Friday 6 May 2022

Let there be Light!

There are Christians who believe in prevenient grace, which means God gives this prevenient grace to every individual, to all people, for them to be able to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, while still having a heart of stone, being dead in trespasses and sins. They believe a person can come to Christ being in a spiritually dead state.

The problem with prevenient grace is it is found nowhere in the Bible. The Bible teaches that a person who is dead in trespasses and sins can not come to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Romans 3:11 LITV, There is none that understands, there is not one that seeks after God. In 1Corinthians 2:14 LITV, the Bible says. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The Bible teaches that a person needs to be born from above, to be regenerated by God to even see the kingdom of God, and enter the kingdom of God. John 3:3 LITV, says, Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, if one does not receive birth from above, he is not able to see the kingdom of God. Notice that without being born from above, a person cannot even see the kingdom of God. Then in John 3:5 LITV, Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, if one does not receive birth out of water and Spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God. One must be born from above to able to see and to enter into the kingdom of God.

When God regenerates a person, when they are born from above, God takes out the heat of stone and gives unto that person a heart of flesh, they are raised to spiritual life, and the will of that person is changed by God, which will result in that person wanting and coming to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. The Bible says in John 6:37 LITV, All that the Father gives to Me shall come to Me, and the one coming to Me I will in no way cast out.

When we go to Ephesian 1:4 LITV, the Bible says, according as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, for us to be holy and without blemish before Him in love. He chose us means God chose His elect people, and then says, in Him, which refers to Christ. God chose His elect people in Christ, and then it tells us when God did this, the Bible says, before the foundation of the world. God chose His people in Christ Jesus in eternity, even before Genesis 1:1, when the Bible says, God created the heaven and the earth. And then the verse says, for us which means His elect people, to be holy and without blemish before Him in love. v.4 speaks about God choosing a people for Himself in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ- God has chosen whom He will extend His saving grace to, in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then in v. 5 LITV, the Bible says, predestinating us, again referring to the elect, to adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. The ones whom God has elected in Christ Jesus for salvation, God has predestined to be placed into the position of sons through Christ Jesus. Notice what is said at the end of the verse, according to the good pleasure of His will. Not according what God saw down the corridors of time what we would do, but by the good pleasure of His will.

Now let us go to in Genesis 1:3 LITV, and the Bible says, then God said, Let light be! And there was light. Here we see that God created light on the first day of creation, and it was good. Everything that God does is good. In Genesis 1:3, when it speaks of light, it is speaking about the physical creation, physical light, which God created on the first day.

Now let us go to in 2Cor. 4:6 LITV. Notice what it says in v. 6,  Because it is God who said, "Out of darkness Light shall shine," who shone in our hearts to give the brightness of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Notice what Paul wrote here, Because it is God who said, “Out of darkness Light shall shine”- this is referring to what God did in Genesis 1:3, when God said, Let there be light, when God created the physical light on the first day of creation. Then we see Paul moves on to write about the spiritual light that God gives in the same verse, v. 6 LITV, when Paul wrote, who shone in our hearts to give the brightness of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Just like God did in creation, when God said, Let there be light at the appointed time of His choosing, God does that spiritually for His elect people at the appointed time of His choosing, God says let there be light, and there will be light, and they will come to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive the salvation which He accomplished for them.

God has to bring light to a person in darkness, and when God does bring light to a person in darkness, they will no longer be blind but be able to see, having been regenerated, born from above, having now been given a heart for God, will come to godly repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, and be saved by the grace of God in His Son.

When God says, Let there be light in sinner’s life, that person will come to Christ, not forcibly, but willingly. They will desire to come to Christ Jesus, and they will come to Christ, because God said, Let there be light. If God does not bring light to a person in their lifetime, that person will continue in darkness, always continuing to have pleasure in unrighteousness and not in the truth, and will continue to reject Christ not forcibly, but wilfully, and will die in their sins without Christ and get what they rightly deserve, which is the just judgment of God, and they will spend eternity in hell.

When the Lord divided between the light and the darkness in creation in Genesis 1:3, God also divides His own people from the people in the kingdom of darkness, because the people of God enter into the kingdom of Light. This is the work of the Lord.

The Called by Dr. Steven J. Lawson