Soteriology 101: The Sovereign Grace of God in the Salvation of His People
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IntroductionSalvation is the greatest miracle God has ever performed in a sinner's life. It is not a cooperative project between God and man, nor is it the result of human wisdom, merit, morality, or religious effort. Salvation is the sovereign work of God from beginning to end. Before the foundation of the world, God chose His people in Christ. In time, He . . .
brings the gospel to them,
effectually calls them by His Spirit,
gives them spiritual life,
grants them faith and repentance,
justifies them through the righteousness of Jesus,
adopts them as His children,
sanctifies them by His grace,
and finally glorifies them in His presence forever.Salvation is not a human achievement. It is the work of the Triune God from beginning to end.
The Father chose His people,
the Son accomplished redemption for them,
and the Holy Spirit effectually applies that redemption to them.
From Election to Glorification, salvation is all of grace!Soteriology is therefore not merely a doctrine to be studied -- it is a precious work of God to be adored. Every stage declares the glory of divine grace, and strips man of boasting. The deeper we understand God's saving work, the deeper will be our humility, gratitude, worship, and love for Jesus.
1. Election
Election is God's sovereign choice of His people in Christ before the foundation of the world. It was not based upon foreseen faith, goodness, merit, or anything God saw in the sinner. The believer's faith is the fruit of God's gracious choice, not the cause of it. Election magnifies God's mercy and leaves no room for boasting.
Ephesians 1:4-5, "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will."
Romans 9:16, "It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy."
Election means that grace began its work before we ever existed. Long before we sought God, God had purposed to seek and save His people. The salvation of the believer in no way rests upon man's vain efforts, but upon the eternal purpose of God.
To sum it up in one sentence, election is God's Sovereign Selection of Some Sinners to Salvation.
Reflections
1. Before there was a single tear of repentance, prayer, or act of faith in your life, there was the eternal purpose of God to save His chosen people. Salvation begins in the heart of God, not in the heart of man.
2. Election produces humility rather than pride. The chosen sinner cannot boast, for he was chosen solely because God was pleased to set His love upon him.
2. The General Call
The general call of the gospel goes forth wherever it is preached or read. God commands sinful people to repent and believe the Good News. This gospel invitation is genuine, sincere, and freely proclaimed to sinners. Yet in and of itself, the mere hearing of the gospel cannot produce salvation, for fallen man is spiritually dead and cannot come to God.
Romans 10:13-14,
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in?
And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"Matthew 22:14, "For many are invited, but few are chosen."
The general call increases man's responsibility. The sinner is commanded to believe, repent, come to Christ, and be saved. The fault lies entirely in the sinner, as he has no desire for the gospel, hence he always rejects it.
Reflections
1. Never underestimate the privilege of hearing the gospel--no one can be saved without it. Every proclamation of the gospel is a divine summons to flee from sin and come to Jesus for free salvation.
2. A man may sit under the sound of the gospel for years and remain unchanged. Hearing the gospel is a great mercy, but something more than outward hearing is needed -- God must effectually open the heart!
3. The Effectual Call
The effectual call is God's sovereign work by which He inwardly calls His elect through the gospel, and brings them savingly to Jesus. The outward call reaches the ear; the effectual call reaches the heart. God does not merely offer salvation to the elect -- He effectually draws them, and enables them to receive it.
John 6:44, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
Acts 16:14, "One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message."
The same gospel that all resist, becomes by God's gracious work, the power of salvation to the chosen and redeemed. Lydia did not open her own heart. "The Lord opened her heart." That is effectual calling.
Reflections
1. What happened to Lydia is the same miracle which every genuine believer has experienced. We did not make ourselves willing. The Lord opened our hearts, and effectually draws us to Himself.
2. This truth gives hope in evangelism. We preach faithfully, but only God can raise the spiritually dead and cause them to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for His sheep.
4. Regeneration
Regeneration is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in which the spiritually dead sinner is made alive. The sinner does not first believe, and then become spiritually alive. Rather, the Spirit gives spiritual life, along with faith and repentance; allowing the sinner to sincerely come to Jesus. Regeneration is the creation of a new heart and a new spiritual nature.
John 3:3, "In reply Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.'"
Titus 3:5, "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit."
Regeneration is entirely God's work. Just as physical birth is not accomplished by the newborn child, spiritual birth is not produced by the sinner. The Holy Spirit gives life to those who were dead in sin.
Reflections
1. Christianity is not moral improvement.
It is not turning over a new leaf.
It is the reception of spiritual life.
The sinner must be made alive by the Spirit of God.2. A regenerated heart cannot remain indifferent to Jesus. When God gives spiritual life, the sinner begins to see the beauty of Jesus, hate his sin, and long for holiness.
5. Conversion
Conversion is the sinner's turning to God in saving faith and repentance. Faith receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, while repentance turns the man from sin to God. These are not meritorious works added to grace. They are the God-given responses of the regenerated heart.
A. Faith
Acts 16:31, "They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved -- you and your household.'"
Faith is resting entirely upon Jesus and His sin-atoning sacrifice on the cruel cross. Saving faith does not trust in baptism, morality, sincerity, church membership, or religious experience. It trusts in Jesus alone, for salvation.
B. Repentance
Acts 17:30, "In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent."
Repentance is a turning from sin, to God. It does not earn forgiveness. It is the evidence that grace has conquered the heart. Faith and repentance are inseparable companions of genuine conversion.
Reflections
1. Saving faith does not merely admire Jesus. It flees to Him. The empty hand of faith lays hold of the all-sufficient Savior.
2. Genuine repentance is not merely sorrow over the consequences of sin. It is sorrow over sin itself, because sin is against the Savior whom he now loves. The repentant heart longs to be delivered not only from hell, but from the sins that deserve hell.
Repentance is the tear of love, dropping from the eye of faith, as it fixes on the crucified Savior!
6. Justification
Justification is God's legal declaration that the believing sinner is righteous in His sight, because the perfect righteousness of Jesus has been imputed to him. The sinner is not justified because he has become inherently righteous. He is justified because the righteousness of Jesus has been credited to his account, while his sins were laid upon Christ at the cross.
Romans 3:28, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law."
Romans 5:1, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Justification is instantaneous, complete, and final. The justified sinner stands before the holy and righteous God, accepted in Christ. There is therefore no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus.
Reflections
1. The believer's hope is not, "I am becoming good enough for God." His hope is, "The perfect righteousness of Jesus is imputed to me." His righteousness is the sinner's only sufficient covering.
2. When you think of the heinousness of your sins, the doctrine of justification directs your eyes away from yourself, to the perfect righteousness of Jesus, imputed to you. Your standing before God rests not upon your performance, but upon His righteousness.
7. Adoption
Adoption is the astonishing act of God's grace by which those who were once His enemies and slaves of sin, are brought into His family and made His beloved children. Justification gives the sinner a righteous standing before God's court; adoption brings that justified sinner into God's family. The redeemed are not merely pardoned criminals -- they are beloved sons and daughters of God.
Galatians 4:4-7, "But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir."
1 John 3:1, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"
Reflection 1: How astonishing is divine grace! The sinner who deserved the Judge's condemnation, is welcomed into the Father's family. The cross did not merely rescue us from Hell -- it secured for us the unspeakable privilege of being God's dear children.
Reflection 2: The Christian's greatest treasure is not merely what God gives him, but God Himself. To be adopted by God is to have a Father . . .
who never abandons His children,
who disciplines them in love,
who supplies every need,
who hears their prayers,
and who will finally bring every adopted child home to glory.
8. Sanctification
Sanctification is the gracious work of the Holy Spirit by which those who have been justified are progressively conformed to the image of Jesus. Unlike justification, which is a once-for-all declaration of righteousness, sanctification is an ongoing work in the believer's life. God calls His children to . . .
put sin to death,
pursue holiness,
obey His Word,
and increasingly reflect the character of Jesus.
Though the believer cooperates with God's grace through faith and obedience, the power and ultimate source of sanctification is God Himself.Romans 6:12–14, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace!"
Philippians 2:12-13, ". . . continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose."
Sanctification is never the ground of our acceptance with God. It is the fruit of that acceptance. Every one whom God justifies, He also sanctifies. Grace does not merely pardon the sinner -- it transforms him into Christ-likeness.
Reflections
1. God did not save you merely to keep you from Hell. He saved you to make you holy. The same grace that pardons sin, is the grace that wages war against sin within the believer.
2. Do not despise the slowness of sanctification. The battle may seem painfully uneven, and progress may at times appear almost invisible, but God is at work within His redeemed children. Every victory over sin, every growing hatred of evil, every increasing love for holiness -- is evidence that the Holy Spirit is conforming you to Jesus.
9. Glorification
Glorification is the final and irreversible completion of salvation, when every believer will be perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus. At death, the believer's soul immediately enters the presence of the Lord. At the resurrection, the body will be raised incorruptible, immortal, and glorious. Every remaining trace of sin, weakness, corruption, and sorrow will forever disappear. What God began in Election, He will certainly complete in Glory.
"And those He predestined, He also called;
those He called, He also justified;
those He justified, He also glorified." Romans 8:30Philippians 3:20-21, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body!"
Glorification is the epitome of God's sovereign grace in saving His people. There will be no remaining corruption, no possibility of falling away, and no more warfare with sin. The redeemed will finally and forever be with Jesus, holy and perfected in His presence.
Reflections
1. The Christian's story does not end in the grave. The body may be buried, but the believer's hope is to be with Jesus, and like Him. The God who chose you, redeemed you, regenerated you, justified you, and sanctifies you -- will bring you into His glorious Heaven.
2. What a wondrous salvation! One day faith will become sight, the struggle will become victory, the battle will be over, and every redeemed sinner will stand before the throne -- perfectly holy, perfectly joyful, and forever with Jesus. "After this I heard a sound like the roar of a great multitude in Heaven, shouting: Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!" (Revelation 19:1)
Summary
From Election to Glorification, salvation is the unfolding of the one magnificent purpose of God. The Father planned it, the Son purchased it, and the Holy Spirit applies it. What God begins, God completes. The sinner who was chosen in eternity, effectually called in time, regenerated by the Spirit, converted through faith and repentance, justified by grace, adopted into God's family, and progressively sanctified -- will one day be glorified forever!
This is the believer's great confidence: Salvation does not finally depend upon the strength of our faith, the perfection of our obedience, or the constancy of our performance. It rests upon the unchanging purpose, righteousness, power, and faithfulness of God. The golden chain of salvation reaches from election in eternity past, all the way to glorification in eternity future. Not one link is broken. Not one of God's redeemed people will be lost.
Therefore, let every believer bow low before God's sovereign grace in salvation, and cry with the redeemed: "To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy -- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Jude 24-25).