“Bryan, its time to go,” yells my sister from the bottom of the stairs. “We have to leave now if we are going to get there on time.”
“I’m not moving,” I answer, folding my arms determinedly, “God has set the time that we will arrive at our destination; when we get there is His business. So I am not moving.”
Absurd? What I said was true. God had set the time of our arrival. But I had neglected the fact that God uses means. This is the paradox of Christianity. God authors and carries out His purposes, but He uses us to accomplish them. It is all of God, but it is our responsibility. This is a difficult concept that our finite minds can only barely grasp. But, if grasped, it will be found, as all the ways of God, to be altogether perfect.
This idea is seen in nearly every one of God’s purposes on earth. The sanctification of believers is an example. Throughout Scripture we see that God sanctifies us largely through our own efforts. Paul tells us in Philippians to “work out your salvation . . . for it is God who works in you.” And the first chapter of 2 Peter implies that God makes us “become partakers of the divine nature” through what we do. There is a sense, then, in which we will not become more holy unless we pursue it. Though the extent of holiness that we will achieve on earth is decreed, it depends on us to achieve it. And you could almost say that the decree depends upon our efforts. Think back to the illustration. It is almost as though the time I would arrive at my destination was set for earlier if I had left earlier, and later if I had left later. I say “almost” because this is not quite the way it works; by definition, a decree cannot change. But it is the way we should think. We work toward the goal and rest in the decree.
It is important to remember that we think this way all the time without realizing it. We eat because we do not believe that we will be full unless we do. We take showers because we know that our cleanliness depends on it. But I want us to apply this to the large things as well as the small. And I especially want to apply it to the work of redemption.
The gathering of the chosen people of God depends upon us. I firmly believe that God will accomplish this work. And he does not need us to do it. But he has chosen that we be the instruments that carry out His redemptive plan. It is accomplished just as our sanctification is accomplished: through our efforts, through the preaching of the gospel to all nations.
In 2 Peter 3:12 we are told to be “hastening the day of God.” How do we hasten the day of God? It has been decreed from eternity past. How can we hasten it? I believe the answer is found three verses earlier when Peter gives the reason that God has already delayed so long in coming.
“The Lord is not slow about His promise [the promise of His coming], as some count slowness, but is patient toward you [or us], not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
I am convinced that this refers to the elect. God is in a sense waiting, though actively, until he brings all of us (the chosen of God) to salvation. He will not return until that is finished. So how do we hasten the day of God? We do so by hastening the completion of this work; by earnest and diligent proclamation of the gospel. Because the day for which we so much long will not arrive until all of God’s elect have heard and believed.
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all the nations, and then the end shall come.
~Matthew 24:14
October 4, 2006 at 8:49 pm
I’ve been discussing this with a friend and your thoughts clarified some of mine greatly. Thanks, old thing. Good show.
October 5, 2006 at 9:08 pm
I really enjoyed reading your blog. I had never thought much about or understood much of how God sanctifies us–and yet we are to strive after holiness. I can easily understand both separately, but the difficulty comes in putting them together! Anyway, discussing this at Bible study and reading your blog have been interesting and helpful.