What a unique idea! You see, the common perspective is that we have to choose to receive a gift. But this simple character in this certainly secular movie begs to disagree. She believes that a gift given is a gift given, regardless of the choice of the person receiving it.
What gifts do I have in mind? Well, there are a few. First, there is the gift of Christ. Of Him, Isaiah says, "Unto us a Son is given" (Isa. 9:6). There is little doubt that Christ was a gift from the Father. Do we have the option of refusing that gift? I mean if we don't choose to accept Him, is He any less a gift to us? Okay, that one is hazy. How about this? Scripture speaks of faith as a gift. "To you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake" (Phil. 1:29). To the Romans Paul says, "God has allotted to each a measure of faith" (Rom. 12:3). These are just a couple of the places we find this. Peter writes his second epistle "to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours" (2 Peter 1:1). Faith is a gift. Now, while I would without a doubt argue that we choose what to do with this gift, I am asking if we get to choose whether or not to receive it.
Indeed, when we begin to think about it, the list gets long. Life, breath, family, friends, food, shelter ... just about anything you care to name is a gift from a gracious God. Do we get to reject them? We don't, for instance, actually have the power of life and death. That belongs to Christ (Rev. 1:18). We don't choose our families, and no matter what we choose to do with them, they don't stop being our families. We might choose to forego food or shelter for a time, but unless God is granting us death (another gift we cannot choose to refuse), only for a time. The Bible even calls suffering a gift to us, the will of God, His purpose, a product of His love for us. We don't get the option of refusing that one, although most of us would.
I don't know. Many people place a lot of emphasis on our choice of whether or not we receive the gift of salvation. But John says this:
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13).If, as most believe, that "received Him" is a product of our choice, then it's not entirely accurate to say, "nor of the will of man." On the other hand, "It's not your choice when it's a gift," perhaps we're giving Free Will too big a part in this equation.
6 comments:
AMEN!
God's grace is so beautiful! Majestic! AWESOME! Merciful! :D
So I'm curious about your distinction between whether there is a choice to receive the gift of faith and what one chooses to do with that gift. Supposing there is no choice, would choosing not to use the given faith be any different in the end from not having been given it?
Josh
Trin (Josh),
To me, the question is a hypothetical without a real basis. To me, not everyone is given faith. And, from my perspective, God only gives faith to those who, then, choose to exercise it.
Hypothetically, then, there would be no distinction between choosing not to receive the gift and choosing not to exercise the gift. You're right. But to me that doesn't happen in reality.
Does that answer your questions?
Perhaps. I believe my questions came out of the quoted verse from Peter's introduction. What is the faith like of those that have a faith unlike his? I assumed when I read this post earlier, that there are some with faith, but they were not using it. But perhaps I am reading that incorrectly and "of the same kind as ours" is only marking their faith as being of and in God and not, for instance, faith that I will wake tomorrow.
I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with that answer though, so will continue to study this further.
I understand the question.
When I refer to the gift of faith, it is "of the same kind as ours", as opposed to other kinds of faith. There are other kinds of faith. These are not a gift from God. James says, for instance, that faith without works is dead. So there is "dead faith", which is not "of the same kind as ours". There is faith in other gods or faith in one's own good works. None of these are classified as a gift and are not "of the same kind as ours". That faith is a gift from God, and I'm suggesting it's not a gift that can be chosen.
Very interesting discussion. I think you're on the right track here, Stan.
I always cringe when I hear Christians talking about "accepting Jesus Christ" as if I have to decide whether or not Jesus gift is worthy of my attention and loyalty.
I'm enough of a Calvinist to believe that I'm so trapped in the fire of sin that I can't get out, and that I'm so overcome by the smoke of deceit that I'm happy to just lay down in it and go to "sleep".
But my faith, which is a gift so that no man can boast (Eph 2), is nothing short of a bust-down-the-doors-rescue by a fireman named Jesus who "while I was helpless" (Rom 5) and not even desiring to be rescued (Rom 8) yanked me out of the clutch of death, breathed new life into me, and called it all a gift.
Did I accept it? No, it just happened, and by God I'm thankful for it.
So I've received this gift of faith in the sense that God chose me, rescued me, and breathed new life into me. I'm receiving the rewards of His work.
Let's not forget that Jesus said, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you..", and that the Book of Acts tells us that "all who were appointed to salvation believed".
I've always thought the whole "it's my choice, not God's" issue is more about personal pride and fierce independence still lurking around in a Christian's heart, than it is about the kind of thankfulness, surrender and humility that recognises I was too blinded by the smoke of sin to see my way out, and too dead in it to even care.
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