Greatness of Grace

I was up early, as usual this morning, and the Lord reminded me of how my love for the Gospel was awakened when I came to understand biblical (Reformed) Theology. It was, in a way, like a conversion but more like a wake-up call. Many that are not totally opposed to Reformed Theology usually have the hardest time with the election prong of it.

However, it was truly understanding this doctrine that knocked me over and made me say, "Thank you God!" Election was not about God randomly choosing to keep people OUT of heaven and His salvation, but rather graciously calling them out of their sin and from their inevitable destruction and INTO His grace and life eternal. When I grasped this concept, I was amazed at His grace, that He would do this for me. He didn't have to save one of us, but to glorify Himself in showing his justice and mercy in the same act, He called His Son to die to pay our debt and guarantee our salvation.

Amazing grace, isn't it?

I just realized this is the 200th post. Thanks for reading!

Songs and Meditations on Grace

I was getting ready for work this morning when a song popped into my head, Jaci Velasquez's God So Loved The World. The song is simple enough, but for some reason I thought about it and went to the next verse in Scripture, John 3:17:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

The reason that this impacted me so much in thinking about this song and these verses was the correlation between salvation and the doctrine of election: Christ did come into the world to proclaim Truth and while He did state that this Truth would pit mother against daughter, and father against son, Christ came with the hope of the Gospel. Christ's entrance into the world was the ONLY way to save us from our path of destruction.

God had given His people, Israel, generations to attempt to obey His law; he would punish them, forgive them, then they would forsake him again. He could not leave redemption to chance or to our fickle nature--He sent Christ into the world to guarantee (not just make possible) the salvation that He would give.

When Christ speaks to Nicodemus in John 3 about being "born again," this is not the same as being educated on what car to buy or what college to attend and then making that choice. Because with most choices in our lives, if we really look deep down, we could see certain motivations that drive us to make those choices--even ones that on the outside appear good, moral and/or altruistic.

The radical nature of the "choice" of following Christ is one that is totally opposite of our thinking: we must "die" to self, giving up our desires to make His desires and will first. Think about that: we must submit to the will of someone else. Have you ever known yourself (or someone else) to purely want to do that, in any situation? Sure, on the outside, a person wouldn't let on that it rubs them a little wrong when they're asked to do something, but apart from Christ's indwelling, would you not act the same way? The Holy Spirit must move in our hearts, changing our hearts to be receptive to the Truth and to truly live for others rather than ourselves.

If the change in our hearts or choice to follow Christ is grounded in ourselves and our own power, rather than Christ, then is it not subject to the same weakness of foundation as all other choices?

I mean, I have a problem with "buyers remorse" sometimes--can you imagine if the salvation decision was as easily abandoned--would God do it that way? Would God, in His infinite wisdom, have Christ die for those who would not ultimately be saved simply because those people did not "choose" to? And this is election: that God not only ordained the vehicle for salvation (which is the birth, life, death and resurrection of His Son Christ) but He ordained the method, means and timing of our justification, sanctification and our ultimate glorification.

I thank God that He holds me firm in His grip and my faith is bound up in Christ's faithfulness rather than my own, and that He drew me to Himself, knowing that Christ had already paid for my specific sins on the Cross.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not?

When Christians talk about the love of God, most will agree that he is very loving to His children--however, there are dear brothers and sisters in Christ that, when reading Hebrews 6, Christians can fall so far as to fall out of the love of God and out of His saving grace.

Our Wesleyan/Arminian brethren would read Hebrews 6 as stating that one who is in the faith can in fact lose their salvation. A simple illustration of humor might sum it up best:

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not. Like plucking the daisy here, so goes our faith and our standing in Christ (and the differing viewpoints between Arminians and Reformed folks on justification and sanctification has much to bear on this discussion but I will not expand it here--I have written on it before). Some might laugh this off, but in reality it is no laughing matter--this viewpoint may paralyze Christians from realizing assurance of faith in this life. So you have to ask yourself: does God provide a permanent and lasting salvation which is not able to be lost, and is guaranteed? Or can one truly come to Christ and then wholly lose that salvation?

Pastor David explored the first 12 verses of Hebrews 6, which are as follows:

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, [1] the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Now, there's a lot in there, and a lot which can be taken to mean different things if it is not read together and in context. Pastor David made a great point in focusing on the pronouns of verses 1-3 and then 4-8. Notice this! It's quite important as to the audience who he is speaking to, and the group he is speaking of--in verse 1 and 3, he says, "let us leave the elementary doctrine..." then verse 3, "and this we will do..." What does he do in verse 4 when speaking of the impossibility of coming back to the faith and the group that is falling away? He says those who have been enlightened, have tasted, etc. He's not talking about his audience, but another group of people. This is evidenced by his switch in verse 9 back to "in your case..."--the writer-preacher knows he is not speaking about them, he expects better for them, "things which belong to salvation."

Now, either he's talking out of two sides of his mouth and trying very hard to confuse his listeners, or he's warning his audience of another group.

Pastor David then made some observations about the writer's discussion of the group that had fallen away: the enlightenment that the writer spoke of could be the common grace that they had experienced being among Christians or even a common grace that is allowed by God on the earth. The word "enlighten" is the same word used in John 1:9-10 in describing Jesus being the light that came into the world and yet did not know him. The writer goes on to say that these people tasted in the heavenly gift and shared in the Holy Spirit, which Pastor David indicated could very well be allusions to their participation in Communion and even baptism. Further, they may have sat under the preaching of the Word, tasting the goodness of it.

What do we take from all of this? If we conclude that the writer is speaking of one group of people, who are faithful on one side yet able to take in all the benefits and yet fall, then we would all need to be a bit more worried about our salvation than we are. But other texts argue against that:

John 10:28-29: I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

There is definite purpose in what Jesus said, in that there is nothing that can happen which would snatch us out of the Father's hand, let alone us ourselves! Romans 8:38-40 has Paul exclaiming that there is NO POWER or anything else in all creation which can separate us from the love of God!

Pastor David concluded by saying that this passage is ultimately an encouragement to those who are true believers in Christ and yet it is a warning to anyone who would want to "play church" or trifle with such spiritual matters. Jesus is not something you "try" or be apart of like you would the rotary club--this is spiritual life or death. Today is the day of salvation and do not delay, or you may be spoke of in this way:

"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (John 2:19)

God through His Son Christ will lose NONE in the end, and there is nothing, for those who truly believe, that will change that fact, even our own will. Would so great a God provide so amazing a grace that He would save us from drowning only to allow us to jump back in the water and drown ourselves? Some would say yes because God is so loving that he would allow us the choice to turn our backs on Him and do just that. But that's a whole other post.

What I Realized Yesterday

I was at a Virginia Bar Association MANDATORY Professionalism course yesterday, and I heard fellow new attorneys talking about their jobs, and I overheard one guy talking about all these cool things that I wanted to do in the business and corporate arena and then he ended the sentence with a "but."

What followed the "but"? "But this past week I've gotten home somewhere after 1:30." And no folks, he wasn't talking about 1:30PM, as in the afternoon, but in the morning. He worked, as many other of the newer attorneys in our group, for the BIG law firm--you know, the ones that hire young associates by the truckloads from Harvard, Yale, the University of Virginia, etc. He has a wife and kid, and he's commuting 45 minutes each way.

Now, I would love to do some of the stuff that he's doing--but what's the cost? Associates in firms like that have the responsibility to bill close to 2000 hours a year (which is daunting), so days like that can be quite typical. Oh, the new firm trend is to speak of "balancing" life with family and community service so as to make a "whole" person as an attorney. But it seems to me that the secret in how to do that is left up to the individual attorney, and if you lose sleep in the process, that's fine, so long as it doesn't hurt the partner's bottom line. Life is in fact full of crossroads, junctures where we make a decision to choose one thing over another--work over family, material things over things that last, and idols over Christ.

One of the speakers on a video we watched reiterated what I so often hear from attorneys (as well as businessmen in general) but I do not often see practiced--"no one ever says I wish I spent more time in my office when they're on their deathbed." This coming from a U.S. District Court judge that had to work his tail off to get to his position--but at what cost? Position and stature does you nothing if you cannot be the husband and father that God has called you to be--it simply is worldly attention that evaporates before the throne of God.

Young lawyers such as myself would do good to really hear the quotation above, rather than simply fight tooth and nail to get in such positions as the judge and simply mimic him in thirty years, essentially saying, "do as I say, not as I do." These type of life choices start today, and each person has to decide their priorities and not let their work decide it for him--otherwise, it will all be vanity and striving in the wind, as the Preacher explains in Ecclesiastes.