One of the points that I made in yesterday's sermon, 'The Obedience of Faith', was that one reason that there are differences between disciples is because of how the Father responds to the choices that we make. That is, He blesses those who respond well to the opportunities offered them. He blesses the obedience of faith. This is something that I have been thinking about for a while. It was moved to the front of my mind last week because of a question one of the folk asked after the previous Sunday's service. One of the phrases in the creed that we used during the Lord's Supper referred to the accompanying benefits of our redemption. We enjoy 'increase of grace'. The question: Does this meant that we grow in our ability to see the grace that we have already been given or that we actually receive more grace from God? My answer was that it means the latter and mentioned some Scripture as reasons for that conclusion.
We definitely want to hold on to the fact that the Father loves all His children and that He loves us all equally. Scripture is clear about that. But at the same time, the Scriptures are also clear that He blesses some with more of His grace because of how they live, how they choose, how they respond to Him. I sense that because of the desire to stress the reality of the Father's love for all His children, the companion thought of differences because of our choices is neglected. One sad result is that some of His children do not work at responding well to the opportunities that He offers. They have not been taught the importance of this part of being a disciple of Jesus. And thus, they are not as blessed as they might be. The potential for a powerful witness of a changed life before the watching world is diminished. Once again, it becomes clear that our choices make a difference.