I have no clue what else you believe, but going by nothing but this quote right here, I agree with you. We were elected unto salvation. It has been predestined. But "technically," we are not saved until that point in time that God has predestined us to be born again. If we were "saved" when we were elected, there would be no need to be born again. Once would have been enough. So I agree with you here (and I am as predestinarian as one can get!) The thing is, if you were elect before the foundation of the world, you WILL be born again. There is absolutely no chance that you won't.
If, as the others here seem to think, you are trying to prove that we are not elected based on the fact that we must be saved "in time," then this is wrong. But based on what you have said right here, I agree.
My sister here makes some excellent and most important points and I most certainly agree with her.
God, in His three most excellent and Holy Three persons, not only covenanted to choose certain persons, that is to elect them, before the foundation of the world, but praise His Holy Name, He covenanted to to actually do, in time, what He said He would do to make that salvation effectual. All of it is a part of salvation, and all of it is glorious. What nonsense to suggest that because God used time to accomplish some of it makes that part of it less glorious. It is to subtly suggest (not knowingly or intentionally, but by being deceived, or by remaining blindess or lack of light) that God's decree, in one part of it, is less glorious than another. It isn't.
To that end, the Son came and died, in time.
He also rose again, in time, and now sits at the right had of the Father interceding for us. It is all glorious, and a manifestation of His great wisdom. So much so that we are told that those glorious beings, the angels, "desire to look into these things". It is all a great and glorious display of His Wisdom and Power for all creation.
He also sent the Holy Spirit, in time, to regenerate, convict, give faith to repent and believe the gospel to each of those elect. He didn't just talk about it, didn't just agree to it, didn't just decree it, though all of that, because He is God, made it certain that he would do it, No, He actually did it and is doing it now, in whomsoever He chooses.
That same Holy Spirit does not only give faith to believe at initial conversion, but also at each point in the subsequent life to turn from sin and self and obey Him, and to "do His commandments". It is a glorious work, and Paul calls it "working out your salvation" because it is "He that works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure".
Salvation is a process that began in eternity past with the "everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure". "All things and sure", including all the things that will happen, in time, because of it.
God decreed all of it, not just the initial selection of whom, but also the how, and by "Whom". And that "Whom" the Son and the Spirit, do their precious work, in time, in the hearts of the elect.
And because they do so, those "elect" will produce fruit, good works, and not just the works of evangelism, but also of taking care of the poor, the blind and the widow and orphan, and the downtrodden and the oppressed and the poor. All of it are spoken of in the scripture, and all of it are Decreed and will be seen in the life of a true believer. He will "love the brethren" not with words only, but with his substance where he has it. These and many other fruits will be manifest in the life of a true believer. He may not do each of them, but His whole life will be changed and there will be fruit that can be seen, and it won't be a minor reformation and turning from gross sins only. No, the sins of the heart, the pride and the covetousness and lusts of the flesh, the appetites will also be hated and turned from.
Satan is a genius. If he can't get one to deny outright correct doctrine concerning foreknowledge, election, predestination, calling, justification, sanctification, and glorification, he will get one to emphasize one point over the other to the effect that while some aspects are spoken of with great supposed, and perhaps actual, reverence, other aspects are in effect denied, because they are belittled as being for example, done in time, as if God had not decreed this also, and as if they are not as important somehow as the original agreement.
Were there no time, there would be no creatures and no manhood of Christ to come and die for those creatures. These are just as glorious as God's choosing to elect some and not others.
Do not be confused by an apparent lack of emphasis by some here on what God's Word clearly emphasizes. For it is all a part of His Holy Word.
Christ himself, in His Gospels, warned again and again, and again, in parable after parable of those who would speak much and do little, who would be self deceived, and not "follow Him" and "obey His commandments". It is not enough to simply glorify His covenant in eternity past with words, though we should and must do that, for clearly, it is a most wonderful and glorious covenant, and we are right to point out that it all begins with Him, but it also ends With Him, for He is the Alpha, AND the Omega, not just the one or the other.
Thus, we must also, like Christ, who agreed to that covenant, go and do those things we have agreed to in coming to Him, in giving ourselves unreservedly to Him, just as He gave Himself to us.
Talk is cheap. How grateful I am that Christ did more than talk about it, but that He did what He promised, in living out the commandments of the Law, and then dying for my sins, and in sending His Spirit to teach me of this great sacrifice, and to empower me, by grace alone, and with much weakness and remaining sinfulness, to follow Him, to obey Him, to "endure to the end" that I might be "saved". For He said "He that endures to the end will be saved".
None other will.
Salvation, taken scripturally, deals with all of the above, not just one aspect of it. All if it is the Word of God, "every Word of God is pure", and only those who teach "the whole counsel of the Word of God" will be "free of the blood of all men". That is precisely why Paul used those very words. Because the "blood of all men" is at stake, (Acts 20:27 and context).
Much Christian love to you,
in Him,
jer3119
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for that.
