We Choose. We Are Chosen.

 Temporary or Permanent?

We all know that our lives upon this earth are temporary. We figure this out as we grow older and learn about death. The big question that follows our new knowledge of dying is what happens to us after we die. Jesus had this to say-

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 

Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. 

We know that when someone dies they enter a grave- a place of death. I'm not going to debate alternatives to being buried -either by choice or through circumstance. Our Savior tells us that a time will come when all in their graves will hear His voice.  When they hear His voice they will come forth to life or damnation, one or the other.

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 

1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 

1Th 4:18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

The Lord shouts!

When the Lord shouts the dead will hear that shout!

So logic dictates that we are in our graves until we hear the Lord's shout when He returns for us.  

How blessed are we to have this assurance, this hope, this promise of life eternal in Christ. We live in the refiner's fire right now. At every turn we are confronted with the blazing fire of choice- life or damnation, good or evil. And we must trust that faith in our Sinless Savior will see us through the refining fire, and His life, His goodness that are given to us are seen by Him. The good we do is believing in Christ, this is true goodness-- our Savior.

I choose to live a temporary life here and now knowing that my permanent life is promised to me in Christ on resurrection day at His return. I choose to enter a temporary death sleep when God deems for it to be my time to do so.  I don't believe death is permanent unless you make a choice for it to be so, and even then you will be woken from your first death to face your judgment and permanent non-existence- the second death.

Rev 4:11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. 

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Excerpt - Articles on Romans by E. J. Waggoner Chapter 8

What About Predestination? The text shows that "whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren." God's thoughts toward men are thoughts of peace, and not of evil. Jer. 29:11. He ordains peace for us. Isa. 26:12. We read nothing about men being foreordained to destruction; the only thing that God has predestinated is that men should be conformed to the image of his Son.

But it is only in Christ that we become conformed to his image. It is in Him that we come "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Eph. 4:13. Therefore it is that men are foreordained or predestinated only in Christ. 

The whole story is told in the following passage of Scripture:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good-pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."

Everything is in Christ. 

We receive all spiritual blessings in him; we are chosen in him unto holiness; in him we are predestinated unto the adoption of children; in him we are accepted; and in him we have redemption through his blood. "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thess. 5:9.

That is God's purpose and foreordination concerning man. Still further, "whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son." Whom did he foreknow? There can be no limit; he must have foreknown all. If there were any exception, then God would not be infinite in knowledge. If he foreknows one person, then he foreknows every person. There has not been a person born into the world whose birth God did not foreknow. "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."

Therefore, since every person has been known to God even before the foundation of the world, and those whom he foreknew he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, it follows that God has purposed salvation for every soul that has ever come into the world. His love embraces all, without respect of persons.

"Then everybody will be saved, no matter what he does," some one will say. Not by any means. Remember that the purpose of God is in Christ. It is only in him that we are predestinated. And we are free to choose for ourselves whether we will accept him or not. Man's will has been forever set free, and God himself will not presume to interfere with it. He holds sacred the choice and will of each individual. He will not carry out his own purpose contrary to man's will. His will is to give man whatever man decides will best please him.

So he sets before man life and death, good and evil, and tells him to choose which he will have. God knows what is best, and has chosen and prepared that for man. He has gone so far as to fix it beyond all possibility of failure,  that man shall have that good thing if he chooses it. But the wonderful kindness and courteousness of the great God is seen in this, that he defers in everything to man's wishes. If man, in his turn, will but defer to God's wishes, there will be the most delightful and loving companionship between them.