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SELECTED, SAVED, and SANCTIFIED. II Thessalonians 2:13-17. Jan 30, 2022. #05.
II Thessalonians 2:13-17 [New King James Version]
13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. 16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.
1. Eternal selection
a. Paul states that he is obligation (ought, bounded) to thank god for the Thessalonians believers (proper to do so)
b. Believers were chosen from the beginning (arche’)
a1. Chosen = eileto (election; selected by God)
a2. II Timothy 1:9 God had selected his saints before time began
a3. Romans 8:29-30 God knew before he created anything who he was going to select
a4. Ephesians 1:3-6 we were chosen before the foundations of the world were laid
c. God’s choosing is separate from our receiving
a1. John 15:16 God has chosen us before we chose him (Matthew 22:14)
a2. There are other passages which indicate that men have a choice to receive Christ
(John 3:16, Revelation 22:17, II Peter 3:9)
d. Freewill and Election are held in unresolved tension in the Scripture (free offer, but a divine selection)
a1. Romans 9:14-28 God has not revealed to us the reasons for his choosing some and not others, though Christ died for all (I John 2:1-2)
a2. I Peter 2:4-10 Israel was appointed to stumble in order to open the door for the church
2. Set apart
a. Paul states that we are saved through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit
a1. God set all believers apart for himself from before the foundation of the world
a2. That setting apart was by the grace and mercy of God (not merit or our reasoning)
b. The process of salvation required cooperation on the part of the believer
a1. Ephesians 2:8-10 grace combined with faith to produce salvation
a2. Christians believed the truth of Gospel
a3. Paul presented the Gospel along with supporting evidence (Acts 1:1-3; Luke 24)
b1. Presentation of Gospel essential
b2. Election + grace + witness + faith
a4. Faith leads to entering into the glory of Christ, obtaining adoption with him
3. Set apart to stand
a. Paul states that the saved need to stand in faith
a1. Be unmovable and unshakeable in faith
a2. James 1:8 a double-minded man is unstable
b. Once truth is embraced, need to stand fast in it
a1. A believer full of doubts and fears is not living in the grace and power God gives him
a2. II Corinthians 10 along with salvation comes the fullness of grace, assurance, and strength
c. Truth received by the Word opens up a new life
a1. Entering into the love of God (I John 4)
a2. Everlasting comfort (Matthew 28:20 the assurance of his presence and watch care)
a3. Everlasting hope of eternal life by grace
d. Paul states that there are 3 results of standing fast:
a1. The ability to comfort our hearts with the knowledge of God’s grace and promises
a2. Being established in the Word of God (Romans 10:17; Hebrews 4:17; II Timothy 3:16-17)
a3. Being established in service which leads to usefulness and reward (I Corinthians 3; II Corinthians 9:8)
Key Verse: Romans 9:14-28
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 25 As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, and her beloved, who was not beloved.” 26 “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” 27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. 28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”