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!”