The Prophet Abel

By Steve Owen

In this article, I want to expound a riddle: how can a man who never spoke whilst he was alive, speak to us now that he’s dead ? Such a man is Abel. In the Genesis account, he never says a word; all he does is to offer a sacrifice and take an ill-advised walk with his brother. Yet the writer of Hebrews calls him a man of faith and tells us that he is speaking today. More than that, the Lord Jesus Christ calls him a prophet. In Luke 11:50, our Lord is addressing the Pharisees and teachers of the law and He says, “…..That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah……” So Abel was a prophet, and we should note that our Lord likens the Scribes and Pharisees to Cain who killed him. But what I want to ask here is this; in what did Abel’s faith consist and how did it differ from Cain’s? How is Abel a prophet, and what does he have to say to us today?

I believe that Abel is saying this; ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved- trust in His blood shed for you on the cross. Make that your only hope; plead nothing but His death before God.’

Now where do we get all that from? Well, to find it we shall have to look at the Bible as Abel knew it, because Abel believed the Bible. Now since Abel dies in Genesis 4, all he would have known is Gen 1-3, which he would have learned from his parents. They would have told him of their early life in a perfect world, their terrible fall through sin and the hope that God gave them.

We know that when God made the world, He looked at it and saw that, ‘Indeed, it was very good’ (Gen 1:31 ). That means that there was no sin, no decay and no death. Mankind was placed in this wonderful environment a steward of it, ‘to tend and keep it’ (Gen 2:15 ). We are told in Gen 2:25, ‘They were both naked, the man and his wife and were not ashamed.’ To put this theologically, they had no covering for sin- there was no arrangement to deal with sin; no apparent way for Adam and Eve to be restored if they disobeyed God, but that did not seem to matter because there was no sin. All the couple needed to do was to obey the voice of their Creator and all would be well.

We need not detain ourselves with the details of Adam and Eve’s sad fall into sin, but immediately they were aware that something had changed forever. ‘Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings’ (Gen 3:7 ). Fig leaves! If you ever visit Italy and visit the museums there to look at the Renaissance art , you will see a lot of nude statues, and for modesty’s sake a fig leaf is often placed in the appropriate position. It doesn’t work- it doesn’t really hide anything; you know exactly what’s there! That’s how it was for Adam and Eve. God saw right through their covering to the sin beneath. And that’s how it is when we try to cover our own sin, with good deeds or with religious rituals- God can see right through it! Isaiah 64:6 says that all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags- totally unacceptable to God as a covering for sin. Habakkuk 1:13 tells us that God is, ‘of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon wickedness.’ but as for Man, ‘There is none who does good; no, not one’ (Psalm 14:1 ). The covering for our sin must come from God Himself if it is going to be acceptable to Him.

Now look at Gen 3:15. God is pronouncing judgement upon the serpent. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your Seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel.’ Who is this who is the Seed or Offspring of the woman but not of the man? Who else but the Lord Jesus Christ, born by the power of the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary? He is the One who will suffer (the bruising of the heel), but will crush the head of Satan. This is God’s way of redemption; to release His people from the power of sin and death through a second Adam (1Cor 15:22 ); through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this salvation was announced to Adam and Eve in Eden and signified by God Himself when He clothed the guilty couple. ‘Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them’ (Gen 3:21 ), and in order for that to happen, an innocent creature had to die, signifying that, ‘without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin’ (Heb 9:22 ). The justice of God does not permit it.

Now all this Abel knew. He would have heard the whole story from his parents. This was his Bible, and God opened his heart to receive it all as truth. He saw himself in his true colours, as a sinner in desperate need of redemption. And he saw that his only hope lay in a covering or atonement for his sin. He needed a Saviour- one who would take away his sin by being a perfect, holy, spotless sacrifice of propitiation, acceptable to God. In short, he looked down the centuries and saw by the eye of faith the Lord Jesus Christ bleeding and dying on the cross for him. ‘For so God loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ And Abel, moved with love for the God who loved him so much, took the finest lamb of his flock and sacrificed it to the Lord as a foreshadowing of the Lamb of God, who should take away the sin of the world (John 1:29 ). ‘By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice’ (Heb 11:4 ). It was not the sacrifice that made him righteous before God. Heb 10:4 tells us that the sacrifice of animals cannot take away sin. It was his faith that made the sacrifice acceptable to God inasmuch as it looked forward to Christ, the one true acceptable offering to God. Abel knew nothing of circumcision, and nothing of baptism. The one was an ordinance for the Jewish people, the other is an ordinance for Christians, but neither brings salvation. Only the blood of Christ does that, whether looking forward to the cross as did Abel and Abraham (John 8:56 ) or back towards it as Christians do today. No religious rite can bring us to God, only trust in the work of Christ.

Let me ask you, the reader; have you stood where Abel stood? Have you seen yourself as a guilty sinner, justly condemned by God? Have you looked back down the years by faith, as Abel looked forward, to the cross? There is no sacrifice now; Christ has made one perfect offering forever (Heb 10:12 ), but when you take the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, do you remember the Saviour who stood between you and hell and took your punishment upon Himself?

Now what shall we say about Cain? Well, he believed in God, you know. Oh yes! A regular church-goer Cain was. Gen 4:3. ‘And in the process of time……Cain brought an offering of the Fruit of the ground to the LORD.' If he’d been a member of your church, he’d have had a standing order, or Gift-aid. So many bushels of wheat a month, tax deductable. In fact, I suggest that Cain is alive and well and living in churches up and down the country. But, ‘the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering’ (Gen 4:4-5 ).

In the light of this, how can anyone say that doctrine doesn’t matter? Here is a straightforward doctrinal difference between Cain and Abel and one is acceptable to God and one isn’t. Cain’s doctrine acknowledges God as Creator, but not as Saviour. Cain feels a little queasy with all this blood theology. Cain says, “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere." Cain’s into the Inter-faith movement, the Ecumenical movement and the Emerging Church movement, but the prophet Abel says, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1Cor 2:2 ). The prophet Abel says, “Jews request a sign, and Greeks demand wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified” (1Cor 1:22-23 ). The prophet Abel says, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 ).

At the heart of Cain’s religion is self-will. The belief that God will be satisfied with what I choose to give Him. Thus whilst Abel brings the best he has, ‘The first-born of his flock’, Cain finds a few potatoes and a turnip and brings that (cf. Mal 1:7-8 ). When Cain looks at the cross, he doesn’t see his Saviour bleeding and dying in his place, he sees a sort of example of goodness and kindness that he thinks he can follow. Cain imagines that if he turns up in church once a week, puts a few coins in the offertory box and keeps himself from some of the grosser sins, God will be quite happy with that. Some people do a whole lot more than that, but it’s still Cain religion, because it’s what a man does for himself, it’s Adam’s fig leaf again! The prophet Abel depends on none of that; his whole desire is, ‘That I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith’ (Phil 3:8-9 ).

Cain has been active in the Church right from the beginning until today. Look at Jude 4; ‘For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Are not these people about today?- Church leaders who condone adultery, homosexuality and by doing so deny that there is any sin for Christ to deliver us from. Now look at verse 11; ‘Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain!’

One final point: Cain hated Abel and killed him and the prophet Abel tells us that, ‘All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution’ (2Tim 3:12 ). You say, ‘well, I’m a Christian and no one persecutes me!’ Perhaps your life, your language, your habits are so similar to that of your unbelieving neighbours that they don’t even know that you’re a Christian. Does God know? Or will the only words that you will hear from Him on the last day be, “I never knew you! Depart from Me, you who practise lawlessness!” (Matt 7:23 ). Our lives, like Abel’s, are to be different from those around us. ‘For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles- when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you’ (1Peter 4:3-4 ). If your life has truly been changed by your trusting in Christ, then there will be some who will be positively influenced by your witness (Matt 5:16 ), but others will be offended, just as Cain was offended by Abel. The Apostle John wrote, ‘…..not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.’ People do not like to be shown up. It is becoming increasingly difficult to preach against fornication, homosexuality, drunkenness and covetousness, because people don’t want to be confronted with their sins. The prophet Abel tells us that ‘The time will come when [men] will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires……….will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables’ (2Tim 4:3-4 ). The world does not like to be confronted with its sin.

But what is your hope today that you may avoid the pains of hell and attain at last to heaven? That God may declare you righteous on the Great Day of Judgement? Is it your exemplary lifestyle, so different from your neighbours? Your generous giving to the church? Your politically correct views? Oh no! None of these things can make you right with God apart from Christ. Let it be the blood! Nothing but the blood of Christ, shed once for all for sinners upon the cross! He calls to you, saying, “Look to Me, all you ends of the earth and be saved!” (Isaiah 45:22 ). Look to Him, see Him bleeding and dying there and believe that it was for you, that it was your sin that He carried there, your sin for which He made atonement with His own blood; your soul that He ransomed from eternal condemnation and separation from God. And in this way, and in no other, you will know the joy of sins forgiven and the peace of eternal security with God. For you will have, ‘Come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God…..to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than the blood of Abel’ (Heb 12:22, 24 ). The blood of Abel cried out from the ground for justice (Gen 4:10 ), the blood of Jesus speaks forgiveness to all who will trust in Him.

The Downgrade and Seeker-Sensitivity

What liberalism did to the gospel and the church is Spurgeon's day we now see the seeker-sensitive movement doing. The focus now on making church comfortable, the gospel palatable, and Christianity tolerant has proved that the seeker-senstitive movement in truth destroys the very gospel itself. Here are a few quotes from Spurgeon and a few of his fellow ministers that deal with the dangers and evidences of a downgrade in the church. While they were written almost 120 years ago, they have fresh relevance today.

October 1887

The Gloucestershire and Herefordshire Association of Baptist Churches

We live in perilous times: we are passing through a most eventful period; the Christian world is convulsed; there is a mighty upheaval of the old foundations of faith; a great overhauling of old teaching. The Bible is made to speak to-day in a language which to our fathers would be an unknown tongue. Gospel teachings, the proclamation of which made men fear to sin, and dread the thought of eternity, are being shelved. Calvary is being robbed of its glory, sin of its horror, and we are said to be evolving into a reign of vigorous and blessed sentimentality, in which heaven and earth, God and man are to become a heap of sensational emotions; but in the process of evolution is not the power of the gospel weakened? Are not our chapels emptying? Is there not growing up among men a greater indifference to the claims of Christ? Where is the fiery zeal for the salvation of men which marked the Nonconformity of the past? Where is the noble enthusiasm that made heroes and martyrs for the truth? Where is the force which carried Nonconformity forward like a mighty avalanche? Alas! where?"

Dr. David Brown, Principal of the Free Church College, Aberdeen

This is a very covert form of scepticism, which is more to be feared than all other forms combined; I mean the scepticism of ministers of the gospel—of those who profess to hold, and are expected to preach, the faith of all orthodox Christendom, and, as the basis of this faith, the authority of Scripture; yet neither hold nor teach that faith, but do their best to undermine the sacred records of it.

The one thing common to them all is the studious avoidance of all those sharp features of the gospel which are repulsive to the natural man. I should not have said so much in this strain were it not that all our churches are honeycombed with this mischievous tendency to minimize all those features of the gospel which the natural man cannot receive. And no wonder, for their object seems to be to attract the natural mind. Wherever this is the case, the spirituality of the pulpit is done away, and the Spirit himself is not there.

From Charles H. Spurgeon

Our lament; was not, however, confined to vital doctrines; we mentioned a decline of spiritual life, and the growth of worldliness, and gave as two outward signs thereof the falling-off in prayer-meetings, and ministers attending the theater. The first has been pooh-poohed as a mere trifle. The Nonconformist, which is a fit companion for The Christian World, dismisses the subject in the following sentence: "If the conventional prayer-meetings are not largely attended, why should the Christian community be judged by its greater or less use of one particular religious expedient?" What would James and Jay have said of this dismissal of "conventional prayer-meetings," whatever that may mean? At any rate, we are not yet alone in the opinion that our meetings for prayer are very excellent thermometers of the spiritual condition of our people. God save us from the spirit which regards gathering together for prayer as "a religious expedient"!

Increased difficulty only brings out increased faith, more fervent prayer, and greater zeal. The weakest of minds are those which go forward because they are borne along by the throng; the truly strong are accustomed to stand alone, and are not cast down if they find themselves in a minority. Let no man's heart fail him because of the Philistine. This new enemy is doomed to die like those who have gone before him; only let him not be mistaken for a friend.

Preaching and Application - by Mark Dever

Read this today and throught it was very much worth sharing:

Expositional Preaching and Application
by Mark Dever

The other day I was asked a question that I realize has often been asked of me - when you preach expositionally, how do you apply the text in the sermon?

First, we should note that behind this question, there may be many questionable assumptions. The questioner may be remembering "expositional" sermons he has heard (or maybe even preached) which were no different from Bible lectures at college or seminary. They may have been well-structured and accurate, but there seemed to be little godly urgency, or pastoral wisdom in them. These expositional sermons may have had little if any application. On the other hand, the questioner may be simply misunderstanding application. There could have been a great deal of application in the sermons in question, but he may simply not have recognized it.

William Perkins, the great sixteenth-century puritan theologian in Cambridge, instructed preachers to imagine the various kinds of hearers who would be listening to their sermons, and to think through applications of the truth preached to several different kinds of hearts¯hardened sinners, questioning doubters, weary saints, young enthusiasts¯the list goes on and on. I want to approach the question slightly differently, though. Many of us who are called to preach God's Word will surely know this already, but it will be helpful to remind ourselves again of this fact: Not only are there different kinds of hearers, but there are also different kinds of application which are themselves all legitimately considered application.

When I preach the Word, I am called to expound the Scriptures, to take a passage of God's Word and explain it clearly, compellingly, even urgently. In this process, there are at least three different kinds of application which reflect three different kinds of problems we find in our own Christian pilgrimage. First, we struggle under the blight of ignorance. Second, we wrestle with doubt, often more than we at first realize. Finally, we sin¯whether through direct disobedient acts, or through sinful negligence. All three of these we long to see changed in us and our hearers every time we preach God's Word. And each gives rise to a different kind of legitimate application.

Ignorance is a fundamental problem in a fallen world. We have alienated God from us. We have cut ourselves off from direct fellowship with our Creator. It is not surprising then that informing people of the truth about God is itself a powerful type of application¯and one which we desperately need. This is not an excuse for cold or passionless sermons. I can be every bit as excited (and more) by indicative statements as I can be by imperative commands. The commands of the gospel to repent and believe mean nothing apart from the indicative statements about God, ourselves and Christ. Information is vital. We are called to teach the truth, to proclaim a great message about God. We want people who hear our messages to change from ignorance to knowledge of the truth. Such heartfelt informing is application.

Doubt is different than simple ignorance. In doubt, we take ideas or truths familiar to us, and we question them. This kind of questioning is not rare among Christians. In fact, doubt may well be one of the most important issues to be thoughtfully explored and thoroughly challenged in our preaching. We may sometimes imagine that a little pre-conversion apologetics is the only time we preachers need to directly address doubt, but this is not the case. Some people who sat and listened to your sermon last Sunday, and who knew all the facts that you mentioned about Christ, or God, or Onesimus, may well have been struggling with whether or not they really believed those very facts to be true. Sometimes such doubt is not even articulated. We may not even be aware of it ourselves. But when we begin searchingly to consider Scripture, we find lingering in the shadows questions and uncertainties and hesitancies, all of which make us sadly aware of that gravitational pull of doubt, off there in the distance, drawing us away from the faithful pilgrim's path. To such people¯perhaps to such parts of our own hearts¯we want to argue for and to urge the truthfulness of God's Word and the urgency of believing it. We are called to urge on hearers the truthfulness of God's Word. We want people who hear our messages to change from doubt to full-hearted belief of the truth. Such urgent, searching preaching of the truth is application.

Sin, too, is a problem in this fallen world. Ignorance and doubt may be either themselves specific sins, or the result of specific sins, or neither. But sin is certainly more than neglect or doubt. Be assured that people listening to your sermons will have struggled with disobeying God in the week just passed, and they will almost certainly struggle with disobeying him in the week that they are just beginning. The sins will be various. Some will be a disobedience of action; others will be a disobedience of inaction. But whether of commission or omission, sins are disobedience to God. Part of what we are to do when we preach is to challenge God's people to a holiness of life that will reflect the holiness of God Himself. So part of our applying the passage of Scripture we're preaching is to draw out what the implications of that passage for our actions this week. We as preachers are called to exhort God's people to obedience to His Word. We want people who hear our message to change from sinful disobedience, to joyful, glad obedience to God, according to His will revealed in His word. Such exhortation to obedience is certainly application.

The main message that we need to apply every time we preach is the gospel. Some people do not yet know the Good News of Jesus Christ. Some people even who have been sitting under your preaching may have been distracted, or asleep, or day-dreaming, or otherwise not paying attention. They need to be informed of the Gospel. They need to be told.

Others may have heard, understood, and perhaps even genuinely have accepted the truth, but now find themselves struggling with doubt about the very matters you were addressing (or assuming) in your message. Such people need to be urged to believe the truth of the Good News of Christ.

And, too, people may have heard and understood, but may be slow to repent of their sins. They may not even doubt the truth of what you're saying; they may simply be slow to repent of their sins and to turn to Christ. For such hearers, the most powerful application you can make is to exhort them to hate their sins and flee to Christ. In all our sermons, we should seek to apply the Gospel by informing, urging and exhorting.

One common challenge we preachers face in applying God's Word in our sermons is that sometimes those who have their problems mainly in one area or another will think that you are NOT applying Scripture in your preaching, if you are not addressing their particular problem. Are they right? Not necessarily. While your preaching might improve if you do start addressing doubt more often, or more thoroughly, it is not wrong for you to preach to those who need to be informed, or who need to be exhorted to forsake sin, even if the person talking to you isn't so aware of that need.

One final note. Proverbs 23:12 says "Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge." In English translations, it seems that the words translated "apply" in the Bible almost always (maybe always?) have reference not to the preacher's work (as homiletics teaches us) nor even to the Holy Spirit's (as systematics rightly teaches us) but to the work of the one who hears the Word. We are called to apply the word to our own hearts, and to apply ourselves to that work.

That, perhaps, is the single most important application we could make next Sunday for the benefit of all of God's people.

Faith in the Person of Christ

In the sermon Faith's Dawn, Charles Spurgeon preached from Mark 9:24 the following - good words to remember as we GO and make disciples:

Very clearly in the text there is TRUE FAITH. "Lord, I believe," says the anxious father. When our Lord tells him that, if he can believe, all things are possible to him, he makes no demur, asks for no pause, wishes to hear no more evidence, but cries at once, "Lord, I believe." Now, observe we have called this faith true faith, and we will prove it to have been so. First, it was faith in the person of Christ. It is a great mistake to fancy that to endorse sound doctrine is the same thing as possessing saving faith, for while saving faith accepts the truth of God, it mainly concerns itself with the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and its essence lies in reliance upon Jesus himself. I am not saved because I believe the Scriptures, or because I believe the doctrines of grace, but I am saved if I believe Christ; or, in other words, trust in him. Jesus is my creed. He is the truth. In the highest sense the Lord Jesus is the Word of God. To know him is life eternal. By his knowledge he justifies many. I do not know that the father in the narrative before us had heard many sermons. I am not sure that he had very clear notions about everything that concerned the Savior's kingdom: it was not essential that he should have in order to obtain a cure for his son. It was a very desirable thing that he should be an instructed disciple, but in the emergency before us the main thing was that he should believe Christ to be both able and willing to cast the devil out of his son. Up to that point he did believe; and, though his faith may have been deficient as well in breadth as in depth, yet it enabled him to realize that the Messiah who stood before him was the Lord, and it led him to place all his reliance upon him. He did not believe in the disciples; he had once trusted them and failed. He did not believe in himself; he knew his own impotence to drive out the evil spirit from his child. He believed no longer in any medicines or men, for doubtless he had spent much on physicians; but he believed the man of the shining countenance who had just come down from the mountain. When he heard him say, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth," he at once said, "Lord, I believe." Beloved hearer, I hope that thou hast come, at some time or other—perhaps it is since last Sabbath day—to put thy trust in Jesus in the same way, believing him to be able and willing to save thee. This is the faith that will effectually save thee. Dost thou rest in him, in him thy God, thy brother, thy Savior; in him as living among the sons of men; in him as bleeding and suffering, as a substitutionary sacrifice, in thy stead; in him as risen from the dead no more to die; in him as sitting at the right hand of the Father, clothed with power to save? Dost thou trust him? If not, whatever thou believest, and however orthodox thy creed, thou art short of eternal life; but, if all thy trust is stayed in him, if thou bringest all thy help from him, if his wounds are thine only shelter, his blood thine only plea, himself thine only confidence, then art thou a saved man, thy transgressions are forgiven thee for his name's sake, thou art accepted in the Beloved. Rejoice with fullness of joy, for thou hast a right so to do, since every gladsome thing is thine.

The faith of this good man was true and saving for another reason. It was personal faith about the matter in hand, faith about the case which he was pleading. Have you never found it to be wonderfully easy to believe for other people? I know when I was seeking the Savior, I had no doubt about his receiving any other penitent. I felt certain that if the vilest sinner out of hell had come to him, he was able to save him: and though I had no faith in him on my own account, yet had I met with another distressed soul in a similar condition to myself, I believe I should have encouraged him to put his trust in Jesus, though I was afraid to do so myself. To believe for others is an easy matter, but when it comes to your own case, to believe that sins like yours can be blotted out, that you, who have so badly played the prodigal, may be received by your loving Father, that your spiritual diseases can be cured, and that the devil can be cast out of you;—here is the labor, here is the difficulty. But, beloved, we must believe this or else we have not saving faith. O my Savior, shall I trifle in faith by believing or pretending to believe that thou canst heal a case parallel to mine, and yet cannot heal mine? Shall I draw a line and limit thee, thou Holy One of Israel, and say, "Thou canst save up to me, but not so far as I have gone?" Shall I dream that thy precious blood has some power, but not power enough to blot out my sins? Shall I dare, in the arrogance of my despair, to set a boundary to the merits of thy plea, and to the virtue of thine atoning sacrifice? God forbid. Jesus is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him,—he is able to save me. Him that cometh unto him he will in no wise cast out; I come to him, and he will not, cannot cast me out. Hast thou a personal faith, a faith about thyself, about thine own sins, and thine own condition before God? Dost thou believe that Christ can save thee? Sink or swim, dost thou cast thyself upon him, thine own proper self? He, his own self, bore our sins in his own body on the tree; and we, our own selves, must cast ourselves upon him. If we have so done, then we, like the man in the narrative, have the real faith, the faith of God's elect.

See this blog post for more on The Object of our Faith.

~pastorway

The Necessity of Progress

by John Angell James

ALL spiritual good things tend to improvement. A right principle must, from its very nature, push outward and onward as long as there is in contact with it anything that is wrong, for there is an expansive power in all truth and virtue. It would be strange if this were not the case with religion. It is with goodness as with money, the possession augments the desire to possess more. So that they who are contented with such a measure of piety as they already suppose they possess give fearful evidence that they have none. And this ought to sound alarm at once in the ears of a very large number of persons. “Is it true,” they should say, “that a self-satisfied condition is proof of little or no religion; that a quiet, easy, contented mind, without any anxiety to advance, is an evidence that the soul is not in a good and safe state; then ought I not to fear that I am deluding myself, since certainly I know very little about such a solicitude as this? Have I not, since I made a profession, seemed to reach the summit of my hopes, and settled down into a state of religious competency upon a supposition that I am rich enough already?” It may be well for the fears of some to be thus excited; and that they should ask such questions about their real condition. An uninquisitive state of mind cannot be a safe one. It is too momentous an affair to be treated in this “free and easy” sort of manner. It would be far more rational for a young tradesman just or lately started in life to be careless and questionless about his advance or retrogression, than for a young Christian lately set out on the journey to heaven. “Am I making progress?” should be his inquiry. Just for this reason — Progress is the law of true religion. This appears —

First. From Scripture COMMANDS. We shall select only a few of the most prominent. How impressive is such language as the following: “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” — Ephes. iii. 16-19. “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” — Ephes. iv. 14-16. Read also Phil. i. 9-11; Col. i. 9-11 Heb. vi, 1-3–xiii. 20-21; 1 Peter ii. 1; 2 Pet. i. 5; and especially 2 Pet. iii. 18: “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” May I request you to lay down this volume, open your Bible, and read these passages, remembering that it is God who speaks to you in every one of them, and commands you to go forward.

Secondly. Consider the scriptural ILLUSTRATIONS of the nature of true religion. We take one first from the Old Testament, and a beautiful one it is — the rise and progress of the SUN. “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” — Prov. iv. 18. It is not the glimmer of the glow-worm — nor the transient blaze of the meteor — nor the wasting ray of the taper — but the grand luminary of heaven “coming out of his chamber and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race.” And a very beautiful sight it is, to see a soul rising out of darkness, not stopping on the verge of the horizon, but ascending higher and higher: not merely beginning its course and remaining amidst fogs, clouds, and mists, but shining brighter and brighter at every step with increasing knowledge, faith, and love. But is this shining light the picture of our path? There is no such command given as, “Sun, stand thou still:” therefore it rebukes a stationary profession. It is a rising and an advancing, not a declining, sun: therefore it rebukes a backsliding state. There may be an occasional cloud, or even in some cases, as of David and Peter, a temporary eclipse. But when did the sun fail of carrying on its early dawn to a perfect day? Be thankful then, for “the day of small things:” despise it not. But be not satisfied with it. Religion must be a shining and a progressive light.

Among these scriptural illustrations there is none more frequent or better known than LIFE. It is scarcely necessary to quote passages, they are so numerous, and so familiar. “He that believeth hath everlasting life.” “By this we know we have passed from death unto life.” “He came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly.” “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” “When Christ who is our life shall appear.” Religion is a new, a spiritual, a divine, a heavenly life: the life of God in the soul of man. Now it is the law of all life to progress. It is so with vegetable and animal vitality, and it must of necessity be so with that which is spiritual. Mark the new born babe — there is a spark of life, always very feeble, sometimes scarcely distinguishable from death. Yet there is life. The babe becomes a child, the child a youth, the youth a man. Life is progressive, is not this, I say, the selected, the frequent emblem of the Christian? In support of this illustration of progress in religion, we may refer to one of the passages already quoted, — “As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby.” Newly converted persons are babes lately born, little infants, feeble in every thing that pertains to spiritual life, yet there is life. They are not like still-born children, that cannot grow, but are quickened from a death of sin to a life of righteousness. What is dead cannot grow; as what is perfect does not need to grow. An unregenerated sinner can never grow in spiritual life. He must first be made alive; and when he is alive he must grow. This constitutes the difference between “living” in the Spirit, and “walking” in the Spirit. There is first the principle of life, then its manifestation in activity. So young Christians are very far from being what they are yet to be, even on earth; as all Christians are very far from being what they are to be in heaven. The child of God is born to grow as well as to live: and God, who has ordained the growth, has provided for it in the milk of the word. The representation of Archbishop Leighton in his exquisitely beautiful exposition of this passage is so striking that I shall introduce a long quotation from it, which no one will deem too long.

“The whole estate and course of the Christian’s spiritual life here is called their infancy, not only as opposed to the corruption and wickedness of their previous state, but likewise as signifying the weakness and imperfection of it at the best in this life, compared with the perfection of the life to come; for the weakest beginnings of grace are by no means so far below the highest degree of it possible in this life, as the highest degree falls short of the state of glory: so that, if one measure of grace is called infancy in respect of another, much more is all grace infancy in respect of glory. And sure as for duration, the time of our present life is far less to eternity than the time of our natural infancy is to the rest of our life; so that we may still be called but new or lately born. Our best pace and strongest walking in obedience here, is but the stepping of children when they begin to go by hold, in comparison of the perfect obedience in glory, the stately, graceful steps with which, on the heights of Zion, we shall walk in the light of the Lord; when ‘we shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.’ All our knowledge here is but the ignorance of infants, and all our expressions of God and of his praises, are but as the first stammerings of children (which are, however, very pleasant both to child and parent), in comparison of the knowledge we shall have of him hereafter, ‘when we shall know as we are known;’ and of those praises we shall offer him, when that new song shall be taught us, ‘which is sung before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and which none can learn but those who are redeemed from the earth.’ — Rev. xiv. 3. A child hath in it a reasonable soul; and yet, by the indisposedness of the body, and abundance of moisture, it is so bound up, that its difference from the beasts, and its partaking of a rational nature, is not so apparent as afterwards; and thus the spiritual life that is from above infused into a Christian, though it doth act and work in some degree, yet it is so clogged with natural corruption still remaining in him, that the excellency of it is much clouded and obscured; but in the life to come it shall have nothing at all encumbering and indisposing it. And this is the Apostle Paul’s doctrine: ‘For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see, through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known.’ — l Cor. xiii. 9-12.

“And this is the wonder of divine grace, that brings so small beginnings to that height of perfection that we are not able to conceive of that a little spark of true grace, that is not only indiscernible to others, but often to the Christian himself, should yet be the beginning of that condition wherein they shall shine brighter than the sun in the firmament. The difference is great in our natural life, in some persons especially, that they who in infancy were so feeble, and wrapped up like others in swaddling clothes, yet afterwards come to excel in wisdom and in the knowledge of the sciences, to be commanders of great armies, or to be kings; but the distance is far greater, and more admirable, between the weakness of these new-born babes, the small beginnings of grace, and their after perfection, that fullness of knowledge that we look for, and that crown of immortality that all are born to who are born of God. But as in the faces and actions of some children, characters and presages of their after greatness have appeared, as a singular beauty in Moses’ countenance, as they write of him, and as Cyrus was made king among the shepherd’s children, with whom he was brought up, so also certainly in these children of God there be some characters and evidences that they are born for heaven by their new birth. That holiness and meekness, that patience and faith, that shine in the actions and sufferings of the saints, are characters of their Father’s image, and show their high original, and foretell their glory to come; such a glory as doth not only surpass the world’s thoughts, but the thoughts of the children of God themselves. ‘It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.’ — 1 John iii. 2.”

We now, in prosecution of the scriptural illustrations of religious progress, take up the idea of a SPRING. “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever shall’ drink of this water, shall thirst again; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” — John iv. 13, 14. Permit me to direct your fixed attention to the beauties of this passage. While the pleasures of the world, “the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, and the lust of the eyes,” are but as drops which excite rather than allay the thirst of the natural man after true happiness, or at best leave him unsatisfied; the grace of Christ in renewing and sanctifying the soul, leads it to time true fountain of bliss, and compels it in the fullness of satisfaction, to exclaim, “I have found it; I have found it.” And this source of happiness is not far off, for it is within and not without its possessor. “It shall be in him a well of water.” He carries the spring about with him. Hence it is said, “The good man shall be satisfied from himself.” And it is also abundant, an unfailing source, a constant supply, a well ever accessible and never dry. But it is not merely the satisfying but progressive nature of true religion which is here represented. It is a beautiful image — not a stagnant pool, nor a well so deep as that its waters cannot rise; but a spring whose sparkling and gushing ebullitions shall be ever bubbling up, and forming an ever-living fountain that flows at all seasons of the year, in heat or cold, and in all the circumstances of the weather, whether foul or fair, wet or dry. Religion always lives, always shows its beauties, and amidst all changes of external circumstances. But this inward spring of grace in the soul is represented as rising higher and higher, and never stopping till it reaches eternal life; swelling into a stream which refreshes others in its course to eternity, making all around it fruitful and pleasant; just like a river flowing through a country which irrigates the land and covers it on every hand with fertility and beauty.

I ask, Is this descriptive of our religion? Do we know anything of this indwelling of the Spirit of God? This inward supply from a divine source of sanctity and bliss? These holy ebullitions of sanctified feeling? This rising up of an inward principle to a divine source, an element of life issuing from the parent fountain, and returning to its primitive source — a something godlike, which aspires to God — heavenly, which aspires to heaven — eternal, which rests not till it has reached the eternal? What of all this is in us? Is it mystery, or plainness to us? It is immensely important that we give ourselves time and leisure to enquire into this matter.

The next illustration I borrow is that which we find in our Lord’s language; “The earth bringeth forth fruit of herself: first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” — Mark iv. 28. This language is rather a description of the growth of grace in the heart, than, like the grain of mustard seed, the advancement of the kingdom of Christ in the world. It is an allusion to one of the beautiful developments and slow processes of nature in regard to vegetable life. How gradually does the principle of vitality evolve, its first germinating being imperceptible to the most observant eye. Yet from that invisible germ, there grows up at length the strong and verdant blade. Then the ear gently and gradually comes forth from its envelopments. This under the genial influence of the heavens and the fertilizing power of the earth swells into the plump, ripe corn, ready for the reaper’s sickle. Instructive amid beautiful emblem of that more precious seed of the ‘Word of God which is sown in the heart of man by God’s regenerating work! It is at first small, feeble, tender, scarcely perceptible, like time first shoots of the grain in the earth. It may be the early impressions upon a child’s mind listening to his mother’s gentle admonition and familiar instruction. Or it may be a conviction lodged in the soul under some melting or alarming sermon. Or it may be a serious reflection occasioned by some painful visitation of Providence. God has various methods of entering by his grace into the soul of the unconverted sinner. The seed may lie long like the grain in the earth before any sign of vegetable life is perceptible; yet all this while the vital process may be going on. At length it rises above the ground and growth is visible, which continues till the result already described is apparent. But like that in its earlier stages, it needs the greatest watchfulness and care, for it is peculiarly susceptible of injury and destruction.

The last illustration I take up is that of a RACE. “The most splendid solemnities which ancient history hath transmitted to us were the Olympic Gaines. Historians, orators, and poets abound with references to them, and their sublimest imagery is borrowed from these renowned exercises. The games were solemnized every fifth year by an infinite concourse of people from almost all parts of the world. They were observed with the greatest pomp and magnificence; hecatombs of victims were slain in honor of the heathen deities, and Elis was a scene of universal festivity and joy. We find that the most formidable and opulent sovereigns of those times were competitors for the Olympic crown. Even the lords of Imperial Rome and emperors of the world entered their names among the candidates, and contended for the envied palm; judging their felicity completed and the career of all human glory and greatness happily terminated if they could hut interweave the Olympic garland with the laurels they had purchased in the fields of war.” Alas for the littleness of earthly ambition and the narrow range of human vanity. It is not to be wondered at that an institute so celebrated should be employed by the sacred writers to illustrate the sublimer objects which they had to propose, and to stimulate the desires which they were anxious to awaken. Hence the impressive language of the apostle: — “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible.” — l Cor. ix. 24-25. No subject could be more familiar than this to the minds of the Corinthians, who were often spectators of similar games celebrated upon the isthmus on which their city was situated, and hence denominated the Isthmian. Among these games the foot race sustained a distinguished place. To this, express allusion is made by the apostle in writing to the Hebrews, among whom these national festivities had been introduced by Herod the Great. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, arid the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” — Heb. xii. 1-2. Every expression in these two passages is allusive and instructive. The enrolled competitor underwent for several months, like the men who engage in those disgraceful feats, our prize fights, a rigid system of physical training. Hence the expression, “He that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.” The candidates were obliged to keep in the course marked out, and to observe all the rules prescribed; wherefore it is said, “If a man strive for masteries yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully.” — 2 Tim. ii. 5. The racers laid aside their garments and ran nearly naked. Hence the exhortation: “Let us lay aside every weight — (every unnecessary care, every lust both of the flesh and of the mind) and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” The race was carried on amidst an immense crowd of spectators, — hence the language: “We also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.” The prize was merely honorary, consisting only of a chaplet of leaves, which withered ere it was worn — hence it is said, “They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.” How finely does this illustrate that sublime passage in the epistle to the Philippians: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Jesus Christ. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” — Phil. iii. 12-14. Every term here employed refers to the ancient foot race, and the whole passage beautifully represents the ardor which fired the competitors when engaged in the contest.

Such, and so impressive, is the description given us by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, of the nature of religion; of the Christian life; and it is sufficient to make all somewhat anxious about their own state and to reveal the utter worthlessness and hollowness of the pretensions of many to the possession of true piety. Does not this illustrative figure set forth more forcibly and vividly than any mere language could do, that the Christian life is a state of self-denial — intense desire — deep solicitude; — of strenuous, unremitted, unwearied action; — and of constant progress? How was the soul of the racer filled and fired with the hope of success? How patiently were the necessary privations borne? How was every muscle strained and the speed quickened to the uttermost by the fear of defeat and the prospect of victory? Reader, whosoever you are whose eye shall wander over these pages, pause, I beseech you, and ponder this subject. This is the inspired description of religion, and must, therefore, be the correct one. Does your religion answer to this? Know you aught of such solicitude for the salvation of your soul, such labor to attain it, as are implied in this representation? Is your religion really a race? Does your eye often gaze upon the crown of life, and your bosom swell with the mighty aspiration after glory, honor, and immortality? Oh, do not deceive yourself. Look at this, there is something more than profession here. Something more than the easy and careless bearing of the Christian name which many exhibit.

But it is PROGRESS that the subject now leads us especially to contemplate. The racer was not only in action, but in progress. It was with him not merely bounding off with a vigorous start; nor exerting himself to the uttermost of his strength for a part of the course; but a continual going onwards. Hence the beautiful language of the apostle: “Forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before.” One who was running in the ancient race would not stop to look back to see how much ground he had run over, or which of his companions had fallen or lingered on the way. He would keep his eye fixed on the goal and the prize, and strain every nerve to reach them. If his attention were diverted for a single moment it might hinder his speed and might be the means of his losing the crown. Onwards, onwards, was the mighty impulse which stimulated him in his course. So was it with the apostle. He fixed his eye intently on the prize, and allowed no past attainments as a Christian, or success as a minister, to make him linger on the way. So must it be with us. No measure of knowledge, of faith, or holiness, must satisfy us, but we must be ever making advances in the divine life.

Thirdly. If anything more be necessary to convince us of the necessity of progress, consider Scriptural REBUKES. How often did our Lord reprove his disciples for the infantine feebleness of their faith; and with what just severity did the apostle reproach the believing Hebrews for their want of progress. “When,” said he, “for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and have become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” — Heb. v. 12. Could anything be more reproachful of their culpable negligence, their shameful indolence, their voluntary backwardness in seeking after divine knowledge? They were babes when they ought to have been, and might have been, of full and matured strength. They were content with the very rudiments of Christianity, the alphabet of religion. It satisfied them just to have light enough to grope after salvation, and to walk on in dim twilight. Alas! alas! How many are like them. How many are content with the veriest elements of knowledge and experience. Talk with them, observe them years after they have made a profession of religion, and you will find them possessed of only the crudest notions and the most unsettled feelings. They are no further on in the divine life than they were: yea, they have gone back.

Read also the pungent rebukes of our Lord to the churches in the Apocalypse. He thus addresses the church at Ephesus. “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil; and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.” How exalted a character! How rich a piety! How fine an eulogium! Surely there is nothing here to condemn. Yes, there is. Mark what follows. “Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” See that. Dwell upon it. No attainments, no eminence, can compensate for a decline of “first love.” Christ will allow no plea of extenuation to be put in; much less any defence to be set up. Hence what follows, “Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” — Rev. ii. 5. But perhaps it will be said, all that Christ required in this case was that they should only recover lost ground, return to their former state, and continue as they were. Ah, but what must have been their first love, when their diminished affection was so great? What must have been their first works, when their secondary ones were so signal? And moreover the rebuke did not necessarily imply that they were to be satisfied with even this. They had declined just because they had neglected to advance, and it was therefore strongly implied that they must advance in order that they might not again recede.

If these things do not prove the necessity of progress, it is hopeless to prove anything. We should give to them their due weight and act under their influence.

ADDRESS TO THE READER

You have now learnt from the Word of God, the necessity of progress? What think you of it? Has it ever thus occurred to you before? Does it strike you now? Can you deny or doubt this necessity? Can you be indifferent to it, or trifle with it? Perhaps you have overlooked it. You have never entered into the subject; but have had all your attention directed, and all your solicitude awakened to make a good beginning, a public profession, a favorable start. But is this all that is necessary? Does this answer to the description of religion, as a race, a spring, a growing child, or tree? Can you really satisfy yourself that your religion is real if it be unattended with a conviction that it should be progressive? Do, do study afresh, I beseech you, the representations given in this chapter. Ask yourself the one question, “Am I laying aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset me, and so running the race that is set before me, as to obtain the prize of eternal glory?” Are you? Is there that intense desire after the crown, that vigorous effort to obtain it, that eager hope to receive it, which shall impel you onward with the speed of the ancient racer? Oh, are you convinced that it is not a faint endeavor, but a mighty conflict that must gain eternal life? Are you saying to yourself, “I must forget the things that are behind and press towards the mark for the prize of my high calling? I cannot be satisfied to be always as I am. I pant to be holier.” Again, I say, pause and pray. Read no more till you have entered your closet, and have put up the prayer of faith for a deeper conviction of the necessity of progress.

Is Election Unconditional?

When asked this question at his ordination to the gospel ministry, Spurgeon Underground member Gregory Van Court gave this answer to the Ordaining Council:

Most all Christians believe in predestination, that God chooses whom He will save before the foundation of the world. There is disagreement over the basis of His choosing. Some teach that God in His foreknowledge looks down the corridor of time, sees which of His creatures will respond positively to the gospel, and then chooses them. Others teach that God's choosing is unconditional, based neither on the works nor on the decision of His creatures. Verses 8 through 24 of the ninth chapter of Romans comprise the most significant passage with respect to the nature of election in all of Scripture. Here, the question of why God chose some to salvation and not others is answered.

The book of Malachi opens with a shocking statement by God:

"'Was not Esau Jacob's brother?' declares the Lord, 'Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau'" (Mal.1:2-3).

Jacob and Esau make the perfect case scenario to explain election because not only are they brothers (having both the same mother and father), but they are also twins. They are as similar as two men could possibly be at birth, yet God chooses to love one and "hate" the other. Why?

Scripture explains:

"It is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is a word of promise: 'At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.' And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, 'The older will serve the younger.' Just as it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated'" (Rom.9:8-13).

The divine hatred mentioned here and in Malachi is not malice but rather a "holy hatred" (a recognized enemy) as was described in Psalm 139. It involves a withholding of special favor. While God loves all men to some extent, those whom God loves to salvation receive His mercy; those whom God "hates" receive His justice. It is significant that Scripture explicitly states that God's choice was made before the twins were even born. It is teaching something much more than the fact that God's election occurred before the foundation of the world. It is teaching that God's election was made without a view toward the future actions of His creatures. Scripture labors this point by first teaching that God's choice was made before the twins had done anything good or evil and then teaching why: "in order that God's purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls." God chose some for salvation and not others and based His choices completely on His own good pleasure without any consideration to the choices and actions of men.

"But that's not fair!", is the typical objection to this teaching.

Scripture anticipates and answers this objection:

"What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy" (Rom.9:14-16).

There is emphatically no injustice with God! Those whom God chose for salvation before the foundation of the world receive mercy; everyone else receives justice. No one receives injustice. Receiving God's mercy does not depend on man's choice ("the man who wills") nor man's works ("the man who runs") but solely on God, who has mercy on whomever He will. No man can boast in himself, even in his positive response to the gospel. The only reason we chose God is because He first chose us.

O, how I love Jesus, O, how I love Jesus,
O, how I love Jesus - Because He first loved me!

Without His resurrecting us to new life and giving us faith (Eph.2:8), it is impossible for man to choose God. "There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God" (Rom.3:11). Deciding who receives mercy is purely a sovereign act of God.

Scripture continues to labor this point:

"For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.' So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires" (Rom.9:17-18).

What must God do to harden a person's heart? Simply remove His hand. It is a passive hardening. Fallen man is naturally hard-hearted toward God. The more common grace that God withholds, the more restraint He removes, the more hard and wicked a man's heart becomes. To object and say that God has no right to hold those whom He hardens accountable for their sin or that merciful God is not merciful enough is blasphemy against the unimpeachable character of holy God.

Scripture once again anticipates the objections:

"You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?' On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles" (Rom.9:19-24).

While our God is holy and just and willing to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known, our God is so merciful that He endures with great patience the children of wrath whom He has every right to cast this very instant into hell. He gives us all air to breathe, food to nourish, companionship to enjoy, the beauty of creation to see, and to those whom He calls He gives the indescribable gift of eternal salvation. His ways are not only infinitely beyond our ways but also infinitely purer than our ways. "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord, 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts'" (Isa.55:8-9).

Unconditional election is taught clearly in Romans but is also reinforced throughout Scripture. When "nearly the whole city" of Pisidian Antioch heard the gospel preached by Paul and Barnabas, "as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48). As many and no more as had been appointed by God responded positively to the gospel. These men were not appointed to eternal life based on their choice to believe nor their obedience to the gospel. Jesus said, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16). Christ makes it clear who ultimately did the choosing and appointing.

Scripture further states:

"He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will" (Eph.1:4-11).

Note the repeated phrases:

"His will" (3 times), "His grace" (twice), "predestined" (twice), and "kind intention" (twice). "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world" not according to our will but "according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace", "according to the riches of His grace", "according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him", "according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will".

Salvation is all of grace, all of God! Unregenerate man cannot even see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). He is dead in trespasses and sins (Eph.2:1). He is blind. Sinful man can do nothing to save himself. He is incapable of faith (Eph.2:8). There is nothing in his flesh that he can draw upon to muster up saving faith. He does not even seek after God. Even still, "while we were yet sinners", "while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God" (Rom.5:8,10).

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound -
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.