Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
It's so easy for us naive humans to conceive of the Lord as drawing a circle that shuts out bad people. But He draws a bigger circle to include them--at least until they shut Him out by never-ending resistance.
The Lord looks upon lost people not as wolves to be shot down as soon as possible, but as sheep who have wandered away--as potential heirs to His estate. His grace persists in seeking some way to intrude. What a pity that so many church people don't yet understand this concept and consequently treat "unsaved" people as if they were wolves! The church has hardly begun to love as God loves! That idea of agapeis slow to grasp, it seems.
Being "justified by faith" is something that nearly staggers one's mind just to realize how wonderful it is. It makes you want to get up on the housetop and shout the news to everybody. Christ's death on the cross is for every sinner--it's a sacrifice for his or her salvation. God has no chip on His shoulder against anyone. And this "gift" is "out of all proportion" to sin, which is "vastly exceeded by the grace of God" (Rom. 5:15, New English Bible). Thus there is no reason why "everyone" should not be saved except that they refuse Christ's grace and spurn the "gift" of salvation.
In his same letter Paul goes a step further and says that "God has dealt to each one a measure of faith" (Rom. 12:3). So, (a) God has brought justification for "everyone" by the sacrifice of His Son, and (b) He has given "each one a measure of faith" to appropriate that justification. Would that everyone said Yes and exercised the faith already given him!
It all adds up to the conclusion that, if anyone is lost at last, it will be because of his or her own persistent rejection of what God has already done to save him. And if anyone is saved, it will be because he stopped resisting God's initiative in saving him!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 9, 2007.
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