Pride, Despair, and Sovereign Grace (Part 6) Drawn by the Cord of Sovereign Grace The point is that we desperately need to find our identity in another — but we keep falling back on ourselves. Generations of people before us, startled by the darkness they see in the world and by the pride and despair they have found in their own souls, have searched every holy page of Scripture to put words to this mystery. How will God reach into history, despite all the forces at play, to redeem and call a family of his own. How does he do it? How will he break into this mess to draw us? The Puritans in the eighteenth century, and their heirs, turned to the romantically charged language of Song of Solomon and to the passionately redemptive language of Hosea to hear God speak hope: “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her” (Hosea 2:14). “I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love” (Hosea 11:4). “Draw me after you; let us run” (Song of Solomon 1:4). These passages resonate. We know God must lure us to himself. But to pull this off, he must overcome and out-allure the powers of pride and despair at work within all of us. As redemptive history progresses, Jesus explains how God will pull of this feat: “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:23). “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44). “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65). “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all” (John 10:27–29). “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). God will draw his children to himself in order to love and delight in them: “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved’” (Romans 9:25). “. . . as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved . . .” (Colossians 3:12). “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power . . .” (1 Thessalonians 1:4–5). “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). The Father elects, searches out, and draws. The Son attracts and secures. In his death and resurrection, Christ acts on behalf of the elect, not only to secure their redemption (definite atonement), but to draw them into his delight. God’s plan of redemption is unintelligible without understanding these points. Tony Reinke
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 06:36:14 +0000
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