Salvation is of God, from Beginning to End

                            "The Christian gospel offers salvation freely in Jesus Christ.
                              It is a work of God from beginning to end.  God is the ac-
                              tive giver.  He chooses, He draws, He saves, and He keeps.
                              It is all His doing.  Anything less is not the gospel."
                                                                                         Unknown


          The author of this quote is not known, but whoever said it, spoke the
     truth.  God saves fully and completely, without any help or effort on our part.
    


          Let's find the biblical truth in each phrase.


          "The Christian gospel offers salvation freely in Jesus Christ."
    
                                 "By this gospel you are saved.  If you hold firmly
                                  to the word I preached to you.  Otherwise, you
                                  have believed in vain.
                                 "For what I received I passed on to you as of first
                                  importance:  that Christ died for our sins accord-
                                  ing to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He
                                  was raised on the third day, according to the Scrip-
                                  tures, and that He appeared to Peter and then to
                                  the Twelve."
                                                                      1 Corinthians 15:2-6


           "It is a work of God from beginning to end."

                                "And by that will (God's), we have been made holy
                                 through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ
                                 once for all (time)."
                                                                      Hebrews 10:10


                                "But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son,
                                 born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those un-
                                 der law, that we might receive the full rights of sons."
                                                                      Galatians 4:4-5


          "God is the active giver."

                               "All that the Father gives me will come to me,
                                and whoever comes to me I will never drive
                                away.  For I have come down from heaven
                                not to do my will but to do the will of Him
                               who sent me.  And this is the will of Him
                               who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that
                               He has given me, but raise them up at the last
                               day."
                                                                       John 6:37-39


          "He chooses,"

                              "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world
                               to be holy and blameless in His sight."
                                                                       Ephesians 1:4


          "He draws,"

                              (Jesus said), 'No one can come to me unless the Father who
                                                   sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at
                                                   the last day."
                                                                       John 6:44


          "He saves,"

                              "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance:
                               Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ..."
                                                                        1 Timothy 1:15


          "and He keeps."

                              "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
                               In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living
                               hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
                               and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade --
                               KEPT IN HEAVEN FOR YOU, WHO THROUGH FAITH
                              ARE SHIELDED BY GOD'S POWER UNTIL THE COMING
                              OF THE SALVATION that is ready to be revealed in the last
                              time."
                                                                       1 Peter 1:3-5


          "It is all His doing."

                              "Salvation comes from the Lord."
                                                                      Jonah 2:9d


          "Anything less is not the gospel."

                              "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one
                               who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a
                               different gospel -- which is really no gospel at all.
                              "Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion
                               and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if
                               we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other
                               than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally con-
                               demned!
                              "As we have already said, so now I say again:  If anybody
                               is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted,
                               let him be eternally condemned!"
                                                                                 Galatians 1:6-9


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          Salvation is a miracle of God, that comes from hearing the gospel, and repenting
     and believing in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord!