PAUL’S PRAYER AND EXHORTATION TO THE CHURCH IN PHILIPPI

The letter to the Christians in Philippi from apostle Paul was in fact a letter to his longtime friends and fellow believers; in this letter, Paul bares his soul more than anywhere else in his letters. The Philippian Christians were among those who ‘labour’ together with him in the gospel; they were the ones who supported Paul and offered him financial help and gift in his time of need; they did not ‘abandon’ him when he was in prison (and at the time of writing of this letter Paul was incarcerated). It is no wonder Paul wrote that he thanked his God in every remembrance of the Philippian believers; and he even wrote : “I have you in my heart and whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me” (Phil. 1:7b).
At this juncture, we will consider two aspects in this letter: firstly Paul’s specific prayer for them in 1:9-11 and his exhortation to them to follow his example in (1q3:17) and the example of his co-workers.
Firstly his prayer:
From the things Paul asked for the Philippian Christians, we could learn the greatest gifts to ask for ourselves. These gifts are love, discernment, purity of life and righteousness. It was not that the Philippian Christians lacked love but Paul, out of his own heart of love, prayed that their love may abound or increase more and more. But this love is to be guided by knowledge and depth of insight, a sensitivity to the truth of God and the real needs of others, and the understanding of one’s situation. And these gifts from God should be with the goal of the day of the Lord in focus and sight – to be pure and blameless when we meet the Lord, fruitful in righteousness and character.

Growing love for God must be reflected in love for other believers; the love for God and for one another should abound more and more. It is a love accompanied by knowledge, the knowledge of God such that the believers can enjoy insight into God’s words and ways, and hence to live in their light. We cannot grow in our knowledge of God if we are full of bitterness or other self-centred sins. There is a moral element in knowing God. Of course a person might memorise Scripture or teach Sunday School or earn a degree in theology but that is not necessarily the same thing as growing in the knowledge of God and gaining insight into his ways. Such growth requires repentance; it demands a lessening of our characteristic self-focus. To put it positively, it demands an increase in our love, our love for God and our love for others.
Love is necessary for a deepening knowledge of God. It is exceedingly difficult to advance in the Christian way on only one front. The Christiann life embraces every facet of our existence. We cannot hope to increase our knowledge of God but not in obedience to him; we cannot desire to improve our prayer life without improvement in our morality; we cannot desire to grow in love for others but not in purity or in our knowledge of God. All our living and doing and thinking and speaking is to be discharged in joyful submission to God and to his Son, our Saviour.

Paul also added that the love that abound more and more must be in, not only in knowledge,but in depth of insight. His prayer was that they may be able to discern what is best and may be able to be pure and blameless. until the day of Christ. They should not be satisfied with mediocrity. Believers must move on, to become more and more discerning, proving in their own experience what is best in God’s eyes.
Paul’s prayer was offered up to the glory and praise of God (1:11). These petitions are gospel-centred. These are gospel prayers – prayers offered to advance the work of the gospel in the lives of the believers with the ultimate purpose of bringing glory to the God who redeemed them.
Sadly, our prayers are mostly related to personal matters largely removed from gospel interests: our mortgages, our physical safety, good health, employment for ourselves or others. These may be legitimate but where is the gospel focus? We need to put the priorities of the gospel at the center of our prayer life.
This was so in the life of Paul and he desired this to be so in the lives of the Philippian believers who were very close to his heart. He wanted it to be so more and more in their lives for it has to do with faithfulness to God, endurance and perseverance in the midst of ministry and suffering, and an assurance of blamelessness on the day of the Lord.
Paul, in prison, awaiting perhaps death as an imminent threat, was conscious of what really matters in his prayer for those who were his partners in the gospel and those whom he loved dearly.
We shall deal with the second aspect subsequently, God willing.

AUTHENTIC GOSPEL VERSUS SUBSTITUTE GOSPEL

Many of the perplexities the church faces today are all ultimately due to our having lost our grip on the biblical gospel. Without realising it, over time, we have bartered the true gospel for a substitute product which, though similar enough in points of detail, is as a whole a decidedly different thing.
The substitute fails to make men God-centered in their thoughts and God -fearing in their hearts because this is not primarily what it tries to do. It is too exclusively concerned to be ‘helpful’ to man – to bring peace, comfort, happiness, satisfaction – and too little concerned to glorify God.

The first concern of the authentic gospel is always to give glory to God. It is always and essentially a proclamation of divine sovereignty in mercy and judgement, a summons to bow down and worship the mighty Lord on whom man depends for all good, both in nature and in grace.
The true gospel aims to teach men to worship God; the substitute seems limited to making men feel better. The subject of the authentic gospel and his ways with men; the subject of the substitute is man and the help God gives him – and there is indeed a world of difference.

The Scriptures teach us that God has given us a gospel-message and gospel-means, and our methodology must always flow out of and be related to that message and those means. No doubt, we need creativity; but the creativity needs to be anchored in, connected to, and consistent with our theology. In other words, theology informs methodology (this is universally and inescapably true), and therefore our methodology ought to be deliberately and self-consciously derived from and consistent with our theology.
God will build his church and he has given us a gospel-message and gospel-means by which it is to be built. Our methods are to flow out of and are to be connected to that message and those means.
We cannot compromise the message; we cannot ignore the gospel-means God gives – we cannot focus on the end (eg. people feel good and happy with what is done and what they receive from the church) and conclude that all is well, when in effect, God is not glorified and worshipped, and certainly, he is not pleased. We must do God’s work in God’s way; we must proclaim the good news (the gospel) and not a substitute, not a gospel-plus or a gospel-minus. The eternal consequences are serious – let us not forget what Paul declared: “Those who preach a different gospel are eternally cursed (anathema)”, for there is no other gospel than the gospel God revealed in the Scriptures!

RESTORING THE COSMOS TO PERFECTION

From all eternity, it has been the gracious plan, purpose and pleasure of God to restore the cosmos to perfection at the end of the day through the mediation of the “last Adam,” the God-man Jesus Christ.
This plan not only affects fallen mankind; it also affects the creation which falls into bondage and decay:
“The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). The key to understanding this plan as it affects mankind, is to see that by God’s appointment each man’s destiny depends on how he stands related to the two representative men, Adam and Christ. What God planned was to exercise his kingship over his rebel world by bringing in his kingdom – that is, a state of bliss for sinners who, penitently returning to his obedience, should find under his sway salvation from sin’s guilt, power, and evil effects. In this kingdom, Jesus Christ should be God’s vice-regent, and trusting and obeying Christ should be the appointed way of returning from sin to God’s service.

The goal of God’s action is to glorify himself by restoring and perfecting his disordered cosmos, and the gospel call is to abandon rebellion, acknowledge Christ’s lordship, thankfully accept the free gift of forgiveness and new life in the kingdom, enlist on the victory side, be faithful in God’s strength (through the enabling of the Spirit) in the face of mounting opposition, and hope (living by faith) to the end for Christ’s coming triumph (together with like-minded brethren in the church).
Do we see the gospel in this light, and do we realise the magnitude of the scope of God’s plan of salvation, not only affecting mankind, but the whole cosmos (including the heavenly host and spiritual realm), and extending from eternity to eternity (hence the eternal consequences and destiny of various ones who reject this wondrous gracious plan of God in His Son)?

If we perceive God’s salvation plan and the gospel as focusing on our temporary happiness on earth, our good health, our material prosperity (without any reference to His desire to restore the cosmos and without any connection to what He is doing in world history), then we are very short-sighted and perhaps even ‘blind’ to what God is doing in His eternal purpose and plan.
If we appreciate the whole of God’s wondrous and gracious plan of salvation for mankind and the cosmos, then we can understand the following in the proper context:
“Or those eighteen who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty then all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:4-5), We may be wondering why Jeus said the above, and why he seemed not to be so concerned for the lives of the eighteen who died. The Lord was actually pointing them to their eternal salvation and destiny – this was and is still the most important issue in the lives of men and women – we may lament over many tragedies on earth and we may be asking why; yet we do not realise that we are living in a fallen world and this world and her values are passing away. What counts is where we stand in relation to the two representative men, Adam and Christ. Will we remain in Adam, or are we translated and regenerated into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ where we will reign with him in glory, and no longer die, but live on blissfully in eternity?
If we see this plan of God clearly, we would understand why Jesus rebuked Peter for expressing that the Lord Jesus should not die (at the cross). Jesus’ death at the cross is crucial and central in purchasing salvation for mankind. That is why even though Jesus requested the Father whether there could be any other way besides drinking the cup of wrath of God, the answer was invariably ‘No’. So the Son said, “Not my will but thy will be done”. The pain, the agony, the suffering, not just physical, but also enduring the weight of all the sins of the world throughout all generations on his shoulders, plus the onslaught of the evil one and his minions, and the Father’s turning away from him – all these were needful to restore fallen mankind and the cosmos to perfection. Notice that eternal ‘good’ was achieved and accomplished at the cosmic level at the cross when Jesus died as our substitute; and this was, and is accomplished through much suffering (even beyond our appreciation and comprehension).
If we see this clearly, then why do we grumble and complain at every point in our lives when we have to endure suffering (whether physical catastrophe, illness and pain, persecution and misunderstanding),
Do we realise that our sufferings as believers connect us to Christ. This connection with Christ makes our sufferings meaningful; it transforms our sufferings into something redemptive rather than destructive.
Suffering is also used by God as a wake-up call. It may not be discipline for something specific we have done wrong but it may be God’s way to wake us up from our lethargy and complacency in our Christian lives. C.S. Lewis made the wise observation that God whispers in our pleasures but shouts in our pains. “Pain is His megaphone to rouse a dulled world”. Believers may become insensitive as unbelievers to God’s voice but it is very difficult to ignore God in the midst of sufferings.

A GRIGHT UNDERSTANDING OF DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY

GOD IS SOVEREIGN IN HIS WORLD

If we are Christians, we pray; and the recognition of God’s sovereignty is the basis of our prayers. In prayer, we ask for things and give thanks for things. Why? Because we recognise that God is the author and source of all the good that we have had already, and all the good that we hope for in the future.
The prayer of a Christian is not an attempt to force God’s hand, but a humble acknowledgment of helplessness and dependence. When we are on our knees, we know that it is not we who control the world; it is not in our power, therefore, to supply our needs by our own independent efforts; every good thing that we desire for ourselves and for others must be sought from God, and will come, if it comes at all, as a gift from His hands. If this is true even of our daily bread (as in the teaching in the Lord’s prayer), much more is it true of spiritual benefits.
What we do every time we pray is to confess our own impotence and God’s sovereignty.

GOD IS SOVEREIGN IN SALVATION

We give God thanks for our conversion. Why do we do that? Because we know in our heart that God was entirely responsible for it. We did not save ourselves; God saved us. Our thanksgivings is itself an acknowledgment that our conversion was not our own work, but His work. We do not put it down to chance or accident that we came under Christian influence when we did. Similarly, we do not put it down to chance that we heard the Christian gospel, that we had Christian friends and, perhaps, a Christian home,or family that the Bible fell into our hands, that we saw the need of Christ and came to trust Him as our Saviour.
We do not attribute our repenting and believing tgo our own wisdom, or sound judgment, or good sense. Perhaps, in the days when we were seeking Christ, we laboured and strove hard, read and pondered much, but all that outlay of effort did not make our conversion our own work. Our act of faith when we closed with Christ was ours in the sense that it was we who performed it; but that does not mean that we saved ourselves.
We would never dream of dividing the credit for our salvation between God and us. We have never supposed that the decisive contribution to our salvation was ours and not God’s.We have never told God that, while we are grateful for the means and opportunities of grace that He gave us, we realise that we have to thank, not HIm, but ourselves for the fact that we have responded to His call. Our hearts revolt at the very thought of talking to God in such terms; instead we give God all the glory for all that our salvation involved, and we know that it would be blasphemy if we refused to thank Him for bringing us to faith. Thus, in the way we think of our conversion and give thanks for our conversion, we acknowledge the sovereignty of divine grace. and every other Christian in the world does the same.

It is instructive in this connection to ponder over Charles Simeon’s interesting account of his conversation with John Wesley on Dec. 20th, 1784 (the date given in Wesley’s journal):
“Sir, I understand that you are called an Arminian; and I have been sometimes called a Calvinist; and therefore I suppose we are to draw daggers. But before I consent to begin the combat, with your permission I will ask you a few questions…. Pray, Sir, do you feel yourself a depraved creature, so depraved that you would never have thought of turning to God, if God had not first put it into your heart?” “Yes,” says the veteran, “I do indeed.” “And do you utterly despair of recommending yourself to God by anything you can do; and look for salvation solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ?” “Yes, solely through Christ.” “But, Sir, supposing you were at first saved by Christ, are you not somehow or other to save yourself afterwards by your own works?” “No, I must be saved by Christ from first to last.” “Allowing, then that you were first turned by the grace of God, are you not in some way or other to keep yourself by your own power?” “No.” “What, then, are you to be upheld every hour and every moment by God, as much as an infant in its mother’s arms?” “Yes, altogether.” “And is all your hope in the grace and mercy of God to preserve you unto His heavenly kingdom?” “Yes, I have no hope but in Him.” “Then, Sir, with your leave, I will put up my dagger again; for this is all my Calvinism; this is my election, my justification by faith, my final perseverance; it is the substance all that I hold, and as I hold it; and therefore, if you please, instead of searching out terms and phrases to be a ground of contention between us, we will cordially unite in those things wherein we agree.”

What is not true is that some Christians believe in divine sovereignty while others hold an opposite view. What is true is that all Christians believe in divine sovereignty, but some are not aware that they do, and mistakenly imagine and insist that they reject it, What causes this odd state of affairs? The root cause is the same as in most cases of error in the Church – the intruding of rationalistic speculations, the passion for systematic consistency, a reluctance to recognise the existence of mystery and to let God be wiser than men, and a consequent subjecting of Scripture to tha supposed demands of human logic. People see that the Bible teaches man’s responsibility for his actions; they do not see man (indeed, cannot see) how this is consistent with the sovereign Lordship of God over these actions. They are not content to let the two truths live side by side, as they do in the Scriptures, but jump to the conclusion that, in order to uphold the biblical truth of human responsibility, they are bound to reject the equally biblical and equally true doctrine of divine sovereignty, and to explain away the great number of texts that teach it.

GOD’S WONDROUS AND SACRIFICIAL LOVE

As we study the Gospel of Luke, now on chapter 9, we notice that this chapter provides a ‘bridge’ between the first half of the Gospel and prepares the way for the main emphasis of the second. The first half focuses on the identity of Jesus primarily – his supernatural birth, his miracles and signs, his ability to forgive sins, to heal diseases and to confront the evil forces and demons. It affirms his identity as the long awaited Messiah and the testimony of the heavenly Father at his baptism confirms that he is no ordinary prophet, and John the Baptist also recognised that Jesus is the Lamb of God.
The second half affirmed and further consolidated the identity of Jesus, but also revealed the identity of his mission and purpose; and this was not understood even by his close disciples – they, like the rest, were looking for a conquering warrior king who would deliver them from their enemies and establish the ‘kingdom’ (although at his second coming, he would come as a conquering king and warrior).

Instead, Jesus had to re-educate his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priest and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised,” he said (Luke 9:22).
It is important that we understand what Jesus was saying here. If we ask various ones what is needed to make the world a better place, we probably will get responses like: provide better education, improve law enforcement, work for justice and the needy and so on. But Jesus knew that the responsible force, wielded by legitimate governments in the name of God and in the cause of justice, cannot do more than restrain or limit evil. It will never eliminate it, as the world’s situation over centuries shows. Jesus knew that the greed, the hatred and the selfishness of our human hearts cannot be rooted out by better laws, better education or still less, by war.
There was only one weapon that could defeat the power of evil and that was the weapon of innocent suffering and voluntary sacrifice. Jesus had to tread the pathway to a cross. We may ask, ‘How can we change the world in this manner?’ The extraordinary thing is, Jesus did.
People cannot be rescued and restored without addressing what lies at the heart of the human problem and dilemma; selfishness and sin are far too deeply entrenched in the world to be remedied completely by education, politics, or social action. A sacrifice to address the flaws, failures and wickedness of the hearts was necessary. And it cannot be just any sacrifice, and not just by any man.The apostle Paul, who was a Pharisee and sought to be accepted by God and to be righteous by keeping the Law (Torah), subsequently met Christ on the road to Damascus as he was journeying to arrest the Christians in that city. His encounter with the living Christ changed his whole direction of life and he went on to be the great apostle of the Lord Jesus in preaching and teaching the Gospel.
Paul wrote:
“This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Rom.3:22-24).”
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom.6:23)
Humanity in the first Adam has rebelled against God and is now condemned and heading for hell and destruction. Only a second Adam, one who is human but sinless, one who has the authority and power to defeat the devil, the guilt of sin, the power of sin, and death, can redeem fallen humanity.
God stooped and entered the arena of human affairs in the most personal of ways. He sent His Son; the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; He is both truly human and truly divine. Christ’s revelatory, representative, substitutionary, defeating the devil and moral modelling roles are predicated on his assuming a truly human nature.
And that brings us to the famous and well known verse: John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Love is why God created us in the first place; He did not create us out of need. He created us out of his love.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “God, who needs nothing, loves us into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them.” But the fell extent of God’s love was shown not so much when he chose to ceatus; it was shown when we had become sinful and unlovely.
Apostle Paul puts it this way: “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”(Rom. 5:6,8)
God does not just love you because he has to, he loves you because he wants to. God delights in us.
Notice in John 3:16 that God loves the world that he gives the best and the most beloved – his Son, and He gives him to serve us and to rescue and redeem us.
Wonder at the beauty and sacrifice of the love of God. He loves, he gives, he serves, he redeems, for those who are unworthy, those who are unlovely – so that we may not perish eternally but instead live eternally with him as HIs children – provided we believe and receive His love and wondrous gift.
Unfortunately, as we study the Gospels, the Pharisees and many of the Jews were so consumed with themselves that when God came in the person of the Messiah and Jesus Christ, they never noticed, and when told, they rejected him. For us today, will we also not notice and will we also turn away from him and reject his person and his love??

THE BIBLE’S TEXTUAL AND HISTORICAL CREDIBILITY
In the interaction with my classmates, the question was raised why there was no mention or record of what happened to Lazaus and the people raised during the crucifixion of Jesus between the time of their death and resurrection. This seems to raise the query that the record of Lazarus being raised from the dead and various ones appearing during the crucifixion may not be authentic. It further raised whether the text we have in the BIble is reliable.
Note that the integrity of any ancient writing is determined by the number of documented manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts we can examine. For example, there are only nine or ten good manuscripts of Caesar’s Gallic Wars in existence, the oldest of which is a copy dating to nine hundred years after Caesar’s time. Yet no historian seems to have any serious doubts about the reality of Caesar or of the integrity of this text. Fewer than ten copies of the ancient manuscripts of Plato are available for study and comparison of his writings throughout the years. The oldest of these manuscripts is a copy dating to 1,400 years after it was originally written. Still, scholars do not discount the historicity of the writings of Plato or express concern that what remains of the writings of Plato or express concern that what remains of Plato’s writings is less than true to his original thoughts.
When it comes to the Bible, there are over five thousand handwritten manuscripts in the Greek language that support the writings of the New Testament. Many of the earliest copies are separated from the originals by only twenty-five to fifty years. The text of the Old Testament is supported by such findings as the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947, which provided manuscripts one thousand years older than any previously known Hebrew manuscript of the Bible and represented every Old Testament except Esther. Simply put, the Bible is the most dependable ancient document in all of history in terms of textual credibility.
Interestingly, many of the writers of the Bible claimed to be eyewitnesses to what they wrote or to have conducted such research themselves. For example, Luke the physician writes that he has carefully investigated everything from the beginning and he also interviewed the eyewitnesses and servants of the Word before writing the Gospel of Luke.

The report of Sir Willliam Ramsy of Oxford University, regarded as one of the greatest archaelogists ever to have lived, concluded upon his own examination that the writers of the BIble were historians of the first rank and should be placed alongside the greatest of historians. So overwhelming was the archaelogial evidence in support of the truth of the Bible, that Ramsay eventually became a Christian. And there are also other well known archaelogists and their findings which produced material that confirm the Scriptures at point after point.
We need to realise that the happenings during the reign of the Roman Empire might not be of so much concern to the non-Jewish historians as far as the Christians (the followers of the Way) and their activities, including their claims, are referred to. Nonetheless, even Josephus, a non-Jew and historian, did record, to some degree, about the group better known as followers of Christ.

The historical integrity of the Bible also extends to include the Bible’s record of such things as the teachings of Jesus. For instance, the biblical records such as the Gospel of Matthew are in fact firsthand, eyewitness accounts written as early as A.D. 50. The New Testament documents were written and circulated in a short enough period of time that people who were alive at the time of Jesus were still around to either say, “Yes, that really happened” or “No, those guys are nuts!” And the writers of the New Testament were not laughed off the scene. Despite the fact that the manuscripts contained references to supernatural events and miracles that took place in public settings and that readers could have easily dismissed them if not actual, the New Testament documents and the message they contained spread like wildfire, beginning a movement of such proportions that the entire trajectory of human history was altered. Why? Because there were too many people who could say, “I was there, and it happened just as they saide.”

Excerpts from Final sermon of Pastor Alistair Begg
The 73 year old Pastor delivered his final sermon to Parkside church as senior pastor with a message of faith in the sufficiently of God “through all seasons of life.” The following are excerpts taken from his message:

“We come to know God by revelation,” he said, “He makes himself known. Otherwise, we could never know him. We don’t find God by a consideration of ourselves and then project into divinity. We discover who we are by being made known of it through God himself.”

The Scottish pastor and voice behind the radio and online teaching ministry Truth for Life has served as senior pastor since 1983 at Parkside Church.
At almost the end of his message he warned of a decline in biblical literacy within churches. “Expositional preaching gives way to inspirational talks, which gives way to therapeutical endeavours,” he said. “You cannot continue to make your journey through life without your Bible…not as something just to be revered in a corner, but as our daily source of knowledge and encounter with God.”

I find what he said very relevant and sobering. Indeed, God is sufficient through all seasons of life. We cannot know God if he does not reveal himself to us; and as we grow to know him, we grow to know our real self, and the Bible is like a mirror which reflects our true image before God.
His advice to Christian preachers and leaders: we cannot overlook the need for expositional preaching – we cannot replace preaching with inspirational talks and therapeutic endeavours (which may include health talks, how to age successfully etc.).
We cannot make our Christian journey in life without the Bible – it is our daily source of knowledge and encounter with God.

This is the advice of one godly pastor who understands what are the important issues for the Christian and the church – we will do well not to ignore it.

LOOKING AT THE SUBJECT OF ‘PREDESTINATION’

The above subject has been an issue of ‘contention’ and ‘controversy’ among Christians and the church for many generations. I do not propose to unwrap all the ‘wrappings’ on this subject; for one thing, I am not in the position to do so, and also I am not capable to make this subject clearer than what it is today.
But perhaps we can consider this subject Christ-centeredly. Meditate on John 6 and John 10 where our Lord himself enunciates the truth of predestination:
“All whom the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” (John 6: 37-39)

“I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd….My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”(John 10:14-16, 27-30)

A doctrine which the Lord Jesus himself expresses should not be taken lightly by us, especially when the very heart of it is that the Father through his plan of predestining grace is securing a people for the Son, thus furthering the glory of the Son, which is his final purpose. The glory of Jesus Christ as Savior is directly bound up with this doctrine of predestinating grace. Rejecting it, whatever our reasons and level of intellect (and noting that we are finite but God is infinite; and we are created but God is the Creator), is tantamount to rejecting the wisdom of the Triune God’s salvation plan; and also tarnishing the glory of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It, in effect, is telling God that we know better as far as this subject is concerned.

The doctrine of predestination resolves three vital questions. Firstly, how is it that I am a Christian today? Secondly, what confidence can I have of getting to heaven? Thirdly, what have I to thank God for?
First, I am a Christian today because God chose from eternity to make me one. He went the first mile when he sent his Son Jesus from heaven to die on the cross for my sins. He went the second mile when he called me by grace, working in my heart so that I responded to the gospel’s message in a way I would not have done had he not so worked. It is thanks to God’s predestination that I am a Christian.
Second, I have every confidence of getting to heaven. This doctrine says that once you have believed, God promises to keep you believing. Once he has brought you to faith according to his predestinating purpose, he will complete that purpose (and he is able to do so). It is all his doing, and it is guaranteed by his sovereignty (for he alone is God). So I am safe in his hands, and my hope is secure (what a tremendous assurance).
Third, I owe God thanks for my entire Christian life – for the fact that I have been converted no less than for the fact that there was a Saviour for me to turn to.

The doctrine of predestination teaches us humility, the humility which acknowledges every spiritual benefit as God’s gracious gift to me.. Also, it reveals my security, telling me that God’s eternal purpose guarantees final glory for me. Finally, it prompts doxology, praise to God for the greatness of his grace to me. Whenever I stand up and sing the ‘doxology’ during worship, it brings tears of gratefulness, joy, and praise in my heart.
Those who embrace predestination praise God far more than others do, for we recognise more God’s gifts, mercy, and grace to us, and we also appreciate far more our own unworthiness and wretchedness before a holy, just, good, and righteous God!!

THE STORY OF THE WONDROUS GRACE OF GOD IN CHRIST

As we study the Gospel of Luke (and the other three Gospels), what comes through clearly is the story of the grace of God in Christ.
In Jesus Christ, God has given the world a Savior whose great salvation more than matches man’s great need, and whose great love (which should be gauged from the cross) will not be daunted or drained away by our great unloveliness.
Jesus is set forth as prophet, priest, and king; teacher and guide; mediator and intercessor; master and protector – and the focal point of his saving work is identified as his cross, concerning which each Christaian can say like apostle Paul that “he loved me and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20).
Christ’s death was an act of righteousness, for he endured it in obedience to his Father’s will. As such, it wrought redemption, freeing us from the curse of God’s law – that is, exposure to divine judgement – at the cost of Christ’s own suffering. His death was redemptive because it achieved an act of propitiation, quenching God’s wrath by dealing with the sin that evoked it. It propitiated God by being an act of substitutionary sin- bearing in which the judgment which our sins deserved was diverted onto Christ’s head – from the cross to the risen Christ’s gift of a permanent new relationship with God, which Paul analyzes as justification (pardon plus a righteous man’s status) and adoption (a place in the family with certainty of inheritance), and the writer to the Hebrews calls sanctification (acceptance by God, on the basis of consecration to him). With this new status is given new birth, the indwelling Spirit, progressive transformation into Christ’s image, and glorification – that is comprehensive subjective and objective renewal in Him!!

Some may be wondering why there are so many sharings on the Saviour, his identity, his mission and his love and grace focused on the cross, in the Gospels, and in the Scripture. It is because of God’s goal (the perfect bliss of sinners and his desire to have a people of his own – “I shall be your God and you shall be my people” in a new humanity under Christ, consummated in the new heaven and new earth).
The above story, is very “loaded” – that is, it covers comprehensively all of God’s plan of salvation – it also contains all the relevant theologies regarding the Gospel, the love and grace of God, seen in the sending of His Son into human history; and also what it means for those who receive him and those who reject him. Ponder slowly over this story – do not skip over it – missing one in our understanding would affect us in our Christian outworking individually and corporately.
KC Quek

TAKING TO HEART GOD’S WORD

In the previous sharing, “Dealing with Disappointment”, we noted that we receive the healing of the Lord by letting him minister to us from Scripture, relating that which gives us pain to God’s purpose of saving love. This will mean regularly looking to the Lord and his human agents in ministry as well as Bible study.
Hearing Scripture preached, reading it regularly – internalising it and applying it to our lives – we find the content to our personal worship, as well as find direction for living our lives. This is in fact the development of communion with the Father and the Son through the Spirit.
There is impact of the BIble on those who soak their souls in it; the word of the Lord constantly brings home to believers the presence and power of the Lord of the word.
This is the work of the Lord Jesus; he walks, as it were, out of the pages of the BIble into our lives. He writes on our hearts the faith set forth by the BIble writers, so that again and again we find ourselves turning to him in contrition, in excitement, in love, and in gratitude.
We know inwardly that it is Christ Himself who by His Spirit made this happen. Thanks be to God.

THE REALITY ABOUT THE HUMAN CONDITION

“It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Romans 9:16). Paul, in response to those who question God’s sovereign choice, responded with this verse, and dismissed the query regarding God’s fairness in choosing some and rejecting others:
God says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Hence, it does not depend on human will or exertion.

John Calvin, in the ‘Institutes of the Christian Religion’ stressed the wretchedness of fallen man, supported the view that God’s choice and mercy is His, and not that of fallen man’s.
Calvin described fallen mann as corrupt, demented, defiled, beastly, vile, full of rottenness. Why, we wonder, is such a ‘violent’ description of fallen man?
The true reasons are not far to seek: Calvin wished to convey the sense Scripture had given him of the tragic quality of the human predicament. Man was supposed to be the noblest of this world’s occupants, a creature made for fellowship with God and given great intellectual and moral potentialities; now spiritually ruined, having lost his uprightness, the image of God in which he was made, and had been banished from God’s favour and presence. Yet, in his fallen state, man is still so perverse as to be proud, vainglorious and self-satisfied!
Calvin knew that fallen man, because sin has darkened his mind, is disinclined to take his fallen state seriously, and he knew too that shallow views of sin are a barrier to true faith. He who thinks himself still good at heart, still free to do good and please God, will trust in his own works for salvation and never learn to look to Christ as his righteousness.

As we look at the condition of man today, in this current state of turmoil, calamities, sufferings and the cruelty of man against man, buttressed by pride, vainglory, and the claims of invincibility, the true reasons can truly be found here – the reality of our human predicament. The Scripture recorded the stance of one of the greatest conquerors and kings in his lifetime – Nebuchadnezzar – his boast of his greatness in the book of Daniel – he soon became mentally deranged and lived like an animal eating grass – before he regained his sanity and gave glory to the God of heaven.

We need, like Paul and Calvin, to stress the bondage of man to sin, and the vileness of man in sin, in order that these who hear would learn to be realistic about themselves, and in self-despair go out of themselves to find peace with God through trusting the blood of Christ. This we need to do before it is too late!