Being Called, Being Chosen

[Still Alive]

42 minutes ago, Alive said:

Ya…you have offered this idea up a number of times and I cant see it.

Reward differences? Yes. But an individual ‘In Christ’ being booted from His Kingdom and our inheritance as sons? I say this is error and leads to a works based life of fear. We all in Christ were transferred past tense.

In addition, we are told we rose In and with Christ and our Life is hidden with Christ in God. We are either Alive In Christ having been gifted with that Life which is Christ Eternal and awaiting the final manifestation of that very Life in the Resurrection or Change at His Return.

In fact, I believe we are in His Kingdom now in a real earthly functional way as we know Him and are being changed into His Likeness from one degree of Glory to another as He works in us. We are His workmanship.

Yes…this is variable across the membership of His Body, but all are vital members as Paul discussed in 1 Cor 12-14.

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,”

(Colossians 1:13 NAS20)

I look at it this way. All believers are God's children. So, now that you are His, are you going to be the kid he's proud of, or the one he's constantly having to bail out of jail? I prefer to be the former, but neither is gonna get you written out of the will.

[Neighbor]

48 minutes ago, Still Alive said:

but neither is gonna get you written out of the will.

 ..."let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,  and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.  For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,  and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,  and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.  For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned."....

[Still Alive]

20 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

 ..."let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,  and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.  For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,  and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,  and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.  For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned."....

Define "fallen away". For me, it means falling away from the faith. 

[Neighbor]

32 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance,

Hi, I understand it as in to apostatize. In one context, it is  to return to Judaism renouncing Jesus as the Christ.

[Diamond]

On 8/5/2024 at 7:16 AM, Dennis1209 said:

Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Ephesians 1:4 "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. "

It is a little bit different spelling than Matthew but we are told in Psalm 139 16 that God writes the book of our life at or before conception. He gives us all of our gifts, talents and abilities to bring HIM praise honor and glory and so we can serve one another. Of course not everyone is faithful to their calling from God. Clearly He says whosoever will let them come. So it is our choice and our decision. (Revelation 22 17)

[Diamond]

23 hours ago, Still Alive said:

Define "fallen away".

It means not to love God, you neighbor and yourself. Not to follow the law and the commandments of God. It can be difficult to forgive those who use and abuse but that is exactly what we are called to do. Even we are to love our enemy. 

[Diamond]

On 8/6/2024 at 3:21 PM, Still Alive said:

the one he's constantly having to bail out of jail?

Actually I am the one getting revived and resituated. Then He tells us to be good and not get into a situation that He has to bail us out. 

[Still Alive]

14 minutes ago, Diamond said:

It means not to love God, you neighbor and yourself. Not to follow the law and the commandments of God. It can be difficult to forgive those who use and abuse but that is exactly what we are called to do. Even we are to love our enemy. 

How much can you "not" follow the law and commandments of God before you've "fallen away"? I suppose I'm also wondering when one is or is not doing that. 

I'll be frank here: The way I'm interpreting that, I see it as legalism. But I might be misunderstanding what you meant when you posted that.

[Still Alive]

13 minutes ago, Diamond said:

Then He tells us to be good and not get into a situation that He has to bail us out. 

Yes. I think that is the part of Jesus' message a lot of people don't think very deeply about. That is, we all get the "he died for our sins" part. But we don't put together the "he's our dad, and he's giving us instruction on how to live our life the way he wants us to, not just for him, but for us. i.e. We will live a more joyful life if we follow his instruction. And my assumption is that most of us technically understand it in one way or another. But as Paul said, "I do the things I don't want to do" and "don't to the things I should". But we're still his kids, and as long as we see those things that way, I don't believe we've fallen away. But when you stop seeing it that way, you may need to re-evaluate who you are, and who you believe He is.

[Diamond]

39 minutes ago, Still Alive said:

I see it as legalism.

All of the Law is summed up in Love. What part of love do you feel is legalistic? God wants us to love ourselves. That means He wants us to take good care of ourselves.

37Jesus declared, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 

38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.  Matthew 22:38  

40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”