Does Jesus Need My Permission To Save Me? Part 4

       

     Romans 9:11-13, shows that God does not choose someone for salvation based on anything that person does, but because of God's sovereign will.  "Though they (Jacob and Esau) were not yet born and HAD DONE NOTHING GOOD OR BAD - in order that GOD'S PURPOSE OF ELECTION  might continue, NOT BECAUSE OF WORKS, but BECAUSE OF HIM WHO CALLS - she (Rebekah) was told, 'The older will serve the younger.'  As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'"

     Paul then goes on to explain why God uses election and answers any objections to this doctrine.  Romans 9:14-18 : "What then shall we say?  Is there injustice on God's part?  By no means!  For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'

     "So then it depends NOT ON HUMAN WILL OR EXERTION, BUT ON GOD, who has mercy."
     "For the Scripture says to Pharoah, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may SHOW MY POWER in you, and that MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED IN ALL THE EARTH.'  So then, He has mercy on whomever HE WILL,  and He hardens whomever He wills."


     Martin Luther writes in 'The Bondage of the Will' - "But now that God has taken my salvation out of the control of my own will, and put it under the control of His, and promised to save me, not according to my working or running, but according to His own grace and mercy, I have the comfortable certainty that He is faithful and will not lie to me, and that He is also great and powerful, so that no devils or opposition can break Him or pluck me from Him."

     God has the right to do with His creatures whatever He wishes, even if we don't understand why He does some things  Isaiah 55:8-9 : "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." 

    
     Now that we see that God is totally in control of our salvation, how does He save us?  How do we believe?

     First, we need to realize that our hearts must be changed or we won't believe.  Jeremiah 17:9 :  "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick;  who can understand it?"  We need a new heart, and God gives it to us.

     Ezekiel 36:26-28 : "AND I WILL GIVE YOU A NEW HEART, AND A NEW SPIRIT I will put within you.  And I WILL REMOVE THE HEART OF STONE FROM YOUR FLESH and GIVE YOU A HEART OF FLESH."

     "AND I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT WITHIN YOU, AND CAUSE YOU TO WALK IN MY STATUTES AND BE CAREFUL TO OBEY MY RULES.  You shall dwell in the Lord that I gave to your fathers, and YOU SHALL BE MY PEOPLE, AND I WILL BE YOUR GOD."

     All of this is God's doing, not ours.  Philippians 1:29 :  "For it HAS BEEN GRANTED TO YOU that for the sake of Christ YOU SHOULD NOT ONLY BELIEVE IN HIM, but also suffer for His sake."

     Philippians 2:12-13 shows that it is God who works in us to believe for his good pleasure.  "Therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my (Paul's) presence but much more in my absence, work out your SALVATION,  with fear and trembling, for IT IS GOD WHO WORKS IN YOU, BOTH TO WILL AND TO WORK FOR HIS GOOD PLEASURE."

     John MacArthur writes about the phrase "work out your salvation" : 'This does not refer to salvation by works, but the believer's responsibility for active pursuit of obedience in the process of sanctification.'

    
     When God gives us a new heart, we are REGENERATED (born again) and are now able to believe.  Preacher and author, Dan Phillips explains what happens to believers.  "Regeneration precedes and provokes saving faith.  Like flicking a light switch precedes filling a dark room with bright light.  But not by much.  The relationship is causal."

     "Adam received life when God breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life.  Spiritually, we are alive through faith, but our very exercise of faith is a grace-gift from God, breathed into us through regeneration.  Our newborn hearts embrace Jesus as Lord."



     How do we believe?  Phillips continues, "By a miraculous work of grace, God the Father takes pity on our dead, lost, God-hating selves.  He breathes His life into us, bringing sight to blind eyes, life to dead spirits, and the submission of repentant faith to hard, rebellious hearts."

     *******************************************************************************

     In part five, we'll see who CAN believe.