Who can figure out this mystery?

When confronted by “why God saves some and not others” often the answer given is that God saves those He knows will say yes to Him. In other words, people are saved by their receptivity. This cannot be true because: 

It is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10–18)

The Bible is clear: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9) Those who say “I am saved because I accepted Christ” also forget that Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. . . .” (John 15:16)

The human desire to rule our own lives pops up even here. So we can boast? Rather than trust this God who is sovereign and does what pleases Him, even many times that have no logical reasons?

Charnock outlines how often the sovereignty of God means He does what He pleases and we have no clue why. Here are some examples from His Word and from history:

He sometimes conquers thousands, sometimes with a few laborers. Other times the harvest is small with many laborers. Evangelists may reach hundreds, or labor long and catch nothing. In Corinth, the gospel triumphed over many people, yet in Athens it is mocked, and gathers but a few. 

Miracles were not allowed or God uses them in unexpected ways. Sinners rise out of their graves of sin and beds of sluggishness at the first hearing of this good news while others lie snoring longer. We share, but are frustrated by the outcomes we expect and sometimes shocked by outcomes we thought impossible. 

Sometimes hearers leap at the appearance of Christ, but others lie upon a lazy bed when He knocks from heaven. Sometimes the fleece is dry, and sometimes wet. God can shine light into dark hearts, yet hearts remain dark with light shining all around them. 

Sometimes the strongest arguments and clearest promises cannot prevail over black and despairing resistance, then an unexpected word that seems to have no virtue in it itself opens that heart to Christ. Sometimes a spontaneous word not thought of before gives light where all other efforts were empty. 

A thought comes into my mind like a sunbeam, making a Scripture truth visible in a moment, yet before I never noticed or gave consideration. This, called rhema, is from God’s pleasure. For me, the mystery is why He has persisted for more than fifty years when I am so stubborn to obey?

As for gifts, why are they given? Why am I strong in some and not in others? Because, “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:11) 

It is the same for His wisdom concerning the gospel. Why was it given to the poor Galileans and not the Pharisees? He granted some “to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” and not others (Matthew 13:11). Again, this is a mystery, one not revealed except that God does as He wishes and His acts of sovereignty please Him.

PRAY: Lord God, You have shown me enough of Yourself that I can trust You with what You keep hidden. My sinful, human and fleshy nature is disappointed because I want to know, solve the puzzle, discover the bottom line, be in on this secret. Yet my proud heart is humbled and even glad that You are God and I am not. Worship happens and that is one more mystery — that a proud and self-serving sinner is enabled to bow in surrender to a God that I cannot always understand what You are doing or why. I will be still and know that You are God, and that You will be exalted among the nations, and exalted in the earth. You, the Lord of hosts, are with me and You are my fortress. (Psalm 46:10–11) Amen!

Does God need me to make Him happy?

Today’s devotional reading says that every Christian wants to please and honor God. While honoring Him is fitting, I’m wondering if the idea of pleasing God is a fleshy one based on human pride. Does God need anything from me? Can I do anything that I can pat myself on the back for and say that I’ve made God happy? This passage comes to mind:

Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9–14)

As the devotional writer says, self-disciplined people can obey laws, fast, give tithes, and do all sorts of good things, but that does not mean much. We can physically separate ourselves from the world, alter our dress code, change our outward habits and live in seclusion from the world and be distinct, but those things take only self-discipline, not grace. Consider moralists and monks, or some of the cults.

Some say we please God by keeping God's laws, but the Bible says the law was given to show us how far short we fall. No one can do it. Sincerity does not make it so. Only Jesus did this and lived a sinless life.

I remember one elderly man who claimed that he never sinned. He must have skipped reading this:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8–9)

This man was sincere. He claimed that sin dishonored the power of the gospel, yet as John wrote, self-deception does the same thing. The truth is, our old nature may be dead to God but it is still able to affect my thinking and ruin my behavior.

The only true standard of holiness is the Lord Jesus Christ. When I look at His life, I’m fully aware of the futility of trying to live a holy life myself. The Bible is clear; Jesus is my holiness. All who believe in Him and trust His righteousness, his blood, his grace and his intercession are honoring God. If I think I can please Him apart from faith in Christ, then I am pridefully putting myself on a pedestal and speaking from flesh not faith.

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

PRAY: Jesus, You are my righteousness and holiness. You grant faith and all the rewards of trusting You. That means any goodness in me is from You. Not only that, You are complete and need no one to perfect Your joy or anything about You. Even if I obey You and feel pleasure, it is You being glad that I have done it — glad for my sake. You want me to trust You. Faith is how You want me to live and how You enable me through the power of Your Spirit to fit into Your plan for my life. You also allow me to feel Your joy — because You have even given me Your mind. All who believe You, all who trust Your righteousness and Your promises please and honor You for God is pleased with You and You are pleased to live in me. How amazing!

Grace comes first

 

This morning a song about being thankful reminded me again of God's goodness toward me. I am saved by grace and live by grace. The gospel of grace is entirely practical. In so many ways, all the good in my life is because of His goodness to me.

For instance, we who are so easily prone to be people-pleasers are even more prone as Christians to be, or try to be, God pleasers. I so easily forget that pleasing God happens only because of His goodness toward me.

God says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. . . . Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:11–26)

The gospel informs me that any goodness in my life comes because of God's goodness. I do not behave so He is pleased but rather, His Spirit makes possible any goodness in me. It is never the other way around — for in my flesh dwells no good thing. Note the order of actions here:

But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone… (Galatians 1:15–16)

The order of grace never changes or varies. It begins in the will of God before I was born, and as perplexing as it may be, I cannot argue with it. Faith is about believing and trusting what God says now, not what I can understand completely, or because I do it, but because He says it. His example:

. . . . when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. (Romans 9:10–16)

That this happens “before I was born” implies before I had done anything good or bad. He called me by His grace and that call was effectual to graciously reveal his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to me. Seeing Jesus changed my life. As a result of this revelation in my heart, God made me a willing servant. Good works will never cause God to be gracious; but God’s grace always causes his people to walk willingly in good works. It must be this way lest I boast and rob God of His glory.

PRAY: Jesus, Your peace and joy are gifts that enable me to live in ways that please You. This response to You is not my doing but the work of Your Spirit. I do not need to fret or be anxious about doing what You want me to do, for grace makes plain the path before me. When You show it to me, I could say no and refuse to walk in it, but You make plain the folly of doing things my way. This is why grace is practical — Your grace keeps me from wanting to live in sin. Amen!

Walking with Jesus

 

My hubby goes to a men’s prayer group each week. Last night, those men and their wives met at the leader’s home for fellowship and dessert. The fellowship topped the ‘sweet’ list. One of the wives was the person who made a wreath of pink tulips for me (because of this post). We’d only met once before yet our conversation was as if we had been sisters forever. Why? Because our desire to live for Christ was identical.

Today’s example is Enoch from the OT. He lived as many years as our calendar has days. It was said: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” (Genesis 5:23–24) The NT put it this way:

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:5–6)

Enoch did not win God’s favor by something he did. Instead, God was pleased with him because he believed what God said, the same as Abel did before him and Noah after him, even the same faith of the thief who died beside Jesus and the faith of those who are in God's family today.

As for the walking part, the only way anyone can do this is by faith. I began my journey with the Lord by faith and cannot perfect or complete that journey by my own efforts in the flesh to do the good attitudes and actions as God commands.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6–7)

But how do I know what that looks like? The next chapter in Colossians describes a walk of faith. It is about priorities, attitude, hope, self-denial, and willingly allowing Christ to use me as a display of His goodness. That includes forgiving others and loving His family as my own with peace and thankfulness ruling my heart. It is also being in His Word and letting all He says affect all I think, say, and do.

If I have been raised with Christ… set my mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. I have died, and my life is hidden with Christ in God… I must put to death what is earthly in you… all evil desires and idolatry… putting them away, also anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk and lies. I’m to put on a compassionate heart, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and… forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven me. Putting on love as it binds everything together in perfect harmony, letting the peace of Christ rule in my heart… being thankful, all because the Scriptures richly dwell in me. I’m to teach, admonish in wisdom, sing praise and thanksgiving in my heart, and do all to glorify the Father God in the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Colossians 3:1–17 personalized and paraphrased)

PRAY: Jesus, You are teaching me more often to pray Your words and as I do, the sense of You hearing and responding keeps increasing. Walking with You is not about me being sinless, but about knowing Your perfections are mine by faith, and as I keep my heart and mind on You, You are transforming me to be more like You. The more I see my weaknesses and failures, the more You remind me of Your goodness and grace. Walking with You is an incredible wonder!