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Canons of Dordt (16)

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Canons of Dordt (16)

10 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

The precious truth of election has to be proclaimed; it may not be concealed. But this proclamation should be done with reverence, in the spirit of discretion and piety, for the glory of God's Name and the comfort of His people.

For His people it becomes a wonder that the Lord did not pass them by. It is a wonder of free grace of which they will sing forever to His glory. The angels sang of it in the fields of Ephratah when Christ came on earth. God will be glorified in all His works, also in the election of people who were not better or more worthy than others. However, predestination has two sides: there is election as well as reprobation. Both belong to the decree of God concerning man's eternal destination, and both should be clearly taught. Our fathers expressed this also in Article 15:

What peculiarly tends to illustrate and recommend to us the eternal and unmerited grace of election, is the express testimony of sacred Scripture that not all, but some only are elected, while others are passed by in the eternal decree; whom God, out of His sovereign, most just, irreprehensible, and unchangeable good pleasure, hath decreed to leave in the common misery into which they have willfully plunged themselves, and not to bestow upon them saving faith and the grace of conversion; but permitting them in His just judgment to follow their own ways, at last for the declaration of His justice, to condemn and perish them forever, not only on account of their unbelief, but also for all their other sins. And this is the decree of reprobation which by no means makes God the Author of sin (the very thought of which is blasphemy), but declares Him to be an awful, irreprehensible, and righteous Judge and avenger thereof.

Two sides

When we speak of God's eternal decree, predestination, we must consider that this does not only speak of choosing certain people to have everlasting life, but also that others will be passed by. In His just decree we must distinguish between election and reprobation.

This is indeed a doctrine which is hated or denied by many. God is a God of love, they say, and how could He also have made a decree to pass others by and to leave them in their misery, as our fathers state in this article? That God is also just, they do not like to hear, and it is an offense to them. Many have wrestled with this truth of reprobation and could not agree with this decree of the sovereign God.

This should not surprise us. Man, in his fallen state, has become an enemy of God. It is only by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit that we will learn to see this and will loathe ourselves because of our enmity. It is also by God's almighty power that we will learn to bow under this sovereign decree and learn that God would do no injustice if He would pass us by. Then we become clay in the hand of the great Potter. Then we come on God's side. It is His love that breaks the hardest hearts and brings us into the dust before Him.

Although many oppose the teaching of reprobation, Scripture clearly speaks of it. The prophet says in Malachi 1:2-3, “Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.” The apostle refers to it in Romans 9:13, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”

The great Potter also has power over the clay, that is His creatures, to do what pleases Him. “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Romans 9:21).

The wonder of election

In the teaching of reprobation we see more clearly the great wonder of election and undeserved grace and great mercy shown to sinners in Christ. If one has learned experientially that he is a hell-worthy child of Adam, but he may know by faith that God has looked upon him in mercy, that he is one of His children, he may never forget that it was but undeserved goodness and mercy. He should be full of adoration that God has delivered him from His just wrath. When we look around us and we see how many millions of people perish because they have never heard the gospel of free grace and do not know the name of Jesus, the Mediator between God and man, it should be a wonder that we may live under the preaching of the gospel.

However, many who live under this preaching also do not hear a scriptural teaching. There are many who in their own strength have stretched out their hands to the promises of God, who never truly became a guilty debtor before God, and who never were condemned by the law of God. Yet they imagine to be saved. How terrible it will be to expect to enter in and yet not to be able.

However, those who indeed receive the grace of God and acquire experiential knowledge of these things will then exalt the grace of election more and see that this was the cause that by a given true faith they were enabled to embrace the promises of God which are in Christ yea, and in Him Amen. These promises are sure and will certainly be fulfilled in the lives of those whom the Lord has drawn to Himself.

Our choice and God's choke

If we consider the word election, then we see that the word itself already implies that this election is not general. If we choose something from a variety of objects, it implies that we pass by other objects. What will be chosen depends on the person who chooses. Man chooses what looks best to him, but the Lord chooses in His unfathomable good pleasure. There is no difference on man's side. We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and are in Adam guilty before Him. Our fathers did not deny this fact. They speak of this as the choice that man has made when they say that God has decreed to leave them in the common misery “into which they willfully plunged themselves.”

Now sin is not a little weakness that needs to be overcome, a certain inclination to evil, which can be corrected by a good example or instruction. No, sin is a willful act of a rational being, of man. God had given man a free will. Man was truly able to choose either good or evil. He had the ability to make the right choice. There was truly no reason to believe the liar and to disbelieve God, the God of truth. There was no reason to rise up against a good and faithful God who has loaded us with many blessings and benefits. However, we have turned our backs to Him and chosen to follow the murderer from the beginning and to do what he told us.

Although everything was in God's decree, this did not deprive man of his freedom to decide and to act. No, he sinned willingly, and this is still our state before God. We are willful slaves of the devil, and rebels and enemies of God. We are fully responsible for our actions.

What the Remonstrants believe

The Remonstrants also believed in a reprobation by God. But according to them, the cause of that decree was that man did not accept grace and the promises of the gospel. According to them, God rejects reprobates because some do not want to believe. Our Reformed fathers, however, taught not only that man will perish because of his original and natural sin, but that man is lost already. The cause of this lost state is in us. We will never be able to bring in an accusation against God, even if we try to do so in many ways. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, when He teaches sinners in the school of grace, to bring us to the acceptance of our own guilt. Then, indeed, we become sinners before God. So many boast in a Savior, who, although they readily admit they are sinners, never truly became sinners before a holy and righteous God.

God brings sinners to the place where they accept the punishment of their iniquity, and they will say indeed that all His ways are just.

God not the author but the Avenger of sin

God is not the author but the Avenger of sin. According to His holy attributes, He must hate sin and must punish it. How clearly we see this on Calvary. There Christ fully experienced the justice and wrath of God. There He hung as One who was cast out, between heaven and earth, and there the Lord was a righteous Judge and avenger of sin. Oh, precious Surety for those who have no penny to pay!

Outside Christ we will also experience that God is an awful, irreprehensible, and righteous Judge. What a solemn warning this contains against sin. The wages of sin is death. We have done what is evil in God's sight. We have made ourselves worthy to be cast away. However, if we may truly see this in His light, how great then the wonder of election is. It is a wonder that God stands still where sinners lie on the open field, that He lifts them up out of the misery wherein they have plunged themselves, and that He saves them in an honest way.

An urgent calling

In the gospel He invites sinners and calls them to repent and believe. We must preach that there is a reprobation because God's Word speaks about this. However, we do not know who the reprobates are. We preach the invitations and callings of the gospel, in which we hear that there is a throne of grace to which lost sinners should flee to escape the wrath of God. Indeed, the hidden things are for the Lord and the revealed for us and our children. But the reality of reprobation should urge us to haste for our life's sake and to flee to Him who has said in Isaiah 45:22, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” What a responsibility it is to have lived under the light of the gospel and the proclamation of grace and yet not to have bowed before God. We read in Hebrews 2:3, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” Now is the time of grace, the day of salvation, and the Lord still calls us and says in Proverbs 9:4, “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither.” He will not send penitent sinners away. It is His own Word in John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”

Let us be afraid of sin and learn to fear for the holy wrath of God. Not to flee away from Him as Cain did when he said, “My punishment is greater than I can bear,” but to turn to Him as the prodigal son, who turned to his father and said, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.” God delighteth in mercy. That is a glad tiding for people who have nothing in themselves, but may flee to Him.

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Bekijk de hele uitgave van zondag 1 februari 2004

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's

Canons of Dordt (16)

Bekijk de hele uitgave van zondag 1 februari 2004

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's