The Lion's Call

In my last post I mentioned C.S. Lewis' The Silver Chair. After hearing the sermon that I referenced in that post, I decided to listen to the audio version of this book. I love how Lewis incorporates great truths of scripture into his stories, and I heard one that I wanted to mention, because we have been studying it in youth group as well.

The doctrine of election can be a rather overwhelming topic and a hard one to get your mind around (that's why I will relate what Tim Senn has taught us instead of making it up on my own).

1 Peter 1:1-2 - "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you."

Election is basically being chosen by God. God chooses those who will and do believe in Him. Tim gave three realities of divine election (4 Parts of Tim's teaching on the "Chosen by God" series can be found on the BCLR ROC blog). They were: The Source of Election, The Goal of Election, and the Results of Election. I just want to share a few points from the first reality.

In 1 Peter 1:2, we can see that the source of election is the Trinity. Each member of the trinity has a part. There is the foreknowledge of God(the Father), the sanctifying work of the Spirit and the sprinkled blood of Christ.

All of the parts fit together like a puzzle and it is really cool. God the Father "foreknew"(which Tim pointed out means He knew us personally, instead of factually) those who He was going to save. God the Spirit caused us to be born again at the space and time that we did. God the Son provided the means by which we could be saved by dying on the cross.

The scene in The Silver Chair that I was talking about is towards the beginning of the book. Eustace and Jill have both gotten into Narnia after asking Aslan, but Eustace has fallen off a cliff and been blown to Narnia by the Lion. Aslan is talking with Jill about everything that happened, and mentions a task that he called her and Eustace out of their own world to do.

Jill says that their must be a mistake, because no one called them. They asked someone to let them come to Narnia and they just got in. Aslan responds,

"You would not have called to me, unless I had been calling to you."

This is a wonderful truth, because we don't have to do the work. If we didn't believe this, we would be relying on our sinful human will, instead of our choice through God's call. Another reason it is wonderful is because all the glory is given to God. We can not try to take the glory, because God is the one who chose that we would be saved. Praise God for this perfect plan that He has orchestrated and thank Christ for His sacrifice to make this plan possible!