Post details: We are NOT His children for OUR pleasure, but for His own.

02/07/06

Permalink 08:06:20 am, Categories: By Trent, GraceHead thinking deeply, 792 words   English (US)

We are NOT His children for OUR pleasure, but for His own.

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 ...

[More:]

The Seed would reveal which soils were created / crafted to contain the Seed, and which soils were left in the condition to always shed the Spirit/Seed.

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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Comment from: Pam [Member]
Hi Trent,

It occurred to me a couple of days ago, that only finite creatures who are subject to time and moving through time would have the perspective of choice. God, who is eternal, could not have the perspective of choice as God is not subject to time or moving throught it, God simply is. Sovereignty and choice are not at odds as so many try to paint them or are confused by them, they are simply two perspectives of two different beings. Yet, I don't pretend to fully understand how they work together; as far as I know, only God knows that.

Just as God designed the Jews for the Law, He designed the church for Grace and the two shall be joined in common purpose in Christ's Kingdom. He also made vessels of wrath, which from the human perspective of choice, at first, seems repugnant; but with the limited insight into God's perspective that I have been given by the Holy Spirit, through study of scripture, and the experience of Christ in my life, I see the wisdom of God in creating vessels of honor and dishonor for the common denominator between the two is God's glory with His Mercy being the only deciding factor of the fate of each. We are all created with the purpose of demonstrating the righteousness of God.

Besides the dicotomy of the elect and the lost, there is also the dicotomy of 'all'. I do not insert after 'all' (the elect) as has become the habit of some in an effort to reconcile the seeming contradition of God in creating vessels to bear his wrath and then also stating that He desires that none should perish. It has not as of yet been given to me to fully understand how God's desire that none should perish will be fulfilled when He has also stated that He has created some vessels for dishonor and that they shall perish. I have studied scripture long enough to know that any apparent contradiction in scripture is not God contradicting Himself but limited understanding or contradiction in me. I accept God's Word for what it says and not only do I accept it, I believe that He will fulfill all that He has stated in scripture. I speculate that perhaps God has blinded the church to this aspect of His plan, just as He blinded the Jews to Grace so that we could be grafted in. I don't know how God will pull it all together but as I love many who seemed destined for destruction, my human heart finds comfort in waiting for the 'all' even though I don't understand how it will all work. I do know that God hardened the Jews so that He could show Mercy upon me and somehow, through showing Mercy upon me, who deserves no mercy, He will show Mercy upon all.

How I long for the faith to be made sight, to stand in the Kingdom and then prepare for the Eternal State. There is much ahead of us!

You know, you and I are no longer finite creatures either, we also have become eternal by our newbirth through Jesus Christ but have as of yet to fully realize the new creatures we have become. How magnificent our redemption when we put off these earthly tents and are fully glorified! How blessed we are to know, Jesus!

Pam
Permalink 02/07/06 @ 12:43

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