Predestination And Free-Will

Is Not Salvation All By God’s Grace And His Power?

Romans 5:6 – “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

 
There are many people today who think they are truly saved and truly right with God because some well-meaning Christian told them to say a sinner’s prayer and if they really meant it, they would be saved on the spot (regardless of what God had to say about the issue). A person might sincerely say a prayer to accept Christ (on his or her own terms) but never intend to forsake their sins because the Holy Spirit has not yet convicted them of their sins (and may never convict them of their sins).
 
Whether we want to admit it or not, the act of accepting Christ is a ‘work’ because it is something that man does that he can take credit for and this kind of thing cannot happen in God’s plan of salvation because He has declared that no one will be able to glory before Him (Romans 4:2). Also, as all true Christians should know (even those that preach that unsaved man has a free will) – salvation is “not of works lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9). It is a gift that no unsaved sinner wants as Paul pointed out in Romans 3:11 where he wrote that none seeketh after God. The old man does not want to accept Jesus – the real Jesus – on God’s terms. He wants to be his own lord and master:
 

Isaiah 53:6 – “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way“

 
Only God can change us into a creature that is willing to submit to Christ’s Lordship:
 

2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

 
It is this new creature that accepts Christ’s lordship. The old creature is at war with God:
 

Romans 8:7 – “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.”

 
Romans 8:8 plainly states that an unsaved person cannot please God and so they cannot accept Christ as their Saviour and Lord because they have not the will or the desire to do anything that would please God. God must FIRST put His Spirit in us so we will want to know Him, trust Him and please Him. 
Summary: This article is a section of a much larger article on the Bible doctrines of Election and Predestination called “Who accepts Whom?“. You are urged to check out that larger article for many other thought provoking questions pertaining these “Doctrines of Grace”. — RM Kane