First Thessalonians 1:5: An Explosion of Grace
In the previous post in this series, we looked at only verse four. There, we saw that Paul makes the wonderful statement that these new believers in Thessalonica are loved and chosen by God. We spent some time in the doctrine of election, which is something hidden from our eyes. We weren’t there when God made his sovereign choice in eternity past, and the reality of that choice coming to fruition in time and space is still invisible to the physical eye. However, like waves upon a typically still lake that tell you a boat has come by recently, the gospel coming home to the heart of an elect person has rippling effects that cannot be hidden.
And so Paul says that he knows they have been chosen. This wasn’t because of some secret knowledge that any of them had. It’s because he saw the waves that emanate from the explosion of new life now present in their regenerate hearts. Those waves are waves of imitation. As Paul says, they became imitators of him, Silas, Timothy and the Lord (v 6).
For today, we are going to look at the initial explosion that took place in Thessalonica, and in our own hearts, when God breathed new life into sinners who are dead in sin.
The Initial Explosion
Paul says he knows they are chosen 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
When we preach the gospel on Sundays, the word is sent out upon the people. One of the prayers you might often hear from a pastor is that the Lord would come in power, by his Spirit, to make that word effectual in the lives of the congregation. That is what has happened to the Thessalonians. Paul brought the word to the people, and the Holy Spirit applied it to their lives, making it effectual. And what did that look like? Down in verses 9-10:
9 you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven
Radical change came to the people in Thessalonica. Where they use to be ensconced in the worship and service of the false gods, now they have been freed to worship and serve the true and living God. Now their hope was not in this life but in the coming of Jesus Christ. Their hearts had been made new. They had been regenerated.
When we speak about regeneration, this is another unseen reality that happens to all who come to faith in Christ. Perhaps a better way to say it is that it’s a reality that happens that causes people to come to faith in Christ.1 God, by the power of his Spirit, reaches down and replaces the heart of stone with a heart of flesh. There is nothing we can do to cause this to happen, it is just like election. It is a sovereign work of God.
Of course, Jesus speaks about this with Nicodemus in John 3, but there is a particular passage that illustrates what has happened in Thessalonica. This should also be helpful in picturing what has happened to us.
In Ezekiel 37, God tells his prophet to prophecy over a bunch of skeletons. The word of the Lord was proclaimed over these dry, lifeless bones and God caused them to come alive. His promise to his elect is that he will put his Spirit within them, bringing them to life in himself. This is what happened in Thessalonica and if you know the Lord, this is what has happened to you. Just as the dry bones had no chance of bringing themselves to life, you and I had no chance of escaping the spiritual death in which we were trapped. If he does not do this for us, we will remain dead in sin with stoney hearts.
This regenerating work of the Spirit is often hard to detect, even in our own lives. When I went off to college, I would have said that I was a Christian. I went to church and I believed the Bible, though I had no idea what it said, and definitely didn’t know what it meant! But in my first year something happened. I acquired a hunger for the word of God, a knowledge of my sinfulness and longing for Jesus that had not been present before. For a while I simply believed that I was growing in my understanding of the Bible. That was happening for sure, but what I came to realize is that the initial explosion of God’s grace, where his Spirit brings me to life in Christ, had taken place. I had been made alive! I had been given sight! I had been given a new heart! I did not (and still don’t) know exactly when this happened but I saw the effects of it rippling through my life.
Over the next few posts, we will see what rippling effects took place in Thessalonica. For now, perhaps we can ask our hearts a couple questions: Have we experienced the explosive grace of the Spirit of God in Christ? Have we seen the rippling effects of his grace (however small those ripples are) in our lives? If so, let us be led to praise God! For if he had not done this work in us, we would know nothing of the beauty of Jesus, and we would still be those skeletons in the valley with no hope in this life or the next. But as it is, because of God’s mercy to us in Christ, we are alive to worship and serve the true and living God as we wait for our Savior’s glorious return!
For your singing pleasure, let’s let this song be the prayer of our hearts.
1 A distinctive of Reformed Theology is that regeneration preceeds faith. Here's a one minute clip for you to enjoy! https://www.ligonier.org/blog/regeneration-precedes-faith/