My great grandmother passed away a few nights
ago.
Usually, how I see it is, when someone passes
away it is a time to mourn of course because we love and miss them, but mainly,
if they were a Christian, it is a time to celebrate their life they spent living
for Christ! And the fact that they are now in Heaven – spending eternity with
Him!!!
But…what if they are not a Christian?
My great grandmother was an incredible woman.
Before she became ill, she was the life of the party! Soooooo HILARIOUS and
always cracking jokes! She always had those random dry goofy comments that are
so unexpected…and you literally just sit there for the next few minutes
thinking “wow…how is that lady so hilarious? She’s so old!!” haha…that was her.
I believe I wrote about her quite awhile ago
when I spoke of a relative who told me that I had a light in my eyes once and
then several years later told me that light was not shining as brightly after
something difficult had happened…
That was my Mama…she really was a beautiful
person.
My father witnessed to her constantly
whenever he had the chance to be around her, especially in the past few years
since it was obvious she was not going to be around much longer.
But as far as we know – she never accepted
Christ…
There are some things in life that I do not
understand…and I will be the first to admit that predestination is one of those
things…
But I don’t know if I don’t understand it
because of “free will” and what not…or if it’s because I don’t understand why
God would CHOOSE someone like me…over…maybe someone whom I would consider to be
a less-sinful person…
Maybe someone who could serve Him much better
than I could…
But none of that is really worth much of a
thought because He did choose me. So
now I have no choice but to listen to Him…because it is the joy that He has
placed in every part of me.
One of my high school girls asked me the
other day what predestination meant.
(funny timing)
I think it is most important to first realize
that God doesn’t chooses us because of anything that we have done or will do –
but He chose us simply out of His sovereign grace.
In Romans 9 Paul makes it clear that God
chose Jacob over Esau, “not because of works but because of Him who calls” (v.
11)
“For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything
good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not
because of works but because of Him who calls…” (v. 11-12)
Paul reminds us over and over again that our
salvation is based on Christ and Christ alone – not because of anything we have
done – so that we cannot boast.
And that is how God wants it… “so that God’s
purpose according to His choice would stand”…if we chose Him and He had no
control over the matter…then how could He claim to be in control of everything?
The New Testament is flooded with scripture
about how we are chosen…
Ephesians 1:4, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of
the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him…”
1 Thessalonians 1:4, “knowing, brethren
beloved by God, His choice of you…”
2 Thessalonians 2:13, “…God has chosen you
from the beginning for salvation…”
So if there are people who are chosen…then
there have to be people who are not
chosen…right?
But WHY haven’t they been chosen? My first
initial thought is that, maybe God knew that they would not choose Him? So He
just didn’t choose them?
No…The bible is clear about God not choosing
us because of anything we have done or will do. So if God chose us based on the
pre-knowledge of us choosing or not choosing Him, then the fact that we are
chosen would be based off of us CHOOSING…or – based off of something that we
would do…so that’s not right…
(sorry if I lost you…that was confusing)
And if someone was going to choose God it
would only be because God allowed and predestined them to choose Him…right?
Okay. So…free will…
I am just going to go ahead and quote someone
who is MUCH more knowledgeable than me on the subject…
Wayne Grudem explains it like this…
“Our choices are voluntary because they are what we want to do and
what we decide to do, and in that sense they are ‘free.’ This does not mean
that our choices are absolutely free, because God can sovereignly work through
our desires so that he guarantees that our choices come about as he has
ordained; but this can still be understood as a real choice, because God has
created us, and he ordains that such a choice is real. In short, we can say
that God causes us to choose Christ voluntarily.” Bible Doctrine, pg 289
For anyone who would still dare to say that
because God ordains and works through our choices, He is not fully giving us free-will,
Grudem argues that: “The mistaken assumption underlying this objection is that
a choice must be absolutely free (that is, not in any way caused by God) in
order for it to be a genuine human choice. However, if God makes us in a
certain way and then tells us that our voluntary choices are real and genuine
choices, then we must agree that they are.” (pg 289)
(I feel like I am back in college…)
I think a natural (natural meaning sinful)
response to God choosing some people and not others is a cruel act…
It’s okay to admit if this thought crosses
your mind…not saying that it is RIGHT…but – being sinners…it is initially natural for us to question
God…INITIALLY…but when we continue to grow closer to God – we need to stop. It
is not our position or RIGHT to question God and what He does.
But I still believe we should be honest with
God and ourselves – no matter how we are feeling, so that He can change us and
heal us from that type of thinking.
I would be lying if I said I never question
God…and I would be lying if I said that I didn’t ask God why my great
grandmother couldn’t be saved…(assuming that she did not accept Christ right
before she passed away…)
But ultimately – I KNOW that God IS GOOD. No
matter what.
No matter who He does and does not choose.
Not saying I understand it at all…but I don’t
need to. I don’t want to. I don’t want a god that I can understand everything
about…that wouldn’t be a true God.
Grudem counters my naïve reaction: “We must
remember that it would be perfectly fair for God not to save anyone…But if he
does save some at all, this is a demonstration of grace that goes far beyond
the requirements of fairness and justice.”
“What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God is there?
May it NEVER be! 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 does not
depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For
the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I raised you up, to
demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout
the whole earth.’ So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He
desires.” (9:14-18)
When I start to think about it too much I
start to question. What if someone who God did not chose, decided to turn to
Him and accept Him? But…then God would have chosen them to choose Him…
(This is my naïve attempt at trying to argue
that anyone can be saved…)
I think mainly for me, it just comes down to
pride. Why ME? Why would God choose me?
But it is not really about me at all. It is about God and His power
and excellence and what He wants to do. Not about me and my misapprehensions.
“You will say to
me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ On
the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded
will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or
does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one
vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although
willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much
patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to
make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared
beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews
only, but also from among Gentiles.” – Romans 9:19-24
My high school
student brought up the question of evangelism. “Why evangelize if election is
true and God has already chosen who He wants? And the others will remain to
have hardened hearts?”
Simple: Because
us preaching God’s truth is a command:
“Go therefore
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded
you…” Matthew 28:19,20
And since God is
love…if we have God…then we naturally love others right? So we want everyone to
know God and be saved…Living His love is just a natural habit for someone who
loves God…it can’t be helped. God just pours His love into us and we are so
filled with it that it overflows in us and spills out all around us. It can be
seen from a distance and can be felt from close by…
It’s God.
It’s not me and
my actions…
It’s God and His
grace.
“For if we live, we live for the Lord, or if
we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the
Lord’s.” – Romans 14:8
