What
Does the Book Say?
Romans
9:16
Any
understanding of the love of God, the will of God, the blood of Christ and the
call of the Holy Spirit that leaves salvation dependent upon the will, work, or
worth of the sinner in any way or to any degree is utterly heretical. The Word
of God is crystal clear in this regard. “It is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy” “Salvation is of the
Lord!” Let me set before you,
in plain, simple, unmistakable terms, the teaching of Holy Scripture about
these things. It matters not what any creed, any denomination, or any man says.
Our faith stands upon “thus saith the Lord.”
God’s
Love
All who
are loved of God shall be saved by him. To suggest anything else is to make the
love of God meaningless. The love of God is the source and cause of salvation.
It is the very foundation of our redemption (Jer. 31:3; 1 John 3:1; 4:7-10, 19). It is infinite
love! Everlasting love! Indestructible love! Love that “passeth
understanding!” And it is saving love (Eph. 2:4-5). God’s love is not
helpless, but almighty! God’s love is never frustrated, but always effectual!
God’s love is not weak, but strong and saving!
The love
of God is in Christ. God loves sinners in Christ and for Christ’s sake (John 3:36;
Rom. 8:38-39). God’s love is a holy love. It can only be fixed upon holy
objects. It is true (Thank God it is true!), God loves sinners. But God loves
sinners in Christ and for Christ’s sake. No sinner has any reason to imagine,
or even suspect, that God loves him if he does not trust his Son. Apart from
faith in Christ, the wrath of God abides on the sinner, not his love!
The love
of God is immutable. It does not change. Those who are loved of God are loved
of God forever. They shall not spend eternity in hell suffering his wrath!
“God
is love!” We rejoice to declare it! But the Lord our God is also “a
consuming fire,” a God of burning, unquenchable wrath! “It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” “Our God is a consuming
fire!” He declares, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
There are, in this world, vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy, vessels of
mercy prepared by God for glory, and vessels of wrath fitted by unbelief and
sin for destruction (Ps. 11:4-7; 7:11-13; 5:5; 2:12).
If
you imagine that God loves every person without exception, how can you explain
the flood, the destruction of Sodom, or the fact of hell? If God loves the
multitudes who are consumed in his wrath, he has a very strange way of showing
it!
“But,” I hear the will worshipper say,
“God is no respecter of persons.” Right you are. To say that God loves all men
alike is to declare that he is a respecter of persons, for he takes men to
heaven only because of something they do by which they distinguish themselves
from others!
If what I have shown you from the Word of
God about the love of God offends you, it is because your heart is evil. An
honest heart knows that none of us deserve or merit the love of the thrice holy
Lord God. Only in Christ can the holy God love an unholy object, because in
Christ the unholy are made perfectly holy!
God’s
Will
The will
of God alone is the cause of our salvation in Christ. Is this what the Book
says, or is it not? Read John 1:11-13 and Romans 9:16, and you will see. If
salvation depended upon the will of man no one would ever be saved. What is the
condition of man’s will? It is the same as the man’s condition. —Spiritually
dead! —Depraved! —Perverse! —In Bondage! This is the doctrine of Holy Scripture
(John 5:40; 6:44; Rom. 3:10-12). It was not my will that brought me to Christ,
but God’s will (James 1:18; Eph. 1:3-5, 9, 11; John 6:37-39). If God almighty
willed the salvation of all, all would be saved (Isa. 14:24; 46:9-11; Dan.
4:34-35). —“The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely, as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass; and as I have thought, so shall it stand!”
Christ’s
Blood
The blood
which Christ shed at Calvary, the death he died as the sinner’s Substitute upon
the cursed tree was an almighty, effectual atonement for sin (Isa. 53:9-11;
Rom. 5:10-11). We do not make atonement by believing on Christ, we receive the
atonement he made (Rom. 5:10-11). Tell me what you believe about the death of
Christ, why he had to die, what he accomplished in his death, what purpose his
death served, and I will tell you what you think of Christ. It is this issue
that determines whether you are a Christian or a pagan, a believer or an
idolater! What do you see in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ?
The
cause of our Savior’s death was the love of God for his elect (John 3:16). The
reason why Christ had to die was that God might be just in the exercise of
mercy and grace to the saving of our souls (Rom. 3:24-26). —“By mercy and
truth iniquity is purged!” The purpose served in our Savior’s death was the
accomplishment of a work no one else and nothing else could accomplish —The
putting away of sin (Heb. 10:1-9).
All the
Jewish sacrifices offered under the law could never put away sin (Heb. 10:1-9).
The works of the law can never put away sin (Rom. 8:3-4). God himself, who
created the world by the word of his mouth, could not put away one sin without
the shedding of Christ’s blood (Heb. 9:22). But Christ, the God-man, put away
our sins by the sacrifice of himself (Heb. 1:3).
The death of Christ was more than an
attempt to save. His death upon the cross was the accomplishment of redemption
for God’s elect. What did the Lord Jesus Christ actually accomplish by his
death upon the cursed tree? Hear what God has to say about the matter. He
actually, effectually redeemed, justified, and sanctified all for whom he died,
putting away their sins forever (Heb. 10:12-14, 17-20; 9:12, 24-26; Gal. 3:13;
1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; 1 John 1:7, 9; Isa. 53:4-6, 8, 10-12).
If God is true (as he is) and his Word is
true (as it is), it is not possible for a man to both believe the testimony of
Holy Scripture and believe that Christ shed his blood to redeem all men (John
10:11-16, 26).
The
Spirit’s Call
Sinners
are born again by the omnipotent, life giving, irresistible, effectual call and
grace of God the Holy Spirit. Regeneration, the new birth, eternal life is the
gift and work of God the Holy Spirit, the operation of his omnipotent mercy (Ps. 65:4; 110:3; John 3:5-8).
All men and women have some awareness of God, of sin, of life, of death, of
judgment, and of eternity (Rom. 1:18-20; 2:14-15). Man is, by nature, a very
religious creature (John 5:39-40). And unsaved religious people often recognize
and believe some true facts about God and Christ and salvation (John 3:2). But
the quickening, regenerating work of God the Holy Spirit is much, much more
than the mere revelation of facts. He reveals Christ (Gal. 1:15-16). He gives
life! God the Holy Spirit gives impotent, dead sinners life (John 3:5-8; Eph.
2:1-5). He convicts and convinces sinners of sin, righteousness, and judgment,
revealing Christ in the heart (John 16:8-15; 1 Cor. 2:7-10; Zech. 10:12). The
Spirit of God effectually draws sinners to Christ and makes them willing to
come (John 6:44-45; Ps. 110:3).
With regard to this great boon of grace we
call “salvation,” every saved sinner says, “To God be the glory!” “Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for
thy truth’s sake!”