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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Judgment, Redemption, and the First Resurrection, #7
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)
God's Invitation to Redemption and the Provisions He Has Made for Our Success
Several elements of Divine grace and mercy, of God's love for His elect, come under this heading:
Predestination and calling.
The body and blood of the Lamb.
The Holy Spirit.
The Word of God, both of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Apostle Paul taught concerning predestination and our calling. God loved us before we knew Him. The Lamb of God was slain from the creation of the world. God called, justified, and glorified us, according to the counsel of His own will, from the beginning of time.
We know that no person can come to Jesus for redemption unless the Father draws Him. We understand also that we did not choose Jesus. He chose us and ordained us that we should bear much fruit.
Truly, salvation is of the Lord from its beginning to its conclusion.
There is no way in which we can contradict or minimize the full role of predestination and calling in our salvation without violating the clear teaching of the Scriptures. It is the Lord God of Heaven who comes to man and draws him to Himself.
It is in the area of God's invitation to redemption, and the provisions He has made for our success, that His love and mercy are revealed most clearly. All the aspects of the process of redemption are of Divine grace.
However, in our day an error—a distortion—is occurring in Christian thinking concerning Divine grace. The concept is being advanced that the entire process of redemption proceeds as a product of Divine grace in the sense that man does nothing of significance other than to maintain his profession of belief that redemption will occur on his behalf. The actual condition of the believer remains static while glorious things are spoken of him by the Word of God.
It is as though an Israelite remained in Egypt while maintaining stoutly that God was bringing him into the land of promise. He held fast his belief in what God had stated but he did not move with God in the process of removal from Egypt and entrance into Canaan.
This concept is extended to mean that untransformed believers will participate in the first resurrection on the basis of God's love and mercy. ("It is not what we have done but what He has done" kind of thinking.) This is a distortion of the actual process of redemption. Apart from man's active, fervent, faithful involvement in the process of redemption, participation in the first resurrection is impossible.
It is essential that Christian believers understand this because many are neglecting their salvation and still are hoping to be resurrected and to ascend to meet the Lord Jesus when He appears. But it seems only a handful of Christian believers actually are prepared to participate in the out-resurrection from the dead, the resurrection of the royal priesthood, when Christ appears from Heaven.
To be continued.