Just thought I'd share this letter I wrote recently to a friend... may God bless you through it.
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Hello, ______.
About my blog and the articles therein, I can see how it was "a bit difficult" for you to understand where I am coming from. Perhaps the things written "evade" you because I am writing from a view entirely foreign and distinct from natural comprehension? What I mean is exactly what the bible says; that "by nature, man does not receive things which are of the Spirit."
I am not claiming that I have any self-derived superior understanding of spiritual things; the opposite. By God's grace, wholly undeserved and unsought, I was granted an understanding. This understanding did not save me, since even the devil understands this much; but it was through this understanding that I was brought to the good news of what God did for ungrateful sinners.
The understanding is that God justifies and forgives persons on the basis of His sovereign and eternal choice of undeserving sinners to experience new life in Christ. [Rom 9, Eph 1 & 2] This is both just and gracious, since not one person deserves anything but judgment. Therefore God is not unjust to withhold His mercy from anyone, or to give it to some and not others. God's mercy is His to give to whomever He wishes and to withhold, as well. And yet, He offers it freely to all who hear the gospel, though everyone rejects it willingly.
This is because willful choices flow from one's nature. Every rooster crows at dawn. Is this a coincidence, that they all choose to do the same thing? No. Every creature acts according to its nature. Just as cats freely choose to stay clean and pigs freely choose to roll in mud, so we all by nature freely choose to reject God's means of salvation in Jesus Christ. We are sinful because our nature comes from our corrupt father, Adam. As it says in Psalm 53 and Romans 3, "no one seeks God, no one is good."
How then can anyone be saved, if no one will come to God? Jesus says, in John 6, "No one comes to me except the Father draws him." At the time appointed by Himself, God, by His Spirit, regenerates the heart - that is, the nature - of a person, changing the essence of his or her being to one of faith in God through Jesus Christ. This is what it means to be "born again" by the Spirit. It is not self-motivated, decisional, or willful. It is a work of God which, until then, the person did not truly desire. The person becomes a new creature with a natural impulse to thirst after righteousness and forgiveness. This new nature instantly frees the person to willingly place faith in Christ for salvation. This is how salvation is of grace, not of works lest any man should brag.
If Christ died to bring only certain people to salvation, how can someone know that they are included in this elect number? Simple. Only His elect people willingly repent and believe. And they do this because He first changes their hearts. [Rom 8 & 9, John 1,3,6,10, Eph 1&2] Therefore, if you will repent and believe on Jesus, no matter how deplorable your sins are, you may have confidence that for God's sake He has already chosen and paid for your sins in Christ. He is now applying this to your heart. The promise is true, "whosoever believes shall be saved," not because belief is meritorious, but because their belief is one more act of God communicated to them by grace in Jesus.
Anyways, I don't write this to bore or confuse or offend you. I really do have a love for you and others in a way I never had before, though I forget to write you back. It just excites me so much, I spent years trying to save myself for my own sake, and then God saved me for His sake and to demonstrate unconditional love towards me. There cannot be unconditional love unless first there is someone who cannot fulfill the conditions.
I simply desire that you would have the joy I experience in Christ who saved me, not according to works, not because I turned from a certain number of sins, and not because I promised to be a better person. He saved me when I was a hateful, despicable liar. If I hadn't come under the forgiveness of Christ, I would still carry the burden of knowing I had broken the commandments to love Him with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love my neighbor as dearly as I love myself. Who has done that?!?! I would have hell to pay. Thank God, Jesus stood in my place, and His righteousness has been applied to me! Faith is like an eye that brings light into the soul, the light of Christ and forgiveness of sins. Look to Jesus.
It's 1:30am and I work in the morning, so I'm getting to sleep now.
My dad says hello. I say goodnight.
Mike:.
