“Lord Jesus, we thank You that You do not want anyone to perish but that all should come to faith in You. At the same time, You are the one who calls people. We do not understand but we trust You, for Your ways are far higher than ours. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
Acts 2:46-47 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, (47) praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
As the early church lived in the fullness of His Holy Spirit, people were being added to His church. Acts 5:14 And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,
It was not only Jews who were turning and believing in Jesus but Gentiles also were being added into the fellowship of His church. Acts 13:48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
The church was being an instrument in God’s hands, in the enablement of His Holy Spirit, to complete His purpose.
What is the purpose of God?
The Lord is reconciling humanity and creation to Himself, through our Lord Jesus Christ. _Colossians 1:19-20 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, (20) and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
The Lord longs for all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. I Timothy 2:3-4 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, (4) who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
He does not want anyone to perish but that all should come to repentance and faith in Him. _II Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but *is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Each person must make a choice to come into fellowship with God. God has made the way for man to be reconciled with Him, which is through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
The Lord Jesus declared again and again that a person must believe in Him to have eternal life. John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
This was what was taking place, people were believing in the Lord Jesus, entering eternal life and into the fellowship of His church.
Though each individual is responsible to choose to believe in Jesus and have eternal life, yet, simultaneously, it is God who chooses us. John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
This promise of eternal life is to all whom the Lord our God will call. It is God who calls people. Acts 2:39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
We are thus faced with a dilemma. Man must believe in Jesus to have eternal life. Synchronously, it is God who chooses or calls people to be His disciples.
Apostle Paul explains to us that God foreknows those who will come to faith in Him. He is omniscient. He has also predestined those to be His own. Romans 8:29-30 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (30) Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
God is all-knowing and He is also the one who brings things to pass. Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, (10) Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’
Even regarding the Jews, God’s own people, this is what we understand. Romans 9:27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL BE AS THE SAND OF THE SEA, THE REMNANT WILL BE SAVED.
The matter of man’s free will to believe in Jesus and God’s predestination to choose people for Himself, are simultaneous. This seems impossible from human understanding but these are the ways of God. Mar 10:27 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”
Let us be part of God’s work of adding to His church, those whom He has called and chosen to be saved.