Chosen, Convicted or Resist the Invitation?

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what as lost."* Luke 19:10 (Many are called, but few are chosen.) The rest of mankind... still did not repent.* Revelation 9:20 "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." (Hebrews 4:7c). Many have been putting off salvation because the sinful life is hardening a sinner's will and making it more and more difficult for a sinner to repent. The sinner's heart, for selfish reasons deliberately hardens against the Holy Spirit's conviction. If they continue reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit, they are to embrace error of the consequence which really is very heart-hardening. For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, / and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." (Romans 9:15). "Have mercy...pardon" are the changes God makes in and for a sinner. To be saved a sinner must submit to the Holy Spirit's conviction to repent and be changed. To enter the kingdom of God, our Lord explained, a sinner must be born again (John 3:3-7). Later in John 6:65, Jesus went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." A.W. Tozer: Quote

"Most persons are apathetic, insensitive to matters of the heart and the conscience, and so are not salvable, at least not in their present condition. But when God begins to work in a man to bring him to salvation He makes him acutely sensitive to evil. Inward repulsion toward the swine pen that rouses the prodigal and starts him back home is a gift of God to His chosen."

Another by A.W. Tozer "When God begins to work in a man to bring him to salvation He makes him acutely sensitive to evil. Another mark of the Spirit's working is a mighty moral discontent. It does take a work of God in a man to sour him on the world and to turn him against himself; yet until this has happened he is psychologically unable to repent and believe!" Can a sinner accept the invitation without repenting? "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28 Remember the story about the rich ruler? Jesus looked after the rich young ruler as he walked away, but Jesus did not follow him or attempt to coerce him. Jesus wants people make their own moral choices; and Christ knew this and permitted rich ruler to go his own chosen way. Jesus is saying that He cannot do our repenting for us. He died for our sins, now it is up to us to pick up the cross. "Salvation is free, ... but discipleship will cost you your life." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) A disciple must understand that God is both holy and loving; that I am a sinner, are made in the image of God; that Christ's death was the substitute payment for my sin; and that because of Jesus' payment, I am granted access to the heart of God. Luke 14:27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Spiritual training

Actually Hebrews 5:11-14 is really about the spiritual dynamics underlying the Christian's stalled growth in Christ. New babes fails to understand the true nature of the Christian life, which is not static but dynamic and expanding. Many of us had plenty of time to mature and we had adequate time to grow and change is not a problem. These verses explains that Christians continue to manifest childish behavior instead of growing to spiritual adulthood. They often ignore the sanctifying effects of the cross carrying and skip the need for spiritual training. Spiritual training which is necessary for forming spiritual fruits that are needed to wrestle against the world, the devil and the flesh. Spiritual growth with maturity and balance will happen only when we apply ourselves to God's guidance. This is like an athlete training for physical prowess, our spiritual renewal involves moral conditioning through making the right motives from our hearts which leads to spiritual and emotional maturity. The main principle is going back what Jesus commanded: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross!" In our spiritual training of the Cross, certain number of distractions are bound to come to each one of us; but if we learn to be inwardly still these can be rendered relatively harmless. Grace of God will enable us to overcome distractions. Our hearts are like a garden and must be kept free from weeds and insects. To expect the fruits and flowers bloom in an untended heart is to misunderstand completely the processes of Grace and God's will. (Read Hebrews 6:7-8). Later in Chapter 11, there were examples of great Faiths who kept their heart with God. Quote by A.W. Tozer:

"In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we have a long list of benefits which faith brings to its possessors: justification, deliverance, fruitfulness, endurance, victory over enemies, courage, strength and even resurrection from the dead. And everything that is attributed to faith might with equal truth be attributed to prayer, for faith and true prayer are like two sides of the same coin. They are inseparable."

Of course, we must not forget Hebrews, Chapter 12 where our spiritual training really happens. God wants us to be strong and He is our spiritual trainer and He will do anything to get us prepared and go for the prize. God's promise is great, but it is as great as we experience spiritual growth from God's perspectives by cultivating the knowledge of God while at the same time cultivate our faith. As we are training for our spiritual growth, we look NOT AT our faith but in Christ of WHO we have faith in, who is THE author and finisher. "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1). The Holy Spirit tells us to keep our eyes on Jesus not on others who are also running the race! There are important things each of us should know and understand about our struggles as the faithful people of God. Jesus provides both strong warning and loving encouragement, for there is always the danger of losing the race, but there is also the victor's reward awaiting those who run with patience and endurance.

Christ's Atonement

Christ's Atonement for sin is available to ALL but only few will acknowledge the conviction of the Holy Spirit to accept God's gift. The most pressing virus is sin. Sin is the basic problem because sin has to do with a person's soul. It comes to every human being: "What am I going to do about sin?" Sin is more than a disease. It is a deformity of the spirit, an abnormality in that part of human nature. We must make confession concerning our relationship with sin. Christ by His death on the cross made it possible for the sinner to exchange his sin for Christ's righteousness. It's that simple. The Word of God is the antibiotic that alone can destroy the virus that would plague of the sinners' lives . If a person resist the Holy Spirit, God's plan of salvation, and Christ's death and resurrection as the basis for atonement, there is no remaining ground for redemption. Reconciliation is an impossibility. Those of us given the free gift of faith, we have escaped eternal punishment that we rightly deserved because of the mercy and grace of God, and we should be eternally grateful. Christ's atonement which is the actual work, for whoever believe. We believe this is limited to those who believe and were chosen by God, whereas the Arminian side of it would say that everybody’s sins have been paid for. To me Arminian believes that Jesus paid the penalty for the sins of people who don’t believe. That’s the problem I am having because if your sins are paid for already by Jesus and you go to hell, then that’s double jeopardy. It is TRUE that Christ died on the Cross for EVERYONE !! The atonement basically means whoever Believe in Christ will not perish and those who do not believe in Christ will NOT get the benefit of Christ's atonement. Christ's purpose to die for everyone but the atonement is only limited to those who accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is like giving a "gift card" to all of your relatives but only 20% of them used the card while others let it expired and will never be able to enjoy the gift. If you want to use the gift card, you are to receive willingly and actually ENJOY the gift. Many will take the Gift of God and put it aside until they are ready to repent their sins because they don't want to let go of them "yet" just as it is too late for them to use a $50 gift card he/she got from a relative by letting it expire.