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What we believe and teach - The purpose of God according to election - |
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We were
predestined by God before the foundation of the world to obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus. So we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ because in His own time God enabled us to repent and to believe (that
is to say, because God gave us both repentance and faith), so that it might
be fulfilled His purpose, that is, the purpose of God according to election,
which does not depend on works but on the will of the One who calls. Is it
not written that of His own will God brought us forth by the word of truth,
that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures, and that we did not
choose the Lord but the Lord chose us? Therefore it does not depend on him
who wills, nor on him who runs, but on God, who has
mercy on whom He wants to have mercy. However God not only has mercy on whom
He wants to have mercy, but He also hardens whom He wants to harden. And who
are they whom He hardens? They are those He predestined to go to perdition. |
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Therefore
there are vessels of mercy, which God prepared beforehand for glory, and
vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. The antichrist, who is coming, is
one of the vessels of wrath, for the Scripture says that he is going to
perdition. There is no unrighteousness with God, for God does whatever
pleases Him and He has the right to do what He wishes with His own things.
Who then can say to Him, ‘What are you doing?’’ or ‘You have done wrong’?
Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one
vessel for honor and another for dishonor? The purpose of God according to
election is of fundamental importance in order to understand what it means to
be saved by grace, but also to understand why not all men are saved by God. |