His Will, not our own.

Jeremiah 17:9 ” The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Romans 3:10-12 As it is written: ” There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”

We as fallen humans are deceitful and desperately wicked. None of us is righteous, nobody seeks after God. Since we are so wholly and completely depraved and deserving nothing but the wrath of God how can we ever choose by our own free will to believe and have faith in Christ’s completed work on the Cross?

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.

We can’t. We simply do not have the will to come to God. Only God can draw us to faith in Christ.. It is not our will but His!

John 1:12-13 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.

Our will will never lead to salvation. It is the Will of God that will bring us to that salvation. To have faith you must be born not of blood (our human will) but of Spirit (God’s Will).

John 3:5-7 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 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.’

Being born again is not from us or our will but it is God who causes us to be born again.

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

The Holy Spirit will regenerate us and draw us to Faith in Christ.

Ezekiel 36:27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

God gives us His Spirit while we are still sinners and spiritually dead and on the way to hell.

Ephesians 2:4-5 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 so salvation is not of our will, it is not something we can work for. It is the mercy and free gift from God.

Ephesians 2:8-10 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. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

And it is God’s will that we are saved. It is His mercy, His grace. Not our will, not our desires, not our works. God decided this long before we were here. He chose us before the world began.

Ephesians 1:4-6 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

God’s mercy and grace are His sovereign right to give or to withhold.

Romans 9:15 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion."

And even though Christ’s Crucifixion was sufficient for all. It was only effective for His sheep, His elect, the Church.

John 10:14-16 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

Christ died only for the ones God predestined to salvation. His blood purchased the Church.

Acts 20:28 Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

The Church alone receives the salvation and sanctification from Christ’s sacrifice. He bore the sins of the elect, the saints so they can be blameless before God.

Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

Since we were predestined for salvation and bought with the Blood of Christ we will continue until the end. Our faith will persevere.

Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

We are given eternal life, we will not perish. And nothing or no one can take salvation away from us.

John 10:27-29 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.


Soli Deo Gloria