If the Bible is true, then God exists.
If God exists, then surely He made it obvious for all people to be able to get to know Him through some kind of revelation available to all.
So there is a revelation, and there are recipients of it, and there are also those who do not believe.
First and foremost there is the general revelation - what we can see around us, in the nature, in the creation, and there also is given the very special revelation, His Word. The first one is open for everybody to observe. Yet even then the majority of people choose to reject God, and attempt to explain everything by means of human science and some elaborate evolutionary theories.
Those who believe, understand both kinds of revelation. By God's Grace and with the sure help of Holy Spirit they can see clearly and walk rightly. Others who do not understand, have the same revelation, the same environment to live in, but they have not obtained Grace.
Because how, otherwise, can one explain this gap between believers and nonbelievers? What I mean is that the only coherent and logical understanding of God must be processed through the Doctrines of Grace. There is no other possible way of explaining and grasping the Gospel, the Salvation, the Atonement, the understanding, the fact that some believe and some do not.
Well, actually, there is an attempt to explain it otherwise - by using the idea of man's free will, thus diminishing God's sovereignty and His absolute power. I cannot accept this explanation. It is human-oriented, shallow and inconsistent with the Scriptures.
So the final conclusion is this - either one accepts God as an Absolute Lord, and takes God's decrees with humbleness and readiness, hence admitting that a human being is really a dust creature completely dependent on Grace and Love of Creator of all, or one chooses to glorify himself - one way or the other, by his own merits and philosophy.
Which one shall it be?
Eph 2:4-9
(4) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
(5) even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--
(6) and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
(7) so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
(8) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
(9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
2 comments:
So true. The thing I find when talking about this is that so many don't really like the idea of grace. We like to talk about it, think about it, sing about it, but when face-to-face with it's implications so many reject it because they "just can't believe it." I would also tell you that from my experience, it is not only unbelievers, but believers in Christ that struggle with this. We so desperately want to attribute salvation to the cross plus something. I suppose it's human nature to want "control" in our lives and we just have a hard time with this.
Martin Luther wrote in The Bodage of the Will - "Many things seem, and are, very good to God which seem, and are very bad to us. Thus, afflictions, sorrows,errors, hell, and all God's best works are in the world's eyes very bad, and damnable. What is better than Christ and the gospel? But what is there that the world abominates more? How things that are bad for us are good in the sight of God is known only to God and to those who see with God's eyes, that is, who have the Spirit."
And so it is with His grace!
Thank You for Your comment.
Yes, it is difficult to accept Doctrines of Grace. When I was a student of English Literature and History, I came into contact with Puritans, Reformation, etc. Being a nominal Roman Catholic at the time, those strict doctrines were unacceptable for me. I read Pilgrim's Progress as a fairy tale mostly, and never gave a second thought to those things.
On the threshold of becoming a biblical Christian though, those things returned to me and were constantly nagging and begging for my attention. I was really struggling, I suppose the very terminology and the thought of being called a Calvinist bothered me very much. But as soon as I came inot an acceptance of the real nature of God, the problems disappeared and have never returned.
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