Take the tension of God's election and man’s will. That tension is real, is it not?
I believe it does exist for a reason, beyond our knowledge. Here is an amazing truth that we must never forget: We have all that we need but we do not have all that there is.
What you need to know is this: God has given this truth clearly to us: That He has elected us. The Bible says that no one is saved unless the Spirit draws them. Remember what Jesus said in John 6:44: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day."
Still, the Bible also says, “Whosoever will may come.” The crazy thing is this: as your coming to the Lord it feels so much to us like we are choosing Him. It feels like to us that we are deciding to come to church read the Bible and pray. Yes, somehow it seems to us like we made this decision.
In one real sense you did, for the Bible describes a decision we make, and it talks in terms of me receiving Him. For a very clear passage on this I ask you to read John 1:12. So the scriptures do speak of my volition. There is no question the Bible gives to us a clear invitation. Remember our Lord’s words: “Come to me, all of you who are laboring and heavy burdened, and I will give to you rest”
Here is the strange reality: In the coming to it feels like choosing and in the looking back it looks a lot more like I was chosen.
The real sad thing about this issues is this: throughout the recent history of the church this has been a decisive issue. This issue has divided people of the faith, churches of the kingdom and it has divided theological opinions and minds and hearts for many years. So here is a sad commentary upon us: Strife between christians most often germinates in the soil of getting beyond the Bible.
Some churches only talk about God’s election. they will pound the pulpits as if to pound the truth into the hard heads of the listeners. Yet other churches others never talk about it. They act as if it does not ever exist. Paul neither made it a great issue, nor ignored the fact either.
Listen to What Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:6 “… Do not go beyond what is written…”
Beloved is that not beautiful? Do not exceed what is written! How many times do we fuss and fight over things that are not written in the scriptures? If I had a dollar for every time that happened in the church, no church in the kingdom of God would ever fall behind in the budget ever again!
If you want to find the stuff that churches and Christians are arguing about the most, they are arguing about stuff that is not in the Bible. It is important that we do not exceed what is written. Good people and good churches spend large amounts of time and effort and money trying to give clarity where God gave mystery. We seek to deliver logic rather than obeying God and giving him our worship. So many times we are guilty of chasing good logic when what God wants for us is to simply offer Him our deepest devotion in worship!
So be careful, do not go beyond that is written. I am not suggesting that I do not agree with many of the theological frameworks built by great scholars, nor am I diminishing their work. I think in my limited understanding many of the logical inferences makes sense to me, but I think we should be careful not to exceed what is written in the text. The church and its pastors should be care not to solve the tensions that God is given.
Deuteronomy 29:29 says: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law."
We should not spend our time solving the tensions of the faith that the Bible does not address. Do you think God has told us everything? If you do, than your god is too small! God has not told us everything but everything we need to know! Peter would say that God has given to us everything that pertains to life and godliness. We have all we need, but we do not have all that there is.
Here is another tension of the faith: Tongues.
Did you know that in 1 Corinthians 12:30 Paul asks: Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? This is a rhetorical question. The answer is no. But then, just a few chapters later in 1 Corinthians 14:39 here is what he says: Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.
I mean how clear is that? Do all? NO! But, do Not forbid! What do we have in the body of Christ? We have the everyone should camp and the no one can camp! We have churches that teach you are not saved unless you do. So, YES, ALL EVERYONE MUST is what we hear. However we have the other extreme: We have others who constantly forbid, and always say no! It is short of saying practically: if you do your not saved!
How does that square up with the Bible?
Do all? NO! But Do not forbid! That is the Bible! The Lord must be looking down at us going: Really I wrote all of this down for you guys!
Now I have my own theological perspectives and reasons for not promoting the speaking in tongues, and I have my reasons for emphasizing the sovereignty of God. But at the end of the day, we must never exceed what is written in the Scriptures!
Here is the deal: God's word was given to us, so that we would align our lives with His!
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