Question 68. Are only the elect effectually called?

 

Question 68. Are only the elect effectually called?

Answer. Only the elect are effectually called. Those who are not elected, although they may be called outwardly by the ministry of the Word, and have some common operation of the Spirit, yet willfully neglect and despise the grace offered to them, and so fall into unbelief, and do not truly come to Jesus Christ.

God chooses from among those who are called to be His people. Matthew 22:14 says that many are called, but few are chosen.

In Matthew 22:2, “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son,” the king is God. The son is Jesus Christ, and the wedding feast is the wedding feast of the Lamb. The wedding feast of the Lamb refers to taking his bride.

Only those who are the bride of Christ among all people in the world can enter the wedding feast. In order to become the bride of Christ, they must die with Jesus and be resurrected with Christ. The wedding feast of the Lamb is becoming one with Christ. Just as a man leaves his parents and becomes one with his wife, Christ and the saints become one. That is why Jesus prayed before the cross that the disciples would become one just as God and Jesus were one. Only when they become one can they enter God. This is the life of resurrection.

God sent an invitation to Israel. The invitation is like the law. The law is an invitation to realize that they are sinners and come to Christ. God chose Israel to send this invitation to all people in the world. Israel was the one who received the invitation. In Matthew 21, Jesus told a parable to the Pharisees and scribes that the Gentiles would be saved first, and then in Matthew 22, he told the parable of the wedding feast. However, Israel, who was invited, refused the invitation. The reason is that the people of Israel did not realize that they were beings who had left God.

God continued to send servants (prophets), but Israel killed many of the prophets. They even killed their own sons. God described Christ as a servant. God sent an invitation to Israel for resurrection, but "they paid no attention and went their way, one to his field, another to his business." The people of Israel neglected Christ, who was hidden in the law, and so they could not know Him.

The word "self" in "to his own field, to his own business" means that he is the master. For a person who is the master, the body is important. Likewise, a person who is the master cannot find the treasure (resurrection) hidden in the ground. That is why Jesus said to deny oneself, and the Bible tells us that "self" is an entity that has left God.

The invitation went out to all the nations of the world. "Go to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast." The crossroads refer to the border between Israel and the Gentiles. So, receive the Holy Spirit, be empowered, and preach the gospel to the Gentiles.

"The servants went out into the roads and gathered all they found, both bad and good." Here, the bad and the good do not refer to those who are seen as such in God's eyes, but to those who are called that way in the world. All people in this world are the target. So when people came to the wedding feast, there was one man who was not wearing wedding clothes. The king found him and threw him out of the banquet hall.

Who is the one who is not wearing the wedding garment? The wedding garment is not something that one prepares, but the wedding garment is prepared at the wedding house, but they are not wearing it. Those who filled the wedding house are Gentiles. They are those who decided to believe in Jesus Christ. It refers to those who are not clothed with Christ (resurrection). In order to be clothed with Christ, one must take off one's own clothes, but they do not do so. If one does not deny oneself, one cannot wear the garment of righteousness (resurrection).

The Bible describes one’s clothes as the old man. Those who do not die as the old man are those who say they believe in Jesus Christ but still show off their own righteousness. They are those who do not have the present resurrection life. They are those who try to achieve righteousness with their own strength. The robe is not something I prepare, but I just have to take off my clothes (die with Jesus) and put on the robe that has been prepared (present resurrection).

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The tradition of the elders

  The tradition of the elders   Mark 7:5-9  『 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? He answered and said to them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 』 In the Galilee region, Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus. They came with accusations against Jesus. This is because Jesus' disciples neglected washing their hands, a Jewish ritual of purification. They called it  “ the tradition of the elders. ”  The Jewish leaders ...
Read more

Question 64. What is the invisible church?

  Question 64. What is the invisible church? Answer. The invisible church is the total number of the elect who are gathered together and will be gathered together in the future under Christ, the head. In the catechism, the doctrine states that the invisible church is "the total number of the elect who are gathered together and will gather together in the future under Christ, the head," so it can be understood as those who make heaven in Christ. However, the invisible church can be said to be an invisible church community, but this was only used as a means to divide the visible church and the invisible church, and dividing them into visible and invisible is not biblical. The church is the church of the saints, and the church community is the gathering of the saints. The expression "true member" is also ambiguous.  
Read more