Who blinks first. . .

Polls have been suggesting recently that Christians of all confessions tend to believe that people must make the first move to find God before God responds with grace and salvation..  Some believe that God has made the first move and already decided who will and who will not be saved.  Others believe that God is open minded but expects you to make the first move.  Others believe that faith is the response to the work of God the Spirit working through His Word.  Others believe that you have the ability to win over a somewhat reluctant God to you and your cause.  Others are not so sure anybody can or will ever know the answer to these questions.  Read some of it here. . .

It seems that old heresies never grow old.  On the one hand we have Pelagius who insisted that enough free will remained in the person to make a decision to follow the Lord by the strength of your own will.  It sounds good but it does not square with Scripture.  In the end Pelagianism and any of its variations were condemned
by Church Councils (Carthage in 418, Ephesus 431, and Orange 529).  These councils did not simply reject Pelagianism and its derivations but insisted that such was contrary to Scripture.  The perennial endeavor of reason to make sense of all the oddities, exceptions, and descriptions of God and His ways has always been our great temptation and has led many astray, choosing to satisfy the mind rather than live in obedience to the mystery of God.

On the other hand, we have the more difficult path of Scripture and the great tradition.  Here God's grace always makes the first move, no matter the appearance to the eye.  God is ever at work calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying His Church by the means of grace.  So when the Word speaks and it appears nothing happens, the faithful trust that God will deliver to Himself the fruits of His Word at His appointed time.  It is the great shibboleth of modernity to look into the mirror of what sin has done and admit that we are in bondage and cannot free ourselves.  Yet, this humility is exactly the first mark of the Spirit's work in us -- both showing us the limits of our ability to access the gifts of God and the willingness of God to seek us out and deliver to us what Christ has earned and won.

Some are greatly concerned that Christians are genuinely confused about who blinks first, whose initiative begins the work of saving, sanctifying, and sustaining to the end those who will be saved.  I will admit to sometimes being worried.  But it is the nature of Christian life to live always under the authority of God's Word and within the great tradition of the saints in whom God has worked.  While I am concerned that we may be raising generations of Pelagians or at least semi-Pelagians, I am consoled by the fact that as long as people remain under the tutelage of God's Word, are shepherded by His Spirit working through the means of grace, and live within the fellowship of God's people assembled on His day, in His name, around His Word and Table, the same Lord is at work recalling us from our favorite heresies and restoring us to the narrow path of life within His kingdom.  While simplistic, it is still true -- God is not finished with me yet.

Every snapshot of Christians and the Church will leave us wanting for more, fearful of the errors and confusion so hard to eradicate, and captive to the tension of saint and sinner.  That is the realm in which God is still at work.  It is like the person who comes to me fearful he might have lost his faith.  Well, he may be struggling but as long as he remains concerned about that loss of faith, God is still at work in Him.  The truly lost do not admit or acknowledge their lostness.  They do not seek to be found nor do they miss the sound of the Lord's voice, feel hunger and thirst for His table, or regret the loss of fellowship with their fellow redeemed.  We are people.  We run hot and cold.  We live in the world.  The devil's assaults and advances daily threaten what God has begun.  Yet He will bring to completion what He has begun in us.  Whether we see it or not, faith is confidence of this promise, what we do not now see but believe.  That is my personal comfort as a sinner within the Kingdom of God who daily struggles against the enemies of my faith.  That is my vocational comfort as a pastor who serves sinners like me in their struggles -- even to death and eternal life in Christ.