Pilate and His Free Will

Do you remember when Pilate told Jesus that he had free will to use his authority to do as he pleases? What did Jesus say? Your power is an illusion, and you can only do what has been given to you.

Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?” Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
John 19:10-11 NKJV

“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done."
Acts 4:27-28 NKJV

Salvation

In 2011 I was sitting in ICC, the Idaho private prison, and a year into my genuine search of knowing God. I didn't have anyone to hold my hand and tell me what to believe. I had God and the Bible.

I had just tried to read Isaiah, but found the book was still concealed to me. I was at a place where I was searching out my salvation with fear and trembling. Was my salvation something I could lose, or was it secure? When God was with me in the past, did He then leave me when I had turned my back on Him? I had been baptized with the Holy Spirit before all of the drugs, sex, and guns, so had God withdrew His Spirit from me when I was in rebellion after that?

Since I couldn't understand Isaiah, I went to Jeremiah, still seeking the answers to my questions. What is the truth about my salvation? It was through the book of Jeremiah that God profoundly answered the questions I so desperately needed.

He showed me that I had always been His. He had created me to come to Him, and for this purpose I was born.

Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

John 3:34 NKJV

For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.

John 18:37 NKJV

Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Jeremiah 1:9-10 NKJV

Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”

It was at this time that the faith given to me, that which is commonly called Calvinism, became solidified in my heart. God had created me for Him, and I had always been His. I was nothing more than His chosen vessel brought forth by Him and for Him, and He has pursued me with an everlasting love.

Ephesians 2:10 NKJV

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Jeremiah 1:11-12 NKJV

Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.” Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.”

Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you."

From this point forward no man would ever move me from these truths, and God has only continued to build on them. It was with this understanding that I came to know who I am in Christ. After this God opened up the book of Isaiah to me, and I was able understand everything I read.

Romans 9:6-8 NKJV

But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are  they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

TRY NOT TO TRY

The reality of the Gospel goes against everything we know. AFTER we have tried our hardest, AFTER we have done our best, maybe then we will find the proper humility before the God who holds the universe in the palm of His hand. God will not give us the impossible because we have done anything to obtain it, but rather HE will do the impossible because we have nothing to do with it.

We want to strive, to fight, and to hit the mark, but the more we try the more we realize that we can never hit that mark. We are ALL sinners though, and we will NEVER hit that mark. It seems we must each come to the end of our self before we finally accept that only God can do what we cannot. Even under the banner of the Lord we still foolishly strive, placing confidence in our own abilities.

God is God, and His will stands forever. Our ONLY focus should be to humble ourselves before Him and man through faith. Everything was created for His glory.

Romans 11:36

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Colossians 1:16

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

Since everything was created by Him, for Him, through Him, and to Him, is it any surprise that God will not share His glory with another? God will resist our futile efforts until we come to a place of humble surrender.

Isaiah 42:8-9 NKJV

"I am the Lord , that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

Isaiah 48:11

"For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;
For how should My name be profaned?
And I will not give My glory to another."
This is the very glorious truth of the Gospel!! God in us, moving according to His good pleasure, to perform His will in our lives. Let us do our part and humble ourselves before the Lord, and let Him do His part and glorify His great Name by lifting us up! Try not to try.

Romans 1:16-17

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.