pastoral wisdom--from Stott--again-- dude is so good

1 Thessalonians 1:4 says:
For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that He has chosen you----

very good stuff in Stott's commentary on this text:

To whatever denomination or tradition we may belong, the doctrine of election causes us difficulties and questions. To be sure, it is a truth which runs through Scripture, beginning with the call of Abraham (Gn. 12:1ff.) and later his choice of Israel ‘out of all nations’ to be his ‘treasured possession...a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ (Ex.19:5-6). This vocabulary is deliberately transferred in the New Testament to the Christian community (E.g. 1 Pet.2:5, 9-10). Moreover, the topic of election is nearly always introduced for a practical purpose, in order to foster assurance (not presumption), holiness (not moral apathy), humility (not pride) and witness (not lazy selfishness). But still no explanation of God’s election is given except God’s love. This is clear in Deuteronomy: ‘The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you...’ (Dt.7:7-8; cf.4:37). Similarly in 1 Thessalonians 1:4 Paul unites the love of God and the election of God (As in 2 Thess.2:13 and Eph.1:4). That is, he chose us because he loves us, and he loves us because he loves us. He does not love us because we are loveable, but only because he is love. And with that mystery we must rest content.
But before we leave this subject, we need to note the assertion made by Paul, Silas and Timothy that they *know* their brothers and sisters in Thessalonica to have been loved and chosen by God. God’s election, however, is essentially a secret known to him alone (2 Tim.2:19). So how could the missionaries possibly dare to claim that they knew it? They tell us. They give two bases for their knowledge, the first in the following verse (5), relating to their evangelism, and the second in the previous verse (3), relating to the Thessalonians’ holiness. Both were evidences of the activities of the Holy Spirit, first in the missionaries (giving power to their preaching) and secondly in the converts (producing in them faith, love and hope), and therefore of the election of the Thessalonians. This shows that the doctrine of election, far from making evangelism unnecessary, makes it indispensable. For it is only through the preaching and receiving of the gospel that God’s secret purpose comes to be revealed and known. --John Stott

Perseverence & Preservation

Let it first be said that in declaring the eternal security of God’s people it is clearer to speak of their preservation than, as is commonly done, of their perseverance. Perseverance means persistence under discouragement and contrary pressure. The assertion that believers persevere in faith and obedience despite everything is true, but the reason is that Jesus Christ through the Spirit persists in preserving them. --J.I. Packer

What is effectual calling?

ANSWER: Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.

--q.31 of Westminster Shorter Catechism

Scriptures that influenced this answer:
Acts 26:18. To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. 1 Corinthians 2:10, 12. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.... Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 2 Corinthians 4:6. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:17-18. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints

We give our hand...we meet around the cross

Our unity with Christians does not require full agreement on
doctrines such as election, particular redemption, etc. I love these words
of Charles Spurgeon:
“We give our hand to every man that loves the
Lord Jesus Christ, be he what he may or who
he may. The doctrine of election, like the great
act of election itself, is not intended to divide
between Israel and Israel but between Israel
and the Egyptians. Not between saint and
saint, but between saints and the children of
the world. A man may be evidently of God’s
chosen family and yet, though elected, may
not believe in the doctrine of election. I hold
that there are many savingly called who do
not believe in effectual calling and that there
are a great many who persevere to the end
who do not believe the doctrine of final perseverance.
We do hope the hearts of many are a
great deal better than their heads. We do not
set their fallacies down to any willful opposition
to the truth as it is in Jesus, but simply to
an error in their judgment which we pray God
to correct. We hope that if they think us mistaken,
too, they will reciprocate the same
Christian courtesy. And when we meet around
the cross, we hope that we shall ever feel that
we are one in Christ Jesus.”

What are the five points, briefly

‘Salvation is of the Lord’... thus flows these summary statements of bible truths:

1. Fallen man in his natural state lacks all power to believe the gospel, just as he lacks all
power to believe the law, despite all external inducements that may be extended to him.
2. God’s election is a free, sovereign, unconditional choice of sinners, as sinners, to be
redeemed by Christ, given faith, and brought to glory.
3. The redeeming work of Christ had as its end and goal the salvation of the elect.
4. The work of the Holy Spirit in bringing men to faith never fails to achieve its object.
5. Believers are kept in faith and grace by the unconquerable power of God till they come to
glory.

These five points are conveniently denoted by the mnemonic TULIP: Total
depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, Preservation of
the saints. --this is from Packer's CLASSIC intro to John Owen's Death of Death

Mission Accomplished

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

--spafford

Jesus, friend of sinners
Loved me ’ere I knew Him
Drew me with His cords of love
Tightly bound me to Him
’Round my heart still closely twined
The ties that none can sever
For I am His and He is mine
Forever and forever

---sovereign grace music

Redemption, according to some, secured for God a right to make this offer, but did not of itself ensure that anyone
would ever accept it; for faith, being a work of man’s own, is not a gift that comes to him from
Calvary. Christ’s death created an opportunity for the exercise of saving faith, but that is all it
did. Calvinists, however, define redemption as Christ’s substitutionary endurance of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners, through which God was reconciled to them, their liability to punishment was for ever destroyed, and a title to eternal life was secured for them.
In consequence of this, they now have in God’s sight a right to the gift of faith, as the means of
entry into the enjoyment of their inheritance. Calvary, in other words, not merely made possible
the salvation of those for whom Christ died; it ensured that they would be brought to faith and
their salvation made actual. The cross saves. Where some will only say; ‘I could not have
gained my salvation without Calvary’, the Calvinist will say, ‘Christ gained my salvation for me
at Calvary.’ --Packer

God...Saves...Sinners

For of Calvinism there is really only one point to be made in the field soteriology: the
point that God saves sinners.
God—the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons
working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen
people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing
the purpose of Father and Son by renewing.
Saves—does everything, first to last, that is involved
in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption,
calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies.
Sinners—men as God finds them, guilty, vile,
helpless, powerless, blind, unable to lift a finger to do God’s will or better their spiritual lot. God
saves sinners—and the force of this confession may not be weakened by disrupting the unity of
the work of the Trinity, or by dividing the achievement of salvation between God and man and
making the decisive part man’s own, or by soft-pedaling the sinner’s inability as to allow him to
share the praise of his salvation with his Savior. This is the one point of Calvinistic soteriology
which the ‘five points’ are concerned to establish ...
namely, that sinners do not save themselves in any sense at all, but that salvation, first and last,
whole and entire, past, present and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever; amen!

--Jim Packer

He really does redeem

The negative cast of the ‘five points’ is misleading chiefly with
regard to the third (limited atonement, or particular redemption), which is often read with stress
on the adjective and taken as indicating that Calvinists have a special interest in confining the
limits of divine mercy. But in fact the purpose of this phraseology, as we shall see, is to
safeguard the central affirmation of the gospel—that Christ is a redeemer who really does
redeem. --Packer, ibid

Not in part, but the whole!

"Complete atonement Thou hast made,
And to the utmost farthing paid,
Whate'er Thy people owed;
How, then, can wrath on me take place,
If sheltered in Thy righteousness,
And sprinkled with Thy blood."

great article on this hymn here

Definitions

this sunday we will celebrate the tremendous accomplishment of Jesus on the cross

atone - to supply satisfaction for
atonement - the reconciliation of God and man through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ
redeem - a: to buy back: REPURCHASE b: to get or win back

Definite Redemption

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. JOHN 10:14-15

Without doubting the infinite worth of Christ's sacrifice or the genuineness of God's "whoever will" invitation to all who hear the gospel (Rev. 22:17), the doctrine states that the death of Christ actually put away the sins of all God's elect and ensured that they would be brought to faith through regeneration and kept in faith for glory, and that this is what it was intended to achieve. From this definiteness and effectiveness follows its limitedness: Christ did not die in this efficacious sense for everyone. The proof of that, as Scripture and experience unite to teach us, is that not all are saved. --J.I. Packer

Election Affirmations by Baptist and Episcopal Churches

excerpted from the LONDON BAPTIST CONFESSION OF 1869

3._____ By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated, or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ, to the praise of his glorious grace; others being left to act in their sin to their just condemnation, to the praise of his glorious justice.
( 1 Timothy 5:21; Matthew 25:34; Ephesians 1:5, 6; Romans 9:22, 23; Jude 4 )

4.______These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished.
( 2 Timothy 2:19; John 13:18 )

5._____ Those of mankind that are predestinated to life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving him thereunto.
( Ephesians 1:4, 9, 11; Romans 8:30; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:9; Romans 9:13, 16; Ephesians 2:5, 12 )

6._____ As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so he hath, by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, foreordained all the means thereunto; wherefore they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ, by his Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by his power through faith unto salvation; neither are any other redeemed by Christ, or effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.
( 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:9, 10; Romans 8:30; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:5; John 10:26; John 17:9; John 6:64 )

7._____ The doctrine of the high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will of God revealed in his Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election; so shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God, and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the gospel.
( 1 Thessalonians 1:4, 5; 2 Peter 1:10; Ephesians 1:6; Romans 11:33; Romans 11:5, 6, 20; Luke 10:20 )

and from the 39 articles of the Episcopal Church of 1801
XVII. Of Predestination and Election.
Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they through Grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity.

As the godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God: So, for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's Predestination, is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the Devil doth thrust them either into desperation, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living, no less perilous than desperation.

Furthermore, we must receive God's promises in such wise, as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture: and, in our doings, that Will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God.

At the bottom of it all

The thought struck me, How did you
come to be a Christian? I sought the
Lord. But how did you come to seek
the Lord? The truth flashed across my
mind in a moment—I should not have
sought him unless there had been
some previous influence in my mind
to make me seek him. I prayed,
thought I, but then I asked myself,
How came I to pray? I was induced to
pray by reading the Scriptures. How
came I to read the Scriptures? I did
read them, but what led me to do so?
Then, in a moment, I saw that God
was at the bottom of it all, and that
he was the Author of my faith, and so
the doctrine of grace opened up to
me, and from that doctrine I have not
departed to this day, and I desire to
make this my constant confession,
“I ascribe my change wholly to God.”

— Charles Spurgeon

If election is supposed to lead to arrogance, somebody forgot to memo John Calvin

from Calvin's last will & testament:

“I give thanks to God that, taking compassion on me whom he had created and placed in this world, he delivered me by his power out of the deep darkness of idolatry, into which I was plunged, that he might bring me into the light of his gospel, and make me a partaker of the doctrine of salvation, of which I was most unworthy.

With the same goodness and mercy he has graciously and kindly borne with my multiplied transgressions and sins, for which I deserved to be rejected and cut off by him; and has also exercised towards me such great compassion and clemency, that he has condescended to use my labor in preaching and publishing the truth of his gospel. I also testify and declare that it is my full intention to pass the remainder of my life in the same faith and religion which he has delivered to me by his gospel, having no other defense or refuge of salvation than his gratuitous adoption, on which alone my safety depends.

I also embrace with my whole heart the mercy which he exercises towards me for the sake of Jesus Christ, atoning for my crimes by the merits of his death and passion, that in this way satisfaction may be made for all my transgressions and offenses, and the remembrance of them blotted out. I further testify and declare that, as a suppliant, I humbly implore of him to grant me to be so washed and purified by the blood of that sovereign Redeemer, shed for the sins of the human race, that I may be permitted to stand before his tribunal in the image of the Redeemer himself.”

—John Calvin, “The Will of John Calvin”

God must have the priority

The decisive factor in determining
who is to be saved from sin is not the
decisions of the human beings
concerned, but the sovereign grace
of God—though human decision does
play a significant role in the
process.…We must therefore affirm
both God’s sovereignty and man’s
responsibility; both God’s sovereign
grace and our active participation in
the process of salvation. We can
only do justice to biblical teaching if
we firmly hold on to both sides of the
paradox. But since God is the Creator
and we are his creatures, God must
have the priority. Hence we must
maintain that the ultimately decisive
factor in the process of our salvation is
the sovereign grace of God.

— Anthony Hoekema

Rob: Last week we wanted to focus on the sinfulness of man to be seen in the full context of mankind being broken AND beautiful (still bearing God's image). So this week we want the electing grace of God to be seen in the full context of God's people being elected AND personally expressing their faith (which is a gift from God) in Christ.

God's Secrets

Deuteronomy 29:29: The secret things belong to God.

I implore him to explain
some theological mystery, arrogantly assuming that my brain
would not be microwaved by exposure to such divine illumination.
But in his goodness, wisdom, and mercy, he doesn’t tell me any
secrets, either.
How comfortable are you with the secret things of God?…with
the difficult to understand?…the paradox?…the apparent
contradiction? Are you at peace in the deep end of the pool? --CJ

Positioned to Enjoy God

These are not academic questions. The
Christian who misunderstands or
misinterprets the underlying cause of his or
her conversion can be vulnerable to legalism,
pride,self-reliance,ingratitude,condemnation,
and lack of assurance. But when we rightly
understand the nature of our conversion—
that is, when we clearly grasp the role
of God’s sovereign grace in election—we
position ourselves to enjoy, in an ongoing way,
the wonderfully life-transforming benefits
that are available only through the gospel. --CJ Mahaney

Reprobation

Reprobation is the name given to God’s eternal decision regarding those sinners whom he has not chosen for life. His decision is in essence a decision not to change them, as the elect are destined to be changed, but to leave them to sin as in their hearts they already want to do, and finally to judge them as they deserve for what they have done. When in particular instances God gives them over to their sins (i.e., removes restraints on their doing the disobedient things they desire), this is itself the beginning of judgment. It is called “hardening” (Rom. 9:18; 11:25; cf. Ps. 81:12; Rom. 1:24, 26, 28), and it inevitably leads to greater guilt.

Reprobation is a biblical reality (Rom. 9:14-24; 1 Pet. 2:8), but not one that bears directly on Christian behavior. The reprobates are faceless so far as Christians are concerned, and it is not for us to try to identify them. Rather, we should live in light of the certainty that anyone may be saved if he or she will but repent and put faith in Christ.

We should view all persons that we meet as possibly being numbered among the elect.

--JI Packer, read the whole article here

Grace, Sovereign & Free

For [God] says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ROMANS 9:15-16

The verb elect means “to select, or choose out.” The biblical doctrine of election is that before Creation God selected out of the human race, foreseen as fallen, those whom he would redeem, bring to faith, justify, and glorify in and through Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28-39; Eph. 1:3-14; 2 Thess. 2:13-14; 2 Tim. 1:9-10).

This divine choice is an expression of free and sovereign grace, for it is unconstrained and unconditional, not merited by anything in those who are its subjects. God owes sinners no mercy of any kind, only condemnation; so it is a wonder, and matter for endless praise, that he should choose to save any of us; and doubly so when his choice involved the giving of his own Son to suffer as sin-bearer for the elect (Rom. 8:32).

read full article here