Lies We Believe #9: You Don’t Need to Witness, God Will Save Them Anyway
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."—Acts 1:8
God knows everything that will ever happen. He has ordained it, because for God to foreknow anything (which He does) means that it is also foreordained—which is to say that if He knows what is going to happen in the future (foreknowledge), you can be sure that it is going to happen (foreordained). One can’t have foreknowledge of what will happen unless for sure it is going to happen.
There are some who say: “If God has chosen us to be in Him ‘before the foundation of the world’ (Ephesians 1:4) and we were ‘predestined’ to salvation (Ephesians 1:5, 11) then what is the point of evangelism? Isn’t God going to save who He is going to save anyway? And if He is going to save who He is going to save, then we don’t need to witness.” Such a view focuses on the end result while trying to deny or escape personal responsibility. God has ordained the end result of those who will be saved; however, He has also ordained the means by which their salvation is going to happen. Our understanding of God’s sovereignty must be tempered by the Scripture’s command to our moral and personal responsibility. Since God is going to save some and not others, we must make every effort to do what He has commanded us to do—why? For several reasons: the first is because He has commanded us to, as our passage reveals. Secondly, it is because of our joy to do it, because we are doing what we were made to do. And thirdly, it is so that our act of obedience might add to the condemnation of the world.
Consider Pharaoh in the Old Testament and his interaction with Moses. Time and time again, we read in the Scripture that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 4:21, 7:3, 9:12, 10:1, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:8), but we also read that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exodus 8:32, 9:34). Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Better yet, why did Pharaoh harden his own heart? God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that God may receive glory, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth’"—Romans 9:17.
God uses us for His glory, so that His name might be made known. He uses the just and the unjust to make His name known. Just as He used Moses to display His glory, He also uses Pharaoh for His glory, so that His name might be proclaimed throughout the earth.
God will do what He wants to do and His will cannot be stopped or thwarted, however much we may fight or reject His promptings. In the great mystery that is largely unknown to us, God will accomplish His purposes. Knowing that He cannot be thwarted, we submit ourselves to His call and command to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20), so that we might be obedient and that our joy may increase. Don’t believe the lie that we are not to witness; God has commanded us to do so. He knows the results; we don’t. We are simply being obedient. He has not allowed us to peek behind the curtain of His divine sovereignty except in small glimpses that make the mind spin and marvel at the same time. While from our perspective, we don’t know who will be saved, from God’s perspective He knows. We simply know and trust that He is God and we are not. He is the Creator and we are the creation. But we are invited to a great stewardship and responsibility for which we will give an account.
May we glory in the opportunity, responsibility and stewardship of our witness so that God’s glory is made known, men and women are saved, and our joy will increase, all to God’s glory. Amen.
God knows everything that will ever happen. He has ordained it, because for God to foreknow anything (which He does) means that it is also foreordained—which is to say that if He knows what is going to happen in the future (foreknowledge), you can be sure that it is going to happen (foreordained). One can’t have foreknowledge of what will happen unless for sure it is going to happen.
There are some who say: “If God has chosen us to be in Him ‘before the foundation of the world’ (Ephesians 1:4) and we were ‘predestined’ to salvation (Ephesians 1:5, 11) then what is the point of evangelism? Isn’t God going to save who He is going to save anyway? And if He is going to save who He is going to save, then we don’t need to witness.” Such a view focuses on the end result while trying to deny or escape personal responsibility. God has ordained the end result of those who will be saved; however, He has also ordained the means by which their salvation is going to happen. Our understanding of God’s sovereignty must be tempered by the Scripture’s command to our moral and personal responsibility. Since God is going to save some and not others, we must make every effort to do what He has commanded us to do—why? For several reasons: the first is because He has commanded us to, as our passage reveals. Secondly, it is because of our joy to do it, because we are doing what we were made to do. And thirdly, it is so that our act of obedience might add to the condemnation of the world.
Consider Pharaoh in the Old Testament and his interaction with Moses. Time and time again, we read in the Scripture that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 4:21, 7:3, 9:12, 10:1, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:8), but we also read that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exodus 8:32, 9:34). Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Better yet, why did Pharaoh harden his own heart? God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that God may receive glory, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth’"—Romans 9:17.
God uses us for His glory, so that His name might be made known. He uses the just and the unjust to make His name known. Just as He used Moses to display His glory, He also uses Pharaoh for His glory, so that His name might be proclaimed throughout the earth.
God will do what He wants to do and His will cannot be stopped or thwarted, however much we may fight or reject His promptings. In the great mystery that is largely unknown to us, God will accomplish His purposes. Knowing that He cannot be thwarted, we submit ourselves to His call and command to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20), so that we might be obedient and that our joy may increase. Don’t believe the lie that we are not to witness; God has commanded us to do so. He knows the results; we don’t. We are simply being obedient. He has not allowed us to peek behind the curtain of His divine sovereignty except in small glimpses that make the mind spin and marvel at the same time. While from our perspective, we don’t know who will be saved, from God’s perspective He knows. We simply know and trust that He is God and we are not. He is the Creator and we are the creation. But we are invited to a great stewardship and responsibility for which we will give an account.
May we glory in the opportunity, responsibility and stewardship of our witness so that God’s glory is made known, men and women are saved, and our joy will increase, all to God’s glory. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment