Which answer did you go for?
You know, the other night in prayer meeting, we sang the song, "The Wonder of It All".
"There’s the wonder at sunset at evening
The wondrous sunrise I see
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is the wonder that God loves me"
When we sing words like that, do we really mean them? Or is grace something that we take for granted?
Last week, we asked the question, "Would someone who had a perfect knowledge of heaven and hell and God and eternal punishment still choose hell?" The answer, yes. Why? Trickier. However, our poll question does relate. Why do we tend to be surprised by God's hatred of Esau and simply accept the fact that He loved Jacob? They were both sinners who had rebelled by their actions against God. Why would God love Jacob? Why wouldn't that surprise us?
The basic human problem is pride - or self-love; a desire to put self first rather than God. Which is why the great commandment is to love God above everything else (and, subsequently to put others before ourselves). We need to reject the instinct to put ourselves first. Yet invariably, we tend to put God on the low end of the scale, even after being saved, we still think of the 'good' of other humans before God.
In Eden, Eve rejected God's command as did Adam. They put themselves ahead of God. Eve, Paul tells us, was deceived (1 Tim. 3:14). Apparently Adam's sin was deliberate. Some believe that while Adam knew he was sinning, he chose to follow his wife rather than to follow God. He put both himself and her first before God (though, interestingly, when push came to shove, Adam threw Eve under the bus to try to exonerate himself before God).
Since that point, mankind has a basic inclination against God. We are at enmity with Him (Rom. 5:10). No one seeks God (Rom. 3:11). In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Abraham told the rich man that seeing someone rise from the dead was insufficient to convince someone to be saved who had already rejected God's law (Luke 16:29-31). Arguing that all it takes to be saved is simply giving a penitent prospect enough info is to be biblically naive. It suggests that it comes down to that person's choice. Yet we have been separated from God by our sins. We have need of reconciliation. God does not need to be reconciled to us, we need to be reconciled to God. We are unwilling to return.
Basically, in order to trust in Christ for our salvation, we have to, in humility, recognize that we have sinned against Him and, in humility, submit to His authority over us. So at the end of the day, no matter how horrifying hell might be to us, we will never ultimately make that decision unless Christ reconciles us to Himself. Some argue that God, through 'prevenient grace' overcomes the total depravity of all men, allowing us to make the final decision. Yet, in looking over Ephesians 2, is that really how it looks to you?
"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,"
(Ephesians 2:4-6)
I mean, doesn't that sound like a complete work there? It sounds to me like God's the pilot on the whole thing. We were dead....He made us alive; raised us up; made us sit in the heavenly places.
Humility comes from God. We are incapable of humbling ourselves on our own. That is why we need the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Father chose us, the Son paid for our sins and the Spirit made us alive so that we could be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
Soli Deo Gloria
