Talking from personal experience, one of the largest contributing factors that have caused me to lose assurance of salvation, has been the ignorance of the way in which God saves sinners from start to finish, and without any aid from those being saved whatsoever. I had somehow mistakenly assumed that my salvation was without doubt in the hands of God, but I was also co-partner in that salvation. After all, I had chosen to follow Christ hadn’t I?
What I have since realised through Scripture, is that far from me deciding to walk the path of Christ of my own accord, it was He who first chose me, and it was He who gave me the gift of faith to believe in Christ for the salvation of my soul. This is what is known as the doctrine of regeneration, or otherwise known as effectual calling. This is a sovereign work of God Almighty, whereby he does a supernatural work in the heart of those He has chosen, that they are able to respond in faith to the call of the Gospel, as detailed in the previous article, and is completely detached from anything done by the believer independently.
Contrary to the popular notion of “making a decision for Jesus” as popularised in the modern churches, we are no more able to do this of our own volition, than a dead man is able to get up off his bed and run around the room.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
(Ephesians 2:4-9)
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who 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)
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
(John 3:6-8)
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT BY GOD.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
(John 6:44-45)
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
(John 6:63-65)
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
(Romans 8:29-31)
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Amen dear brother
I have also been down this road and one I believe is totally necessary for us as children of God to all to go down, if we are ever going to have the Lord in His rightful place as Sovereign in our lives…As long as we think we have a leading role in any small sense, we still have a way to go.
In Matthew 16 and from verse 13, we read Jesus asking His disciples, “Who do the people say I am?” Then He goes on to ask them,”But who do you say that I am?”. When Peter responds with, “You are the Christ,the Son of the living God.”, Jesus responds excitedly with, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
In this short interaction with His disciples, Jesus makes it very clear to His disciples and to us now, that we do not ever come to this realisation by ourselves. Nothing has changed since those days, the Lord still works and moves with us in the same way. It takes a wonderful working of God to turn the intellectual knowledge from our heads down into our hearts and then outward into our lives. Until He does this it is head / intellectual knowledge and not heart/real Life knowledge. Every Truth we come to understand is all revelatory, all completely miraculous and all of God.
Both exciting and humbling to read – thank you!
Bless you John