Probably the most audacious statement that people make insulting the majesty of the King of Heaven and disregarding His Word is that God didn’t choose or reject us but that we choose Him. Well, every offspring of Adam has the will and ability to reject Christ and they will reject Him because they are dead in sin. It is as natural to man as barking is to dog. (Most of the Christians are nominal; they don’t believe in the Jesus of the Bible; they have their own false Jesus) But choosing God is not in man’s power. For that you need to be spiritually alive. Jesus said to Nicodemus,
Unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God ( cannot be saved).” John 3:3
You are right John 3:16 does say that whoever will believe will be saved, but did you ever think who will believe? Look here
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13)
Did you read the verses above? Why did some people believe? Well, because they were born neither of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man. They believed because they were born of God. New birth is necessary for salvation. Now my question to you is this, “Did your parents take your permission to conceive and give you birth?” If you had no say in your physical birth, how can you have the temerity to say you had a say in spiritual birth? If you truly believe in Jesus today, it is because you were given birth from above. Read the following verses slowly and loudly until you grasp their essence:
10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” (Romans 9:10-13)
No matter how much false teachers butcher this verse, they can never make it say that man has a say in salvation.
What did Jesus say:
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit. ( John 15:16)
There are hundreds of verses in the Bible that say that man has no part in salvation but John 15:16 is probably the simplest. How wicked man is that even after reading this he says that he exercised his free will and chose Jesus. When Jesus said “You did not choose me but I chose you, He precluded (removed) all possibility of man’s choice or say in salvation, yet the self-worshipful man says “Jesus did his part, I’m doing my part.” This is the sin (the sin of trying to possess God’s incommunicable attributes) that Lucifer and Adam committed at the beginning and it still continues in the form of beliefs like these.
Look at the following verses also.
Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. (James 1:18)
15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”
18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, (Romans 9)
How are we saved then?
(A) We were dead in sin and unwilling and unable to choose God.
(B) God gave us spiritual birth.
(C) At new birth, we received the gifts of new nature, new will, new affections, new inclinations, faith and repentance.
(D) Faith and repentance are not man’s gifts to God but God’s gift to man.
For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? ( 1 Cor 4:7)
Yes, you believed but you did so not because you were more intelligent or righteous than the unbelievers but because God granted you the gift of faith.
You see God does not owe anybody anything. Even if He sends everyone to hell, He will be just because we are responsible for our sins. But He chooses a handful of people to be saved and reprobates the rest. Those who go to heaven received grace (something they didn’t deserve). Those who go to hell receive judgment (just punishment) for their sins. Nobody receives injustice.
Now you may have lots of questions like if God ordained some to go to hell, why does He judge? Paul does not give answer to this question in romans 9. He rebukes the asker. But I will give because it’s there in other places in the Sciptures. God judges them because, God didn’t make them sin nor can He (James 1:13). They did it deliberately. God is sovereign, yet man is responsible for their sin is the clear teaching of the Sciptures.
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