From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
August 23 "But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved
by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through
the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He
called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 14 The first work of grace is to kill rather than to make
alive; to wound rather than to heal; to bring down rather than to lift up;
to reveal the law rather than the gospel. For "balm is useless to the
healthy." Salvation with all its super-abounding grace is but an empty sound
to those who have never felt themselves cut off from all help or all hope.
So, in a sense, there is a calling under and through, if not by the law, in
the first teaching and operations of the Spirit of God, bringing the soul
under its condemnation as a ministration of death. But when the law has done
its office, and the sinner is slain by its killing power, then there comes
to his aid and deliverance, what the Apostle speaks of here, the calling by
the gospel. When the gospel utters its melodious voice; when pardon
is proclaimed through the sacrifice of Jesus; when peace reaches the heart
through atoning blood revealed to the conscience; when the glad tidings of
salvation by grace are no longer a mere sound in the letter, but are made
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; when heavenly
light shines into the mind; when divine power attends the word to the soul;
when faith is raised up, hope casts its anchor within the veil, and the love
of God is shed abroad, then and there is the calling of which the Apostle
here speaks--a calling by the gospel. The sound of the gospel trumpet, like the silver trumpet
on the great day of jubilee, reaches the ear and heart of the captive exile
and he hastens that he may be loosed (Isa. 51:14). The scene now changes;
the storms of God's wrath blow over; the day-star appears in the dawning
morn of the gospel day, "a morning without clouds" (2 Sam. 23:4), until the
Sun of righteousness in due time rises with healing in his wings. As, then,
the gospel is thus made the power of God unto salvation, the soul is enabled
to listen to, and embrace it as a joyful sound. Now just in proportion as
faith receives it, hope anchors in it, and love embraces it, is evidence
given of our being from the beginning chosen unto salvation.