by For someone who heard a convicting gospel message preached and believed the truths they heard as from God, calling them to place their faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of their sin and reconciliation to God, salvation is easy. They saw the sinner in themselves as scripture elucidates and the offense they had committed against God. They realized they could never please God by themselves, they are unable to stop themselves from being sinful, and they had no way to make up for their sin before a God who calls all people into account. They accepted the solution that lay in faith in Jesus Christ. Straight forward.
There is also someone else who came to Christ on a day the rain was beating them and Christ was the shelter from the rain. They were tired and needed the promised easy yoke and rest. They were thirsty and Christ promised to satiate their thirsty and hungry souls with his living water and Living Bread from heaven. Also, pretty straight forward.
Yet other people have heard the gospel preached since they were in nappies, they have been told they are sinners in need of repentance and forgiveness and cannot argue with those facts, they have known the greatness of our God, even been delivered time and again from the jaws of death, harm and danger as they called unto God, but they never make the decision to believe in Jesus Christ for a new life. They are not moved by the love of a savior who left heaven;s majesty and communiuon with the Godhead to live as a limited man of sorrows. They are never captured by God’s glory and majesty long enough to want to do that the rest of their lives and unto eternity. They never seem to catch the faith to believe or conviction to repent of their sin or be consumed to love God with every bit within them. How come?
The doctrine of election has been used to explain this phenomena, that God chose some people before the foundation of the world, to belong to Christ (Ephesians 1:4). In essence Paul is explaining that while you may be thinking you are choosing Christ on a random Sunday in February, God chose you a long time ago to belong to him.
Paul continues to explain that God calls those that he chooses. Those that come to Christ are those that the Father draws near. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). Many are called and invited to the kingdom but few are chosen (Matt 22:14). So whenever we want to think that we chose Christ, may we remember that the Father chose us first and drew us to himself. We are Christians because God, for his own purposes and to display his glory, poured his grace on us; and because of anything we ever did or ever will do (Eph 2:8-10). That also means that if you hear God knock at the door of your heart, do not harden your heart – today is the day of salvation.
How does God call people to himself? Primarily through the gospel. As the Good News about what Jesus has done for us to make a way to the Father is preached, God draws people to himself. “(The Father) of His own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth” (Jas 1:18). Paul in Romans 10:13-15, 17 wrote: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!… Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” People get to call on the name of the Lord and be saved because they heard the word of Christ. But for them to hear means someone obeyed the call to ‘go and make disciples’ and another obeyed the message to send those beautiful feet that proclaim the gospel — what God had done in Christ to reconcile the world to himself.
Are you sharing the good news about Jesus that people may hear and believe and be saved? Are you sending out missionaries to go and share the good news?
Saving faith
Theologian Wayne Grudem defines saving faith as realization of the enmity between us and God, sorrow for sin and trust in Jesus as the solution to sin and broken fellowship. The gospel produces faith and repentance, two different aspects of one act of coming to Christ for salvation. As we turn from sin we turn to Christ for forgiveness. Thus in the Ne Testament, sometimes the call is to repent and be saved. Other times it’s to believe in Jesus and be saved. Or repent and believe. You cannot have one without the other. Grudem puts it this way: “To be saved is to realize that we are sinners but that God in Christ has provided a way for our sin to be forgiven. So we trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.”
Faith (and repentance) is not something we muster with conscious effort until we believe. The ability to believe in God and trust in His promises is a gift given by God, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8-9). Faith comes from hearing the word of God. Christ is the author (originator) and perfecter (completer) of our faith (Heb 12:2). Scriptures make us wise for salvation.
We cannot come to Christ on our own as we cannot even realize our own sinfulness without the Spirit’s help. Repentance and faith are gifts of God as he awakens us to spiritual life. Saving faith is never the result of human effort. If it were, then salvation would partly be a result of human effort.
“The Holy Spirit encounters us and convicts us, brings us to our knees, shows us God and then shoves us toward God” (Nicky Cruz, The Magnificent Three).
A finished work of God
When we believe scripture says we are saved. Our sins are forgiven and we are declared righteous (Rom 3:21-22) or justified. We get Christ’s righteousness and he takes our sin and its penalty.
Modern liberal theology says that God justifies the sinner by the moral improvement of his life. Others teach that justification deals with past sins, wiping the slate clean but future righteousness is dependent on a believer’s active obedience in sanctification. Reformed theology teaches that in justification, there is no more penalty to pay for sin, including past, present and future sins.
Paul in Rom. 8:1 wrote: “There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. Christians are not subject to any further charge of guilt or condemnation: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?” (Rom. 8:33–34). Grudem writes: “No works can avail a right standing with God, now or in the future. Our present and future justification rests solely on the finished work of Christ, not on how well we live.”
Thus our salvation is through and through the work of a Trinitarian God. The Father chooses us and calls us to himself. Jesus Christ comes as our ransom from sin, becomes our mediator and reconciles us to God. He is able to save us because He himself is God “Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev 7:10). The Holy Spirit applies Christ’s work of redemption to us by convicting, indwelling the believer as the mark of ownership and sanctifying the believer.
Salvation is thus a complex event that begins with election in eternity past, continues through faith and repentance and a lifelong process of abiding and continued trusting and is completed when we receive new bodies in glory and our full rights as God’s sons. One day, we shall see Christ as He truly is and that day we shall be like him, our salvation complete. Two important questions remain: Have you believed in the Son of God for salvation or you want to remain long-distant with God? Why are you not telling others of the savior who has loved them since before the creation of the world?
“Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing flow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in the crucified? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”
