Who Will Be Saved?     

Jonah 2:9 & Romans 10:13

            In Jonah 2:9 we have a clear declaration of God’s sovereign grace. In Romans 10:13 we are given a declaration regarding man’s responsibility. Both are true. Both need to be understood. Both must be believed. And both must be preached with clarity. God almighty is totally sovereign in the salvation of sinners; and we are, every one of us, responsible to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

            These two facts are clearly revealed in Holy Scripture. We cannot believe without God’s sovereign grace. Faith is the gift of God, the fruit of his Spirit, and the operation of his grace. Yet, God’s sovereign grace will not save us if we do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Regrettably, there are some who have such a distorted understanding of God’s sovereignty and the doctrines of grace that they become hard, uncaring, and negative in their preaching and in their attitudes. They are opposed to everything and in favor of nothing. Like big wrecking balls, they know how to tear down anything; but they do not know how to build. They are anti-missionary, anti-evangelistic, and anti-responsibility. They seem to care more about debating, defending, and protecting the doctrines of grace than they do about seeing sinners saved by the grace of God. Really, some men preach like they are afraid some of the non-elect might get saved! What a pity! Such a spirit is not of God. It is not the spirit of Christ, or of his apostles, or of the New Testament (Matt. 23:37; .Rom. 9:1-3; 10:1; 1 Cor. 9:22).

            There are others who totally deny God’s sovereignty, his purpose of grace in election and predestination, and the effectual, irresistible power of his grace in salvation. All they can see in the Bible are those words, “whosoever will.” They interpret everything in the Bible in the light (or in their case, darkness) of those two words. No matter what you say to them, no matter what text you read to them, their response is, “I believe in ‘whosoever will.’” They preach human responsibility in such a way as to make responsibility mean ability. They make the will of man, rather than the will of God the determining factor in salvation. I detest that doctrine. It is not of God, but of the devil. Lucifer was the first free-willer (Isa. 14). I contend that free-will religion is the religion of Lucifer. It is a doctrine that makes man his own Savior and promotes the worship, adulation, and honor of man’s will, rather than the worship, adulation, and honor of God. It puts God’s will under the dominion of man’s will and makes man to be the God of God!   The Bible teaches these two facts. They are as plain as the noonday sun. You cannot deny either of them without denying the Word of God. And you cannot really believe either of them, as they are taught in the Scriptures, without believing both. Every sinner loved, chosen, redeemed, and called to salvation by the sovereign grace of God shall be saved, all of them and none but them. And every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.

Don Fortner