“Listen and pay attention! Don’t be arrogant. The Lord has spoken”
(Jeremiah 13:5). “Do something, Lord, for the sake of Your Name, even
though our sins testify against us” (Jeremiah 14:7). We listen to God,
and we call upon Him – “If you return, I will take you back … I am with
you, and I will save you and rescue you, says the Lord” (Jeremiah
15:19-20). Along with the great promise, “I am with you and I will save
you”, there is also the call to return to the Lord. God knows what we
are like – “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure”
(Jeremiah 17:9). God knows that we cannot change ourselves. We can only
be changed by Him. He calls us back from the way of the “fool” (Jeremiah
17:11). He calls us to Himself. The Word, given to the prophet, is also
the Word, spoken to the people. It is the Word of salvation. “Where is
the Word of the Lord? Let it come!” (Jeremiah 17:15). The Word of the
Lord comes. It comes from above. It comes from the Lord. We cannot
create the Word of the Lord. We must let it come to us. The Word is His.
It’s not ours. We must pray, “Let the Word of the Lord come to us.” Let
the Word of the Lord be God among us, God speaking to us, God working
in us and through us.“Where is the Word of the Lord? Let it come!” (Jeremiah 17:15). The Word
of the Lord comes. It comes from above. It comes from the Lord. The
Word of the Lord – This is God at work. He is speaking to us. He is
working in us. We cannot create the Word of the Lord. We must let it
come to us. The Word is His. It is not ours. We must pray, “Let the Word
of the Lord come to us.” Let the Word of the Lord be God among us, God
speaking to us, God working in us, God working through us.
A response to a comment by G. R. Osborne on Berkouwer’s understanding of the doctrine of final perseverance
In his contribution to Clark Pinnock (editor), Grace Unlimited (1975), G. R. Osborne states that Berkouwer, in Faith and Perseverance, pp. 9-10, “speaks of the time less ness of the doctrine of final perseverance, founded on ‘the richness and abidingness of salvation” (p. 188, emphasis mine). This single-sentence comment on Berkouwer’s view hardly gives a fair indication of the type of thinking found in Chapter 1 of Berkouwer’s Faith and Perseverance - “Time li ness and Relevance” (pp. 9-14, emphasis mine). Berkouwer insists that “the living preaching of the Scriptures, which offer no metaphysical and theoretical views about … ‘permanency’ as an independent theme in itself, does nothing to encourage ‘a continuity which is … opposed in any way to the living nature of faith” (p. 13). Berkouwer stresses that “The perseverance of the saints is not primarily a theoretical problem but a confession of faith” (p. 14) and that “The perseverance of the saints is unbreakably connected wi...
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