Matthew-070

On the last occasion, we began at the beginning of Matthew Chapter 19 and we studied the spiritual meaning of marriage. But one section that we did not look into was verses 10 to 12. Is there something important that the Lord Jesus wants to say here? Today, we continue our study in the teaching of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 19:10-12. This passage is found only in Matthew, like so much of the Lord Jesus’ teaching is found only in Matthew, therefore, you will notice that we have concentrated very heavily in Matthew but supple­mented it with passages of the Lord Jesus’ teaching in Luke and Mark wherever we did not have a parallel in Matthew.

The Lord Jesus says remaining single takes a special enabling

When the disciples heard from the Lord Jesus that marriage can only be dissolved on the grounds of adultery because the covenant is broken by adultery, they said, “If such is the case with a man and his wife, it is better not to marry.” What is their thinking? Their thinking may be, “If this woman that I marry turns out to be a pain in the neck, how am I ever going to get rid of her? I’m going to be stuck with this pain in the neck for the rest of my life!” Of course, they never thought of what the woman might also have to be stuck with! For the moment, they only thought of what they will be stuck with. They thought to themselves, “If I am going to be stuck with a woman for the rest of my life, who is going to be an eye sore, or a pain in the neck, or even be an absolutely unbearable person, but there may be no question of adultery involved, I can never get rid of her! How do I survive? They feel that if one cannot under any circumstances divorce his wife unless adultery is committed, it might be safer not to marry at all!

Now the Lord Jesus takes up this point about not getting married and says to them in verse 11,

Not everyone can remain single although it may be better not to marry. It takes a special enabling. The majority of human beings not only have strong sexual desires but also feelings of loneliness. They want some company, someone to talk to. So what is the alternative? The alternative is to take the big risk and get married. Of course, good wives, as it says in Proverbs chapter 31, are rare as pearls. How do you know you will end up with a pearl? You might end up with a stone, and for all you know, the stone might be a millstone that hangs around your neck! So instead of a necklace of pearls, all you’ve got is a huge millstone around your neck! Granted this possibility, you feel who knows, when you put your hand in the bag and pull one out, you might just get a pearl! If you get a stone, you will just have to bear with your stone for the rest of your life.

The Lord Jesus continues to say in verse 12 that there are three kinds of people who don’t get married. The first type is those who have been born eunuchs. Eunuchs are men who have no functional repro­ductive organs. To be born eunuchs means that their reproductive organs were congenitally defective, therefore, they are unable to get married, or have no desire to get married at all. I don’t know whether for example, homosexuals might come under this category, that there is a certain hormonal imbalance in them that prevents them from getting married, or removes the desire to be married from them.

The second type is those who have been made eunuchs by men, meaning they have been castrated, that is, their reproductive organs have been damaged or removed surgically. Now one has to grant that both of these cases are somewhat rare but it does happen. Oriental kings often had many wives and many children as well, some of whom would be their daughters, who would be growing up into their teens, so eunuchs could not pose any threat to them. For this reason, some parents did have their sons castrated not in order to harm them, but in fact, to make it possible for them to get a good job in the future. Since the numbers of eunuchs were not always that great, their chances of getting a job in the households of governors, high officials and palaces of kings would be quite good.

The third type is those who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. “Let him receive it” in verse 12 is an imperative. If he can be a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of God, do it if he can receive it.

God does not permit the Israelites to castrate children, even animals

We must ask if there is some important teaching in this, and what is being taught here? The Bible has some very strong things to say about eunuchs. In Deuteronomy 23:1, we are told that eunuchs, that is, a person whose reproductive organs have been damaged or re­moved, may not enter the assembly of God’s people. In other words, they may not worship God in the assembly of God’s people. They were excluded. Perhaps, the strictness of this requirement in the law was intended to prevent parents from castrating their children. It was to remove from Israel the practice of doing this kind of terrible thing to one’s sons no matter if the motive is that they may have a good job. Scripture does not permit the Israelites to do castration in so many words, but in warning them that if they did this, their sons would be excluded from the assembly of God’s people, that is, they are virtually an outcast. They cannot go to the temple or to the synagogue because these are all assemblies of God’s people, and so they are effectively excluded from the people of God. So there is a strong rejection of the practice of eunuchs in Israel.

Secondly, we also find that so strong is the rejection of this whole idea of castration, the removal of the reproductive organs, that we read in Leviticus 22:24, an animal whose reproductive organs are damaged or for some reason removed, is totally rejected as a sacrifice to God. Not even an animal which has been castrated will be accepted into the temple of God. This shows that the Word of God takes a very strong view about this matter of eunuchs.

Two totally different kinds of grace: Deterministic and Enabling

How do you know if God has given you grace to remain single?

We must look at a number of questions that arise. If you look at this passage the Lord Jesus is saying to us that, not everyone may remain single except “to those who have been given.” But to whom has it been given? Can you remain single? Has it or has it not been given to you? That is a very important question. If it were for the sake of the kingdom, would you do it? Can you do it? Is it “given” to you?

The problem with this word “given” is, just how do you know whether or not it has been given to you to remain single for the sake of the kingdom of God? Do we feel that it has been given to us to remain single because we have no struggle, no difficulty to remain single? Is that the definition of “given”? Do you say, “I know that I am supposed to remain single because I don’t have to struggle to remain single. I don’t even have the desire to get married. Therefore, I can say that it has been “given” to me to remain single.” Is that a correct definition of “given”? I said earlier that we will be talking about the definition of grace, which is very fundamentally important. Grace is something that God gives to us. What do we mean by “the grace to remain single”? Do we mean that it is grace when I don’t have to struggle or fight?

We are in a strange situation today. We talk so much about grace but understand so little about it. I hear people use a word like “works” and don’t know what “works” is. They use “faith” and cannot produce a definition of faith if you ask them to tell you what faith is. They use “the grace of God” but what do they mean by grace? What is the nature of grace? If you don’t know what grace is about, then you are simply assuming something, and assumptions are very dangerous to work on because your assumption could be wrong.

When we are talking about grace, we are talking about salvation because salvation is of grace. We are not talking about some unim­portant side issue and making a fuss about irrelevant things. We are talking about things which are fundamental. Today, we have the remarkable situation that not even the relevant questions are asked let alone the answers produced. If I asked you, what is the nature of grace? How does grace function? After all, I must know how grace functions because this is vital to my salvation. What would your answer be? Could you tell me what grace is like? How does it function?

Let me simplify the problem for you in this way. Is grace determin­istic, that is, does it determine you, or does it enable you? Which is it? Is grace to be understood as something which enables us to do what we otherwise could not do? Or is grace to be understood as something which determines you so that whether or not you strug­gle, it really doesn’t matter because grace determines what you will be? Didn’t Paul say, “I am what I am by the grace of God”? Does grace mean in this context that God made it so that Paul could not but be an apostle? He was the kind of person who must be an apostle. If he tried to go anywhere else, he would have to turn around because grace had determined what he would be. Is that the understanding of Scripture? I would say that the majority of Christians today, assume that grace means precisely that.

Don’t we immediately say, “I’m not the apostle Paul. God’s grace has determined him to be Paul, and God’s grace hasn’t determined me to be anything therefore I am nothing. So don’t blame me. I don’t have grace” In this case, God is rather gracious to some people and not very gracious to others. Therefore, if you are spiritually nothing, it really wasn’t your fault. It’s simply because God did not choose to be gracious to you. If you remain single, it’s really that God’s grace determined that you would be single. If you got married, I guess most of us got determined by God’s grace to be married if that is the meaning of grace. If you are single right now, you are a bit unfortu­nate. You have no idea whether grace in your case is going to be mar­riage, or is it going to be remaining single. Do you know what grace you are about to get if you are not yet married?

What is the importance of this? It’s very important because it’s going to determine my whole attitude to the Christian life. Do I strive for­ward to accomplish God’s purposes for me, or do I sit back and wait for God’s purposes to be accomplished in me automatically? That is a world of difference. These are two entirely different attitudes. Which one affects you? Many Christians are so confused that they don’t really know what they should do in the Christian life. Should they wait for God’s grace to do something to them or should they press forward and let God’s grace impel them forward? Which is it? Any subject at all in the Christian life is governed by the attitude you have towards grace.

How do I know if God has given me the grace to serve him?

Let us take the example whether or not you are going to serve God full-time. Your attitude towards grace is going to determine your decision remarkably because if your view is that grace is something that determines you, then you will simply sit back and wait for God to grab you by the scruff of the neck and say, “I have chosen you. Now come out and serve me!” So suddenly, you feel being dragged by your neck-tie, and you say, “Here I am! I’m going to serve God because he pulled me by my neck!” Or you feel that somehow, you’ve got to serve God because he determined you. So you look at those few privileged people say, the Training Team, who seem to be spiritually several cuts above the common herd, and presume they all got grabbed and dragged out from their jobs to serve God. They had no say in it, and were impelled into serving God. That is one view you could take, and I suspect many Christians have this notion. They sit back waiting for something to happen. They say, “God, you know I’m willing to serve you.” Then they just sit and wait and wait, and don’t do anything, hoping that somehow, God’s voice would suddenly boom on them and say, “Come out and serve me!” And they would say, “Yes God, I’m coming!” That is called “the call.”

If you asked any Christian worker today what was his call, he would give you a very vague answer. Go and ask a pastor in any church, “You are a pastor today, how did you get your call? If you can’t tell me that a voice spoke to you, then I’m going to have you dismissed in a hurry because I’m not sure about your call.” What constitutes the call? This understanding of grace determines every aspect of the way you are going to think and act.

Let us not go to some big subject like serving God, let’s take a smaller subject. I went down to Boston for a few days. How should I know whether I should go to Boston or not? Should I wait for God’s determining grace to come upon me in some way and say, “You’ve got to go to Boston!” so I run for the car and make a quick dash down to Boston? But how do I know that God wants me to go to Boston? How do you know that God wants you to go to Hong Kong, or to go anywhere at all? Just exactly how do you function?

I think you can see we are touching on a very fundamental point. Many Christians simply don’t know how to function at all. They think: “If I do this, maybe it’s not God’s will. If it’s not God’s will, I’m going to be disobeying God.” All that is behind your mind is grace is deterministic, that grace sort of grabs you.

Or does grace enable you? Which is it? Is it that I have to make certain decisions? Do I have to press forward towards certain goals? Do I have to take the whole responsibility? Do you see how different it is? In deterministic grace, you have no responsibility. You are en­tirely passive. The responsibility is God’s. He calls you or he doesn’t. You have no decision to make. If he calls you, his grace is irresistible according to some. You cannot even say no to it; it is deterministic. (If it’s resistible, it’s not deterministic.) That is the whole point of Calvinism. Frankly, in this case, you are more or less a spiritual robot! You don’t have any responsibility any more than a robot does, because only human beings have responsibilities.

But if grace is enabling, it seems to put the whole responsibility onto you. It is like a bank account that is up to me to draw or not. Spurgeon is supposed to be a Calvinist, but strangely enough, his concept of grace was very far from Calvinism. He speaks about “a check book on the bank of faith.” The way you draw on faith is like drawing on a bank account. God gives you a check book, and you write your checks to draw what you need. Now that concept of grace is not Calvinistic at all. That is not a deterministic understanding of grace. Enabling grace puts the entire responsibility on you. You have to make the decision how you define grace.

When it comes to serving God for example, you are not going to be able to pass the buck to God and say, “You make the decision. I’m glad you’ve remained silent so long because your silence is my hope. I can still stay where I am.” If God did not say anything for another two or three years, you can just carry on living your life, because you have passed the buck to him and you think the responsibility is his. Naturally, if God wants me to serve him, I have no alternative. But if he doesn’t say anything, I take it that he doesn’t want me. So I have no responsibilities. I don’t have to strive. I don’t have to do anything. I just wait for some voice to boom out of the sky. Or maybe wait for some time when God will press the ejector seat and shoot me straight up to wherever he wants me to go.

I have spent some time defining these two radically different concepts of grace, and it is important to realize that there is really no middle ground between them. If grace is deterministic, then what is left of your responsibility? If God determines what you will be, then it is not up to you to decide. If God wants you to become a kind of person that God’s beauty and fragrance can be seen, and you think: “If he doesn’t pour his grace on me to be beautiful spiritually, how can I be a chosen vessel to have the beauty and fragrance? God hasn’t chosen me. So it’s not my responsibility at all that I don’t show forth God’s grace and beauty. It’s God’s responsibility.” Judgment seems to be utterly irrelevant on such a concept of grace. What are you going to be judged for at the Judgment? Judgment is useless since it’s a question of whether you have been determined for something or not.

Does God determine some to be single and others to marry?

We’ve got to get these issues clear in our minds, and this is the matter we are talking about here in Matthew 19:10-12. When the Lord Jesus says that not all men can remain single, but only those to whom it has been given to be single, that sounds like God has determined some people to be single and the rest should get married. Then we are back to the same question that I asked right at the beginning: How do you know if you have been determined or not to be single? That is a very real question for some young people. They have to make that decision some time. Do you feel that God has determined you to be single because there is no real struggle to remain single?

I will be very honest with you. For me, it was extremely easy to have remained single. There was no struggle at all because I had absolute­ly no interest in the subject of marriage! Of course, as a result of that, I was accused by many girls in the church that I was distant, uncommunicative, unfriendly and so forth. I kept my distance from all the girls because frankly, I did not want anyone to get ideas. I found it so easy to remain single. And I think I found it easy to remain single simply because my mind was so concentrated on the subject of serving God. My mind was so completely absorbed in the Word of God, so completely absorbed in the kingdom of God, that I had no energy and no interest left to think about anything else. I did not in any way despise girls. By no means! It was simply that my mind and my interest were not there.

So would that mean that grace was given me to be single, and I did not make use of that grace when I went ahead and got married? What shall we say? I must be exceedingly guilty because I was given the grace to remain single for the sake of the kingdom, and then I threw it all away to get married. May God have pity on me if that were the case! Perhaps I should not be standing here. Maybe some more worthy person should be preaching today, and I should hide myself in some hole, or get myself lost in the world for having rejected the grace of God. Should I spend the rest of my life in guilt? Perhaps, my conscience is rather insensitive because I don’t have any sense of guilt at all. How can it be that I rejected the grace of God and here I am standing with no sense of guilt?

“Given” means enabled, not determined by God

The important question here is: How do we understand grace? What is the Scriptural teaching of grace? This has another effect. The effect is whether it is up to us to press forward to the highest goals of the spiritual life, or whether we simply sit back and wait for God to propel us into those goals. What do we do? How you understand grace is fundamental to how you live your Christian life.

My task is just to expound the Word of God and not to give you thoughts of my own. Let us look at this passage again. Verse 11 says,

We are still looking at the definition of this word “given.” Does “given” mean determined or enabled? Which does it mean? I hope I have spent enough time to show you that the difference between the two is like night and day; there is no neutral ground.

If “given” means determined, then what do the last words in verse 12 mean?

What is there to receive? He who is able to remain single, let him do it. If it is determined, then there is nothing to receive. This would already show you that exegetically, it is not determined, otherwise, the final words, “he who is able to receive this, let him receive it” have no meaning at all. To be able to receive puts the responsibility onto me, because if whether or not you are able to receive it is determined, and there is nothing to receive, then there is no point asking you to receive. The statement has no meaning. I am asked to receive something, but whether I receive it or not really doesn’t matter because it has already been determined.

Take another example, “He who has ears to hear let him hear.” Whether I hear or not really doesn’t matter because if hearing is a matter of grace, there is no responsibility left to me for not hearing. I have to hear if it has already been determined.

Two types of eunuchs determined by men, third type enabled by God

Now let’s look more closely at this passage. There are two things that are of considerable importance. The first is that in regard to the first and second types of eunuchs, that is, those who are born eunuchs, and those who have been made eunuchs by human beings, we may say that they are determined in the sense that they cannot but remain single; they don’t really have any choice. The choice has been removed from them. In these cases, it certainly has been determined. But it is very important to notice that it has not been determined by God. Now there’s a world of difference!

Let us start with the second one first. The Lord Jesus specifically says, “made eunuchs by men,” not by God. God is not responsible for having made him a eunuch. It is men who made him a eunuch. As I have explained, some parents have made their sons eunuchs in order to give them a chance to get a better job. They were made eu­nuchs by men. In exegesis, we have to proceed with exceeding care.

What about the first? Shouldn’t we say that if a person was born congenitally defective that he was made so by God? Not at all! That would be not a Scriptural conclusion whatsoever. God did not in his purpose intend to make any man congenitally defective. When you read Genesis, you will know that it says “And God saw that it was good.” “Good” means that it was not defective. It is sin having come into the world which has caused all kinds of defects to appear. God did not make any man defective.

Take the famous thalidomide cases, where some children were born with only one arm, some with no arms, and some with no legs. They were deformed. Can you say that because these people were born deformed that God made them to be born deformed? What kind of logic is this? A thing which is congenital does not mean that it is determined by God. God made every person perfect originally. He never made anyone defective. If we have become defective in any way, it’s because sin has entered into the blood stream of this world, as it were, causing all kinds of problems to arise. God did not make sin. Man made sin, and sin caused these defects. This is very important to understand. So in the first two cases, they are indeed determined, but not by God.

Should we say that people in the third case are indeed determined by God? Only in regard to the third case does the word “able” apply. Verse 12 says, “He who is able to receive this.” Again, is whether I am able or not a question of enabling, or is it determined?

God is the God of love, so his grace enables all things to be done

Let us examine the meaning of grace more closely as we look at the rest of Scripture, because we cannot only stay within this verse. When you study the use of the word “grace” from a concordance, you will very quickly see that if you understood grace in a deterministic sense, you could not make sense of most of the passages. Let me just give you a few examples of this.

John 1:14 says that the Lord Jesus is “full of grace and truth.” If grace is deterministic, it really is nothing other than the will of God. If that is the case, is he full of God’s determinism? John is certain that God’s enabling power was everywhere to be seen in Jesus’ life in such fullness that you could see it in his graciousness and truthfulness. “Graciousness and truthfulness” would be a very correct translation. In this verse, John goes on to say that they saw his graciousness and truthfulness with their own eyes. Now how can you see grace unless it is manifested in graciousness and in truthfulness? This is the opposite of what is in sinful man. Sinful man is rude, ungracious, unforgiving, and he is certainly not truthful.

Let us go on to look at Hebrews 2:9,

By God’s grace, Jesus died for every one of us. What does that mean? If grace is to be understood deterministically here, that God deter­mined the Son must die, then Jesus wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. That of course, is not true to Scripture.

The Lord Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord.” (Jo. 10:18) He chose to die. The Father gave the Son, but the Son freely gave himself. If it were deterministic we would have to say that God the Father was rather sadistic. In fact, some non-Christians say, “What kind of Father is this that he gives the Son without leaving him a choice?” That is not Scripture at all. Rather, the grace of God in his outflowing love, freely of his own choice, gave the Son. And the Son out of his own grace, freely of his own choice, gave himself. That is what Scripture says, if I don’t misunderstand Scripture.

Or take Titus 2:11,

If grace is deterministic, then everyone will automatically be saved because If God’s grace is deterministic, then all men must be saved because God’s grace has been manifested for the salvation of all men. That is what it says there. There are no grammatical problems to understand. A deterministic grace would mean that all men must of necessity be saved. They have no choice of the matter. Of course, that is contradictory to anything we know about Scripture. God’s grace is not deterministic. It’s there to enable all men to be saved, but not to compel all men to be saved against their desires; not to remove any capacity of decision on their part.

In Galatians 1:15, Paul says that by God’s grace, he had been called to be his servant. Does that mean that Paul had no choice in the matter? Quite wrong. As I have more than once shared with you from Paul’s own testimony, he said, “When God called me by his grace, I obeyed. I could have disobeyed, but I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” (Ac. 26:19) And when he says, “I am what I am by the grace of God,” in 1Corinthians 15:10, he means that he is an apostle because God in his grace has called him to be an apostle and he was not disobedient. So God’s grace enabled him all the way to fulfill his eternal purposes.

You and I have been called by God’s grace. Does it mean that you and I couldn’t say no to God? Have you never said no to God? Of course you have! If so, what happened to God’s deterministic grace? How come he did not determine that you could not say no? Of course, grace in Scripture is not deterministic!

Yet, strangely enough, our minds are so bent that somehow, when we read in Matthew 19:12, “to those who are given,” we immediately think of “given” as determined rather than enabled, that only these people can be single. Strange, I have not been able to figure out how our minds by nature work deterministically for some reason or other! Yet everywhere you look at how the word “grace” is used in the New Testament, it is enabling and not deterministic. Let us continue with two more examples.

The apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 3:18 that we are to continue “to grow in grace.” Did he mean to grow in determinism? Of course not! “Grow in grace” means to continue growing in the “knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” as God’s grace or power enables us to move forward. If grace is deterministic, what is there to talk about? To exhort someone to grow in grace when he can only grow if it is determined is a meaningless exhortation, isn’t it?

Also, in 1 Peter 5:10 we read, “God is the God of all grace.” Does it mean that God is the God of all determinism? What does that mean? Or is he the God of all enabling grace as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:8, that he has blessed us with every blessing, given us every possibility to fulfill his plans for us. We don’t go forward in our own strength. We don’t become apostles in our own strength. We don’t become anything in our own strength. We depend on the God of all grace to enable us to do what we in ourselves cannot do.

The apostle Paul says, “I can do all things through him who strength­ens (enables) me” in Philippians 4:13. Paul’s concept of grace is clearly enabling. God strengthens us to achieve anything. He has con­fidence that God’s grace is sufficient, and his power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). Paul was not that kind of a Christian who is knocked down and stays down, going around depressed and defeated. Paul’s Christianity was victorious: “I can do all things,” by God’s grace, including remaining single, or getting married! No problem! That is the kind of Christian that we don’t have today. This may partly be because we don’t seem to understand that God’s grace is enabling. When you see grace as enabling grace, you can set your sights high, and the sky is the limit, because God’s grace will get you there! That is Paul’s Christianity.

Often, when I talk to people even in our church, I can see that their concept of grace is very deterministic. They simply sit back and wait for God to do something to them! You can wait all your life because God is not going to make a robot of you. He is not going to wind the key, or press the button to start you moving. Not at all! God is the God of all grace because he is the God of love. And what is love like? Is love deterministic? Not at all! Love is simply another definition of grace. 1 Corinthians 13:5 tells us that one of the very characteristics of love is that it does not insist on its own way. I think you are going to be so surprised when you meet God one day!

You think that the great kings and bosses of this world are always giving orders and deterministic. They tell you to do this and that. Some people are very surprised at the way I function. One brother very honestly told me once that he somewhat questioned my leader­ship because I didn’t seem to be barking out commands and orders. I didn’t seem to be telling, “You do this. You go there and you go here.” The concept of a strong leader seems to be that he is always giving orders. He determines everything by his orders, his com­mands. “I’m the boss here, you do this. Move that chair there. Write this. Go there. Do this.” That is leadership. And that is why I say one day, when you meet God, you will be so surprised. Love does not insist on its own way.

Is the God of love deterministic? Does he say, “I determine you will be this, and you will be that,” and turn us all into robots? Does he tell us not to insist on our own way but he insists on his own way? “Be imitators of God,” Paul says in Ephesians 5:1. If God insists on his own way, why shouldn’t I insist on my own way? He is always determin­ing everything, so I should be determining everything. So we will have a wonderful church in which we all copy God, and since God is to be sovereign, and sovereign means to be a dictator, therefore we will all be little dictators. That is imitating God. All of us in this church will be banging into each other because why should you determine me and I don’t determine you? We are all imitating God, and since he is the Dictator, then we are all going to be dictators. It’s so ridiculous! Love does not insist on its own way.

That is why I have so thoroughly rejected the concept of God that Calvin has painted. I have nothing against Calvin personally, but he has reduced God to a tyrant! And even those theologians sympathetic to him have had to admit that Calvin’s concept of God was more like a despot, a tyrant king of the Middle Ages, who was throw­ing his weight around, who could kill someone at a word. He was the law. He could do whatever he liked. If he happened to like your wife, he took your wife. If he happened to like your daughter, he took your daughter. He was the king. This is called “sovereignty.” Maybe that is sovereignty in Calvin’s time, but that is not sovereignty in the Bible! That is why I say we are all going to be surprised when one day we meet God. We think that strength of character is expressed in so-called barking out orders. It takes far more greatness, far more grace, far more spiritual quality to be right and yet not insist on one’s own way. Try it some time and you will know what I mean.

Any small man knows how to shout and throw his weight around. In fact, my father who used to work in the government used to say, “The most terrifying thing about the government is to meet the junior government official. He is always full of his self-importance. He is the smallest man in the office but he is going to impress you that he is almost as big as the prime minister or the president himself. The higher up you go, the greater the official, the humbler he is, the easier to talk with, the less deterministic he is, the less he throws his weight around. That is a sure principle. By the time you reach up to the top ranks of the highest officials, you are amazed at their reasonable­ness, their modesty, their readiness to listen to other people’s opinions and views, their courtesy in all ways. If you follow that logic and go up to the heights to God himself, you will be amazed how gracious, loving, patient, gentle he is. Let us get away from this idea of grace as some kind of deterministic element that determines what you will be, that determines where you must go, that does not con­sult you or consider your opinion. To have such a notion of God is a dishonor to God.

God wants you to think, make decisions, take responsibility

Do you say, “What does God want me to do? I’m waiting to be a robot”? God doesn’t want you to be a robot. He wants you to think. He wants you to make decisions. He wants you to take responsibility. Now this kind of “freedom” to make decisions may be very fright­ening to some people. They would rather not have the capability to make decisions. They prefer that someone else makes the decisions and take the responsibility off their shoulders. But God is not going to make us like that. Look at the word “grace” in the Scriptures, and you will find that grace puts the responsibility squarely back on you.

But he gives more grace. Therefore James 4:6 says,

What does that mean? Does it mean that God’s determinism will continue to determine you? Or does it mean that God’s enabling grace will be there all the time to enable you to achieve holiness, to which we have been called?

Shouldn’t God give that grace to all of us to remain single for his sake?

Is it called grace because we don’t have to strive for it? Do I have the grace to be single because I don’t have to struggle for it? Is that called grace? Hasn’t God given you the grace to be holy? Perhaps you are not meant to be holy because you find holiness so difficult to achieve! If you think like that, you are still in the notion of a deterministic grace. If holiness is something good, shouldn’t God give this grace to everyone? If being single for the sake of the kingdom is desirable, shouldn’t he give that grace to all of us? Should he only give it to one or two people? For what reason are these people more favored? Don’t we all need that same commitment and dedication to the kingdom?

Matthew 19:12 – God lets you make the decision to remain single

Notice Paul’s understanding of gift and grace. In 1 Corinthians 7:7 he says that not everyone can be single, but it depends upon God’s gift. If you think that by gift, Paul means a deterministic gift, you have misunderstood his point again. It is God’s enabling grace which you receive or don’t. “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.” (Mt. 19:12) If you can take it, take it. If you cannot take it, that is your responsibility not God’s. He lets you make the decision. So the Lord Jesus’ statement is entirely consistent.

In closing, I would like you to consider carefully what we have been talking about today, because your eternal welfare is at stake here again. We are talking about grace and you must think it through very carefully. Are you simply going to be determined by God, and so you are just going to sit back and wait for something to happen? Or are you going to press forward to that ultimate possibility that God has before us?

By God’s grace, like Paul, I intend to press forward. I intend to reach the highest possibilities that God has given. Otherwise, I don’t see the point of my being a Christian at all. I intend to press forward, and God has given the grace; and I am going to draw upon it so that all possibilities will be fulfilled. That makes the Christian life very exciting because there are is such a vast horizon, such great possibilities before us, and there is God’s enabling grace to help us get there! In this way, we can say with Paul too, “I can do all things through him who enables me!” (Phil. 4:13)

Let us be quiet before God in prayer.