John 17- Jesus is THAT Magnificent

Those you gave me out of the world... For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them... (John 17:6,8)

Since the beginning of time man has been trying to relate to God... trying to understand our role and trying to understand God. It does not surprise me that man has always given himself a lot of credit. That is a side effect of the Fall. Our big fat egos that love to be noticed and admired. We don't like things to be out of our control and we don't like submitting to anything... we feel like if we try hard enough and exert our will we can achieve what we want. Which is why when Jesus says things like, "you gave me them" or, "I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me" we have a hard time making sense of it. Our pride cries out, "I was not given, I earned this. I made the commitment. I professed my faith. I attended church and that's why I am a Christian!" Notice the use of "I's".

Could it be possible that God is that magnificent that he calls people? That he decides whom he will give to be saved? I am not saying that we do not have a will that is exercised... in fact it says that Jesus gave his disciples God's words and they accepted them. That is not the sort of language that he would use if we had no choice. This also doesn't dismiss our responsibility. What this does for me is magnify God... When someone says that God is sovereign and then they decide that they can change or thwart God's plan by their actions they are saying that they are more powerful then God. Picture God in heaven with his hands tied begging you to come to him to turn from sin to love his Son. Does that make you think more of God or less? Or more realistically to me, picture God in heaven accomplishing his desires even by using the calamity of some to magnify the perfections of his glory and mercy in others(Romans 9:22-23). That is a magnificent God that I barely begin to understand but I stand in awe and worship him.

This is not a popular belief in the modern evangelical circles that I travel. I understand that at first this sounds so abrasive and wrong. Why can God call? Why can God give? So he doesn't call some? How is that fair? I encourage you to read through Romans 9... don't simply read but ask God to make sense of the text. It is a hard pill to swallow but I think the more I see about God in scripture the more I realize that Jesus is that magnificent and I am that puny. I am not a big deal. God is.