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July 19 - July 28, 2017
The Christian loves God as He reveals Himself. The non-Christian seeks to conform God to an image that is less threatening to him in his rebellion. It is a work of grace in the heart that allows a person to love God as God really is, not as we wish He would be. The Christian desires to love God truly.
Sin causes man to constantly seek to insert himself into the work of God in salvation, so every generation has to be reminded of their complete dependence upon Him and of His perfect freedom.
God acts with complete freedom in all things. His is the only truly “free will” in the universe, since He is the Creator. God does not act “in spite of” knowledge He has of the universe: the knowledge He has of the universe is due to the fact that He created it. Secondly, God does not act with “total disregard” of the choices of His creatures: His actions determine the free choices of His creatures.
God is the free and sovereign Creator and acts freely in that realm that is His: we are mere creatures, never sovereign, never autonomous (i.e., without law, without a superior authority), but responsible within the realm of our createdness.
Give us certainty—the secure conviction that a sparrow cannot fall, or a sinner move a finger, but as God permits and ordains. We must have either God or Satan to rule. And if God has a providence He must be able to render the free acts of his creatures certain; and therefore certainty must be consistent with liberty.31
By nature, men are said to be dead in sin. If the Holy Spirit quickens, it cannot be because of any power in the dead men, or any merit in them, for they are dead, corrupt and rotten in the grave of their sin. If then, the Holy Spirit says, “Come forth and live,” it is not because of anything in the dry bones, it must be for some reason in His own mind, but not in us.
It would be humorous if it were not so serious: the pots gathering together and assuring each other that the Potter either doesn’t exist, or, at worst, will sit idly by while they take control and “run the show” themselves.
When the Scriptures say that men are spiritually dead, we are not to understand this to mean that they are spiritually inactive. Men are active in their rebellion, active in their suppression of the truth, active in their sin.
The idea that man’s will is controlled by his nature, and that man’s fallen nature is enslaved to sin because it is corrupted, is denied. Yet this is exactly what Paul teaches in this passage.
The fact is, outside of the divine action of drawing the elect to Christ none would come to Him. It is beyond the capacity of the fallen man.
Beloved, do not any of you swerve from the free grace of God, for the babblings about man’s free agency are neither more nor less than lies, right contrary to the truth of Christ, and the teachings of the Spirit.
he is “made willing” in the day of God’s power. He shall be called at the set time, and his heart shall be effectually changed, that he may become a trophy of the Redeemer’s power. That he was unwilling before, is no hindrance; for God giveth him the will, so that he is then of a willing mind. Thus, every heir of heaven must be saved, because the Spirit is put within him, and thereby his disposition and affections are molded according to the will of God.7
The patience of the Lord is displayed toward His elect people (the “you” of verse 9). Therefore, the “not wishing any to perish” must be limited to the same group already in view: the elect. In the same way, the “all to come to repentance” must be the very same group. In essence Peter is saying the coming of the Lord has been delayed so that all the elect of God can be gathered in.
Because the only difference between the vessels of wrath and the vessels of mercy is the sovereign grace of God that changes the heart of the rebel sinner and turns him from being a God-hater into a God-lover. This is why there is no basis for man’s boasting, ever.
Christ intercedes for us. Can the redeemed heart, even for a moment, consider the possibility that this work could fail? Imagine it: Christ lays down His perfect, spotless, sinless life on the cross. He is raised from the dead, and stands before the Father and pleads that perfect sacrifice in the place of His people. Is it at all possible that Christ could intercede for someone and yet fail in His work and that person be lost? The Arminian says, “Yes, for all the work of God, from the decree of the Father to the sacrifice of the Son to the ministry of the Spirit, is limited by the finite will
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This is the ground upon which we can understand His statement from the cross, “It is finished,” rather than “it is now theoretically possible.” Jesus is able to save not merely make savable.
This is the difference, then: the Arminian says all sins committed by all men are nailed to the cross of Calvary and borne in His body on the tree. The Reformed says if this is so then they cannot be borne by anyone else at any time. It is not a matter of Christ “potentially” bearing sin: either He bore it or He didn’t. If He did, those sins are forgiven. The fact that the elect will only come to know of this great benefit when God, by His grace, regenerates them, brings them out of darkness and into His light, and gives them the knowledge of what Christ did for them long before they were
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We are thankful, so very thankful, that God has the freedom, and the will, to change the hearts of sinners, not as they “enable Him” but as He freely wills. We are thankful that God did powerfully subdue the insane rebellion that filled our hearts and caused us to live as if He and His law did not matter a bit. We are thankful He inscribed His law upon our hearts and gave us a love for Christ, for without all of this gracious work on our behalf, we would be lost and undone.
Grace is no servant of man, dependent upon the creature for its success. No, saving grace is God’s own power. Saved, and kept, by grace. That is the Christian’s hope.
