IT IS YOUR CHOICE/JUST A THOUGHT
SCRIPTURE OF INTEREST
“Forsake foolishness (or foolish ways) and live, and go in the way of understanding . . . the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:6, 10 NKJV).
“Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs” (Proverbs 10:12 NIV).
MY COMMENTARY
IT IS YOUR CHOICE TO BE SAVED
There is a question mark that arises in the Christian Community as to who gets to go to heaven and who doesn’t. Some will argue the belief that everyone will end up in heaven, and even the devil will end up there as well. We call this group “Universalists”. Another group called the “Calvinists” believe that God chooses some to be saved and some to end up in hell. It is not the individual who decides but rather God. They say that mankind is incapable of making that decision so God predestines some to be saved and others to be condemned in hell. The last group I want to mention about is the “Arminianist” who basically believe that we make the choice whether we end up in hell or heaven based on what we do with Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross.
Well, we know there are more groups that we can touch on as to what they believe about the topic. However, I am interested in what Scripture has to say rather than someone trying to fit Scripture into their doctrine. Why not allow the Scriptures to speak to us instead. But it is also interesting how so many will try to spin Scripture to somehow tie into supporting their views.
To begin with let us consider who Jesus died for. In Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV) we read, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” This is a prophetic passage of scripture which speaks of the condition of man and what God was going to do with it. The key word is “all”. All have fallen and God has laid all of our sins upon Him. We are all sinners. Romans 5:12 (NKJV) states “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and this death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Every human being is a sinner through Adam but some will argue and say “It is not fair”. Really! That is something we cannot change. Since we all come from Adam we inherit his sin nature, therefore everyone is a sinner and has the capacity to sin. This simply tells us we are in need of a Saviour.
Let’s look at Isaiah 53:6 again. It says since we are in that state of sin we are also separated from God in relationship. That is why Isaiah says prophetically that God had a plan to deal with the problem. Sin is not a small matter as we see it explained further in Romans 6:23 (KJV) “For the wages of sin is death . . .” So Isaiah states the obvious “And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”.
Now as we move from the Old Testament to the New we see Paul saying in Romans 5:6 and 8 (NKJV) “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly . . . God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus came to give His life for all by taking all of our sin upon Himself. 2 Corinthians 2:21 (NKJV) “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” This verse tells us the purpose of Jesus doing this for us is so that we would “become the righteousness of God in Him”. Making us righteous. Righteousness means forgiveness, freedom and life. Something we could not acquire on our own. It took a tremendous sacrifice on the part of Jesus Christ for this to become real in our lives.
As we look at what has been said so far, we realize all have sinned and Jesus took all our sins upon Himself, which means that this covers every human being. He did this to demonstrate His love for each one of us and wants everyone to come to that realization. 2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV) says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Please notice key words “any” and “all”.
The question, then, that arises from this is “on what basis does God than choose to save us?” As already discussed it is based on our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour. That has been predetermined before the foundation of this world and those who do so He has also predestined to be holy and without blame according to Ephesians 1:4 (NKJV) “. . . He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,” and then in the following verse we find this “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.” So as we respond to the Gospel He has predetermined for us to become adopted into the family of God, holy and without blame. That is His will for us. Wow!
But now we arrive at the next important part of this message which is critical as to why God chooses us. I touched on this already but to emphasize the importance of it I must say it again. God chooses us based on our choice. When I hear a message through the preaching of the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit I am presented with a choice either to believe or not to believe. John 3:16 (KJV) brings this truth to reality “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The key word here is “whosoever”. John 1:12 (KJV) also says, “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name.”
Many years ago I was presented with the opportunity to attend a David Wilkerson Crusade in Winnipeg. I made the choice to go. After the message was presented I chose to go to the altar and receive Christ into my life. When the counsellor asked me to pray with him I chose to pray and prayed the sinner’s prayer. Afterwards, I chose to go to church, read my Bible and chose to attend a Bible Study. It wasn’t too long after that I chose to invite my brother Joe to come with me to church. This he did, and he too decided to make a choice for Jesus Christ.
As you have already noticed, it is you who determines your destiny, for God has provided everything that is necessary for your salvation. Romans 10:13 (KJV) says, “For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.”
JUST MY THOUGHT
I don’t know whether you follow closely what is happening in our world or not but I see chaos everywhere. I see it more and more where Christian freedom of expression is eroding at a fast pace. Recently, a football player from the Edmonton Eskimos expressed his belief regarding the traditional view of the relationship between a man and woman and as a result he was dropped from the team. There are many such cases before us where you cannot go against the flow of the humanist secular way of thinking or else you will be deemed a racist, homophobic, xenophobic, intolerant bigot and so on. All this is done is to suppress the opposing view. These people speak of respecting the beliefs and opinions of all but they demonstrate their own bigotry by not respecting the opposing view.