Continued from 11,269...
Isa 48:11
11 "For My own sake , for My own sake , I will act;
For how can My name be profaned?
And My glory I will not give to another.
NASB
And,
Ezek 36:22
22 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake , O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.
NIV
Under this New Covenant dispensation, however, notice the sharp contrast when it comes to the Father's beloved elect who are in Christ!
1 Peter 1:20
20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
NIV
Rom 8:28
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose
NIV
Matt 24:22
22 If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.
NIV
But even so, it it weren't for the elect's Federal Head there would be no elect -- indeed there could be no elect since God hates whatever is evil, including evil hearts or sinful natures that are in Adam!
Isa 49:5-6
5 And now the LORD says
he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
and gather Israel to himself,
for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD
and my God has been my strength
6 he says:"It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."
NIV
Isaiah 49 is a fascinating messianic chapter. But time and space will only permit a few highlights. First, we can rightly infer that the Father expanded his salvation to the Gentile nations all over the earth (i.e. the world of which Israel never considered itself to be a part) for the sake of his Faithful Servant who would become the Federal Head of his Father's people.
The second noteworthy observation is that God also promised restore his elect in Israel -- God's salvation of the Jewish remnant is limited to those the Father has kept for himself. Then we have these verses to consider:
Isa 49:7-9a
7 This is what the LORD says -
the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel -
to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,
to the servant of rulers:
"Kings will see you and rise up,
princes will see and bow down,
because of the LORD, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."
8 This is what the LORD says:
"In the time of my favor I will answer you,
and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people,
to restore the land
and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
9 to say to the captives, 'Come out,'
and to those in darkness, 'Be free!
NIV
God promised his Holy Servant that he would make him to be a covenant "for the people". Notice it does not say, "for the peoples" as in all the Gentile nations in the world. The Messiah would become the embodiment of the New Covenant to the same "people" to whom the New Covenant would be made, i.e. Israel or even more theologically accurate to Abraham's spiritual descendants. This passage strongly reinforces my often stated premise that God never entered into a redemptive covenant (or into a covenant of love) with all mankind w/o exception, whereas he did enter into covenant of love with all men w/o distincition.
Secondly, look at v. 7 very carefully."Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down -- not because of their "freewill" choices but rather because of the Lord is who would be faithul to his Servant! Irresistible Grace!
Thirdly, notice that the Lord issued commands, expressive of his Decretive Will, to his Servant which he in turn would issue toward the Father's elect: "COME OUT" and "BE FREE". These are imperatives, which means these commands are also efficacious in nature. These are the commands his Faithful Servant would issue to all the Father's elect. None of God's commands that express his Decreitve Will have ever failed!
Then we have this:
Heb 2:13
13"I will put my trust in him."
And again he says,
"Here am I, and the children God has given me."
NIV
These are the same children the Father gave to Jesus John 6. About these elect children scripture teaches that through Christ the elect believe (1Pet 1:21; Act 3:16); through Christ the elect have access to the Father by one Spirit (Eph 2:18); through Christ comes reconciliation of all things (2Cor 5:18; Col 1:20); through Christ thanksgiving is given to the Father (Col 3:17); Christ is able to save completely those who come to the Father through Him (Heb 7:25); through Christ the elect have eternal life (1Jn 4:9); through Christ the elect are justified (Act 13:39); through Christ elect Gentiles receive the blessing promised to Abraham (Gal 3:14); through Christ the law of the Spirit of life sets the elect free (Rom 8:2); saints rejoice in God through Christ Jesus (Rom 5:11).
Additionally, God's children are light in the Lord (Eph 5:8); the gift of eternal life is in the Lord (Rom 6:23); the saints' sanctification is in the Lord (1Cor 1:2); saints receive grace in the Lord (1Cor 1:4); the veil is removed from sinners' eyes only in the Lord (2Cor 3:14); freedom is in Christ Jesus (Gal 2:4); God accomplished his purpose in Christ Jesus (Eph 3:11); the peace of God guards the saints' hearts and minds in Christ (Php 4:7); grace, faith and love are found abundantly in Christ (1Tim 1:14); the promise of life is in Christ Jesus (2Tim 1:1); grace was given to the saints in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time (2Tim 1:9); the God of all grace called saints to his glory in Christ (1Pet 5:10), God's love for his chosen people comes through and in Christ (Rom 8:39); God's love for his elect is the same love God has for his Chosen One (Jn 17:26); and the saints love God because He first loved us (1Jn 4:19).
All of salvation, therefore, is entirely of God who purposed it, the Son who accomplished it and the Holy Spirit who effectually applies it. I don't believe there is better passage in scripture that succinctly reveals this great truth. And it comes in this doxology at the end of Rom 11 that winds up Paul's teaching on election that began in chapter 9:
Rom 11:33-36
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 "Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?"
35 "Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
NIV
According to FWT, God's "counselor" is his cosmic crystal ball wherein this omniscient God learns things about the sons of men, as he peers into time. In this heretical view, the all-knowing God actually has to learn things from his finite, fallible free moral agents.
And who has known the mind of the Lord? According to Paul, it certainly isn't the Natural Man who doesn't have the Spirit of the Lord, since he cannot understand the things of God (1Cor 2:14).
And Paul's next question is a grand slam that he hit out of the ballpark! "Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?" But in FWT, this is precisely what FWs believe since salvation is merely a business type arrangement -- a business contract, as it were, that God enters into with man. FWs believe God merely provides opportunities for men to be saved; all men have to do is react positively to the call of the Gospel and THEN God will "repay him" for upholding his end of this quid pro quo deal by giving them the gifts of grace, faith, repentance, eternal life, new heart, circumcised heart, the Holy Spirit, etc.
And then Paul finally drives the last nail into the coffin of FWT with v. 36. God's great salvation is all about God; for he certinly did not have to save any human being -- any more than he has to save the fallen angels. God does all for his own praise, glory and honor. All salvation is God-centered; its locus being in God's appointed Federal Head through whom and in whom and to whom all things come. But if I know FWs, they will twist this passage, especially the last phrase "are all things" to mean something less than all. They will not want to see "all things" as including man's ways (eg. his most high, sacred and sacrosanct will), even though scripture teaches man's ways are indeed in God's hands (Jer 10:23; Prov 20:24; Dan 5:23),and that God works out all things according to the counsel of his own will (Eph 1:11, cf. Jn 5:21; Rom 9:14-18).
Furthermore, since from God and through Him and to Him are all things this necessaririly includes his filial love for his elect. His unwavering, enduring and eternal love for his people flows from God through his Federal Head the Last Adam. God loves his saints because He sees his appointed Representative in every single saint (Jn 17:26). He sees his elect as being as true and faithful as his Holy Servant was. God's love for his saints is inextricably bound up in his Beloved (Rom 8:39) -- flowing through the Man who learned obedience, even obedience unto death (Heb 5:8; Jn 10:17). God loves no one in the filial sense who is outside of Christ.