John Phillips on God's sovereign election- Some have thought that the word “foreknown” is the key to the problem. All knowledge is based on fact, the argument runs; fact is not based on knowledge. A fact has to be established before it can be known. Human knowledge is largely after-knowledge of a given fact, but God is not restricted to after-knowledge. He is omniscient and therefore has foreknowledge. But whether it is after-knowledge or foreknowledge, the knowledge is based on fact. For example, John Brown accepts Christ as Saviour on a given day in his personal history and thereby establishes a fact which can be known. His friends and relatives come to know of this fact after it happens, but God can see the same fact a week, a month, a year, an eternity before it happens. Nevertheless, His knowledge, like that of John Brown’s friends, is based on the fact of John Brown’s acceptance of Christ. “Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate.” There is only one thing wrong with
When Jesus comes back he isn’t coming to free you from sin. He isn’t coming back to do that because he did that the first time around. Jesus has freed you from sin. Sin is a noun. It’s a cosmic power that you were enslaved to. You died. New you was raised with Christ with newness of life. Therefore sin has no power over you anymore. Yes you are still capable of committing sin, but you actually don’t have to. You are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. You are the righteousness of God in Christ. So instead of glorifying sin’s power why don’t we lift up the one who is able to keep you from sin Jesus Christ the righteous. Give honor to him as Lord and see yourself in him. Then you will be living in the reality that was created for you in him.