Bible Truth #14 - Jeremiah 29:11

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

The context of the verse fits whether you think of it as God speaking to His Chosen people, the Jews, or if He is speaking to His Elect throughout the millennia. The key phrase is AN EXPECTED END. It WILL happen because it is God Who fulfills His plan for our lives (Psalm 57:2, Psalm 138:8, Revelation 17:17).

God is NOT addressing the human race. God has His Chosen and their end is an expected end, an intended end - just as God intended Joseph to be sold into slavery (Genesis 50:20). God is speaking NOT of something He expects as we would expect it, but with the certainty a Sovereign God has control over. I expect it to be sunny tomorrow but God knows whether He will bring rain to our home or not, regardless of what the weatherman says. As the Elect (Christians, believers), our end was an expected end since the point in eternity God wrote our names in the Lamb's book of life. We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). God simply waited until the moment in time (history) when He called us to salvation (Romans 8:29-30). He quickened our dead spirit and made us a believer (John 6:29). We then found it as natural as a moth drawn to the light that we would “come to Him,” responding with the belief He gave us (Philippians 1:29), and the measure of faith He gave us (Romans 12:3). Then and only THEN did we confess Christ as our Savior. Why? Because He gave us the Holy Spirit, Who revealed the Truth to us and in us, and since we now have the Holy Spirit we can accept and understand the things from the Spirit. Remember, the man without the Spirit can’t accept nor understand the things from the Spirit because they are foolishness to him. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

This may be a little simple but it accurately depicts our spiritual state:

Imagine God walking through a cemetery with a glass of Living Water, announcing to all present that all they have to do is to reach up and take a sip and they will be released from the captivity of death. But no one will do it, no one can do it, no one is able to do it - because they’re all dead! Paul writes that we were dead in our transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 2:5, Colossians 2:13). That is why God chose some to save, reaches down and quickens their dead spirit and now that they’re alive, the formerly dead spirit is now ABLE to drink from Living Water - and drink he WILL! All those the Father has given to me, WILL come to me... (John 6:37). That’s why Jesus said no man can come to me unless the Father drags him (John 6:44). God has to drag him because a dead man can’t resist nor help. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it and no exceptions.

The bottom line is the Bible says a lost man can do ONLY evil, continually (Genesis 6:5), a lost man will NOT come into the Light because he hates the Light (John 3:20), he is an enemy of God and can’t please Him (Romans 8:7-8), and he does not accept the things from the Holy Spirit because he CAN'T understand them (1 Corinthians 2:14). That is God’s Word to us, that is Bible. Since all that is true, how can a lost person “believe” without God first working in him? That is why it TAKES God to work in us first, to make us believe (John 6:29). How can a lost man repent from something he loves (darkness)? How can he “accept” something he hates (the Light)? How can he please Someone he hates (Romans 8:8)? The answer to all of course is - he can’t.