AP

2 Corinthians 4:5-7 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

It is hard to find a clearer, more irrefutable, logically demanding, statement of the doctrine of God’s unconditional election by grace alone (of the doctrine of predestination) than is contained in this simple statement by the apostle Paul.

Thinking about it, it is not surprising that we find this doctrine so hard to accept, because it is a foundational feature of our fallen human nature, especially as it is expressed in the 21^st Centuiry, that we want to see ourselves as completely autonomous beings, to have absolute free will, to be fully in control of the decision about our eternal destiny, and what and who determines it.  We want to be GOD instead of just accepting that we are ‘made in his likeness and image’ as Genesis 1:26-27 so clearly informs us!  Pride is the basic sin problem, and it hurts our pride to be told that we are not in charge!  I think the biblical doctine of ‘predestination’ – ‘unconditional election’ – was the one I strugged with most, and fought hardest against, when I was first confronted with its claims.  Yes, it was one thing to decide for myself whether to throw in my lot with the followers of Jesus, but it was quite a different matter to give in and accept the fact that it he had chosen me, and not Ihim!

Unsurprisingly, he eventually won this battle through his Word, and I surrendered.  Perhaps that is why I love William Bright’s communion hymn that contains the verse: “And so we come: O draw us to thy feet, most patient Saviour, who canst love us still; and by this food, so awe-ful and so sweet, deliver us from every touch of ill; in thine own service make us glad and free, and grant us nevermore to part from thee.”  As I sing these words I am acknowledging afresh that it was God alone who justified me, who patiently sought me and got me ‘across the line’ in the first place, so I can depend on him alone to hang on to me, to sanctify me and never ever let me go.

Paul points all this out to the Corinthians by decaring that the energy and power involved in the conversion of one poor helpless sinner can be likened to no less than the energy and power involved in the creation of the entire universe out of nothing [ex nihilo] with the words ‘Let there be light [electro-magnetic energy]’! And how appropriate it is that he proclaims this truth in the context of pointing out that the ‘preaching of the Gospel’ does not have us as its focus, but Christ alone as Lord and us as only his humble servants.  Which is why God puts this treasure of his amazing grace in our fragile ‘jars of clay’, “to show [beyond any shadow of doubt, and to prevent any attempt on our part to boast and claim credit for it] that this “all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”  O that the Holy Spirit would firmly embed all these truths in my proud, autocratic heart that I might understand what ‘free grace alone’ and ‘undeserved mercy’ truly are and what they imply to my life of faith, and the way I bear witness to it to a watching world!

”When I survey the wondrous Cross  on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count as loss and pour contempt on all my pride” (Isaac Watts).  “When this passing world is done, when has sunk yon glaring sun; when I stand with Christ in glory, looking o’er life’s history, then, Lord, shall I fully know – not till then – how much I owe.  When I stand before the Throne, dressed in beauty not my own; when I see thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart, then Lord, shall I fully know – not till then – how much I owe.  When the praise of Heav’n I hear loud as thunders to the ear, loud as many waters’ noise, sweet as harp’s melodious voice, then, Lord, shall I fully know – not till then – how much I owe.  Chosen, not for good in me, wakened up from wrath to flee, hidden in the Saviour’s side, by the Spirit sanctified: teach me, Lord, on earth to show by my love, how much I owe” (Robert Murray M’Cheyne).

– Bruce Christian