Tonight JP gave a quick overview of Ephesians 1:3 through 1:13. As you can tell it is going to take a lot more time to go over these verses than the time we had tonight. This section of scripture, as JP taught tonight, deals with our union with Christ, and the spiritual blessings we have in our union with Christ. The five spiritual blessings we talked about were:
1. Election
2. Repentance & Forgiveness
3. Enlightenment/Illumination
4. Inheritance
5. The Holy Spirit
JP focused much of the lesson on Election and predestination. Election and predestination are subjects which are bound to raise some questions. Election is the idea that God has chosen for himself, before the creation of the world in eternity past based upon nothing of our doing, but based solely on His good grace and his perfect righteousness, a people to be his adopted sons and daughters. More simply put: God chose who would and would not be saved, before He even created the world. I’m not going to go much deeper than that right now, but in the future I do plan to do a blog entry which will deal with this subject more thoroughly.
The goal of this blog entry is to spark some conversation about the things we talked about tonight, whether it be our union with Christ, Election/Predestination, or any of the other spiritual blessings that we have due to our union with Christ. This conversation is not limited to people who go to Pike Creek, but to anyone who reads this blog. Please do not hesitate to post questions or comments concerning these subjects. My prayer is that God will use these conversations to bring glory to himself.
We will also be having a panel discussion (in Youth Group) on Sunday, December 2nd, where you guys can ask questions you have about this passage of scripture, so really look at this passage and think through it. The following weeks we will go through these verses more thoroughly in our small groups. We will look at the roles each person of the Godhead plays in salvation and the implications of it. We will look at the Father predestining us for salvation, Jesus making it possible for us to be saved, and the Holy Spirit sealing us for the day salvation. We will also be looking at our union with Christ more thoroughly.
With all that said, let’s dig in to God’s Word and pray that He would be gracious to open our eyes to the beauty of himself and the perfection of His plan for creation. To God alone be the Glory!!!!!!!
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6 comments:
What are some verses that people use that believe in "free will" see? Are they twisting scripture or was "free will" a consept made up? What i am sayin is how did "free will" come about?
- Grant
Hey Dante,
So to pick up where we left off last night, so if I understand you correctly, a true affection for Christ does not come until that veil is completely lifted, which occurs at the time of regeneration or when a person becomes a true believer. All other good feelings, or "affections" before that are more so towards the attributes people see in Christians or a lifestyle they desire, like JP talked about people are drawn to the love we have for each other. Those people who aren't called, and never will become Christians, their longings aren't really for Christ, but for what comes from being in Christ. Is that right?
Elizabeth
Hey Elizabeth:
Sorry, it's took so long to get back to you. I haven't looked at the page in a couple days, sorry about that. I'm at work right now, so I'm going to try to answer your question tonight. Sorry, to make you wait longer =(. Thanks.
dante
Hey Elizabeth:
Let's define affection real quick. An affection is an inclination toward or averse from something in a very high degree.
Choices are made by means of the will. The will always make its choices in accordance with its greatest inclination (or desire, or affection, etc.) at that very moment.
Before any person becomes a Christian, they are always inclined toward sin in some way. Though the action we see may be good in our eyes, the action always is caused by affections that are directed toward something that is not Christ centered and God glorifying, thus it is sin. This is due to the unbeliever's eyes being blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4). They can not see the glory and beauty of Christ. To have any inclination toward something you have to have some understanding if that thing. To have an understanding of something you have to see it in some way. All we can see as unbelievers is the things of this world. Before we can see the beauty of Christ, the veil must be lifted. When that veil is lifted, we see the beauty of Christ, and it is so beautiful, that we can do nothing but fall in love with it (this is the affection)and when you fall in love with it, nothing can compare, so this becomes your greatest affection, and the reult is repentance and faith. The lifting of the veil and the falling in love with Christ is regeneration, and the subsequent repentance and faith is conversion. All whom the Father has elected will have this happen at sometime in their life.
What happens oftentimes, is that people will have an emotional experience. What I mean by that is, oftentimes people will here the gospel and see/here some of the benefits if it and be attracted (inclined) in some way toward the benefits rather than Christ himself. When they begin to desire these benefits they respond in the same way a person who actually saw the beauty of Christ responded, namely with an outward expression of faith and repentance, but this expression is not true faith and repentance because true faith and repentance will be due to truely seeing Christ. Here is an analogy:
Say that there is a person who is in desperate need of something, and the news is covering this. Person A desires to help this person, because Person A has a great desire to help people in distress, so he gives this person what he needs. Person B also desires to help this person, but person B wants to do this because if he does, people will talk about how great of a person he his, he could really care less about helping this person, but he helps him anyway. The actions of both are the same, but the affections were different. In the same way someone may make a profession of faith, but that profession is only true if the affections which caused the profession lied in the beauty of Christ, not anything else.
I hope this helps. If not let me know.
dante
so are you saying that someone will either completely love Jesus for who He is or will just love Him for the benefits of loving Him?
I guess what I'm saying is... it seems like what you are saying could be construed two ways
1) you either love Christ or you love the side-effects of Christianity (i.e. contentment, feeling forgiven, the idea of eternal paradise)
2) you either love Christ for who He is or you love Him for his attributes (i.e. He is merciful, loving, good) which strikes a chord with all people simply because God made us appreciative of those values
or is it some place in between
personally... and I'd have to do research to back it up with scripture... I would contend that if you're saying the second, we learn to love Christ over time for who He is rather than the things we like about Him that strike a chord in us so to speak. It seems to me from personal experience and my understanding of scripture that when we are saved we are viewed by God through Christ as holy. I'm redeemed but I've still got dirt on me.
This means when I see Christ, in some places I love Hime because He is God (which takes true humility) and in others it's simply because I like it (based on selfish desires and pride)
Maybe I misunderstood you... but just my two cents
Just so you know this is Hunter Barrington, I came to your youth group a couple times and Aaron and I asked you to do the WCS homecoming dance
anyways, later and God bless
-Hunter
Hey hunter:
Sorry I haven't responded. I haven't posted for awhile and I was looking at it this morning and saw that you posted back in February. Let me read through what you said again so I can better understabd what you asking and I will do my best to respond soon. Again sorry for the delay.
dante
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