We went to our first cell meeting last night with Jubilee. Met some characters. Met some family :) I felt so privileged to be part of God's family, that I can go anywhere and I will find members of that family. I felt at home.
The subject of the main discussion was Romans 8, 28-31. God works in all things for the good of those who love him, and God foreknew us, predestined us, called us, justified us, and will glorify us. Although it does say he glorified us, but the thinking is that Paul wrote it in the past tense because it was as good as if it had already happened, what with the previous four things having happened already.
We didn't get very far very quickly. First hurdle was "predestined" and various thoughts on that, and various interpretations of it. We discovered a very opinionated couple in the cell! Very lovely, but quite forceful in their ideas. Could be interesting. After that it was plain sailing apart from everything changed depending on your interpretation or views on predestination. Chosen vs choose?
My own conclusion is this. The Israelites were a chosen people, set apart for God. They lived under the Law, which as Paul pointed out was flawed and for which the people needed constant atonement through imperfect sacrifices. God gave the world his Son, who died as the perfect sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Grace came into the world, and the way to the Father and eternal life, through Jesus, was made available to all humanity, not just the Israelites. So God's chosen people now isn't a "race" of people as such. We are free (as God gave us free will right in the beginning) to choose whether or not we accept his call. The pull of the Gospel is inexorable as we are created with that God-shaped hole in our soul, but we are still free to choose. We choose, we are accepted, and we are adopted into God's family. God didn't want mindless robots. He has angels who constantly adore him and praise him, and if humans didn't then the rocks themselves would cry out in praise. He wants a people who of their own free will choose to be friends of God, and choose to submit to His will and authority.
The next major question we debated is, can you lose your salvation? We debated for some time on this one. But I kept thinking, and my opinion is that you don't "lose" salvation, you don't suddenly realise that you've misplaced it somewhere. It's more like you throw it away. If you have been saved, and you then turn your back on God, are you suddenly "un-saved"? I think that if you died when your back is turned towards God, you might have a hard time persuading the saints to let you into heaven. If you've been saved but then you've turned away from God and are far away, but then you turn back, no matter how far away you are God comes towards you with open arms - he's been waiting all this time to welcome you home.
My point is that if you turn away from God, I think God would honour the choice you made. I just don't think He would exercise his power and authority if you died to say well, I saved you, you made a commitment 15 years ago, and yes you've had your back towards me for the past 10 years, but hey I'm still taking you to heaven whether that's what you want or not. I just don't think God's like that. I think if you turned back to God on your deathbed he would welcome you with open arms. But if your back is still towards him, you've made your decision also. I think God would be - inconsolable comes to mind.
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