by Trent
We don't know what we are willing to do, until we get there. The circumstance changes nothing. It only reveals our latent willingness to act.
I didn't know that I had a latent desire to marry Heather, until we met. Once I met her, I did not MAKE myself willing to marry her. I was crafted by my Maker with that latent desire ... And that desire was disguised and unclear as to whom would be the counterpart to my lack ... Until it was revealed when I met Heather.
When I say that I was crafted with that willingness, I mean just that ... Like a potter crafts some clay to contain fluid and other clay to lay flat.
To the point, only those that the Father made/crafted as "willing" will be revealed as "willing."
The Father did something to a few souls for the delight of Himself and of the Son. He crafted a few to be willing to partake of the Divine Nature.
The Son was obedient to pour forth His life with the faith that the Spirit/Seed that He would spill would provide a harvest, for it would reveal some soil to be hard and non-receptive and some soil to be good and receptive to the Seed. The Seed would reveal which soils were ...
A few are revealed as the elect and co-heirs with Christ.
Most are revealed as "of their father the devil."
HOWEVER ...
Neither of them made themselves willing nor unwilling. The Father did that, and He didn't do it for our pleasure (though we are better off for it.) The Father did it for His own pleasure in which the Son would share. (of course, the Father and the Son are ONE by the Spirit/Being that is within.)
The Son had faith that the Father's crafting would be sufficient for a small measure of souls to be willing to receive the Spirit, and thus He spilled forth His Life for the willing ... The willing are those souls that the Father predestinated to contain that Life and bring forth a harvest. (by "the Son had faith" I mean that the Son had no doubt that this was the case.)
The willing have no boast. We did not make ourselves willing, nonetheless we are willing at the harkening of the gospel where most others are not willing, nor could they make themselves willing.
Does that mean that some are doomed to destruction?
John 17(NIV)
2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
...
6"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
If scripture had said otherwise, it would give "the willing" a basis to boast ... That we made ourselves into the ones that the Father has given the Son.
We did not make us willing nor unwilling to "accept the words that the Father gave the Son."
We did not make ourselves willing to say that the "Son has come from the Father" nor "believe that He sent the Son."
The Father made us willing.
Jesus has called us 'the people that the Father gave Him out of the world that would receive Eternal Life.'
The Elect, by our (latent or revealed) willingness crafted by the Father, are a gift from the Father to the Son.
By revealing this faith of mine, I expect to loose more of an audience then I gain ... but at least now you know where I am coming from.
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