Matthew
Fittingly in the New Testament, our first encounter with God's sovereignty is in regards to Jesus Himself. 1:21 gives us the words of the angel that His name will be Jesus. A small point, you say. Yet, here God intervenes in the process of childbirth and imposes His own will on a mother. Yes, the child is His own, but some object to God's intervening in any way among us. Give us our free will. We will name our children. We will guide them into their careers. We'll be their protectors.
Sovereignty teaches that it is God, and not man, Who makes all these decisions, using His gentle Spirit's proddings and speakings to make it happen.
Jesus is born, grows, and takes on His ministry of teaching. Towards the end of the famed lesson on the hillside,7:23, He surely startles his audience when He informs them that persons who seem to be ministering with the power of Heaven will be ejected from the Kingdom when Jesus declares He never knew them. This seems to compare favorably to Hebrews 6:4-8, where persons who came very close to the power of God and son-ship actually fall away and are refused.
The verses are important to our study in showing us that true believers will persevere, but those who only have the external trappings of salvation will not. In both passages, they are refused, and we are told that the requirement for salvation is Jesus' intimate knowledge of them, implying eternal selection. See also John 10:14, where Jesus says that He knows His sheep, and is known by them. Relationship.
I enjoy finding what I call "Rosetta Stones" when searching out doctrines. In this case, a Rosetta Stone verse would be one that seems to be on both sides of the Sovereign Grace issue. Such a passage is 11:25-28.
The narrative is of a prayer to God and a plea to man. We see the very mind of God in the prayer, but the method for evangelism in the plea. It is most instructive.
The prayer. "You have hidden these things [that I am teaching publicly ] from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes..." He explains further that "no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him."
Oh my, shut the book! What further evidence do we need of the heart of God and His Son? Together, Father and Son make known to specific, pre-ordained men and women the revelation of Who Jesus is, of what salvation is all about, forgiveness of sins, eternal life. That is how we know God and God knows us.
I am so glad that Jesus abruptly stopped that chain of thought, turned to the audience, and said, "Come to Me, all..."
His method was and continues to be "Whosoever will may come." His theology, and ours, must be, "No one, except the ones to whom the Son wills to reveal Him."
It's not either or. We must evangelize believing everyone who hears us is called to salvation. We must rejoice that the one or two or more that come along with us have been called by the Father.
There's a tension there, a balance we must achieve in our thinking. But both truths are real.
Matthew 12:18 quotes the Isaiah "Servant" passage we covered while there. God's chosen.
13:10-11 is a hard saying for many. The doctrine under examination itself is a hard doctrine, yet the most glorious of all for us. The question is put to Jesus as to why He always speaks in parables, and His answer, "because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them it has not been given."
Here is God again predetermining that a group of people will not understand the message of Jesus. He quotes the Isaiah passage that says essentially the same thing.
One could argue, this is because, as the text says, "they have closed their eyes," (13:15). God is merely responding to their evil hearts. True, but are not all hearts evil?
Why to these particular Jews, the disciples, "Blessed are your eyes for they see"? Who made the disciples see and allowed the others to remain blind? Were these men "better"? Were they seeking after God?
"You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you," is the response to that.
Why could these evil Jews not be given another chance? Why not allow grace on all of them?
With that we come to the unanswerable again. He gives grace to whom He wills, for His own purposes. A hard answer. A hard saying indeed.
The same concept is repeated at 19:11, where Jesus tells us that only certain people are called to celibacy. It is an inner knowing, not an outer effort, that accomplishes a feat like this. Jesus knew. Paul knew. It was not to be a general gift for all, not even all apostles and leaders, but to some it was "given." Grace. Sovereign grace.
In the parable of the workers in the vineyard (20:15-16), the Master has the owner of the vineyard, namely Himself, saying to some workers who felt themselves cheated (That's not fair!) that it is lawful for the one in charge to do what he wishes with his own things.
The parable also concludes that "many are called, but few chosen."
We find in other passages that this calling is done by the preaching of the Gospel. The choosing, done by God Himself, is an action that took place before the foundation of the world. How many millions and millions have heard the Gospel? How many have accepted it and will be in Heaven because of it?
We all agree with the answers to those two questions. Where the church divides is in giving the reason why those answers are as they are. Let's keep tracing the Scriptures to see what they actually say, not what seems to us to be right.
Our first opportunity to examine this further is in 23:37, a passage oft quoted by those who agree with Arminian theology. Here, it is Jesus, eternal God that He is, remembering His own willingness to gather Israel together, and Israel's unwilling heart.
So after all, salvation is dependent on man's will, not God's?
Was it all Jerusalem who killed the prophets? The apostles were not involved in this. Surely there were remnant Jews also who did not participate in this evil.
Men shall be damned because of their unwillingness to come to Christ and the Father. Not because God chose them to do evil, made them do evil. They have been doing evil forever, there is none righteous, no not one.
The question is not about them. The question continues to be about us. How did we get where we are? Why are we saved? How can it be that a damned world has produced a remnant of grace? To ask it in this manner is to answer it. Grace. Only grace. God has touched our hearts and called us to Himself.
In 24:22 and 24 is a dual encounter with the word "elect." There is in the world today and in the heavens, a group of people elected by God. That word only means chosen, but there is something about the word that reminds us of our specialness. Humans are "chosen" to a team, but "elected" to office. It's a different feeling.
When the election took place, there was a host of candidates, only one Elector. When He went into the Voting Booth of Heaven, He elected everyone from Jesus to the apostles to all believers of all time. The number is fixed. The outcome of the election is sure. I win.
I take it here (22) that the tribulation period coming to the earth will be shortened for the sake of that small minority of saints that Daniel mentions as being survivors of this final holocaust. Since they must survive, the war will end.
In verse 24 Jesus says, in essence, that it is impossible to deceive the elect in any ultimate sense. Many will try in the last days. The signs and wonders of antichrist, the close but not accurate teachings that will come forth, will all go over the heads of the elect. They're not buying. They know the Shepherd's Voice and will follow no other. That's what chosen people do.
"From the foundation of the world." I like that phrase, don't you? Such security. In 25:34,41, Jesus presents to His own a kingdom that was prepared ages ago. Prepared for you. A prepared place for a prepared people. Its houses and gardens and roads, all to be people by individuals. There will be no vacancies. The number was known when the buildings were going up. There's a place with your name on it. "I go to prepare a place for you," says Jesus to His disciples. If the Kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world, this preparation mentioned by Jesus must have to do with individual offices or decorations. He has known forever who would be there.
Mark
Another detail of the Kingdom is mentioned in Mark's Gospel (10:40). James and John ask to be installed on the sides of Jesus when He is coronated. Though their request is denied, the fact comes out that there really is such a place of honor, and that it has been predestinated to someone else.
Mark also mentions some of the things that Matthew discussed, so we'll move on to Luke...
Luke
Luke's Gospel also is a “Synoptic” and therefore carries much of Matthew's and Mark's words. But there are a few additional insights we can glean here.
John the Baptist is to be filled with God's Spirit from the womb of his mother Elizabeth (1:15). Let no one charge God with invasive techniques, however. The Spirit of God must have His way. Is there any among us who would not have loved to be filled with God from the start?
His wooing and drawing us later in life seems gentle by comparison, but its intent and result is the same. His sheep hear His voice.
The well-known birth story is next. Have you ever wondered why Jesus' birth is announced only to the few? Unfair? You see, these things keep revealing themselves throughout the Bible story, a God who picks and chooses according to His purposes. If you and I were doing things, we would have had T.V. cameras, reporters from all over the world, bright lights, megaphones, microphones, telephones. The whole world would have known immediately!
But the fact is, only a handful of shepherds and a few astrologers were invited to the scene. Witnesses enough. Blessed are those who did not see, but still believe.
2:34 uses that word we have come to fear, “destined.” It sounds like “karma” to us, a pagan description of “fate” or “luck”. Nevertheless, neglected or feared, the doctrine of destiny is a Biblical doctrine.
Jesus is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel...
6:13 tells us of twelve men who are destined to follow Jesus, specifically -not randomly – chosen after a night in prayer, not after having surveyed the most talented faithful men in Israel.
12:32 speaks of a “little flock” to whom is to be given the entire Kingdom of God one day. Why so little? Why so few that find the Way? Of course, as we have noted above, we could even ask, why anyone at all? For no one deserves Heaven. Are we to look to man's faith and works, or merely to the grace of God who calls? Some want to look at both, but then who receives the glory for saving man?
Satan enters the plan of God in Luke 22. We remember how deceiving spirits were sent by God to bring Ahab to his death. We see the enemy being allowed by God to test Job, in hopes of bringing him down. Here is what Satan believes to be his finest hour. With permission granted by the Designer of the Plan of our salvation, he enters Judas and the Pharisees to bring Jesus to His death (22:3-5) .
Satan asks permission to have Peter also (22:32). You see how pervasive is his attack on the church, how persistent is his desire to destroy us. But with Peter, the assault is turned back by a simple Divine “No.” Jesus prays for His own, and they shall never perish. More of this in John.
John
Though there are key verses throughout the Scriptures, it seems that John and Paul have been given the lion's share of proof of the Sovereignty of God. Interesting to me is the fact that John is by far the most popular of the Gospels. Rarely does a publishing house create a “Gospel of Matthew” for distribution. Always it is John. John has everyone's favorite verse, and some of the loveliest thoughts from the Master.
Yet John is also filled with imagery that is quite confusing and, for some, even dangerous. Here we are told to eat Jesus' flesh and blood, for example. Here also are the doctrines of grace laid out in absolutely certain terms. Unmistakable evidence to the one who is listening. Troubling to the souls who have imbibed nothing but “free will” all of their lives. These verses need constant explaining, then eventually, ignoring, so as not to stir up any strange notions of a God who is made in the image of John Calvin.
I came to a point where I could ignore these verses no longer. I find them now to be my joy, not strange at all. So much of the rest of Scripture fits together now. Though it is possible for pendulums to swing too far, I am confident that I have found something wonderful.
The new birth is the first subject that catches our eye in John. People who are truly born of God are not born by their own will (1:13). No-brainer, we say. Our natural birth is the same way. Is there anyone who has willed his own birth? Anyone who participated in it, except to “show up”? Anyone who helped the doctor or the struggling mother?
No. One moment you were not, and the next moment you were. Born and hungry and ready to go.
Born again is like that too, says John... “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The new birth conversation picks up in 3:3-8, with Nicodemus, a talk we all remember well, but sometimes with the same dullness that that Pharisee evidenced. Jesus says to him that he must be born “again”, or perhaps more correctly, “from above.” That which is born of flesh (human) is flesh. But a Spirit man is a product of Spirit.
His comparison of Spirit and wind nails down the argument even more clearly. The wind blows where it wants to blow. So does God's Spirit.
What about faith? It is not mentioned here, but it seems clear now that faith is a product of the new birth, not the cause of it! From the very moment of birth, it is God who receives the glory, God Who is doing everything, man who is swept into the Kingdom, one moment not here, the next moment here.
It is God who gives the grace to believe, to repent, to be baptized, to live godly. He is all, and He is in all.
John 3:16-18 we have covered above. Suffice it here to say that though it is true that God loved the “world” it is also true that the “world” through Him will be saved. Everything He sets his mind to He accomplishes. We must understand the world in this passage to mean representatives of every nation of that world. We know that in the latter case for sure, it does not mean every individual. In fact, at the time of this statement, and at the time of Jesus' death, most of the world was already in Hell.
The world is under the condemnation of God at this hour and always has been since the fall (3:18,36). Men will be lost, justly, because of their sin. But God saw all that, and loved into being a people whom He graciously called out of that evil world unto Himself.
John 4:14 is the first intimation that our salvation is eternally secure. The woman at the well was promised a fountain of living internal water that would eventually spring up into eternal life. The words “if you can hang on” are not appended to this promise.
God's choices. God's sovereign choices. See it again in 5:2ff, where one man out of a “great multitude” of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, is singled out for healing by Jesus. In many of the passages about Jesus' healing we are told that He healed them all. Everyone. But not here. He chose one. Why? We can speculate all day, but the answer is , “We do not know.” The further answer is, “He does all things well.”
Why does He save only certain ones? Why you? Why me? That is definitively answered in 5:21, “The Son gives life to whom He will.” Did I say “definitively”? That's as definitive as it gets with this subject. His will is all that matters.
5:40 says that the others are simply not willing to come to Jesus. Why are they not willing? Why would anyone not be willing to come to this marvelous Savior? Their eyes are not opened.
But you say, again, “not fair!” If it is God making me willing or allowing me to stay unwilling, who can resist the will of God? Indeed. Paul's question, that we will come to in Romans. Paul's answer, “How dare you reply against God!"
John 6:37-45 seems to spell out as clearly as anywhere in the Bible that God has chosen certain men to salvation, and that that salvation is eternally secure. How often I have read this with a worried heart, for those who do not believe in an eternal security and an elect race are forever wondering if they are one of the chosen. They do not want to face the possibility that maybe they are not, so they refuse the implication of a choosing God altogether. In the process, they make salvation dependent on their own choosing, a shaky foundation for eternal life if ever there was one.
37a. “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me.” God has chosen a people that He is giving to His Son, per Psalm 110's decree that Jesus is to be King over all. These people will come to Jesus. Here is where the doctrine of “irresistible” grace comes in. He doesn't beat us over the head, but He does make Himself attractive to our spirits in such a way that we have no desire to say no to Him.
37b. “...the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” Did you feel drawn to Jesus and His salvation? He will not cast you out. He will receive you. He has received you. “But I don't believe in Calvin! I'll be Arminian all my life!” No problem. Your theological stance does not influence the fact that you have been called. And received. This is how people know they are of the chosen: they wanted to come to Jesus, and they came to Him, and their relationship has been wonderful. What church has influenced your thinking all your life will never change this, though it could affect your ongoing appreciation of what has happened.
39. “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” See how secure this is? Once you've been “given” by the Father to the Son, you are in. Jesus won't lose you. He'll call you to greater and greater heights of holiness and glory, then sweep you into the Kingdom at last.
44. “No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him...” No one. He draws, you respond.
45b. “...Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” So here we find out just how you are drawn in. You hear and learn from the Father. A Gospel tract or video. A sermon. A testimony. A song. You hear something. You learn something. It goes straight to your heart. You are warmed inside. You want more. He gives more... Chapter 10's discussion of the Good Shepherd helps us to understand John 3:16 a little better. God gave His only begotten Son, says Jesus. That Son in 10:11 is the Good Shepherd. And “the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” Notice the other members of the group described. There is the hireling. There are the wolves. The shepherd does not give His life for them. Only for the sheep. Limited atonement is a difficult idea and many have accepted all the doctrines of grace except this one. All we can do is read what it says. And keep praying for more light.
John 10:29-30 was offered to me as a teenager by a fellow student. God even then was trying to tell me just how secure I am, but I wanted to have it, for some odd reason, that I could jump ship and spoil everything at any time. In the 50 years since Rick shared that verse with me, I have failed the Lord, the church, my family, over and over, but my relationship goes on. I still love and serve Him. I was wrong to doubt His power to keep me.
Again, the words are clear. I give them eternal life. They will never perish. No one shall snatch them from my hand. Not even “them”. My Father gave them to Me. No one is able to snatch them from My Father's hands. My Father and I are One. Together we will keep each person given.
11:26 repeats the promise, to Lazarus' sister Martha: “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”
By the way, while we are talking of Lazarus, try this on: Lazarus could not raise himself. He was dead. Dead men do not raise themselves from the dead.
And you? The Bible says you were dead in your trespasses and sins before Jesus came. How is it that you raised yourself? You did not. Christ did all the raising when He drew you to Himself.
So Jesus manifests Himself to some, but not to all. Why is that? Judas – not Iscariot – asked that very question in John 14:22. Jesus responded that God only enters into the heart of those with whom He has a relationship based on mutual love. We have seen above where that love begins, and we must interpret His answer in that light.
But Judas was thinking important things. Again, why us? Why just the shepherds and the “wise men”? Why that one guy at Bethesda healed? Why, why, why?
If you keep asking questions like that, you are in good company. But we again respond, “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” We simply do not know why He makes these choices, why He loved us so much and saved us. We have alluded to 15:16 before, “You have not chosen me but I chose you...” He goes on to say that this choosing does not just result in a one-time celebration and then a life of ease while we sit and wait for Heaven. We were chosen to go bear fruit. We were chosen to ask and receive things from the Father. We were chosen unto good works. If you see one who calls Himself Christian but who has no good works associated with his life, this one needs to heed the call to make his “calling and election sure.” That's from Paul, and we have much more to glean from him later.
The so-called “high-priestly” prayer of Jesus in chapter 17 is full of the language of sovereignty.
6. “...the men whom You have given Me out of the world.”
9. “I do not pray for the world, but for those You have given Me...” Two classes of people are described throughout Scripture. God's elect, and the rest of the world.
11. “...those whom You have given Me.”
12. “Those whom You gave Me I have kept...”
14, 16. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
By the way, Christ's intercession for His people, that they would be kept, is this not another huge sign of our security? Is there a prayer that the Son has not had answered positively? Then His prayer for us will be heard too.
Indeed, 18:9, “Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none.” This was in regards to His protection of His frightened disciples in the Garden. These are the men who lived with Him for 3 years and are now about to head for the hills. But did He not keep them all anyway? Will He not keep you also, though you fail Him often?
Acts
Luke's book of Acts is also surprisingly full of clues that will help us solve the mystery of God's pre-ordained plan.
2:5 further explains God's promise to pour out His Spirit on "all flesh" and the statement that He so loved "the world." For, "There were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven." It is in this sense that the Gospel was preached to the whole world. Representatives from every nation were there, and received the power of God.
Once more, in 23-28, we see God's plan for Jesus, which allowed for no separate plan by the Son. He did what He saw the Father do. His life was mapped out from start to finish. At that finish, "[He] being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God," was slain by wicked men.
Notice the counsel precedes the foreknowledge. That is, there was a plan in place, and that is what God foresaw. Foreknowledge is not just God observing all the counsels of man, as though they are directing traffic. Foreknowledge means God has planned and therefore knows what is coming!
3:20 tells of a God Who has been speaking forth HIs decrees since the world began. One of them is that Jesus will remain in Heaven until all is restored.
4:27,28, confirms that although it looked like Herod and Pilate were directing the events of that awful weekend, it was God's purpose beforehand that was being lived out.
Can we not argue that such is the situation with us? God has a plan, and a people, and it looks like we are choosing all, but in fact the choosing has already been done and we are living it all out? Is that offensive? How would it change your daily life to believe such a thing?
Enter Saul, soon to be Paul, 9:15. Chosen. Like Jesus. Like us. Earlier in the chapter on the Damascus Road, Saul's friends "heard" but did not hear the Voice from Heaven! Yet Paul heard everything in crystal clarity. This is symbolic (though a true story) of the way even today some can hear God's Voice, and some cannot. And why is that? I think you know now how I must answer such a question.
The story that ends in 13:48 ought to be a home run in its effectiveness in scoring a point of understanding of sovereignty. The Jews are in the process of rejecting yet another of God's spokesmen among them, the apostle Paul. Paul turns to the Gentiles, who as a group are delighted. But there is a smaller group. Read carefully:
Of those Gentiles, "...as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed."
Wow! So clear. God appoints people to eternal life. After that appointment, they believe! Not the other way around, mind you! We like to say that it is because God sees that we are going to believe, He "appoints" us to be saved. Any basic reader can understand that that is not how it works.
No, as James, who is quoting Paul, says in 15:14, "God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name... known to God from eternity are all His works." A long, long time ago, God knew and ordained every saved Gentile by name . In our own day, that foreknowledge and appointment have been made public.
16:14 tells us how Lydia, already a woman of prayer, became a woman of God, one of the saved, redeemed: "The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul." It's the only way one can come to the Father. The Father draws, opens the heart, enters in.
To Corinth. As in Antioch, God has some people there. His man Paul needs to know that, as things are getting pretty rough. It would be possible in some cases to move on, dust the feet off, etc. But not here, "...for I have many people in this city." God knew that certain ones were going to be saved, because he had so appointed them. Hang in there Paul, until they come in.
So today God is waiting until the last of the elect comes in. "God is not willing that any should perish," that is, any of the chosen ones, and so He waits. That verse we will see from the apostle Peter later.
Is it sinking in? All our believing even is not of ourselves, as Paul will later tell us, it is all grace. This was his encouragement in 18:27: "...when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace." There's no other saving way to believe but by grace.
In 22:14 Paul tells more details of his conversion, words from Ananias, who was first sent to him after that rocky ride on Damascus Road. It is a word we all could take to heart:
"God has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth."
May it be so.
