II Timothy 1:9 “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; 9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,”
Both our Eternal Salvation and our Calling to Spiritual Life are presented in the past tense; for the acts that Eternally Saved us and Called us to Spiritual Life occurred before we had any sense of God’s love or any desire to follow Him, any urge to repent, any understanding to believe, or any motivation to worship Him. Our Eternal Salvation was fully, finally, and eternally “finished” when our Lord, while yet alive on the Cross, declared “It is finished” (John 19:30). Also, before we experienced any love for our Lord or desire to follow Him, the Holy Spirit came upon us and “called” us to Spiritual life; that is, He gave us Spiritual Birth (John 3:1-8). Both our Eternal Salvation and Calling to Spiritual life were the exclusive acts of God, not our own and not even our desire. Our Spiritual Birth occurred even before we had any sense or desire to ask Jesus to come into our heart; a person would not ask such a thing if they were not already “born again” by the Holy Spirit. Our Eternal Life and Spiritual Calling are not offer and acceptance propositions; both are the exclusive acts of God in which He “hath” exclusively “saved us, and called us with an holy calling”. Paul clearly explains that our Eternal Salvation and Spiritual Life are “not according to our works”; that is, we were simply the passive recipients in the acts that gave us this blessed Grace. He goes on to explain that our Eternal Salvation and Spiritual Calling were “according to” God’s “own purpose and grace”. That is, we did not simply decide that we wanted Eternal Life and Spiritual Calling, neither did someone convince us that we wanted Eternal Life and Spiritual Calling; but God Himself Chose to endow us with Eternal Life with Him and Spiritual Calling to lovingly know Him. Furthermore, God endowed us with Eternal Life with Him and Spiritual Calling by the administration of His “grace”; that is, we did not deserve it, we were unworthy of it. God Sovereignly purposed to “give” His people Eternal Life and Spiritual Calling “before the world began”. This blessed Eternal Life and Spiritual calling was “given us in Christ Jesus”; that is, “Christ Jesus” alone made every person that His Father had Given to Him, “before the foundation of the world” (John6:39; Ephesians 1:4), “holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4); that is, He made us worthy of Eternal Life with Him by His Sacrificial Death. Knowing and believing these blessed truths is what makes us a loving and willing “partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God”!