None Should Perish

[dave c]

HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #132y, Re-Written 07NOV09

The Disciples’ Prayer—Part Twenty Five: None Should Perish

by rev dave c

Mt 6:9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "`Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one' (NIV).

John 6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ...40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." 44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: `They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me” (NIV).

We have been discussing the nature of God the Father’s will for us in His Son, Jesus—and in turn, Christ’s will for us through the Holy Spirit. Regarding God’s will, the verses quoted above from the Sixth Book of John are enormous. While 37-44 might be taken to mean that God preordains only some, a percentage, of all the people He creates to be destined for salvation (and so everyone else is destined for destruction), we need to take a careful look at verses 40 and 45 before we come to that conclusion. Although verse 44 specifically says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,” verse 40 says, “everyone who looks to and believes in Jesus will have eternal life,” and 45 says, “They will all be taught by God...Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.”

I must ask, “So how does God teach all of humanity?” The first three chapters of Romans provide us the ready answer to that question. Romans 1:20 tells us, “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 2:13-15 says, “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) (NIV).” Finally 3:2 states that God’s people are at an advantage because, “they have been entrusted with the very words of God” (in our case, canonized Holy Scripture as the Old and New Testaments). So God teaches everyone everywhere through His creation, He writes the purpose of the law upon the hearts of the saved and unsaved, and He has provided His Written Word which is increasingly available throughout the world. “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.”

In John 17:20&21 we listen in as Jesus prays to His Father, "My prayer is not for them [the Apostles] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me (NIV). Some are brought to Christ through God’s direct calling, but all the inhabitants of the world are to be invited to His table by the sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by His Bride and Body, the Church. This is the “Great Commission” of Mark 16:15&16, “[Jesus] said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned (NIV).” Whether the invitation is from the Groom, or from the Bride, it is the exact same invitation to the exact same wedding banquet and it is to be extended to everyone throughout creation (read Mt 22:1-14).

In him we [apostles] were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory (Ep 1:11-14; NIV). He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you (2Th 1:8; NIV). There are clearly those whom the Father calls to Himself, and there are those whom He calls via His church as we present the Gospel through our words and through our deeds—but one thing is evident: God’s will for us, His heart’s desire, is that none should perish but that all should come to repentance (2Pe 3:9; NIV). God the Father gives each person the opportunity to choose to remain in death eternal, or to choose everlasting life in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.