Luke 24:44-47 “Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." (45) And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. (46) Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, (47) and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
The first witness quoted above, is the Lord Jesus. The context of the above passage of scripture is that this was the first day of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead, and He had already appeared during the day, to Mary, Peter and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. But the rest of the disciples were sceptical about the testimonies of these three, and so when Jesus appeared to all of them together that evening, He rebuked them for their unbelief, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen (Mark 16:14). But the point that I wanted to highlight from this passage, is that it was at this point that Jesus opened their understanding to the scriptures regarding the message of the gospel, i.e. that it was necessary that Jesus suffer, die and be raised the third day, so that mankind can repent and receive remission for their sins. For even though Jesus had shared this truth with them many times before when He was still alive on the earth, they could not understand it, for at that time God had hidden it from them (Mark 9:31-32). And so, it was at this point that all the disciples present were born-again, because for the first time they understood the message of the gospel and thus believed. And so, we see that the method that God uses to predestine the lives of believers is that He opens their understanding to the truth of the gospel, so that they can believe it and thus be saved.
Michael E.B. Maher
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