{"id":4285,"date":"2009-04-04T20:50:44","date_gmt":"2009-04-05T00:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/april2009\/?p=5"},"modified":"2009-04-04T20:50:44","modified_gmt":"2009-04-05T00:50:44","slug":"the-opened-sight-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/2009\/04\/04\/the-opened-sight-4\/","title":{"rendered":"THE OPENED SIGHT"},"content":{"rendered":"

To open their eyes … that they may receive …<\/p>\n

— Acts 26:18<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This verse is the grandest condensation of the propaganda of a
\ndisciple of Jesus Christ in the whole of the New Testament.<\/p>\n

The first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the word – “that
\nthey may receive remission of sins.” When a man fails in personal
\nChristian experience, it is nearly always because he has never
\nreceived anything. The only sign that a man is saved is that he has
\nreceived something from Jesus Christ. Our part as workers for God is
\nto open men’s eyes that they may turn themselves from darkness to
\nlight; but that is not salvation, that is conversion – the effort of
\na roused human being. I do not think it is too sweeping to say that
\nthe majority of nominal Christians are of this order; their eyes are
\nopened, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not
\nregeneration. This is one of the neglected factors in our preaching
\ntoday. When a man is born again, he knows that it is because he has
\nreceived something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his
\nown decision. People register their vows, and sign their pledges, and
\ndetermine to go through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation
\nmeans that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive
\nsomething from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, viz., remission
\nof sins.<\/p>\n

Then there follows the second mighty work of grace – “and inheritance
\namong them which are sanctified.” In sanctification the regenerated
\nsoul deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and
\nidentifies himself entirely with God’s interest in other men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To open their eyes … that they may receive … — Acts 26:18 This verse is the grandest condensation of the propaganda of a disciple of Jesus Christ in the whole of the New Testament. The first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the word – “that they may receive remission of sins.”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}