Life can never be
greater without the grace of God. Life would just be meaningless and fearful if
one doesn’t come to know the grace of God. Sincerely pray that he can be my
only treasure for the rest of my life and the only one I serve for the rest of
my life. It is because of the fear that I might escape from him due to all
sorts of sins and invalid reasons. Hopefully God has mercy on me and never let
the day come.
I understand that I am
not the only one who fears to lose the grace of God, as I met a friend last
week who shared with me about his fear. He told me that he thinks God has
forsaken him lately and he couldn’t help but to be convinced that he is not
chosen by God as the bible told him so during his devotion lately. He believes
in the predestination based on the sovereignty of God which no one can make any
change of it.
Below are the
scriptures:
(Exodus 7:13) Pharaoh’s
heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said.
(Colossian 3:5-6) Put to
death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion,
evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath
of God is coming.
(Roman 1:28) And since
they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to
do what ought not to be done.
He is one of my close
brothers in Christ who has been diligently serving God in his church. He has
been very active to show his caring to the juniors and take the initiative to
spread the gospel. I didn’t think am better than him in this evangelical stuff
if I were to make a comparison with him, because he is spreading it really
hard. Every time I see him being so diligent in spreading the gospel, I would
give thanks to God and get encouragement then.
However, we gathered
and had a conversation and discussion about the problems of faith. I shared
with him about my serious decision regarding the path of my faith. He started
to question me with an intention to find the strength for him to move on strong
again as he got so weary and spiritually spent. He started the conversation by
asking me a lot of questions and I knew that I need to be very serious and
cautious of my words as I know he was not talking for fun but for some answers
to hope.
He asked: “What would
you do if you find yourself have been serving God in a wrong location in which
you are against the will of God? As I see those who serve in school bore more fruits
compared to me who serves in an outside the school. Isn’t it a sign telling me
that my work was not blessed by God?”
Brothers and sisters,
this would be a very common question for us to ask ourselves sometimes. We most
probably want to know the exact information about the will of God on us (Where,
what, how and when). But bible never gives us the exact information but only the
main concept of the works. Anyway the fruitfulness of the ministry alone is not
enough to judge correctly whether God blesses the work. One of the examples in
Old Testament, Noah preached the words of God to the people there before the
flood came, but at the end none of them chose to repent and get on the Ark. The
success of his preaching to turn the sinners over was an utter zero
percentage. However, that doesn’t mean that God was not pleased with his work.
He did it right and faithfully; certainly God was pleased to his faithfulness
and loyalty. I am one of the examples as well. I have been sharing the gospel
to the friends around me but no one came to believe in Christ after all. I
believe that God is pleased with whatever I was trying to do for the sake of
their souls but he wants me to learn that he is the one who is taking the
control for the work of salvation.
Our job isn’t to turn
people into Christians; our task is to love the Lord and obey his commandments.
Some false churches spread the false gospel, in the churches many people
decided to become Christian who only believe in the feel-good gospel. This kind
of “efficiency” may not be godly. Therefore, even though our service doesn’t
seem to bear any fruits, it doesn’t mean we served at the wrong place. But if
we realized that we did it in the way against the bible teaching, we are found
guilty. Then we shall repent to God and begin to serve again truthfully. After
all, we need to self-examine from time to time according to the bible
especially our methodologies and beliefs. We might be wrong during our service
but God would definitely make it right if we are biblically humble throughout
the way.
He asked: “What would
you feel if you found yourself not being appreciated or valued by the brothers
and sisters in the church after the long period of your service?”
Yes, sometimes we
would fall into the temptation of trying to do something great in the church with
the intention to gain people’s acknowledgement. We want to be acknowledged not
only by God but also the brothers and sisters. We tend to secure a sense of
being significant in any places we choose to stay including our church. Anyway,
what does the bible say about the purpose of serving God? Serving God is a
must. It doesn’t need any other better reason but merely because of the fact
that God is the Lord and we were created for his glory! One would suffer if he
serves God for his personal reason instead of the biblical reason as our
jealous God wouldn’t share his glory with other parties and he would definitely
spoil our ideas of honoring ourselves during the service. Therefore, we need to
examine our intention prior to our service; otherwise we would be in trouble.
With that ungodly attempt, no one can serve God powerfully.
He asked: “Why do we still sin even after believing in
Jesus? Are we cursed in the wrath of God due to our sinful nature? Are we
really chosen to be his children?”
This question is about
the sanctification. Sanctification is the grace of God with the responsibility
of man. It means that one can never be sanctified without the grace of God, and
one can hardly improve in sanctification without putting effort to fight
against sins! The whole process of salvation consists of election,
regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification and glorification. Among
them, sanctification is synergism while others require the initiative grace of
God alone. The blood of Christ cleansed our sins and we are no longer
threatened by death as we are justified in Christ and adopted by God. Besides
that, as we have been regenerated, we have restored the ability to do goods.
Nevertheless, we are not immune to temptation to sin, as we are still living in
the world of temptation with a vulnerable flesh. Therefore, Christians can
still sin against God after regeneration, as we are having the liberty to sin.
Why didn’t God choose to take away our liberty to sin? If he did so, no one
will sin and no one will be condemned. Yes, definitely, then the world would be
the kingdom of God who glorifies the Lord alone. But if he did so, humans are
not free to do anything based on their wills. Precisely saying, we do not have
our own will at all. As a result, we are nothing but a robot that is
thoughtless. In this case, everything would be meaningless, because humans do
not serve God willingly. The service of human based on their willingness is
valuable and meaningful; this type of willingness glorifies the name of God.
Therefore, if we choose to sin after believing in Christ, it is really our
decision to sin and we are the only one to be blame for our guilt. Though we
are not immune to temptation, it doesn’t mean that the grace of God is not
sufficient for us to stand against those temptations. We should believe in the
sufficiency of the grace of God, with His word and the power of the Holy Spirit
we can fight against sins!
This friend believes in
the predestination of God in which no one can make any change of it. Yes, our
God is the almighty God who created everything and everything is under his
sovereignty forever. Many Christians who believe in predestination would
probably be haunted and troubled by the question, “did God choose me to be his
children?” I believe in predestination as well but first of all, I don’t regard
it as if it is an absolute teaching of the bible because it is not literally
written. Instead it was introduced by the theologians based on their
understandings to the whole bible. Anyway, this topic used to be a hot topic
which has been discussed throughout the history of the Christians.
Let me try to answer
the question, did God choose me to be his children? Some people who briefly
know about the concept of predestination would grasp this to be an excuse not
to repent and believe in Jesus. They might say something like this: “God
doesn’t choose me right? So I cannot do anything also but to follow this
predestination to reject him. I am helpless and he couldn’t blame me for doing
so!” For this kind of reaction, I wouldn’t waste much time to argue with him
saying that God did choose him to be his people. Perhaps I would just say, “Yes
maybe you are not chosen since you really reject to receive him.” But of
course, those people who really want to be saved would be worried about this
sincerely without taking it an excuse to dishonor God. To them I would remind
them of other important promises of God which are expressed literally in the
bible.
We have no idea
regarding the name list of God’s people. We can never find any information
about who are not selected and who are not. In this case, we can never get an
answer for that question. But it is not about the answer, it is about the
promise of God and our reaction according to the bible. God promised that those
who seek him shall find, and he would give them the Holy Spirit.
(Luke 11:10) “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to
the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks
for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an
egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good
gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask him!”
(Ephesians 1:13) In him you also, when you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him,
were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our
inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
(John 1:12) But to all who did receive him, who
believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were
born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of
God.
There are uncountable
scriptures regarding the promises of God to our salvation under certain
condition and requirement. Based on these three scriptures, we can tell that,
salvation is from God alone and by God alone. We need to receive Jesus Christ
as our Lord and savior and by praying to God for asking the Holy Spirit, he
would grant us according to our prayer, and this would be the prayer that God
would definitely answer according to our prayer because he promised so! (Prayer
to ask for other things for our own may not be answered accordingly.) With the Holy
Spirit, one is called to be the children of God who are blessed with the
inheritance of God. Therefore, instead of wondering if we are chosen by God, it
would be appropriate to ask “What should we do to receive salvation?”
The belief of that we
are not chosen by God is apparently a lie of Satan. The belief of that we are
saved and no need to repent of our sins every day is also another lie of Satan.
The belief that leads us to live in fear instead of faith is also a lie of
Satan. As if how Satan tempted Eve to sin against God by eating the forbidden
fruits, what he said was not completely a lie. “You will not surely die. For
God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be
like God, knowing good and evil.” He
said it right for the second sentence, but this message was not godly. We need
to see things clearly with the light of the word of God. Then we shall not be
deceived.
He asked: “What do you
do to stand against the accusations from the people around you even the people
you love the most – parents?”
He was accused by his
parents saying that he is just a helpful church member instead of a helpful son
at home. Based on his sharing, his parents do not really support him while he
is motivated to serve God. Perhaps he may not be ideally helpful to his
parents; I am not going to judge which party is guilty as I do not have the
right. But anyway, we need to do our part well as a son at home. Honoring our parents
is also one of the Ten Commandments. Pray faithfully to God so that our parents
can see the truth of serving God as well. Life of a Christian is about taking
our crosses and following Jesus throughout the way. It is a life of suffering
but meanwhile blessing! Our Lord is the prince of peace. The peace of God is
different from the worldly peace. The worldly peace is the situation where
nothing bad would happen but only good things would come. But in the peace of
God, we are able to have peace even in the storms and rains.
He asked: “I have repented
to God but I still repeated the same problem. Have I been forsaken by God? Why
didn’t God come to discipline his children? I keep reading the bible and having
devotion every day? But why do I still choose to sin?”
Yes, reading the bible
and having devotion constantly can help us to get closer to God and be cautious
of our actions and behaviors in our daily life. But if we believe that we are
able to be perfect by just doing all these “holy” things, then we have made a big
mistake. By thinking in that way, we are to say that we are trying to deny the
work of Christ in us but acknowledge our self-help salvation. Sanctification
can never happen without the grace of God, the word of God and the power of the
Holy Spirit. Doing all these spiritual activities without correct mindset can
be very unhealthy to our spiritual condition. We are striving to be holy, so we
are concerned about the methodology. But while we focus on what we should do
for holiness, we may fail to grasp the main thing of salvation – our Lord Jesus
Christ. May he be the only reason of our sanctification. Then everything would
be fine as we wouldn’t be hopeful in Christ instead of being self-confident.
Some people are trying to be holy just to make them qualified to be accepted by
God. But in fact God doesn’t choose to accept us while we are holy, but he
chose to love us while we are still sinners. Besides that, apart from Jesus, no
one is holy. Holiness is a must to Christians. But please be aware of that the
reason of it is for the sake of God, no other better reason.
What is the thing we
can do other than repentance after we sinned against God? No other thing we can
do beside to repent for our sins. That’s the teaching of the bible. Then wouldn’t
it be an endless and hopeless routine that we tell us that we couldn’t get rid
of sin? Yes, precisely it is not a routine but a spiral. This spiral will get
us improving slowly. Even sometime it gets to the previous position, but the
altitude would be different from the previous time. It refers to the
improvement in sanctification. Through the resurrection of Christ, we are no
longer threatened by the death of sins but we are still possible to sin. With
the strength of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, we are convinced that we
can overcome all the temptations and trials. Therefore, we do not need to
despair during this process. While in this process, we are getting more
desperate for the day to be united with our Lord on heaven.
