What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 08:28 AM
When you get the sovereignty of God straight, everything gets straighter. Going wrong here will lead to error in all kinds of unexpected places. Oh, how I pray that God will give us clarity and conviction and joy in our vision of God�s absolute sovereignty over our frail and fickle lives!
Take the issue of assurance and eternal security and the possibility of falling away from Christ. One Sunday, I tackled the sobering text of Hebrews 6:4-8. There it says that you can be �enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come� and then fall away from it all and be lost.
Instead of saying that you can lose your salvation, I said that the meaning of Hebrews 6:4-8 is something almost as shocking, namely, that you can experience all those things (enlightenment, Holy Spirit, Word of God, and miracles) and never have been saved. This is shocking because it means that people may be mistaken in thinking they are Christians when they are not.
So the text and the message raise the question of assurance. How can we be sure we will persevere to the end and not fall away and become like Esau who tried to return but could not repent (Hebrews 12:16-17)? Here is where the sovereignty of God becomes so crucial.
The book of Hebrews exults in the new and better covenant, which God has made through the blood of Christ with all who are his people. The old covenant made at Mount Sinai was vulnerable to the people�s weakness (Romans 8:3). Hebrews 8:9 says, �They did not continue in My covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord.� But the new covenant is radically different in that it is not vulnerable to our weakness. Rather, it assures us that God�s sovereignty will overcome our weakness and prevent us from breaking the covenant.
Thus Hebrews 8:10 says, �This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.� In other words, God will not only tell us what we must do, he will see to it that we do it by working in us. This is what Hebrews 13:21 says about the new covenant: �[May God] equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.� This is the sanctifying, keeping, saving sovereignty of God. And it is sweeter than honey to the wavering soul.
In the new covenant our assurance rests firmly on the sovereignty of God over our own proneness to wander. We know we will not fall away because this is a promise of the new covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus. For example, in Jeremiah 32:40, God promises, �I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.� If you ask me how I know that tomorrow I will still believe in Christ, my answer is not that I am a disciplined person, or that I finish what I start, or that my will is reliable, or that the benefits outweigh the costs, or even that my church prays for me. My answer is: Christ shed his blood as the price of the new covenant (Luke 22:20), and in this covenant God promises, �They will not turn away from me.� God�s sovereign right and grace over my fickle will is my only hope for persevering to the end.
This is the sweet reality of the sovereignty of God. I pray that you will understand it and believe it and revel in the security and joy of it. What can be sweeter than to be �kept by the power of God�? (1 Peter 1:5).
What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 08:33 AM
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What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 08:28 AM
When you get the sovereignty of God straight, everything gets straighter. Going wrong here will lead to error in all kinds of unexpected places. Oh, how I pray that God will give us clarity and conviction and joy in our vision of God�s absolute sovereignty over our frail and fickle lives!
This statement is one of the grave errors of Calvinism, denying the sovereignty of God.
John Piper is a Calvinist that proclaims another gospel Donna.
What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 08:37 AM
PhillipJohn,
I don't think your reading comprehension level is high enough to be on this group. You need to take some basic course in reading and not post on this group until you can at least read and understand at a semi-adult level.
What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 08:53 AM
Take the issue of assurance and eternal security and the possibility of falling away from Christ. One Sunday, I tackled the sobering text of Hebrews 6:4-8. There it says that you can be �enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come� and then fall away from it all and be lost.
Instead of saying that you can lose your salvation, I said that the meaning of Hebrews 6:4-8 is something almost as shocking, namely, that you can experience all those things (enlightenment, Holy Spirit, Word of God, and miracles) and never have been saved. This is shocking because it means that people may be mistaken in thinking they are Christians when they are not.
This is supposed to be one that represents God, with this kind of answer.
This is total denial of the word of God and a perfect example of man adding to and taking away from the word of God
