SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/31/2025 7:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Purpose of the Work”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
2 Timothy 2:10
Message of the
verse: “For
this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that
they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it
eternal glory.”
This morning we begin to look at the third
motivation for faithfulness and that is the divine purpose of the Lord’s work
on earth before He returns to earth to rapture His saints.
For this reason is how Paul begins
this 10th verse in the second chapter of 2 Timothy, and this refers
to what Paul has said in the preceding verses which was about remembering the
preeminence of Christ and also the power of God’s Word. It was those divine motivations that gave the
apostle the willingness to endure all things for the sake of those who are
chosen. I have to say that I am so glad
that he did that. Paul is not speaking
here of fellow believers, but of God’s chosen who had yet to obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus.
John MacArthur explains “That translates hina, which, when used with a
subjunctive, as here with tunchano (to
obtain), indicates a purpose clause. A
more exact rendering, therefore, would be ‘in order that’ the unbelievers to
whom he witnessed might obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. Paul not only suffered because his
faithfulness to Christ provoked it but also because, like the Lord, he was ‘not
wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:9). His heart
reflected God’s heart, because, like Peter, he knew with certainty that ‘there
is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has
been given among men, by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).”
Now I realize that there are those
who will not agree with what I am about to quote from MacArthur’s commentary as
I would have disagreed with it earlier in my walk with the Lord. I was struggling
trying to understand what I am about to quote, and so I called a radio pastor
from a very important radio station based in Chicago and when I asked him about
this he acted like I was not on the line and kept calling out my name wanting
(my thinking) that he wanted his audience to think that I had hung up, but I
had not. Now as I sought the Lord to
make things clear in my mind He did, not all at once but gradually and not, for
a long time they have been clear in my mind.
Humaningly speaking it does not really make sense, but in the Bible we
have things that are called mysteries and I believe this is one of them.
“God’s Word clearly reveals that ‘He
chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, [and] predestined
us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind
intention of His will (Eph.1:4-15), and that ‘whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son’ (Rom. 8:29). Disregarding other Scripture, some fatalistic
interpreters use texts such as those just cited to argue that evangelism not
only is unnecessary but presumptuous, claiming that God will sovereignly save
those whom He has predestined, regardless of whether or not they hear and
believe the gospel. But God’s Word just
as clearly teaches the necessity of faith for salvation as it does that
salvation is by God’s free and sovereign grace.
Jesus said, ‘No one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from
the Father’ (John 6:65). But He also
said, ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have eternal life…He who believes
in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already,
because he has not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God’ (John 3:16, 18 emphasis added; cf. v.
36). Paul succinctly states those
companion truths in the familiar and priceless words By grace you have been
saved through faith; and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God’ (Eph. 2:8).”
That is all that I am going to write this morning as I
desire those who read this to stop and think, to read over what has been
written, and think about it, asking the Lord to aid you in understanding it.
Spiritual Meaning for my life Today: The story
goes of an undertaker asking one of his dead clients which color of tie he
wanted the undertaker to put on him. Now
of course he got no answer. The Bible
says that after the first sin was committed by Adam and Eve that we are all
born spiritually dead, just like the physical death of the man in this
story. It takes a miracle for the
new-birth to happen as God, through His Holy Spirit speaks to our dead
spiritual heart and causes us to come to Christ for salvation.
My Steps of Faith For Today: I trust the
Lord that although I still have a part of me that is called the flesh that is
active in my life that through the power of the Spirit will do the things that
please the Lord and bring glory to His name.
1/31/2025 8:34 AM
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