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by GLENN PEASE
02/17/18
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Based on II Peter 1:9

      F. W. Boreham, the famous Australian preacher, had an instructive experience in St. Paul's Cathedral. He and a friend were looking at Holman Hunt's well known painting, "The Light Of The World." The Savior stands before a closed door with a lantern in His hand, and He is knocking. Boreham said to his friend, "I have never been able to understand why Holman Hunt thought it necessary to put a lantern in the Savior's hand on such a brilliant moonlight night. The whole landscape stands out as vividly as at noonday."

     Just then a stranger interpreted. "You must forgive me," he said, "But it happens that I knew Holman Hunt well, and I was with him a good deal when he was working on the painting before you. If you pardon my saying so, you have completely missed one of the main ideas he had in mind. He intended you to gather from the tangle of undergrowth on the ground around the door, that the house is standing on the fringe of the wilderness. The Savior is about to leave the open country, bathed in moonlight, and plunge into the shadowed gloom of the thickly wooded wilds. It is in preparation for His gloomy journey through the darksome recesses of the wilderness that He has lighted His lantern. He is knocking at the door not merely with the hope of being admitted, and supping with the members of the household, but in order to unite them to cooperate with Him in His mission by accompanying Him on His otherwise lonely journey."

     It is fascinating to have this commentary on that painting, for it reveals the artist was aware of something that Christians tend to forget. He was aware of the fact that Jesus wants to enter the heart's door of the individual, not to love them and leave them, but to love them, save them, and recruit them for the great task of pushing back the darkness with the Gospel of light.

     You would think that a Christian could never forget the purpose of Christ and His commands to take up the cross and follow Him. You would think that a Christian could never forget the cross, and the great commission to take the good news of it into all the world. But Peter says in verse 9 that Christians can even go to the point of being forgetful concerning their own cleansing from sin. Jesus implied the same when He instituted the Lord's Supper to be observed in remembrance of Him, and to show forth His death until He comes. The implication is that Christians would forget His sacrifice for their sin without a constant reminder. In this passage Peter's main concern is with the need to keep Christians reminded of what they already know.

     In verse 12 he says will not be negligent to keep them in remembrance. In verse 13 he writes of stirring up their remembrance as long as he lives, and in verse 15 he says he is putting these things in writing that they might have them in remembrance after he is gone. Peter is fighting a major disease of the spiritual life. It is the disease of spiritual amnesia. The person with amnesia has forgotten his identity. He is normal in every other way, but he does not know who he is. Israel fell victim to this disease time and time again. She forgot that she was the bride of Jehovah, and the elect people of God.

     Moses cried out in Deut. 32:18, "You were unmindful of the Rock that begat you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth." In Judges 3:7 we read, "And the people of Israel did what is evil in the sight of the Lord, forgetting the Lord their God..." Isaiah gave this as the reason for the sorrows of Israel in Isa. 17:10, "For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge." God speaks in Jer. 2:32, "..My people have forgotten me days without number." This is the common lament of the prophets. Israel has forgotten the Lord her God. It is no wonder then that she bore no fruit. Forgetfulness and fruitfulness are opposites. Peter says that if you have all of these virtues, and cultivate them, you will bear fruit, but if you lack them you will be like Israel of old, blind, nearsighted, and forgetful of God's will and deliverance.

      It is important for Christians, not only to recognize the great potential they have to be fruitful, but also to be aware of the great danger they face in being forgetful. Forgetfulness is the cause of so much sorrow and folly. Why do people who have lived together for years, and who have gone through joys and sorrows together, decide to get a divorce, or do something that will lead to divorce? It is basically because they forget. They forget their vows and commitments. They forget the love they once had. They forget all of the values they shared in the past, and they ideals they were aiming for, and they look only at the present. Because it is unpleasant they forget all their obligations and play the fool.

     Why do young people who have been given everything grow up and rebel, and seek to overthrow the source of their blessings? It is because they forget. They forget the sacrifice and love of their parents. They forget the motives and ideals of the past, and look only at their desires of the moment.

     Why do Christians forsake the will of God? Why do they get fed up with the church? Why do they get irritable in relation to other Christians, and sinful in relation to the world? It is because they forget. They forget the love and sacrifice of Christ for sinners. They forget that Christians are still sinners. They forget the call to struggle against the forces of darkness, and to climb to the ideal of Christlikeness. They look only at the present imperfections, and they get discouraged and frustrated, and they give up. They lose the vision of the great past and the glorious future.

     Peter puts it in very plain language. He says they are blind, and they cannot see afar off. Christians are so use to hearing the unsaved referred to as the blind that it is quite a shock for Peter to refer to Christians as blind. Peter is warning Christians of the dangerous power of negative thinking. He has listed all of the positive virtues the Christian must have to be a successful soldier of the cross, and a fruit bearing servant of Christ. In this verse he shows to what depth of failure a Christian can fall if he lacks these things. He can be blind, nearsighted, and forgetful. Peter's purpose in this negative language is positive, for he wants Christians to avoid this kind of failure. Knowing this can happen should make us practice preventative measures to ensure that the fruit of our lives is not blighted by these diseases. I say diseases because, though we have only mentioned spiritual amnesia, it appears that the key symptom of the unhealthy Christian life is spiritual myopia.

     This is another name for nearsightedness. It is a condition in which the rays from distant objects are brought to a focus before reaching the retina, and so it is blurred. A Christian with spiritual myopia is all caught up with an entangled with what is under his nose, but he has lost the vision of the distant past and the upcoming future in God's plan. He is forgetful of the cross, and blind to the glory of the future. He is cut off from the root of the past, and the fruit of the future. He lives the limited and useless life of a dead stump, for he forgets his cleansing from sin, and the purpose for which he was saved.

     Myopia is caused by a constant absorption of the eye in small things such as dim print and thin threads. The Christian who specializes in the trivial, and gets so wrapped up in the petty projects of the present that he forgets the end toward which he is to be moving, becomes a very narrow and unfruitful Christian. The Christian must have a great vision that sweeps the skies of God's purpose like a giant telescope. Peter says if you lack these virtues you are blind, and can see only what is near at hand, and so it follows that if you have them, you can see far.

     John Henry Jowett likens each of these virtues to a lens on a telescope. Each one gives you more powerful vision. He writes, "Every supplied grace enlarges the spiritual vision. Every refinement of the disposition is the acquirement of an extra lens. And now I think of it, my text is like a vast drawn-out-telescope, with lens after lens added, ever contributing to the intensity and extension of its range." The mature and fruitful Christian is one with a powerful vision of the glory of God, and His ideal for man. Christians with myopia are nearsighted saints who see only the muddy mess of man's making, and they cannot see the stars of God's making. Nearsighted is a curse, and it is far more prevalent than we realize.

     William L. Stidger, a famous preacher and author of numerous books, tells about his battle with the American jitters. A less dignified name he says is ants in the pants. In a ceaseless flurry of one thing after another he became restless, irritable, angry, jealous, suspicious, and finely even went to pieces in a nervous breakdown. Even a rest in California seemed to do no good. Then, just by accident, a friend invited him to go to the top of Mt. Hamilton one night to visit the Lick Observatory. They allowed him to look through the high-powered telescope, and for the first time in his life he saw the stars in plane behind plane. He writes, "With the human eye we see only stars in a single plane. But there I saw front yards full of stars, backyards, and meadows and fields of stars, rivers of stars, forests of stars, long mountain ranges of stars-stars behind stars." His friend told the astronomer of his illness, and he said, "This is the best cure for nerves I know."

     And it was for him, for all the things he worried about became trivial after he had seen the stars. That vast vision expanded his horizon, and made him break away from the limits of nearsightedness. Its the same story over and over in multitudes of problems and diseases. People are self-centered, narrow minded, and live with such limited vision that they can't keep from being small, sick, blind, and unfruitful.   It is all the more tragic when it happens to a Christian, for he has all these resources to cure myopia and expand his vision.

     A few years ago a group of people aroused by the miseries of preventable blindness organized the Society For The Conservation Of Vision. This is what the church is to be on the spiritual level, and the Apostle Peter has given us the principles on which we are to operate. We are to go beyond the conservation of vision, however, into the field of the expansion of vision. Vision and fruit are closely linked in this passage so that we can say, the greater the vision, the greater the fruitfulness. The more nearsighted one is, the less fruit he will bear. Where there is no vision the people perish says Prov. 29:18. They perish because without vision there is no growth or fruit. Lack of vision is like lack of momentum on a bicycle.   Once that is lost there is nothing to do but fall. Peter says this is what will happen to the nearsighted saint, but for the one who adds these lenses of virtue to the telescope of his character, there will be vision, fruit, and perfect assurance that they will never fall.

     We need to examine our vision constantly using Peter's list as a chart. Test the eye sight of your soul by this standard. See where you are weak, and strengthen that area of your Christian life. If you do not have long range vision, and so have long range goals, you will tend to become frustrated by short range failure.

     Abraham Rosenback said in his autobiography that on Feb. 14, 1493 Columbus prepared a complete account of his marvelous voyage. He wrote on a stout piece of parchment, wrapped it carefully in a piece of waterproof cloth, then placed it in a iron bound barrel, and threw it into the raging ocean. He said, "If I thought there was one chance in a million of finding it, I would take my power boat...and cruise in the neighborhood of the Azores forever."

     What brings a man to a point where his birthday and book can have this kind of influence? It is certainly not nearsightedness, but rather, long range vision. The poet Edwin Markham was asked if he thought Columbus was called of God to do what he did. He replied, "Yes! I have read every book available, including the diary of Columbus, and it is clear to me that Columbus looked upon himself as a servant of God in that eventful voyage. Markham concluded a long poem about Columbus with these words:

Now let this startling thing be said;
If land had not been on ahead,
So mighty had been his gallant dare,
God's glad hand would have put it there.

      When asked what he meant by these lines he said, "I mean that God in His heavens, the stars and planets in their courses, the sun and moon and stars, the seasons in their cycles, all history, time and eternity, and the very angels in heaven are always on the side of the daring, the audacious, the courageous- the man or woman who catches his vision, feels that he is God's servant, and goes ahead regardless of obstacles!"

     Columbus was a man of vision, and that is why he was a man of fruitfulness. Those who were blind and nearsighted and forgetful of the adventures of the past, and of the potential of the future did nothing by which to be remembered. All of this is relevant to Peter's words here. We shall either take the high road of adventure by adding these virtues to our lives, and thereby gain a vision that pulls us even higher, or we will be content to take the low road of safety and security in messing with the mediocre, and thus, be nearsighted Christians. We will be blind to God's best both past and present, and fruitless as a tumbleweed in the future. May God help us to climb with Christ and catch the vision that will compel us, like Columbus, to launch out in search of new worlds to discover in the realm of spirituality, and thereby avoid being nearsighted Christians.

17.    A SURE ELECTION Based on II Peter 1:10

     One of the principle characters in the book Darkened Doors is Adrian Mallard, who is a brilliant but skeptical lawyer and sportsman. He learns that he is the victim of a serious heart disease.
His friend, Professor Boyd, a distinguished psychologist, was one day singing the praises of the open mind. "Is that good enough?" asked Mallard. "An open mind doesn't get you anywhere. I'm beginning to want certainty!" Boyd is amused by this hopelessly unscientific desire. "Certainty!" he replied. "Certainty! I am surprised at you! What do you want to be certain about?" Mallard answers in all seriousness: "About life-about death-about what happens afterwards. What's the good of your scientists if you can't tell us that?

      Mallard speaks the mind of the modern man who wants to be sure of something ultimate in a world in a whirl of constant change. It is hard to have any security in a world characterized by change. Dr. Samuel Miller of Harvard Divinity School describes the rapid acceleration of change in our society. "Regardless of whether it is good or not, and article must be constantly changed in order to sell. Professions disappear overnight; complex techniques become useless with the twist of a knob. And M.I.T. Professor complains that the instruction he gives will be obsolete by the time his students get a degree for learning it. Everywhere continuity is in the shambles, cut and chewed by the incessant chopping of the jaws of progress."

     The result is that very few people can stand with the prophets of old and say, "Here am I." They stand instead as bewildered and asking, "Where am I?" They are uncertain as to where they are and where they are going, and so they tend to remain in a rut and go nowhere. This can happen to Christians also, and that is one of Peter's concerns for the Christians of his day. He wanted to get them out of the rut of complacency and to catch a vision that would lead them on to fruitfulness for the glory of Christ and their own happiness.

      Certainty plays a major role in the success of this goal, and so Peter urges them in verse 10 to make their calling an election sure. Man does not have to certain about everything, but he has to be certain about something. F. W. Boreham said, "There is no craving in the human heart more persistent or more passionate than the craving for certainty." Luther put it negatively when he said that no more miserable state of mind existed than that of uncertainty. Certainty concerning some value in what gives life meaning is essential to happiness. Happiness can be measured by the number and quality of a person's certainties. One of the most beautiful love poems I ever read is that by Amelia Burr:

I am not sure the earth is round,
Nor that the sky is really blue.
The tale of why the apples fall
May or may not be true.

I do not know what makes the tides,
Nor what tomorrow's world may do
But I have certainty enough,
For I am sure of you.

     One solid certainty makes for many uncertainties. This is true also in the spiritual realm. A know-so Christian is not a know it all Christian, for Paul says that we only know in part, and any honest Christian knows that he is ignorant and uncertain concerning many of the mysteries of life. Luther wrote, "For although we may be certain that we believe in Christ, nevertheless we are certain that we believe in all the things that appertain to Him, and therefore what we actually believe is uncertain."

      Peter is not aiming for the goal of absolute certainty concerning everything, for this would be, not to partake of the divine nature, but to become God Himself. Peter's goal for Christians, and the goal all of us are to aim for, is certainty concerning our election. In this we can be sure and we say with Paul, "I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."    In other words, I can be certain of Christ and be certain of His promise of eternal life. We can be unsure of many things and yet have the security that brings us God's best if we are sure of this.

      John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, said in his declining years, "When I was young I was sure of many things. There are only two things of which I am now sure; one is that I am a miserable sinner, and the other that Christ is an all-sufficient Savior." This is the kind of certainty that all Christians should have, and it should be even more specific than this. It should go so far as to say that He is my Savior, and that I am sure I am one of the elect. Make sure of your election says Peter.

      He is not writing to a pack of politicians, but to a church of common people. All of us are to have something in common with politicians, however. The politician's big aim is his election. He works, speaks, and drives himself on and on to the end of becoming elected. What politician would not love to have a list of procedures to guarantee the certainty of his election? Peter says he has given us just such a list here so that if we follow it we cannot fail.   If you do these things you shall never fall is what he says. This is encouraging enough, but then he goes on to say that on top of the certainty of a lifetime office our election made sure will lead to an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom of Christ. Just think of it! The winner of the coming election for the highest office of our land gets only an entrance into the White House. It is a great honor indeed, but not to be compared with the consequences of the election we have in Christ. The president may be out of the White House in four years, but our entrance into the kingdom of Christ is forever.

      We see then why Peter is so concerned that Christians make their election sure, for to be sure of this is to have certainty concerning the highest value of life, and this leads to the best,
happiest, and most fruitful life. All kinds of questions arise out of this challenge to make our election sure. It leads us into the depths of the most complicated and difficult questions that theologians struggle with. The problem with God's sovereignty and man's free will are involved here, for how can we have anything to do with making our election sure when it is God who elects? This then gets us into the problem of the relationship of faith to works. Is our assurance of salvation to be based on our faith in Christ, or upon the doing of these things as Peter says? Is fruit taking the place of faith here? Is man's will superceding the will of God here? These and numerous other questions arise the deeper you probe into this verse and the concept of election.

      We cannot investigate every tunnel in the cave of this truth, and so we will have to be selective. The first thing we need to do is to get a grasp of just what it is we are talking about. What is election? We are not running for anything, and our names are not on ballots to be voted on by anyone. Someone tried to simplify the idea of election by saying that God votes for us; the devil votes against us, and we cast the deciding vote. There is a lot of truth in this over simplification, but it is not what the Bible means by election. Election has nothing to do with the devil's vote or ours. It is totally a matter of God's vote.

       Augustus Strong in his Systematic Theology defines it: "Election is that eternal act of God, by which in His sovereign pleasure, and on account of no foreseen merit in them, he chooses certain out of the number of sinful men to be the recipients of the special grace of His Spirit and so to be made voluntary partakers of Christ's salvation." Misunderstanding of this doctrine has led to many futile battles and much unjust criticism of God. He has been labeled a tyrant and called unfair by those who have never taken the time to investigate the purpose of God in election. They jump to the conclusion that God elects some to be saved, and by not electing the others He dams them. This cruel caricature of God has no basis in the Bible. As we learn the purpose of God's election of some we will also understand how we can give heed to Peter's challenge to make our election sure.

       God's election is teleological, and this means that it is for a purpose. It is a means to a greater end. God chose Israel to be His elect people, but not just so He could bless them and curse the rest of the world. It was that through them He might bless all the rest of the world. Abraham was chosen and his seed blessed that through his seed all the nations of the earth might be blessed. Election is God's way of making sure that His will is represented on earth. Just as we elect a representative so that our voice can be heard in congress, so God elects individuals and nations that His voice might be heard on earth. We elect a president not just to be a blessing to our party, but for all the people of the nation. The purpose of God's election is also that through the elect the non-elect also might be blessed.

      God reaches down and in a dramatic way converted Paul. It was not just so He could bless Paul, but because Paul could be an instrument to communicate the Gospel to millions. God is not being unjust and unfair in electing some, for His purpose in so doing is that all may have the hope of salvation. God has no obligation to save anyone, for all have sinned, and all are worthy of His judgment. God loves man, however, and desires to save all that can be saved. Election is the method by which He will be able to save the most.

       Jesus followed this same procedure. He chose 12 to be with Him, but not in order to discriminate against others, and to deny to others the blessings of His teachings. His purpose in choosing them was that through them His teachings might benefit all. He makes this clear in John 15:16, "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain...." The purpose of His election has been fulfilled, and we are reaping the fruit of the Apostles today.

      It is only when we get the mistaken idea that God arbitrarily chooses some for salvation and special privileges as end in itself. That we feel is unjust and unfair. But if we keep the biblical view in mind, election is just another example of the marvelous grace of God. Election carries with it great responsibility, and when this is forgotten, and the elect see only the privileges and become proud, then they are in danger of forfeiting their election. Israel was God's elect, but when she continued to fail to fulfill the purpose of her election and bore no fruit, she was cut off. She repudiated her election and God's wrath fell. In His mercy He preserved a remnant to form the basis for a new Israel and a new elect people. This new Israel was founded by Christ, and the church became the new elect and chosen race.

     Paul makes it clear that the new Israel is under the same obligations as the old Israel. The purpose of God's election is the same, and that is that the elect are to be His servants taking His good news to all men. If the new Israel fails to fulfill this purpose, she has no more reason to feel she will be allowed to remain a fruitless branch on the tree of God than did old Israel. This is not a matter of speculation but of clear revelation. Paul in the context of Israel being cut off writes to the church in Rom. 11:19-22, "You will say 'Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.' That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if ?God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Note then the kindness and severity of God; severity toward those who have fallen, but kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off."

     God's election is for the purpose of the elect being His servants and bearing fruit. If the elect do not fulfill this purpose they repudiate their election and fall. We must grasp this purpose of election. It is the goal of the elect to be tools of God to reach those who are not elected. God does not elect some so as not to elect others, but that He might have someone to reach the others.

     Henry Van Dyke said, "Election to service is the supreme saving truth." Failure to see this is to be blind like Israel of old. When we elect a president it is not for the sake of showering upon him great honor and blessing. This happens, or course, but only as a means so that he can in his place of honor and power be a servant to all of the people. This is the principle behind God's election also, and now we can see what Peter is driving at. To make our election sure is to fulfill the purpose of it by adding all of these virtues to our lives that we might bear fruit. This is the way to security and assurance and certainty in our relationship with God.

     No wonder Peter is so urgent and insistent on this matter. No wonder he wanted it kept before Christians at all times. He did not want to see the new Israel fail as did the old Israel and fall from election. Here is a guide, therefore, that if followed guarantees you will never fall. Elections will come and go, but here is an election we must be concerned about constantly. Let us give heed to what we have learned in this single tunnel of truth. Election is for a purpose. Let us fulfill that purpose and so live with the confidence and certainty that comes with the knowledge of a sure election.

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