You have a favorite uncle, whom you love and loves you back. When he dies, a messenger shows up at your door with an envelope, telling you that your favorite uncle has left you a vast fortune from his estate. In awe, you take the envelope, overwhelmed by this information, this amazing gift that has been bestowed upon you. It further amazes you, because your uncle DID have a son, to whom his estate was promised long ago. Turns out, your cousin decided not to accept the gift, and so it in turn was left to you.
Question: Did you MERIT that gift? Did you EARN IT? By accepting the envelope, did that constitute a WORK?
Unequivocal answer: NO. You loved your uncle. Period. And he loved you. When he bestowed a gift upon you, you accepted it. Simply. But if you had refused the messenger, as did your cousin, the gift would've never been yours, despite it being offered to you.
This is so clear to me, I honestly struggle to even BEGIN to see the alternative argument: that we have absolutely NO role in our salvation. THIS is our role... to accept the gift. The Holy Spirit will guide us through the rest. It's our beloved "uncle" that died so that we might have the gift. He did the hard part. We are the recipients. The Jews were promised the gift from the time of Abraham, and yet, when the gift was offered, many refused it. So the gift was given to you and I, the "gentiles". WOW.
This is not a one-time acceptance, though. Our faith is a journey. Our daily "acceptance of the gift" allows us to continue on that journey. Every day we are faced with a choice to accept or reject the help of the Holy Spirit, the love of God. Our job is to continue to say "yes", to persevere in our "yes". That's obedience, and that's what we are called to do. Be obedient to the law of love.
15 comments:
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
You believe in your uncle, and you believe that his gift intends good for you.
The problem is a little more complex than that when it comes to Christ however. You have to believe that Heaven exists, you have to believe that you aren't going there via your own merit. You must believe that Christ's gift was sufficient and just.
Unlike your uncle, Jesus is far less tangible for most people. If you have met your uncle it is easy to believe in him. If you have met Jesus, it is easy to believe in him. But if you introduce somebody to Jesus they can't on their own see and hear and feel him. That requires the call of the Holy Spirit. Accepting Jesus requires a ton more faith on their part.
So if somebody gives you a gift that you don't think you need from a guy who they don't think exists, rejection of it is human nature.
I agree that accepting the gift is not a work -- The question is why did you accept it? The answer is faith. You believed that you where a sinner. You believed there was a God. You believed that Christ paid the penalty for you sins, and you did this because God revealed those truths to you. You believed that
Faith is the first part of the Gift. Eph 1:17-18
That's a very good point. The gift I describe assumes an intact relationship before the gift is offered. What would the case be if the envelope was received from, say, Publisher's Clearinghouse? "Congratulations! You've just won a million dollars!" How do I believe that promise of riches? How do I have "faith" in the promise of the gift?
One way might be testimony of others - I might ask friends about this "publishers clearinghouse"... have they heard of it? Is it reputable? I might see the people around me receiving similar gifts, and want the same thing for myself.
Another might be through study - what evidence might there be to support the idea that there is a company that is randomly giving away a million bucks? Sounds too good to be true, so I might be like many others and just throw the envelope away as a scam. Or I might do a little digging, to see what this is all about.
So, if I ask friends or search the internet to get info, if I SEEK - is that a "meritorious work"? Ultimately, it's the Holy Spirit who leads us and strengthens our belief, who guides us into saying "yes, this is true". Am I "meriting" the gift any more?
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.
Luke 11:9-10
9 “So I say to you, [a]ask, and it will be given to you; [b]seek, and you will find; [c]knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
To go back to the original analogy, though.... absolutely we need to have faith. But in turn, we can't say "I know that my uncle loves me, because I know he exists, and he will take care of me," and yet STILL throw the envelope away bearing the gift, because "I don't need to take that envelope - my uncle loves me and will take care of me." Even WITH the faith of belief, we still need to actively receive the gift, or it is not actualized. In the analogy, the son knew his father, and yet still refused the gift. Belief is more than accepting existence. The Jews absolutely knew that Jesus existed, as does God, Heaven and Hell. They believed all that. They just chose not to follow Him. So, they rejected what He was offering. For those that DO accept what He's offering, that STILL does not constitute meriting anything. We are actively RECEIVING what He is giving us.
Which leads the crux of the issue, which is WHO God is offering the gifts to. Some that I have spoken to recently say "only the elect". There are only so many "gifts" to be received. I, and 1500 years of unbroken Christianity, say that the gift is OFFERED "to everyone". We all get the offer - the first step is always from God. We can't go knocking down anyone's door asking for a million bucks. But what we do with the "envelope" is up to us. If we open it, then the Holy Spirit will guide us along the way to receiving the gift.
I tend to agree that God offers his invitation to everybody -- But when we choose according to our natural born-of-Adam heart, we all choose wrongly. (All have sinned)
It is only those who have been given a new heart, and new eyes that can see the glory of God.. Then it becomes a no-brainer decision.
The core problem for the non-believer is non-belief, not some error in judgement of accepting or not accepting a gift.
I don't think belief is something that you can decide to do. (John 6:44) You have to have your eyes and your heart opened. God has to reveal himself to you. You have to be called. God's call does not fail. (John 6:37)
This does not sit well for many of us because we want control of our own destiny.. But control is let last thing we need.. We need surrender.
I think the only problem is the logical conclusions. God chooses everyone. If we take that as an agreed-upon starting point - that Christ died for the sins of the WORLD (John 3:16), and not a chosen few, then the only logical conclusions can be
A) God chooses everyone,sovreign God wills everyone to be saved, and so everyone IS saved
B)God chooses everyone, God is sovreign, but allows us the ability to either accept or reject His free gift of salvation, so only those that accept it are saved
In order to choose a different option, you have to deny your original premise, that God chooses everyone. Do you see?
C) God chooses only those He "really wants" and damns the rest from birth.
I don't see any other logical conclusisons that can be drawn. GOD LEADS US, GUIDES US AND CHANGES OUR HEARTS. No one can ever deny that. We have a sinful nature - no one denies that either. But we are made in the IMAGE of God, and that little bit is CAPABLE of responding to Him. We are sinful, but immeasureably valuable. We have the "God sized hole in our heart". Hmmm. Who put that there? Not ourselves. We were designed by Him to SEEK HIM OUT. But if we don't believe that He allows us the dignity of accepting or rejecting His gift of salvation, it changes God's very NATURE - our very understanding of who He is! I suppose that's why I keep coming back to this argument time and again. Even if our part is as small as a "what if?". A millisecond of an open mind, an opening the door a CRACK. If we deny that He created us with this ability, then we deny WHO HE IS. A Father who loves His children, and desires them to be with Him.
I don't think we can ever forget who created us, who designed us from the beginning. God does not make junk, as the saying goes. So why are we so "junky"? Because we *choose* to be. How come we're allowed to choose to be? Because God made us that way. On the flip side, though, you cannot be okay with us choosing to reject God without at the same time recognizing that God puts a "homing device" inside of His creation- we are a reflection of our Creator, and He designed us to look for Him. It is part of the human condition, to seek out the spiritual. CS Lewis speaks of this, when he talks of the "moral code" humans are born with. We don't ALWAYS choose wrong. I think that's where we disagree. Even those who are not saved can feed the poor, can give up their life for another. Why is that? Because of the imprint of our Maker on our souls. We are depraved, but we are not TOTALLY depraved.
I just can't clip John 6:37 out of my bible. If God sovereignly calls he will get his way.
Therefore logic concludes that either he does not sovereignly call everyone or all are saved. That doesn't mean that they where not invited unsovreignly. My contention would be that all are invited, but all reject (Romans 3:11-12), and he sovereignly changes the hearts of those whom he chooses. The new heart sees God for who he is and chooses him. This is faith, A gift from God so that no man can boast. (Eph 2:8-9) Faith is the crux of the issue. Do we come of faith by our own accord? or is it a miraculous gift?
The Apostle Paul begins most of his Epistles with a passage that says "I thank God for you" Not "I am so thankful that you listened to my teaching and where persuaded" Jesus is brutal to his critics. He doesn't even try to persuade them. He publicly rebukes them, but he doesn't do it in a evangelistic manner at all. (See Matthew 23)
Total depravity does not mean utter depravity. What man intends for evil God uses for good. We reflect many of His traits even if we are utter heathens. We still love and create and make art. But we do such things in a way that is like a photo negative. We worship ourselves and He is glorified in both our immitation of Him and the Justice of the futile ends of our pursuits. A broken mirror still reflects the Light.
We must remember that God's Glory is reflected in Justice as much as it is in His Grace. It is okay if some people get what they deserve even if some others get more than they deserve.
Matthew 22:1-14 fits nicely with this theory.
I do think there's a difference between SEEKING and FAITH. It's not the same thing. One implies LOOKING, and the other implies FINDING. So I would completely agree with you that faith is a gift, you're absolutely correct about that. And that gift is from a Father who chose us to come to Him, we didn't find it ourselves. Let's say a Bible was dropped in the lap of a non-believer, who's curious and decides to open it. As soon as the cover is open.... THAT is when "seeking" occurs. "What's this all about?" But one person will read and register nothing (at least at the time... who knows what seeds were planted!) and another will start "burning", and want to find out more. THAT is the gift from the Father. So I really don't see where we differ at all in that, except that when that "burning" occurs (a gift from the Father - the first stirrings of faith...) we still can either shut the book and ignore it, or we cooperate with what God is starting to do inside our heart. You called it "surrender", I'm calling it "cooperation". Either way - it's putting aside our own will so that God can work in us. Our will is no match for God's - if He wants us, He will find us.
Yes, but our only disagreement is why do people seek?
I would argue that a sovereign God arranged for the bible to be placed in his lap. God would have arranged circumstances in his life that lead him to the spark of curiosity..
Eph 2:10 tells us that even when we are saved, we are saved to works that are prearranged for us..
It is really difficult to separate the conditions of this world from the work of the Holy Spirit. God penetrates everything.
And I would agree that God's plan entails the Bible to be put in EVERYONE'S lap - that the news spreads to the end of the earth. That's the Great Commission we're called to. That's the invitation - the envelope. The difference, then, is that you are saying God CAUSES the first person in the example, when he opens the cover, to feel nothing. Whereas I say that the person, despite an inkling of curiosity, despite the invitation he is obviously receiving, at that moment is reading with a closed heart that is not truly open to the possibility, and he is refusing God to do the work God wants to do. Again - it's how we interpret the nature of God. That's why I find this subject so important. God knows what type of soil we are for the seed to be planted. But WE are the soil.
The chicken and egg argument isn't really so important to me as is the extrapolations about the nature of God. Because that's what's most important. I'm certainly willing to give credit where credit is due, but I'm NOT willing to describe God as something that He's not. God is just - absolutely. But God WANTS US. He WANTS US!!!! He is LOVE! So, if He is all powerful, and He WANTS US, the only explanation is that we REJECT HIM. Which means we have some little God-given inkling that allows us to reject Him. And that same little inkling is what allows us to accept Him, because if it isn't, then it's not really US accepting Him, it's HIM accepting HIM. And He WANTS US, because love is a two-way street, and God knows that. It's why God is not one, but three. Love is, by it's very nature, a group activity.
So, we may have to agree to disagree on this, while realizing that we are actually much closer to understanding each other than we first realized, which is really, really good. I so appreciate you engaging in respectful, thoughtful, dialogue! I learn alot from you, Josh! I have mostly learned that the discussions I have had here with people of reformed theology may not be representative of TRUE reformed theology - either that, or YOU are thinking beyond reformed theology ;). So thank you for that.
THAT is the heart of it. Love is a TWO WAY STREET. God allows us the dignity of accepting or rejecting Him because He loves us, and wants us to love Him back. (Duet 6:5) Not because we need to earn anything, or merit anything, or give ourselves a pat on the back for doing the right thing. Love requires a giver and a receiver. Ideal lovers both give and receive to each other. That is the essence of the Trinity - God is wholly complete in and of Himself, but in and of Himself, He is a "family", and not an "indvidiual" - He is a Father and a Son, and the spirit that flows from that love - the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. So, from the Trinity, we can see that the nature of love, which is the nature of God, requires a giver and a receiver. If God does not allow us SOME role in accepting or rejecting Him, than there are not "two entities" involved, if you will. The love song between God and man isn't a love song, but a manipulation. I keep having these two trite sayings going through my head, but they are so true.... the first is "love isn't love til you give it away", and the second is "if you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it is yours forever."
Here I keep coming up with "analogies", when Jesus, the ultimate parablist (is that a word????) already did.
Matthew 22: 1-14
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those **WHO HAD BEEN INVITED TO THE BANQUET BUT THEY REFUSED TO COME**....8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and **INVITE TO THE BANQUET ANYONE YOU FIND. **’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Even the unworthy man was invited, but responded inappropriately to the call, so was thrown out. The king did not supply the wedding clothes to all the guests. He extended the invite, and expected that the invited would respond appropriately.
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
We know that God kept His promise to the Jews first, and the Jews rejected Him. So He opened the gift of salvation to us. Everyone else. "Many are invited". Why are few chosen? Because we respond inapparopriately to His call. Even if we have faith enough to go with these strangers offering a free meal at the palace.
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