Acts 13:48-49
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.
Tag: Election and Personal Belief are Harmonist
When we think of God choosing some to be saved, we can create angst in the hearts of some believers and non-believers alike. The thought pattern is often, “How can a loving God CHOOSE ONLY SOME to be saved and not all to be saved?” The human mind struggles to comprehend the depth of God’s character and, simply, wants to believe that since God is all loving, He must also be all forgiving, to all men.
The truth is, God is a just God and must have justice. Therefore He provided His Son, Jesus, to die for those who PUT THEIR TRUST AND BELIEF in Him. The difficulty with rejecting God’s Sovereign choice and man’s need to believe is that, whether we like it or not, it is plainly taught in God’s Word. The above verse is one of the most powerful for us to read and believe in regard to God’s Sovereign choice in cooperation with Man’s Belief. Note that their is no strife in the verse above. Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, simply and plainly states, that those who were “appointed to eternal life” also “believed.” We have no idea how God makes all this work, but we cannot argue that it is not true. As the Word of God was preached, God allowed those He choose to believe in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection for their sins. In the above verses we see three things:
1. Paul and Barnabas’ preaching of the Word.
2. The Appointed (Sovereignly chooser by God) present.
3. Belief by those who heard the Word preached, who were sovereignty chosen)
There is no conflict in God’s mind or God’s Word about Election and man’s belief. They are in perfect harmony to those who choose to stop believing in their own logic and, instead, put their faith in the plain language of the Scriptures.
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