A Cannot-Lose for Those God Wins
I
know I am not alone when I speak of the sometimes difficulty in connecting my
head to my heart. Many of us have times when the things we know with our minds
don’t seem attached to what we feel in our souls. Such experiences add to the
wonder of those mornings when God lifts his baton to our lives and calls our
hearts, souls, minds, and strength to add our four-part harmony of joy to his magnificent
orchestration of love.[1]
This
morning’s all-encompassing gift of love truly fulfilled Jesus’ words, “These
things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may
be full.”[2] And, it was some other words recorded by the apostle John that
played God’s symphony of love to my soul. Let me take you through this concerto
of joy movement by movement.
“All
that the Father gives me will come to me,”[3]
The
Father “gives” people to Jesus. Since
we are his creation, it is his right to do so. Since we are created, we cannot
stop what God has chosen to give to his Son. Because this is a gift from God
the Father to God the Son, the whole of their divine perfection surrounds the
gift. For that reason, “all” those
the Father gives the Son “will come”
to Jesus. It is impossible for the Father to give someone to his Son, and for
those people to never show up. At the same time, our showing up, our coming to Jesus,
neither originates in us, or depends upon us, but is an unchangeable aspect of
the Father’s gift to his Son.
“and
whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”[4]
On
one beautiful, glorious side of this, as though one section of the orchestra
plays this theme throughout the whole symphony, there is Jesus’ breathed-out
revelation that the Father has given people to him, and all those people will
come to him.
On
the other side of the stage, as though another section of the orchestra
harmonizes to the wonder-filled expression of the first movement of the song, Jesus
sings over us the wonderful completion of music and thought, that all those who
come to him, he “will never cast out.”[5]
This double-sided assurance sings
the most beautiful hope into our hearts. When the Father gives people to his
Son, it is impossible for any of those people to go AWOL, to go missing. When
the Son receives the gift the Father has given him (as strange as it may seem
to think of people like us as a gift to the divine Son), there is not one person
among those given that the Son would choose to cast out.
This
is the mind-boggling wonder of the divine nature, the perfection of the Triune,
that anything they decide among themselves will be the same no matter which
person of the three we consider. If there is an “all” that the Father gives the Son, there is an all-inclusive “whoever” that the Son would never cast
out.
It
is impossible for the Father to make a divine decision out of the perfection is
his holy being, and the Son to respond to that divine decision out of the
perfection of his holy being in a contrary way to what the Father has set out
to do. The Father set out to have people in the image and likeness of his Son,
so he will have such a people.[6] The Father has given all these people to his Son, so all those
people will come to Jesus. As all those people come to Jesus,
one-after-another, all throughout the ages of time, there will never be one of
those people that Jesus would deem unfit for him, since they are all given to
him by the Father.
“For I
have come down from heaven,” (John 6:38)
Ah,
the divine, “For”. As the first
wonderful movement of the heavenly symphony tells us all we need to know of our
eternally secure standing in our Lord Jesus Christ, the second movement takes
the initial theme and begins to expand it into one glorious stanza of hope
after another.
Here
in this gracious expansion of the initial theme is the grand and wonderful explanation
of why it is true that all those the Father has given to the Son will come to
him, and why the Son, in full fellowship with his Father, would never reject
anyone the Father has given him. While it rings wonderfully in our hearts that
such a thing would be possible, the abundance of God’s grace towards his little
children pours out more words and music to fill our hearts to overflowing with
the joy of who we are and what we have in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus
came down from heaven. End of story. If he did not come down from heaven, he
would only have the Father’s wishful thinking, and the empty longing of one who
would gladly receive all those the Father has given him, if only they would come.
And
then there is this glorious repetition of notes, where the “will come to me,” and the “whoever
comes to me,” is harmonized into the “I
have come,” of Jesus’ lead place in the choir. Because he first came, all
those the Father has given him can also come to him. When they come to the one
who came, there is no way he would reject them since he came to secure his
freedom to receive us all.
“not
to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”[7]
Not
only did Jesus come, but he came to do his Father’s will. His Father’s will
included giving people to his Son. Jesus came to do his Father’s will in
salvation so that he could guarantee his Father’s will in our adoption. We
cannot possibly fear that Jesus would refuse one of us the Father has given him
when his whole person and work is to do his Father’s will. He will receive all
his brothers to himself since it is his Father’s will to give them to him.
“And
this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he
has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”[8]
If
it is the will of the Father that Jesus should lose nothing of all the Father
has given him, then Jesus himself would never reject one of the people God has
adopted as his Sons and as Jesus’ brothers. He will not cast us away, and he
will not lose us through some unforeseen circumstances. We don’t need to have a
wonderful life in this foreign country of the world, but we can live every day
in this world conscious of the fact that Jesus will raise us up on the last day
because he and the Father have secured our eternal salvation.
“For
this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes
in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”[9]
As though
bringing the symphony to a rising crescendo of hope, Jesus sings out the
glories of his Father’s will. Jesus, who lived to do his Father’s will, knew
that the Father’s will would be accomplished, and that he himself would do all
the Father had planned. Jesus secured the salvation by which people can now
look on the Son, believe in him, and have eternal life. The life is eternal, so
it cannot end. Jesus cannot forsake us, or cast us away, or reject us, or
anything else that would describe an end to relationship. The Father has given
us to him, and so we come to him, believing in his name, and receiving the
adoption as sons.
And, again, to
bring the crescendo of hope to its grand conclusion, Jesus promises that he
will raise us up on the last day. He will because the Father has given us to
him. He will because he can never cast us out. He has come to do the Father’s
will, and so secure for us our salvation. He gives us eternal life now, and
raises us up on the last day. Our lives are secure. He is not ashamed to call
us his brothers.[10]
He is coming again.
I thank God
that he speaks to us through his word so that we can hear with our minds, with
our hearts, with our souls, and with both sides of our brains! We can rejoice
in this gift of grace knowing that it cannot be any other way, for God decided
to do it, and gave us to his Son, knowing that the Son, the image of his
Father, would receive us to himself just as the Father had given us to him.
“Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”[11]
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures
are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
In my mind, “strength” includes the participation of both sides of my brain!
[2]
John 15:11
[3]
John 6:37
[4]
John 6:37
[5]
This reminded me of Zephaniah 3:17 which speaks of God rejoicing over his
people with loud singing!
[6]
Genesis 1:26-27; I Peter 2:9
[7]
John 6:38
[8]
John 6:39
[9]
John 6:40
[10]
Hebrews 2:10-13
[11]
II Corinthians 9:15
No comments:
Post a Comment