Blind. That’s the best way to explain our lives before Christ – we were spiritually blind.
We thought that we were ok – no better and no worse than the next guy; we hadn’t killed anyone after all and on the whole felt that we were pretty good people. I’d say that our blindness was more of a color blindness – you know, the kind of sight that allows you to see things but just not entirely as they are; or maybe it was more like tunnel-vision – we only see what is right in front of us. In reality, both are true to an extent but they don’t really hit the nail on the head: spiritually speaking, people DO NOT see things entirely as they are, not only that but their spiritual vision is further hampered by their limited perspective and understanding; most of all they are literally blind to the fact that they have a need that God saw fit to meet from the beginning of time.
The Bible states in (Revelation 13:8) that Jesus, “the Lamb of God” was “slain from the foundation of the world.” In other words, in God’s grace and omniscience a plan was set in motion from BEFORE time began to redeem people who had yet to be created. The apostle Peter says in (1 Peter 1:20) that Jesus (the Lamb of God) was “foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.”
Why? Why, should be the question you ask when you read such words.
The answer pertains to the other blind-spot in our spiritual vision – our need. Most of us didn’t know Adam from…well, Adam and many still don’t know today that as the pater familias of us all, his sin and the curse that resulted from it has been inbred into and applied towards every single man, woman and child of his race. Adam wasn’t a Jew, wasn’t Greek, wasn’t a Muslim, a Christian, an African American, Caucasian or Hispanic – he was the first man and he is the human father of the human race. He doubted God’s goodness and disobeyed (along with his wife Eve) the clear instruction of the Lord (see Genesis 3). His sin changed our standing before God. The Bible says in (Romans 3:23) that “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and that the payment or “wages for sin is death” but through Jesus Christ a gift has been given – “eternal life” at the expense of the life of the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Jesus wasn’t killed in eternity past; He was killed right smack dab in the middle of time – at “just the right time” or “in due time” the Bible says in (Romans 5:6) but it was for grace that He died – grace towards all of Adam’s race. Grace towards you.
Still we couldn’t see. He rose again from the dead (see John 20-21) sealing His promise of eternal life to all who believe (see John 3:16 and John 11:25-26) and still we couldn’t see. We have had the word of God concerning Jesus for over 2,000 years – we can all read what I’ve written here for ourselves in the pages of scripture but most don’t because most don’t see their need of grace as I said in the beginning of this article. In God’s grace, after Jesus had finished his redemptive work and returned to His Father (see Acts 1:1-11) the Holy Spirit of God began to “draw” sinners to God – to open their eyes to the fact they were sinners in need of God’s grace (see John 6:44; John 16:8-10) so that when their eyes ARE opened, they may “call upon the Name of the Lord and be saved” (Romans 10:13, see also 1 Corinthians 6:11).
When you have called upon the Lord, receiving both spiritual sight and life and having then been “sealed by the Spirit for the day of redemption” (see Ephesians 4:30) you become eternally secure by the grace of God (see Ephesians 2:8-10).
The life of Jesus Christ – His blood sacrifice, His resurrection from the dead and the grace He makes available to each of us IS the cornerstone of the doctrine of eternal security; without the grace of God made available to us through His Son, eternal security – a peace and a place with God forever could NEVER be possible.
Let the Lord open your eyes and see all that has been done to make such a peace possible for you…
*Yes, last week I did write on this same topic, stating that this week I would write about one of the dangers of an immature understanding of eternal security. But I realized that I needed to establish the foundation of God’s grace upon which the doctrine is built first. In the next post, we WILL address some of the concerns which a faulty understanding of this grace can produce in our thinking.
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