Called According to His Purpose
Isaiah 64:8; Jeremiah 18:5, 6
Our governing thought is that the vessel made by the potter is an expression of the mind of the potter. It is not just something in itself, but it expresses a thought. So we resume with God represented as a Potter.
God took this conception Himself: it is not an idea given to Him by man. It is God who has the clay in His hands and who is working it according to His own mind. He is therefore occupied with a definite purpose: He is working to have a vessel for Himself, and the vessel is something which He chose before ever He put His hand to the work. The principle which the apostle Paul embodied is a principle which governs all the work of God. The Lord said to Ananias (of Paul): "He is a chosen vessel unto me" (Acts 9:15), and Paul himself said later: "It was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother's womb" (Galatians 1:15). And that apostle makes it clear to us that all who are called in Christ Jesus are foreknown and chosen by God. It is the apostle Peter who says that he is writing to "the elect ... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Peter 1:1), and that elect was scattered abroad throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia."
Now this subject of "election" is a very difficult one, so let us say something that will have the object of getting rid of some of the difficulty.
Every truly saved soul ought to have at their salvation a sense of divine destiny. A consciousness of vocation comes with the consciousness of life, and everyone at new birth ought to feel: "Now there is something to live for! Now I feel that there is a purpose in life." Everyone who professes to be a child of God but does not have that consciousness is not a truly born again-again child of God.
This is true of every part of the creation naturally when it is right. How busy are all the living creatures on this earth! They have a sense that there is something they have got to do with their life. Look at the little ants on the ground. They are very busy! It is as though their very life depend upon their getting something done. And when life is right it is always like that.
Purpose is a characteristic of life, and if that is true in the natural creation, it is much more true in the spiritual. It is possible to be dead while we live; and that simply means that we have lost the sense of a purpose in living. Have you noticed that when faith declines the consciousness of purpose also fades? Faith and purpose always go together. Little faith means little purpose and large faith means large purpose.
Now we are not given any option in this matter, for it is just a matter of life or death. If we have life we have purpose, and if we have no life we have no purpose. That is because of the divine sovereignty in this matter, and it is all bound up with this matter of election, because God has chosen us for a purpose. The vessels which this Potter makes are not just for ornaments. They are not intended to be put on a shelf for people just to notice, or not to notice. God makes His vessels with an object.
You cannot explain the divine sovereignty in this matter, so you had better give up trying! When God says: "I have chosen thee", He does not invite us to explore the reasons why, nor does He invest the elect with omniscience. Indeed, He does not allow us to investigate His reasons for what He does. As a matter of fact, He makes it more difficult for the elect to understand His acts than anyone else. The clay is not allowed to ask the potter: "Why did you choose me, and why did you make me like this?" The vessel is not permitted to say to the potter: "Why did you choose me for this purpose?" God just does it, and He does not allow us to ask any questions as to why.
Hard and fast systems of doctrine in this matter often lead to spiritual death, because they put the unsearchable, infinite wisdom of God into a little man-made box. It is very true to experience that hard-and-fast doctrines about election and predestination often lead to death. hose countries where a rigid doctrine of predestination rules are usually the most spiritually dead. You can have Protestantism without life, and you can have "reformed theology" without life. The reason is that men have put this infinite, unsearchable wisdom of God into a box of fixed doctrine.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 25)
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