Do you truly appreciate your salvation?
"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."
-Romans 3:11-12
I've been studying the book or Romans and actually taking our congregation through a verse by verse study Sunday mornings in our worship services. What a theological kick to the face! Romans will have you appreciating the Gospel far more than you did before reading it while simultaneously realizing how truly wretched and helpless we humans are in our sins. Romans is grace and judgment, doctrine and faith all wrapped in a 2-ton Mack truck of Scriptural truth.
As I was reading through Romans 2 and into 3 today, I came was struck by the humbling reality that without the tremendous grace and mercy of God shone through Christ, the Son, I wouldn't have a single excuse or argument to stand on at the Day of Judgment. Let that fact alone, it was awakened in me the reality that without the initial work of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, I would be totally lost forever, without hope or opportunity to even come to the point of repentance and faith.
'What do you mean? I thought all were called to repent and believe? I thought all were called to "believe the Gospel" for "IT is the power unto salvation"?' All of this is true, but let's look elsewhere to further explain the situation.
John 6:44 tells us, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." The disciples had a lot of trouble with the things Jesus was teaching, especially when He would later say that He was the Bread of Life and that eternal life was only found in "feeding on this bread." There was talk of cannibalism swirling about this new movement under this crazy healer from Nazareth. Jesus responds to their queries in John 6:61, 63 - "Do you take offense at this?....It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all." We are then told in v.64 that Jesus knew from the beginning who would believe and who wouldn't, even down to the point that Judas Iscariot would betray Him (which we, the reader, find out about later).
Jesus then says, "This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father." After saying that, "many of his disciples (followers) turned back and no longer walked with Him" (v.66) Jesus was making it clear that there is nothing salvific in ourselves, in our bodies, in anything of our own accord. Salvation is only by the Spirit. Furthermore, Jesus was making another hard truth very clear: No one genuinely seeks Me on his/her own; the Spirit must draw him/her. What does that mean? It means something that hasn't been taught in mainstream Christianity in a long time, if really, ever: Salvation, faith, repentance, none of that is of us. We never do good. We never seek God. We are spiritually dead due to our sins. We must be awakened to even have the desire to come to Christ. This is the great wonder of the Gospel call! Do we realize this?
For further clarity, let's jump to Hebrews 6:4-6:
"For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt."
This is a mouthful but all to say that since the Holy Spirit is the one who draws us to Christ, and that no one naturally seeks God on his/her own, for a person to then reject this drawing power will, in effect, be lost forever due to the unforgivable sin of rejection of Christ (aka "blaspheming the Holy Spirit' - Mk. 3:28-30). To reject the drawing of the Spirit to repentance and faith as He awakens our dead spirit to the life found in the Gospel, is to reject the Savior. This is the unforgivable sin.
In summary, salvation is all of Christ and we have no bearing or work in it. We are called to repent and believe, yes. But we must realize that we couldn't do any of that without first being spiritually awakened and drawn to the Father by His Holy Spirit. What grace! If God left us to our wills, to our own nature in this, we would never seek to be saved therefore, we would all get the punishment we deserve in Hell. What mercy!
We are all sinners.
We are all condemned to hell and eternal separation from God because of our sins.
We will never seek God on our own because of our sinful nature and because we are spiritually dead. We will always choose sin instead of God.
We must be spiritually awakened and drawn to Christ through the Gospel call to have a hope of being saved.
We are given the ability to repent and believe in that moment of the Spirit's drawing, yet if rejected, we blaspheme the Holy Spirit and the unforgivable sin rests upon us.
Should we repent and believe, we will be eternally secure and saved through that faith in Christ.
So you see? Salvation is ALL of God.
Christian, do you truly appreciate your salvation?
-Romans 3:11-12
I've been studying the book or Romans and actually taking our congregation through a verse by verse study Sunday mornings in our worship services. What a theological kick to the face! Romans will have you appreciating the Gospel far more than you did before reading it while simultaneously realizing how truly wretched and helpless we humans are in our sins. Romans is grace and judgment, doctrine and faith all wrapped in a 2-ton Mack truck of Scriptural truth.
As I was reading through Romans 2 and into 3 today, I came was struck by the humbling reality that without the tremendous grace and mercy of God shone through Christ, the Son, I wouldn't have a single excuse or argument to stand on at the Day of Judgment. Let that fact alone, it was awakened in me the reality that without the initial work of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, I would be totally lost forever, without hope or opportunity to even come to the point of repentance and faith.
'What do you mean? I thought all were called to repent and believe? I thought all were called to "believe the Gospel" for "IT is the power unto salvation"?' All of this is true, but let's look elsewhere to further explain the situation.
John 6:44 tells us, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." The disciples had a lot of trouble with the things Jesus was teaching, especially when He would later say that He was the Bread of Life and that eternal life was only found in "feeding on this bread." There was talk of cannibalism swirling about this new movement under this crazy healer from Nazareth. Jesus responds to their queries in John 6:61, 63 - "Do you take offense at this?....It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all." We are then told in v.64 that Jesus knew from the beginning who would believe and who wouldn't, even down to the point that Judas Iscariot would betray Him (which we, the reader, find out about later).
Jesus then says, "This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father." After saying that, "many of his disciples (followers) turned back and no longer walked with Him" (v.66) Jesus was making it clear that there is nothing salvific in ourselves, in our bodies, in anything of our own accord. Salvation is only by the Spirit. Furthermore, Jesus was making another hard truth very clear: No one genuinely seeks Me on his/her own; the Spirit must draw him/her. What does that mean? It means something that hasn't been taught in mainstream Christianity in a long time, if really, ever: Salvation, faith, repentance, none of that is of us. We never do good. We never seek God. We are spiritually dead due to our sins. We must be awakened to even have the desire to come to Christ. This is the great wonder of the Gospel call! Do we realize this?
For further clarity, let's jump to Hebrews 6:4-6:
"For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt."
This is a mouthful but all to say that since the Holy Spirit is the one who draws us to Christ, and that no one naturally seeks God on his/her own, for a person to then reject this drawing power will, in effect, be lost forever due to the unforgivable sin of rejection of Christ (aka "blaspheming the Holy Spirit' - Mk. 3:28-30). To reject the drawing of the Spirit to repentance and faith as He awakens our dead spirit to the life found in the Gospel, is to reject the Savior. This is the unforgivable sin.
In summary, salvation is all of Christ and we have no bearing or work in it. We are called to repent and believe, yes. But we must realize that we couldn't do any of that without first being spiritually awakened and drawn to the Father by His Holy Spirit. What grace! If God left us to our wills, to our own nature in this, we would never seek to be saved therefore, we would all get the punishment we deserve in Hell. What mercy!
We are all sinners.
We are all condemned to hell and eternal separation from God because of our sins.
We will never seek God on our own because of our sinful nature and because we are spiritually dead. We will always choose sin instead of God.
We must be spiritually awakened and drawn to Christ through the Gospel call to have a hope of being saved.
We are given the ability to repent and believe in that moment of the Spirit's drawing, yet if rejected, we blaspheme the Holy Spirit and the unforgivable sin rests upon us.
Should we repent and believe, we will be eternally secure and saved through that faith in Christ.
So you see? Salvation is ALL of God.
Christian, do you truly appreciate your salvation?
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