October 05th, 2014

Abram and his family left Ur of the Chaldees to settle in Canaan.  Then the Lord told Abram to leave Canaan and leave his kindred, and go to a land that God is showing him.

Here we get that great promise:

and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Why?

What had Abram done?

What was it about Abram that made God choose to talk to him?

And why would God bind Himself to massive promises to prosper Abram?

 

Well, it’s simple, isn’t it?

Because He can.

Because He’s God, and if He wants to, He can.

 

So, why does He do it?

The Puritan Thomas Goodwin in the 17th century encourages Christians to “consider that God, in choosing you, not only loved you, but delighted to love you.  It was not barely an act of will that He would choose some, He cared not whom, as being indifferent about it; but it was an act of love, and not of love only, but of good pleasure and of delight, too. . . . God rejoiced over you from everlasting, in His intentions to do you good, with His whole heart and His whole soul.”

 

And just how does He express this love?

But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Christ says: Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, John 15:16

Don’t doubt it for a moment.

... it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. Romans 9:16

 

God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,

(by grace ye are saved;) 

Ephesians 2:4-5