This post comes after chatting yet again on www.goodreads.com, this time, however, it deals with a rapidly increasing issue. There are a few reasons why this can’t happen, and (as always) I’ll explain.
First of all, the argument is that God holds out the gift of salvation as just that, a gift, and it is our responsibility to choose said gift. There is one main reason why a true, Bible-believing Christian cannot agree with this: all men are sinful. By being sinful, we in turn cannot accept the gift of God without first a radical change of heart (done by God). We see that all are sinful in Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Our sinful nature does not allow us to accept the gift of God, being salvation, because sin prevents us from doing the will of God (see Romans 7:18-20). Have you ever heard the saying “Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish?” It’s the same concept here (see Romans 1:21-23).
Another reason is because not every person will be saved. We can see this in Matthew 7:21-23. Jesus is preaching the Sermon on the Mount, and He is telling His disciples that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven….” If it was our choice to accept salvation, then everyone could be saved, and not everyone will be saved, therefore, the choice cannot be left up to us.
There is yet one other reason that I want to touch on before ending. If the choice was left to us, it would defeat the whole purpose of salvation. Salvation is not so that we might have eternal life, that’s not the primary purpos of salvation. The purpose of salvation is to glorify God. We see in Ephesians 2:1-10 that it is solely by the gift and grace of God that salvation is granted, not by the work of men. If in fact it were our choice, then it would not be by solely through the grace of God we are saved and would leave room for boasting on our parts.
Perhaps that was as clear as mud, perhaps not. Feel free to comment (as always).
hm… informative..