Y ÉL OS DIO VIDA

Y él os dio vida a vosotros, cuando estabais muertos en vuestros delitos y pecados, en los cuales anduvisteis en otro tiempo, siguiendo la corriente de este mundo, conforme al príncipe de la potestad del aire, el espíritu que ahora opera en los hijos de desobediencia, entre los cuales también todos nosotros vivimos en otro tiempo en los deseos de la carne, haciendo la voluntad de la carne y de los pensamientos, y éramos por naturaleza hijos de ira, lo mismo que os demás. Pero Dios, que es rico en misericordia, por su gran amor con que nos amó, aun estando muertos en pecados, nos dio vida juntamente  con Cristo (por gracia sois salvos), y juntamente con él nos resucitó, y asimismo nos hizo sentar en lugares celestiales con Cristo Jesús, para mostrar en los siglos venideros las abundantes riquezas de su gracia en su bondad para con nosotros en Cristo Jesús. Porque por gracia sois salvos por medio de la fe; y esto no de vosotros, pues don de Dios; no por obras, para que nadie se gloríe. Porque somos hechura suya, creados en Cristo Jesús para buenas obras las cuales Dios preparó de antemano para que anduviésemos en ellas. Efesios 2:1-10

Ante semejante declaración, no queda más opción que doblar nuestras rodillas ante Dios todo poderoso y adorarle como solo él es digno y merecedor. No sé si somos capaces de solo vislumbrar el valor de tan gran amor, algo tan sumamente valioso e inmenso que no tiene parangón, Dios nos libero de una vida de muerte y esclavitud por medio de Cristo, su muerte y posterior resurrección.               
Dios hizo lo que para nosotros era imposible por nuestra antigua condición de pecadores impenitentes, salvarnos de la condenación eterna.

Veamos el cambio que ha sido obrado por Dios.  
     
Antes teníamos una clara inclinación al mal y nos gustaba, siguiendo la corriente de este mundo sin ningún tipo de pesar, estábamos muertos en delitos y pecados, lo que me horroriza es que lo disfrutábamos y NO queríamos que eso cambiase lo más mínimo, éramos desobedientes primeramente a Dios, a los padres, autoridades legales o cualquier cosa que supusiera someternos y esclavos vivíamos esclavos de los deseos carnales constantemente sin ningún tipo de pudor o arrepentimiento, violentos algunos de nosotros con un carácter pésimo ,hijos de la ira.

Tras ser resucitados de esa antigua vida y modo de vivir, esclavos del pecado, la carne y sirviendo al Diablo. Dios nos ha renovado por completo, nuestro hombre interior, nuestra mente, alma, emociones…todo ha sido hecho de nuevo por y para la gloria de Dios y no siendo eso suficiente, ¡nos ha hecho sentar en los lugares celestiales junto con Cristo!, en la economía de Dios no hay hueco para el concepto temporal, porque es eterno y para él todo ha sido hecho.

El concepto de cómo coexisten la temporalidad humana y la eternidad de Dios es muy interesante y quizás arroje algo de luz en este tema que estamos tratando, Dios desde antes de la creación del mundo escogió a quien salvar y tenía su plan de salvación perfectamente definido.

Según nos escogió en él antes de la fundación del mundo, para que fuésemos santos y sin                                                                                                                          mancha delante de él                                                                                                                                                                                               Efesios 1:4

Hay bastantes versículos que atestiguan dicha coexistencia entre ambas realidades “1 Pedro 1:20, Juan 17:24, Romanos 1:20, Romanos 11:2, Apocalipsis 13:8”.

Una vez aclarado este punto, no queda duda alguna de que la obra de Dios atiende a un plan perfecto, definido desde antes de la fundación y de que Dios es amor, perfecto amor; este es el siguiente aspecto que quiero resaltar, Dios sacrificó a su hijo unigénito y sin pecado por ti y por mí. 

Este amor es perfecto y un regalo, un don tan precioso, que nos da acceso a su reino a esa perla de gran precio; sin embargo, la justicia va de la mano del perfecto amor y Dios es justo también, por ello él dio vida y escogió a aquel que quiso por su gracia, a nivel de legalidad el sacrificio de Cristo es suficiente para salvar a toda la humanidad, pero Dios es quien escoge.                                           
Esto nos lleva al pecado original de Adán, en el cual toda la humanidad murió y está en su justa condenación.

Porque así como en todos mueren, también en Cristo  todos serán vivificados                                
(los escogidos antes de la fundación del mundo)                                             
1 Corintios 15:22

El hombre condenado no quiere ni busca de Dios, solo por la obra regeneradora de Dios eso cambia y nace la necesidad de buscar y saber más de Dios, de acercarse a él.    
       
Quiero tocar el último punto de este texto que hemos leído en Efesios 2:10, como he dicho la elección es de Dios y no podemos negarlo, la Biblia es muy clara al respecto “Porque por gracia sois salvos por medio de la fe; y esto no de vosotros, pues don de Dios”, Dios es el proveedor de la gracia y la salvación sin posibilidad de ganarlas por méritos humanos “no por obras, para que nadie se gloríe”.
Dios preparó de antemano buenas obras, no para que toda la humanidad anduviese en ellas, sino aquellos que por gracia han sido salvados.

La muerte vicaria de Cristo en la cruz fue el pago por el pecado de toda la humanidad, toda la ira y justicia de Dios recayeron sobre Cristo, Él se puso en nuestro lugar como cordero sin mancha y por su sangre hay perdón de pecados, justificación y redención gratuitos.

Y esto erais algunos; mas ya habéis sido lavados, ya habéis sido justificados en el nombre del
   Señor Jesús, y por el Espíritu de nuestro Dios   
 1 Corintios 6:11

De modo que si alguno está en Cristo, nueva criatura es; las cosas viejas pasaron; he aquí todas
son hechas nuevas. Y todo esto proviene de Dios, quien nos reconcilió consigo mismo por
Cristo, y nos dio el ministerio de la reconciliación 
2 Corintios 5:17

Busquemos esas buenas obras que Dios preparó de antemano y pongamos a Dios como prioridad en nuestra vida.


Soli Deo Gloria

Comentarios

  1. brilliant and so interesting! i am a Calvinist, but i have friends who take a more middle ground and support molonisum : https://www.gotquestions.org/molinism.html

    I'd be really interested to know what you think . . .

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    1. The so-called natural knowledge has a great fault, God does not know "the things that can be in this moment" nor moves by probabilities,He knows exactly what will happen always, is omniscient and knows everything from the eternity in a precise way. (Psalm 147: 5, Psalm 139: 4, Matthew 10:30, Hebrews 4:13, Psalm 139: 1-4, Psalm 44:21, 1 Chronicles 28: 9, Isaiah 40:28, Isaiah 46: 9-10 , 1 Kings 8:39, Acts 1:24)

      The average knowledge is incongruent in reference to the Bible, because the human being has no free will. The first and only people with true free will (with the exception of Christ man) were Adam and Eve, after the original sin humanity was condemned and its natural tendency is towards sin so that never a person far from God will have the prerogative of look for Him "All have turned aside, one has become corrupt; There is no one who does good, there is not even one "Psalm 14: 3/53: 3 / Romans 3:12. It is also incongruous to say that any being, action or thing are independent of God because the entire creation was subjected to Christ. "You have put all things under your feet. Because inasmuch as He subjected all things to Him, He left nothing that is not subject to Him; but we still do not see that all things are subject to him "Hebrews 2: 8

      Let's call the so-called "creative command" by its name, it is none other than God's determining will in conjunction with his permissive will, everything follows a plan already drawn by God and both wills are intertwined (both allowed and ultimately under the prescience of God), but this can not be used to say that we decide to be saved or seek salvation. God chose from before the foundation of the world who he wanted to save or not. "Everything that the Father gives me, will come to me; and to him who comes to me, I will by no means cast him out "John 6:37" As he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him. In love He predestinated us for adoption as sons for himself through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will "Ephesians 1: 4-5


      About free knowledge, what I can say is that God is omniscient so that everything knows and knows, I do not understand a fraction between "the things that are" and that another "those that are not", simply God knows everything and know, no difference between what would be and what is because what is, is what should be according to the perfect divine plan.

      In short, as a biblical Christian who believes in the doctrines of grace and for giving me a Calvinist denomination at the denominational level, what I can tell you is that in the Bible I find denounced the total depravity of man and limited atonement, reflected in the verses previously cited.
      The study of the five points of the calvinism is to clear in my opinion and i understand the Bible in this way.

      Hope the response will be helpfull !

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  2. I really would like to have time to stop and think about these things, but as I can't today (TEFL course! But I will try and come back to respond when I am free). However, I've emailed Edward Rhodes, a friend from my church, who I think is much more knowledgeable about Molonism than I am, and I've invited him to comment :)

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    1. It will be nice, share the blog with all people that you want!! :)

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  3. Hello

    Apologies for butting in.

    Ruth referred this discussion to me, as I have spoken with her about Molinism in the past. While I am interested in Molinism as a possible model of reconciling the apparent conflict between divine sovereignty and human choice, I wouldn't go so far as to describe myself as a Molinist.

    The best discussion of these issues that I have come across so far is Kenneth Keathley's 'Salvation and Sovereignty, a Molinist perspective,' which is listed at the bottom of Ruth's link. The best thing (for me) about Keathley's book is that you don't have to agree with his conclusions in order to find the discussion helpful. Unfortunately, I have lent my only copy to a friend and so don't have access to it at present.

    I am curious that you have an issue with 'natural knowledge' as it is very widely held across different theological boundaries that God has both natural and free knowledge, but only relatively few (mostly Molinists) would argue in favour of God having 'middle knowledge'. I am pretty sure that 'natural knowledge' has nothing to do with 'probabilities' though. As I understand it -

    Natural knowledge = God knows everything that can possibly be.
    Free knowledge = God knows everything that is, was and will be.
    Middle knowledge = God knows everything that could be, if ...

    When it comes to the wider conflict between 'Calvinists' and 'Arminians' I am tending more and more to avoid these labels altogether, particularly since they are linked to historical individuals who didn't necessarily hold all of the points of each system. John Calvin most likely didn't believe in limited atonement. James Arminius did believe in total depravity and didn't really believe in human free-will ('freed will' might be a better description of his view as he expresses it in the 'Sentiments') although his idea as to how this works is very different from that of the Calvinists. This difference between Calvin and 'Calvinism' and between Arminius and 'Arminianism' makes the whole thing very confusing. None of these systems is known to the early fathers of the Church, as far as I can find (though Irenaeus holds some common views with Arminius and Augustine with Calvin).

    As to where I personally stand in all of this, I believe in divine sovereignty. Since we are dead in our sins, salvation must be something that comes from God and not from us. I also believe, however, in some measure of human ability to act, or make meaningful decisions, I don't believe that God is the author of evil, nor do I believe that God causes people to sin. I suspect that divine omniscience may hold some of the answers. As I have said, while I am interested in Molinism, I wouldn't class myself as a Molinist. Indeed, at the moment, I am possibly slightly more inclined to the Thomist position, that God infallibly sees the progress of human history in a single 'divine moment' - in other words, that God doesn't need to 'foresee' the future since He is already there.

    In the end, I suspect that this is a question which none of us will be able to understand or answer fully until after the eschaton. Perhaps not even then.

    Once again, apologies for butting in to the conversation.

    I wish you well in your blogging endeavours.

    Yours in Christ

    Edward

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    1. Hello Edward!

      Thanks for participate!

      About Kenneth Keathley´s book unfortunately I can´t give you my opinion because I have not read his book yet, I´ll research about him.

      Talking about natural knowledge, middle knowledge and free knowwledge, my position is that God know´s everything since the beginning and not the what possibly can be, i can say that I firmly believe in free knowledge.

      Searching some verses who talk about God´s omniscience, what I can understand from them is that God know´s exactly how all will be from the eternity (God´s point of view) and the begginig (human point of view).

      Here you have the verses:
      (Psalms 147:5, Psalms 139:4, Psalms 147:4, Psalms 44:21, Psalms 139:1-3, 1 John 3:20, Mathew 10:30, Hebrews 4:13, Isaiah 40:28, Isaiah 46:9-10, 1 Kings 8:39, Acts 1:24)

      When we talk about Calvinism and Arminianism, I don´t define my self as calvinist or arminianist, I found that I´m more agree with the point of from J. Calvin than with J. Arminius.
      Both of them were humans and their point of view about could be right or not about some things, but studyng the Bible I can understand that God´s soverinity is over all...salvation, past, present and future in our live and decisions and in all the creation.
      On Philippians 1: 6 and John 6:37 between others God is giving to us an incomparable security of salvation.

      Sorry if I made some typos on the text (I´m working on improve it) and thank you for participate, always is a pleasure!.

      With the help of God, I hope that the blog is useful for others, thanks for the encouragement.

      God bless you Edward!

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