Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Salvation, We Are Participants But Not The Power

My Utmost For His Highest
 
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him…” —John 6:44
 
“When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my will comes in immediately. […]  Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But will I commit, placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing to act solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on reality as certain as God’s throne.[…]  Belief must come from the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive or powerful argument. […] Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond his own grasp. But it is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is an inner, personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe”  CHAMBERS
 
Do you know someone that refuses to place their faith in  Jesus, even though it is evident that they desperately need to do just that?  Our part in someone’s salvation is a mystery.  First, it is a mystery why God would include us in the process.  He certainly does not need us but He wants to include us.  Second, it is a mystery as to how speaking the Gospel does anything at all.  Persuasive words will not save someone.  It is the Gospel  (Romans 1:16-17) For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”  A person must believe that Jesus is, well, Jesus.  Peter said “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus respond by saying that men had not revealed that to Peter, but God had.  (Matthew 16:16-18) What happens is supernatural.  We can be participants in the process, but we are not the power in the process.  God is.  So what to do about those who are far off from God?  Pray for them, show them Jesus by how you live, and if the Spirit gives you the opportunity, share the Gospel with them, but leave the result up to them and God.  (Ephesians 2:8,9)  We have been saved by grace, through faith.  That is the way to Jesus and it is not going to change.  Elgin
 
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
 
Charley Elgin

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