Chosen: Justice and Freedom
Pastor Tan Thai
This sermon explores the doctrine of God's election and human free will. The preacher presents three biblical truths: God desires all people to be saved, humans possess freedom of choice, and God has predestined certain people for salvation. The sermon addresses difficult questions about the justice of God's selection and the relationship between divine predestination and human freedom.
The sermon begins by establishing the foundation of spiritual blessings that God grants to those chosen in Christ, as recorded in Ephesians 1:3-14. These blessings include sanctification, adoption as God's children, redemption, forgiveness of sins, the conferral of grace, hope, and sealing by the Holy Spirit. The preacher emphasizes that these blessings are reserved for those who believe in Jesus and understand God's good purpose through His beloved Son.
The second section of the sermon presents three important biblical truths concerning salvation. First, God desires all people to be saved, as demonstrated through Ezekiel 33:11, 2 Peter 3:9, and 1 Timothy 2:4. Second, humans possess freedom of choice between life and death, between serving God or other gods, as stated in Deuteronomy 30:19 and Joshua 24:15. Jesus invites the weary and burdened to come to Him and promises to receive all who come. Third, God has predetermined and chosen certain people to be saved and to dwell in Christ, as stated in John 15:16, 1 Peter 1:1-2, and Acts 13:48.
The following section explains the order of salvation according to Romans 8:28-30: God predestines, God calls, God justifies, and God glorifies. The sermon uses the example of Paul to illustrate that although he considered himself the least of the apostles because he once persecuted the church, through God's grace he became what he is today. The sermon also cites 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 to show that God chose the foolish, weak, and lowly things to shame the strong and mighty in the world.
The sermon acknowledges three difficult questions that believers ask: Is God's selection of certain people for salvation just, if God has already chosen, what happens to human free will, and if God has already chosen, why is it necessary to testify about Jesus. To address these questions, the sermon introduces the concept of two types of grace: common grace for all people in horizontal life, and saving grace for those chosen in vertical life. This distinction suggests that God grants common grace to all humanity through His care, but saving grace is particularly given to those chosen for salvation.
The sermon concludes by emphasizing that although God has absolute predestination, He also respects human freedom of choice. All people are born in sin from conception, as Psalm 51:5 and Ephesians 2:1-3 indicate, but God opens the way of salvation to all through Christ. God's grace is not limited, for He causes the sun to rise and rain to fall on both the evil and the good, as Matthew 5:44-45 points out. Therefore, the sermon calls listeners to accept God's grace and freely choose to serve Him.