Five Transforming Truths about Salvation – 5. He Protects Us and Brings Us All the Way Home.

If it were up to any of us, we’d never be forgiven because we’d never seek after God, never turn from our sins, and never trust Christ. And just as it is God’s sovereign grace that brings us to Him in the first place, it is His transforming power that gives us the desire for holiness and His overcoming faithfulness that brings us all the way home.

Sometimes people call this “Perseverance of the Saints,” meaning that one of the defining marks of true salvation is that you persevere to the end. But again, that’s due to the initiative and protection of our God, not to any special fortitude in us.

I’ve actually written about this subject a lot, including a six-part series earlier this year. For the last part in this series, I’m going to revisit something I wrote on March 15. And then at the end, I’ll provide links for some other articles you might find helpful on this subject.

"To Him Who Is Able to Keep You From Stumbling" 

I tripped and fell a couple days ago while I was on my run. One minute I was going at my normal (i.e. slow) pace, and the next minute I was plunging downward into the gravel. I caught myself on my palms and my right knee. Beside a few scrapes on my hands and a bloody knee, I was none the worse for wear.

I don’t know what happened. I didn't trip over anything unless it was my own feet. And it’s not like it was an unfamiliar route. I figure in the last five years I've been around this track over 600 times. I just fell, kablooey.

And as I stood to my feet, wiped my hands on my running shorts, and surveyed the abrasion on my knee, a Scripture verse popped into my head. Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling.

Five Transforming Truths about Salvation – 4. God’s Way IS the Highway.

The wind blows where it wishes...John 3:8

When we think of the grace of God in salvation, it’s not “my way or the highway” so much as “God’s way is the highway.” When God sets His mind to something, it will happen. And when it comes to saving sinners, His grace in Christ is irresistible.

Now the minute you use the term “irresistible grace” someone will point out that people resist God’s grace all the time. As Stephen said (right before he was martyred), You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you (Acts 7:51). Of course that’s true. Unsaved people always resist God and none seeks him (the subject of my first post in this series: We Have Fallen and We Cannot Get Up).

But God’s grace becomes irresistible when God decides to call a person to Himself, and overcomes the sinner’s fallen resistance. And actually this sovereignly compelling grace is the only way anyone ever comes to Christ.

Five Transforming Truths About Salvation: 3. Jesus Died to Save His Sheep – Not Just Make Them Savable.

When we talk about Christ’s atonement, all Christians can agree that Jesus’ sacrifice is infinitely precious and valuable. The Savior’s redemptive work is more than enough to save every person who has ever lived a million times over. And that’s why we can say with great confidence, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

But although Christ’s death is more than enough to save everyone who has ever lived, why is it that not everyone will be saved?

Five Transforming Truths About Salvation: 2. God Chooses First.

Last time I tried to show that “we have fallen and we cannot get up.” Total depravity is one term to describe humankind’s predicament – that we are all sinners, fallen short of God’s glory, and that we are unwilling and unable to get ourselves out of the mess we’re in.

This is a blog about Christ, of course, so you won’t be surprised that I say the answer to our terrible dilemma is Jesus. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (Acts 16:31) are some of the sweetest words in all the world.

But remember that the Bible says no one seeks after God (Romans 3:11). On our own, nobody will trust Jesus and be forgiven. Scripture says we were dead in our trespasses in sin (Ephesians 2:1), that we were blind to God’s truth (2 Corinthians 4:4), and that we had hearts of stone (Ezekiel 36:26). Dead people don’t believe; blind people don’t see; stone-hearted people don't respond to God.

So how does anyone get saved?

Five Transforming Truths About Salvation: #1. We Have Fallen, and We Cannot Get Up

With this post, and the next several, I’d like to share “five transforming truths” about salvation. God has used them in my own life to increase my love for Him, to deepen my humility and gratitude, and to heighten my desire to live for Him. I wish the same for you.

Do you remember that commercial for a medical alert company? It showed an elderly person lying on the floor, moaning, “I've fallen and I cannot get up.”

Today's understanding of sin is that we have fallen, but it’s not that bad. It’s really more of a slip than a fall, a temporary loss of balance. You could say we’ve fallen, but we can certainly get up. We can choose to change our lives.

But the Bible teaches something radically different, and infinitely worse. It says we have fallen and we cannot get up.