Concern for the salvation of others is not prevented by a belief in what we call the doctrines of grace; is not prevented by believing in divine sovereignty, and predestination and election. Many persons intensely dislike the ideas which are expressed by these phrases. Many persons shrink away from ever accepting them, because those ideas are in their minds associated with the notion of stolid indifference. They say if predestination be true, then it follows that a man cannot do anything for his own salvation; that if he is to be saved he will be saved, and he has nothing to do with it, and need not care, nor need any one else care.
Now, this does not at all follow, and I will prove that it does not follow, by the fact that Paul himself, the great oracle of this doctrine in the Scripture, has uttered these words of burning passionate concern for the salvation of others, so close by the passages in which he has taught the doctrines in question. Look back from the text, run back a few sentences and you will find the very passage upon which many stumble: "Moreover, whom he did predestinate" -- there are people who shudder at the very words -- "them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
Just a little while after he uttered those words from which men want to infer that the man who believes it need not feel concerned for his salvation or the salvation of others, just a little after, came the passionate words of the text. Nor is that all, for you will find just following the text, where he speaks of Esau and Jacob, that God made a difference between them before they were born, and where he says of Pharaoh that God raised him up that he might show his power in him, and that God's name might be declared through out all the earth. "Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth." Some good people fairly shiver at the inference, which seems to them to be inevitable from such language as that. But I say the inference must be wrong, for the inspired man who uttered this language, only a few moments before had uttered these words of the text.
And whenever you find your heart or the heart of your friend inclined to shrink away from these great teachings of divine Scripture concerning sovereignty and predestination, then I pray you make no argument about it, but turn to this language of concern for the salvation of others, so intensely passionate that men wonder and think surely it cannot mean what it says. The trouble is in this and many cases that we draw unwarranted inferences from the teachings of the Bible, and then cast all the odium of those inferences upon the truths from which we draw them. Now, I say that whatever be true, for or against the apostle's doctrines of predestination and divine sovereignty in salvation, it is not true that they will make a man careless as to his own salvation or that of others; seeing that they had no such effect on Paul himself, but right in between these two great passages come the wonderful words of the text.
[an excerpt from his sermon entitled, "Intense Concern for the Salvation of Others" in Sermons and Addresses (Hodder & Stoughton: New York, 1886)]
One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.
Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. (6:68)
What a sweet and joyous promise and reward that grace gives us - The Father and Christ... David's desire was for the Person of God...to dwell in His presence...Peter's cry was "to whom shall we go"...
Believer, no matter what may assail your heart today - find rest in God alone - let your hope come from Him (Ps 62); rejoice in the promise of His presence in your life and the promise that you will be in His presence forever. And let these truths transform you as you persevere until the end...
Scripture teaches is that sanctification is the will of God for believers (cf. 1 Thess 4:3); it is what God desires for His people. Sunday I began to think of the joy of the doctrine of sanctification…particularly delighting in God's desire for my sanctification and that He has accomplished it and is constantly working in me to produce it.
Many Christians have an instinctive aversion to the word sanctification. This is well understood if one has ever been a part of any kind of "holiness movement" with an emphasis upon sinless perfection or extreme external rules to make one holy. This experience can cause one to cringe when hearing the word (sanctification) or make it hard for them to think in a balanced biblical fashion about the doctrine itself.
But, as one begins to understand the biblical doctrine of sanctification…there can be nothing but joy and resolve to pursue what God desires, has accomplished and is working out in us for His glory.
While I don't intend to hammer out in detail the doctrine sanctification in this post, it would behoove me to provide at least a sense of the meaning of sanctification. (I plan to do a series of posts on a biblical theology of sanctification; this will give us a good start.)
The word sanctification (hagiasmos) in New Testament Greek has one general sense of meaning – i.e. – holiness, consecration, purification.(cf. Rom 6:19, 22; 1 Cor 1:30; 1 Thess 4:3, 4; 2 Thess 2:13; 1 Pet 1:2) Hagiasmos is derived from hagiazo – to make holy, consecrate, sanctify, or to dedicate, separate, set apart for God or to purify.
According to G. Abbot-Smith's, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, the lexical form of sanctification (hagiasmos) is "an active verbal noun" which primarily signifies the process of sanctification, i.e., "sanctifying" and in other contexts denotes the resultant state of sanctification. When one examines the use of hagiasmos in Scripture carefully, it is seen that the process of sanctification must be preceded by a "divine sanctifying" as only one who is holy can sanctify. (as described in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament – Abridged)
So, from this cursory look at the word sanctification itself, in the least we see that it is, in some real sense, being set apart for God.
Interestingly, though not containing the word hagiosmos, Titus 2:11-14 provides us a real sense of what this setting apart looks like. Particularly, verse 14 tells us that Christ "gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds."
What is joyfully amazing in this is that God's purpose in salvation – redeeming/purchasing people from the darkness and slave market of sin – is that He purchases a people for Himself! So, being saved means that I have been set apart (or sanctified) by God and for God! This means that everything in my life – everything – has the eternal purpose and significance of glorifying God. I can live in the joy and delight of doing "all to the glory of God"!
The rest of that passage in Titus 2 gives us the sense that grace has not only come that we might become God's purchase, but that in our actions we might turn toward God (i.e., godliness – an orientation toward God in all things) in righteous, sensible and godly living and away from ungodliness, worldly desires, and every lawless deed. So, there is the sense of being set apart for God (I am God's – i.e. – a positional sanctification) and being set apart to God (I live to please God – i.e. – a progressive sanctification). This being set apart to God is the process of growing in a life of holy and obedient living; 1 Pet 1:15 tells us that we are to "be holy" as God is holy.
So, not only are we holy unto the Lord (we have been set apart as God's possession), but we are to live holy in the Lord (we are to "share in His holiness" – Heb 12:10). What a joyous truth: God's purchases me to share in His life! This is the essence of the doctrine of sanctification. So, there is nothing in my life in which I cannot share in the life of God, because I am Gods, and have been set apart for God! What is even more beautiful – this is all a work of God (Eph 2:8-10; Phil 2:13)!
I don't know about you…but thinking of sanctification this way gives me great and immeasurable joy and delight in God to live out the purpose for which He purchased me…to live for Him…and even to pursue His holiness… "without which no one will see the Lord." (Heb 12:14)
The guys at Pyromaniacs are at it again...helping us see exegetically the beauty of God's sovereign grace in the Scriptures.
