Salvation: God's Will

Salvation: God's Will

As a Christian, is my salvation based on God's sovereign will in my life? Is there something that I can do to save myself? To find out, we need to look at what the scripture says. A great passage to turn to would be Acts 13:48 which says, "When the gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been granted to eternal life believed." In this passage, Paul and Barnabas have shared the gospel to the Gentile people. Being convicted in their hearts, they believed in the Word of the Lord. What we are looking at is, who caused this belief in their hearts? In this passage, we see that it was the Lord who granted them faith to believe in His name. Only those who had been elected by God's will, believe in His name. Man was not responsible to have enough faith of his own rather in an instant God gave man His Holy Spirit and through the Spirit's power, man was given the faith to believe in God and call upon His name. This is all the moment of justification.

Another passage we may look at is also in the book of Acts. This passage talks of the Lord's work in our salvation.  Acts 16:11-14 tells the story of the conversion of a woman named Lydia. Specifically I would like to look at verse 14. It says, "A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul." We see that God opened Lydia's heart to the gospel so that she could respond to the words of Paul. It that instant she was saved by God's grace. Not by any human work that she had done, rather it was the inspired Word of God that caused her dead heart to come to life.
Ephesians 2:4-9 are wonderful verses that speak about God saving us. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves, that is why salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone! What a marvelous peace we can have as believers to know that it is God who has saved us and who will keep us in Him for all eternity. He will care for us and protect us while on this earth so that we may bring glory and honour to His great name.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us , even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."

-Ephesians 2:4-9

 

 

Blessings,

       Lucas C.