Salvation Is God’s Work From First to Last
Repentance, faith, and salvation are all gifts of God. If we think we chose God and made a decision to know him by ourselves, we do not fully understand the extent of human depravity. God does the work in us.
Paul says in Romans 10:20, “But Isaiah is very bold and says, ‘I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”
This is the mystery of salvation: God was found by those who did not seek him. He made himself manifest to those who did not ask for him. We were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1); we were darkness (Ephesians 5:1). A dead man can not choose life, and a blind man cannot see. He chose to open our eyes and reveal himself to us, and quickened us.
“He (God) chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence.” Ephesians 1:4
In the King James Version of Galatians 2:20, Paul says the life he now lives, he lives by the faith OF the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself for him. I love that version because others say faith IN the Son of God, which does not bring out the full impact of the grace of God. But when I examine how I got saved, I have to say that the faith was not mine. The faith to believe in itself was a gift of God.
This means no one can take credit for their salvation and boast, “I did this and I did that!” It is God who does the work. Jesus says no one can come to him except the Father draws him. The amplified version says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him [giving him the desire to come to Me].” (John 6:44). Jesus also says that we did not choose him, but he chose us. (John 15:16)
God’s sovereignty in salvation
The mystery of a man’s salvation is a great one, but all in all, it is the pure work of God. No one can boast of what he has done to attain it. When one tries to explain this in human words, it seems unfair.
Someone told me yesterday that it is unfair because it seems as if God has chosen some and not chosen others, but then my response would be as Paul’s in Romans 9:19: “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?”
God is sovereign, and yet the sound has gone to all that they may believe, but they don’t. And so he is justified when he judges because he has given all a chance to hear and believe!
“But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? … But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” Romans 10:16, 18
Praise God for his infinite, mysterious wisdom!
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Have you given your life to Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior? He loves us so much that he, our creator, left heaven and came to earth, died for us on the cross, taking our sins upon him so that we may be forgiven and receive his righteousness. He conquered death by rising from the dead and made a way for us who were dead in sin to be reconciled back to the Father (God). What’s more, he has prepared a wonderful home for us in Heaven, where those who love him and obey him will spend eternity with him. Learn more here about how to be born again and have eternal life after this brief life on earth.
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