"And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.  And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and disobedient to the wisdom    of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (Luke 1:16-17.)

     Here is the mission of the New Testament church as it was restated to the Apostle Paul: "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." (Acts. 26:18.) unless we look back to Luke 1:17, it is extremely difficult to put Acts 26:18 in its proper perspective.  John the Baptist, Jesus and Paul preached the same gospel and we have to look at each one in the context of the other.  "No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation . . ." We cannot put our own ideas as to what is meant unless those ideas agree with all the comparable texts.

     With this rule in mind, we can begin to look at the ministry of Jesus and the early disciples.  Not one word do we hear of Jesus going about to endeavor to make sons of God.  All of his efforts in his ministry were directed toward making a better life for his beloved while they were here on earth.  As we begin to look at his ministry, we see that He was completely sovereign in all of his activities, even to the laying down of his life. (See John 10:18.)

     He was subservient only to the Father and made certain that his disciples understood this.  He told them: "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.   And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." (John 6:30-39.) He then expanded his statement to include his ministry: "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:40.) It is exceedingly needful for us to separate his official work of bringing "many sons unto glory" (Heb. 2:10); from his official work of giving the sons that he will bring to glory an abundant life in this world.  His official, primary responsibility was to save his people from their sins. (Matt.1:21.) This he accomplished by offering himself without spot to God. (See Heb. 9:11-15.) In this (15th verse), he makes the distinction, "that they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance," the difference in what Jesus did in his eternal redemption of the elect and the promise of eternal inheritance that they received through his ministry.  There is a vast difference in the promise of something being received and the receiving of that which is promised.  The entire thrust of the gospel is toward giving the heirs the promise of eternal inheritance and when they believe the gospel, they are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of the eternal inheritance. (Eph. 1:13.) The ministry of Jesus was instituted that "they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." (See Heb. 9:15, as above.)

    The usefulness of the gospel is limited to those who are called.  On the day of Pentecost, Peter said, ". . . for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts 2:39.) Also, Paul said:

          "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." (1 Cor. 1:22-24.)

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          Also, "but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14.)

      He had just said, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." To those who have been called; to those who have been quickened by that life-giving call; to those that have been made alive who were dead in trespasses and in sins (see Eph. 2:1), the gospel becomes the power of God unto salvation.

          "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jews first and also to the Greek.  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from   faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith." (Rom 1:16-17.)

      This salvation is not the new birth: It cannot be because there is faith present in the hearer and faith being a fruit of the spirit, there must be spiritual life and one has to be born again; has to be a son in order to have that life.  This agrees perfectly with the theme text: "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."(Gal.4:6.) The salvation under consideration is from fear of death(see Heb. 2:14-15); salvation from being slaves to sin by giving knowledge how they can escape from its clutches; salvation from the influence of the world and into the fellowship of the children of light, etc.  The gospel is to be preached to everyone that will listen, but only those who are called can respond, and apparently many of those who are called do not respond to the gospel and thereby become disciples.  This is a solemn duty, but many, many fail.                  

          It is sometimes believed that the text,

          "But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:  Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." II Thess. 2:13-14

     This teaches that "sonship" depends on hearing and obeying the gospel; that there is no difference in "sonship" and "discipleship." In John 15:16, Jesus told his apostles that he had chosen them that they should go and bring forth fruit.  Then in John 17:20, He prayed not for them alone, but for all that through their preaching should believe on his name.  There is no question but what God has chosen some to believe the truth, but on the other hand, not all of his elect believe.  This election of believers was made in order that God be not left without a witness; that faith might be found being manifested on earth until the Son comes the second time without sin unto salvation.  Evidently, these brethren at Thessalonica were some of those who were chosen to believe the truth.  God sent blindness on Israel that they might not believe; then Paul tells us that they have not stumbled that they should fall; that "As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes." (Rom. 11:28.) All of God's elect among the Jews will live in glory; yet only a remnant will believe the gospel. "Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy." (Rom.11:11.)

     I believe that many of us can recall someone in this present day who was stubbornly bent on going his own way, much as Paul was, and suddenly the Lord arrested him and caused him to get himself set on learning the ways of the Lord; then allowed him to come to a knowledge and belief of the gospel.  On the other hand, we all know those who are excellent Christians who were led into the way by the efforts of friends or acquaintances.  I feel that these latter were chosen to sonship and privileged to learn the truth, whereas those in the first category were led there solely of the Lord.  There are many documented cases throughout the entire history of Christianity, as was the case with Jacob, when the Lord found him in a waste-howling wilderness and led him about. (Deut. 32:10.)

     The Lord leads all of his children along, but does not lead many of them into discipleship.  He will take them into that eternal home, but does not according to his predetermined will, make them disciples.  We must make this distinction or else we have extreme difficulty reconciling all the texts in the Bible.

     Jesus exercised his own sovereign will in all that he did. His miracles were performed in order to prove to the Jews that he was a man come from God. (See John 3:2.) He was very selective in his healing.  When he came to the pool of Bethesda (John 5), there was a whole multitude of impotent folk there, but he only healed one of them.  If this had happened in the present day, there would have arisen a clamor from one end of the country to the other that he did not act properly; that he should have offered to heal every one of them.  Evidently, he at that time was only interested in that one person.  Here is a display of his electing grace.

     He was under no obligation to heal any of them.  As has been so well said many times: "The wonder is not that God does not save everyone for heaven, the wonder is that he saves anyone." In his sovereign will He heals everyone that it pleases his father for him to heal and passes the others by, but at the same time he commissioned the disciples to "preach the gospel to every creature," knowing very well that not every creature was going to respond to the preaching. 

     Jesus passing the multitude of impotent folk by, in no way implies that they would not be healed at a later time; therefore, men today have to assume that every human they meet is a potential disciple.  He may not be healed yet, but God can heal whenever it pleases him to do so, but the healing cripples as it did with Jacob when the angel wrestled with him all night.  Until a man is crippled, he has no need for discipleship.  Remember that Jesus said, "They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." The new church recognized this limitation and acted accordingly.  They went only to lost sheep of the house of Israel and it took the vision recorded in Acts 10 to convince Peter that anyone, except the Jews, had a part in the gospel church.  The New Testament church was not worried about making sons of God, they were concerned with making disciples and knew that God would take care of the sonship.

     If God had been concerned that the gospel was necessary in order for one to become a son of God, is it reasonable to think that he would have limited the first commission to Jews only? Why omit the Samaritans? (Matt. 10:5.) If we look at the whole from a humanistic standpoint or in the light of human reason, we will have to infer that God did not love, or even have regard, for any of the heathen nations.  This is an utterly untenable position in the light of scripture.  In Psalm 2:8, the instructions to the Son were to "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance . . ." Due to the fact that Jesus always did the will of the Father, there is no question but what he asked for, and received all in every nation that God loved.  However, from the limited scope of the gospel (only 30% of the people on earth have heard it in any form), it would be utter folly to assume that the gospel was the means that God devised to make Sons.  If that is true, then the system is a miserable failure.  When that great day comes and Jesus presents his beloved to the Father, he will not be able to say "Behold I and the children which God hath given me." (Heb. 2:13.) He would have to say, "part of the children," but this would make him less than a perfect captain. (See Heb. 2:10.) The doctrine of sovereign grace reaches more of humanity than all the other systems combined.

     It is often believed that all those who believe in the election and effectual calling of God, leave out too many who want to go to glory, but because they were ". . . before of old ordained to this condemnation . . ." (Jude 4), there is no way for them to "be saved." The truth of this matter is that no one who has a desire for righteousness; who has been taught to live soberly, righteously and godly, is in this reprobate category.  Daniel told us, ". . . but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand . . ." (Dan. 12:10.) Also, "The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God: God is not in all of his thoughts." (Psalm 10:4.) Until men are able to believe Romans 3:9-23, they will be caught up in the humanistic tendency to believe that they can manipulate God.  This can not be done, but until men are able to see their depraved state, they think it terrible that God would let anyone go to eternal torment without giving everyone a chance to go to glory. 

     Many today are upset about secular humanism, but this form of humanism that teaches that God will not act until man puts himself in the proper attitude or gets to where God can reach him is just as abominable as the secular kind -- in fact it is more belittling to God.  The New Testament church did not believe such and nowhere in the scriptures are we given any authority to believe such.

     Due to the texts, 1st Peter 2:8 and Jude 4, there has been some criticism of the doctrine of grace.  Some contend that the appointment mentioned in Peter's epistle was teaching that God appointed, by means of predestination, the eternal banishment of these from his Holy presence, then quote Jude 4 to prove it.  We must realize that God does some things negatively; that he makes no positive action toward such as these mentioned in both texts.  God appointed, foreordained, that all who would go through all their life in rebellion against him, to come to this end; to spend an eternity in torment.  This would have been the lot of all of Adam's posterity if mercy and grace had not appeared.  This appointment to woe was not special, as was the election to glory, but general—the soul that sinneth, it shall die--and embraced all of Adam's posterity.  All of Adam's race were under this same condemnation which was appointed or ordained of old, whereas all of Christ's  legal brethren were ordained to eternal life on the legal ground of Christ taking away their sins.  Therefore, no one can lay any charge to God's elect. (See Rom. 8:33-39.) God leaves those not in Christ to their appointed end and the pitiful part is that they will never make any motion toward God who leaves them where they desire to be in this life.  This is negative on God's part.  He does nothing.

     For those who have a fear of God, there are many texts which instruct in the ways of discipleship.  The New Testament is loaded with them, and all of us who are concerned about things eternal would do well to study them, learn them, and act upon their teachings.  We need to make this the primary concern in our lives.   Solomon said, "Fear God, and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man." (Eccl. 12:13.)