If I were to interview some of those seven thousand men who did not bow their knees to Baal, and ask them to describe instances where they refused to bow, I would probably hear some wonderful stories of heroic faith in the face of oppression and persecution. They might tell of times when a way of escape was opened. They might tell of sufferings they endured. No doubt there would be testimonies of God’s faithfulness and examples of how specific scriptures fortified and bolstered their faith in times of desperate need. I bet there would also be confessions of temptation and wavering – when competing desires between survival and obedience, the acceptance of man and the honoring of God, were at war. There may have been, from the perspective of these men some very “close calls” where it seemed they had barely escaped, or almost succumbed.

Yet God testifies that each of them was being kept ultimately by God Himself. He kept them, and He kept them for Himself – according to His gracious choice.

Thank God that I am kept by God, for God, and through His gracious choice. As I strive against sin, as I strive to see more of the glory of Christ, as I avail myself of all the means of grace, I can rest assured that my progress and my success are assured not by my taking hold of means (as necessary as means are) but rather because I have been laid hold of by Christ. I can strive with all my might because God is the God of my strength. I can endure weakness because God often preserves my faith through weakness. In all respects I am kept by God, for God, and by His grace.

Amen!

Paul endured all things, and he was enduring suffering in prison as he wrote 2 Timothy. Paul deliberately chose paths of difficulty and hardship; he was well-content with suffering because by them the chosen could obtain salvation. Certainly, Paul understood the nature of God’s sovereignty, his unconditional election, and the unchangeable state of God-wrought regeneration in the hearts of His chosen ones. So why wouldn’t Paul say something more like “I relax and rest knowing that the chosen will inevitably end up in eternal glory with Christ?” How is it that the chosen may obtain salvation in such a way that Paul’s enduring hardship had something to do with it? How is it, that Paul’s ability, willingness, and endurance were encouraged, helped and motivated by his view that its effects would result in the salvation of the chosen?

Clearly, Paul’s understanding of election is quite different from my notions of it, and the implications I bring to it with my 21st century mind. That God’s pre-determination of all things does not remove true requirements and conditions put upon those who are pre-determined is thoroughly biblical. Perhaps Paul’s previous short illustration of athletes that only win if they compete according to the rules, a few verses before this one, explains something of this spiritual dynamic. Runners must run to win. Not only that, but they must train, practice, push themselves, and suffer pain to win a race. If a runner knew with certainty, by direct revelation from God, that he would be the winner of the race, he could not, based on that knowledge, stop training or allow himself to get out of shape before the race. He would still have to run, train, work out, and compete according to the rules.

God has set rules that govern our salvation and our entrance into it (such as “through much tribulation,” in Acts 14:22). Paul knew that his suffering was part of the race set before him. His suffering was designed into the rules of the game such that by them he would “fill up what was lacking with regard to Christ’s afflictions,” Col 1:24.

Therefore even though Paul knew better than anyone that God would invariably glorify every single one that he had chosen, with out a single exception, and that He would do it by grace alone, through faith in Christ alone; he also knew that the way this would be played out would be, in part, through Paul’s own endurance of suffering. Paul was not passive, but entirely active, earnest, and resolute in all his spiritual activity; in order that all God that had pre-determined, would take place. Not just that the ultimate outcome would take place – but that the outcome would take place and that it would take place according to the “rules,” or according to the means that God had ordained and determined. These means (of grace) are by no means static, automatic or mechanical. They include and depend upon real action, effort and use of them on my part. Paul knew very well that, all that he was, and all that he did, was by grace and through grace, to the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:13).

I have been pondering this subject – the non-mechanical use of the means of grace – for some time now. I have become convinced that in my life, the degree to which I understand this doctrine, and practice my religion accordingly, I live by a vigorous and engaged involvement with God. Conversely, the more I fall back into a sense of automation or passivity – or in other words, the more that I view my spiritual/eternal condition as detached from how I live today, the more I become discouraged, despondent and fatigued.

Despondency, or self-pity, is a mortal enemy of mine. I hate it, but my flesh likes the taste of its bitter fruit. When I suffer, for example with chronic back pain, I can choose to either live according to the flesh and eat self-pity to my destruction (forgive me Lord for how often I eat it), or I can remind myself that as I endure all things (including an aching back), that I do so somehow not just for my sake but also for the sake of the chosen. Somehow in God’s rules, he can take my endurance of pain and put it to work so that not only will I enter salvation through perseverance, but that his people also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it, eternal glory. My suffering – and more importantly my enduring with faith really matters! It is part of God’s pre-determined rules for my race and that somehow by running it with endurance I will receive a reward, and the saints may also enter eternal glory. Such a view of the non-mechanical means of grace – governed completely and sovereignty by God – yet that genuinely require my choices and actions – invigorates, motivates and enables my endurance. They really matter. They really are effective. They go to work in me and have an effect on others – according to God’s rules and God’s grace. This kind of living puts a knife in the heart of self-pity. Living this way can turn weakness into communion with God, instead of a pity-party.

O Lord, please have mercy on me and forgive my sin. Too often I forget that your grace is sufficient for me. O, that my flesh actually likes the tastes of self pity’s bitter fruit is a horrible reality. Strengthen my hands for battle against this enemy and cause me use all the means you’ve ordained – especially that I would delight myself with the sweet fruit of communion with you. Remind me Lord, every day, that my afflictions are ordained – they are rules set by you for me to endure and that how endure them matters. Thank you that you require me to engage my will to run, and more importantly that you give me the strength, by your grace, to run. Praise you Lord Jesus. Amen.