My Views of How God works to Save

These are my views based on what the Bible says. This is where I "camp" out, and while I hold firmly to these views and preach them, I acknowledge that sincere and intelligent Christians often differ on some of the nuances of these truths. [I also acknowledge that I wrote this quickly and upon further review would surely edit some of it, while not changing the message.:)]

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God chooses who will be saved. All who are in Christ (the elect) were predestined to adoption as sons, foreknown, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. (I do not believe that “God looked down the corridor of time" and based on what He knew man would choose, chose them. I do not see any scriptural teaching that says that. I believe of His own free will God chose a people for His own possession. It is all of grace. No one deserves to be saved. God can do whatever He wants of His sovereign will. It is His choice of grace.) Eph. 1:3-14, John 15:16, Romans 9:6-24

Man is not utterly depraved (as bad as he can get) but totally depraved (bad enough) and needs God to intervene and initiate the process – which He has done. Romans 1:18-32, 3:9-26.

God draws people to Himself – His grace is prevenient, He works in people to give them the desire to want Jesus. Faith and grace are gifts of God. John 12:30-33; Eph. 2:1-10.

Man is responsible before God. He has a will and it is free to choose – but the key question is ‘what is the will free to choose’ apart from Christ? We do not have the ability to choose what is good and right and true apart from God's working in grace to give us that desire. Only the elect will choose Christ because only in the elect will God's do a work of regeneration.

We are called to preach the gospel to all people. Matthew 28:18-20. We are to call people to repentance and faith so that they might believe and be saved. Ultimately it is between God and each person. We share the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and trust God with the results. Acts 2:14-41, 4:12, 16:31-32; Romans 1:16-17, 10:8-17; John 3:16-21.

God is sovereign in salvation. Salvation is a sovereign act of God. God knows those who are His. 2 Tim. 2:19

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What about 2 Peter 3:9? This verse is often taken out of context and misinterpreted and misapplied. “God is patient towards you, not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

A key question is this: who does you, any and all refer to? In context of 1 and 2 Peter, it is the elect (1 Peter 1:1), “those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:1). The immediate context states that the ungodly will be destroyed (2 Peter 3:7), so how could they come to repentance? This verse means that all the elect will come to repentance, that none of them will perish. The “whosoever believes” of John 3:16 means the elect. The elect will not perish, they will be saved.

These views give great confidence in who God is and what He does. It leads us to put no confidence in the flesh but in God alone who justifies the ungodly.

All this has direct ramifications on how a person will “live the Christian life" as well as what they will share with those they preach the gospel to. Those who believe they somehow cast the deciding vote in terms of their salvation, that they hold the keys to their eternal destiny, often fall prey to a works righteousness mentality (This is a danger for all, but especially for those who believe man is sovereign in salvation). While they may say they may acknowledge that it is all of God's grace, if they think they were the decisive factor in coming to faith in Christ, it is easy then to assume that since they are sinful and fallible, they somehow could lose what they have gained. They lack assurance. If they think it is gained by their own choice and not by their response to God's choice of them, the next step is that their continuing relationship to Jesus is based upon their own choice to keep going and not God's faithfulness in keeping us as Jesus clearly states (John 10:27-29).

Many lack assurance of salvation because if they could choose themselves they reason that they could also lose themselves, so it must be up to them to keep themselves in Christ, and knowing how weak and fallen they are – they lack assurance. They live without the knowledge of the security God has given all believers and they lack the assurance He wants each to have. While legalism is a danger for all people who claim faith in Christ, so is licentiousness, where a person says "I am saved by God's grace and I am free in Christ, therefore I can do anything I want". They take a wrong turn at "therefore". Someone who truly is thankful for what God has done for them will say, "I am saved by God's grace, therefore I want to please Him and not bring any dishonor to His name."

All a person needs to know when they come to faith in Christ is that God loves them so much that He sent His Son to die in their place, He shed His blood on the cross to pay the penalty for their sin, He was buried and rose from the dead (1 Cor. 15:1-11), thereby securing forgiveness and redemption for all who believe. It is after people come to faith in Christ that they learn the glorious realities of how the transaction actually took place. They gladly affirm that it was all of God and none of them. It is all due to the glorious grace of our glorious Lord, in doing the glorious work of salvation.

"And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." 1 Cor. 1:30-31

Glory to God.