"Lo, I come... to do My Father's will, not yours! Sorry to disappoint you." |
Then said I, Lo, I
come... to do thy will, O God.
John 6:38,39
38 For I came down
from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
39 And this is the
Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
Jesus came, not even
to do his own will; and most assuredly, not the whims and fancies of sincere but
misguided theologians, preachers and their disciples. How many there are who
teach and believe that Jesus came to do their will, that is, to die for, and to
save the whole world.
What is the Father's
will that Jesus said He was sent to do?
It is to save all
them that God has given to Him before the foundation of the world; He will save
each and every single one of them to the uttermost.
"I should lose
nothing" He declares emphatically. Why? The salvation of all those given to
Him is solely, wholly, and completely dependent upon Him and His work alone,
and He finished it. It is by His righteousness and blood, PLUS NOTHING.
Based upon His
finished work of redemption, eternal salvation is freely bestowed to each and
every one of those given to Christ, at God's approved and accepted time, making
each one of them fit for eternal glory, as well as ENABLING them to respond to
the gospel call when it comes to them.
However, their
eternal salvation - ministered to them when they were still in their native
state of sin and death, by the direct and immediate activities of the Triune
God - is PRIOR TO and INDEPENDENT OF the temporal salvation that is ministered
through the instrumentality of the gospel ministry.
If the eternal
salvation of God's elect is conditioned upon any instrumentality of man's
activity, as many imagined, then the promised salvation is no longer sure unto
all the elect.
The gospel ministry
is to proclaim the good news of what has been happened - i.e. the eternal
salvation that has been purposed, accomplished and applied - calling those
recipients to believe the truth of their eternal salvation by God's free grace.