“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one should boast.”

— Ephesians 2:8-9

The Bible teaches that God is the sovereign Lord and controls all things. And in His sovereignty, He allows men to do what they wish.

Now when He allows a person to sin, it is the person who is acting according to his own evil nature that does it. Now this is where people say, “Well, is not predestination simply allowing people to act according to their own will and to receive Christ?” But it won’t work that way because the whole world is a fallen race. We are all totally depraved. We are dead in trespasses and sin. We are blind to the Gospel; we cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. Therefore, if we are left to our own natural inclinations we will one and all decide to continue in our sin to the very end.

For anyone to be saved, God has to come down into this stream, this mass of humanity, which is pressing ever downward in more and more ungodliness and sin, and He has to come and pluck people out of it, bring them unto Himself, and turn them around. He then steers them upstream and gives them empowering to go the other way. That is why when we get to heaven all of the praise goes to God. He did it all. There is none that seeks after God, no not one. That is why we should be most humble about salvation. It is accomplished by the Savior.

Beautiful Savior, thank You for choosing me to be Yours forever. I thank You for Your work in my life and the grace that You have so freely given…

BY HIS STRENGTH AND POWER,
WE CAN KNOW HIM.