBLY DRAG”. So you were literally dragged to Christ by force... this is grace! POINT 3: Notice the last part of that verse... “AND I WILL RAISE HIM UP AT THE LAST DAY” Wow! This is the grace-version of Eschatology. You see here, the fact is YOUR RESURRECTION IS AN ACT OF CHRIST BY GRACE... why? BECASE THE FATHER DRAGGED YOU TO HIM and He honours whatever “gift” His Father gives Him! Jesus says it with such assurance that those comitted to Him by the Father He shall certainly raise up at the last day. This is what I call “The Blessed Assurance”. Rom 3:10-11 As it is written: There is NONE RIGHTEOUS, no not one; there is NONE THAT UNDERSTANDS, there is NONE THAT SEEKS AFTER GOD. POINT 4: NO ONE SEEKS AFTER GOD… It is Christ who came to seek and to save that which was lost. Joh 6:38-40 I didnt come from heaven to do what I want! I came to do what the Father wants me to do. He sent me, and HE WANTS ME TO MAKE CERTAIN THAT NONE OF THE ONES HE HAS GIVEN ME WILL BE LOST. Instead, HE WANTS ME TO RAISE THEM TO LIFE ON THE LAST DAY. My Father wants everyone who sees the Son to have faith in him and to have eternal life. Then I will raise them to life on the last day. - CEV POINT 5: God wants Jesus to MAKE CERTAIN that He would lose NONE of all the people that the Father has given Him. He also wants Jesus to raise them ALL up at the last day. You see, all this is between Jesus and God… our involvement in all this is non-existent. Jesus has been COMMANDED by God the Father NOT TO LOSE ANY OF THE PEOPLE GOD HAS COMMITTED TO HIM and to RAISE THEM ALL UP at the last day. This is what Jesus’ mission is all about! Do you think He is going to succeed or fail the task given Him by His Father? Taking all these and a lot more Scriptures into consideration… - We do not choose to get saved… it is decided in heaven for us! - We are forcibly dragged to Christ by God - We will be raised up by Jesus… all who were committed BY GOD to Christ! This is not based on our personal efforts or holiness… it’s a pure act of God! - We are not the ones who seek after God, the reverse is true! After Adam sinned, he didn’t go looking for God… God came looking for, and calling to, Adam! Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Rom 8:36 As it is written, For Your sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep of slaughter. Rom 8:37 But in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us. Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Rom 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. CONCLUSION: People get ‘saved’ for many reasons. 1. GROUP 1: Misrepresentation of the GOSPEL… this means someone gets saved based on a false gospel and stands on false promises. 2. GROUP 2: The “group-think” effect: Here someone gets ‘saved’ because his/her peers are saved. 3. GROUP 3: Divine Initiative: Here God Himself separates someone from his/her mother’s womb in order to commit them to Jesus Christ so they would serve God’s will for Him, and be surely raised up at the last day. In every congregation there are people belonging to these 3 groups. Those belonging to GROUP 3 can never backslide… never! Why? John 10:27-29 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I GIVE THEM ETERNAL LIFE, and THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH, and NOT ANYONE SHALL PLUCK THEM OUT OF MY HANDS. My Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and NO ONE IS ABLE TO PLUCK THEM OUT OF MY FATHER’S HAND. – MKJV Here Jesus conclusively says that those who have been put in His hand by the Father SHALL NEVER PERISH!!! It is a divine impossibility for them to fall! No one… not even Satan can pluck them out of His hands. Why? Because the Father “IS GREATER THAN ALL”!!! Our rewards will be different… you can lose or gain a particular crown, but you cannot lose your salvation! You hear testimonies like “when I DECIDED to get saved…” Trust me, no one decided… deciding stems from understanding… and frankly I don’t understand why Jesus had to come and die for our sins when His own Father is the judge, and as judge He could have obliterated sin without killing His son and taking pleasure in it (Isaiah 53:10). I don’t UNDERSTAND the gospel, but I BELIEVE it… this is why I did not decide to get saved… I was just saved… as if by grace. Act 13:48 And hearing, the nations rejoiced and glorified the Word of the Lord. And AS MANY AS WERE APPOINTED TO ETERNAL LIFE believed. - LITV Did you see that? When the apostles preached those who were “APPOINTED TO ETERNAL LIFE” believed! Believing in the gospel of grace requires APPOINTMENT by God! Otherwise the only way to “accept” some form of Christianity is to mix it with something else… making it a religion and not a Way. When this happens, the “gospel” that is born has to be mentally understood, it cannot be captured by faith. So yes, some people do quit “salvation” (as if that was possible)… but these do not come from our GROUP 3 above! They come from groups 1 and 2. They “understood” the wrong gospel. But when God commits you to Jesus, and when Jesus swears to God that “I will raise Daniel up at the last day”… you have no choice… you can now never lose your salvation. He will punish you accordingly as a loving Father when you misbehave… this is also called judgment in the Scriptures. But I like the Greek word it comes from… it is the word PAIDEUO… which effectively means, “to train up a child.”
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 05:56:44 +0000
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