Chapter 7
Free Grace Salvation – The Work of God the Holy Spirit
Now that we have seen the role of free grace by the Father and the Son, let us turn to that of the Holy Spirit to see His free grace role in the salvation of man. We have seen how the unsaved man is spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. He is incapable of coming to Christ by the power of a free will. So, how does the Father’s chosen vessel the Son died for come to Him in faith? The work of the Holy Spirit is that last phase in the free grace plan of God’s salvation. It is the Spirit of God who takes what the Father did in election and what the Son did in His sacrificial death for those elect, and applies it to the heart of the unsaved, spiritually dead, elect sinner to bring him to saving faith. The role of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of man is regeneration or the new birth.
You Must Be Born Again
To help us understand more how the Holy Spirit brings the chosen but helpless unsaved sinner to Christ, let’s look at some Scripture where we see how this happens. The first important Scripture concerning the new birth or regeneration that I would like us to look at is the familiar account of Nicodemus, the Pharisee, who comes to Jesus by night to have a discussion with Him.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 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 3:1-8)
In this account, Nicodemus is confused by the words of Jesus. He thought that Jesus was talking about a physical rebirth. Jesus, however, was talking about a spiritual rebirth. This spiritual new birth has to happen before an individual can see the kingdom of God and have spiritual sight. We know this because of the use of the word “unless” by Jesus in verse 3 and 5 above. The KJV uses the word “except”. This spiritual sight is faith. Something must happen first for a person to come to faith to be able to see the kingdom of God.
Jesus says the same thing in a different way in verses 5 and 6. He says unless one is born of water and the Spirit one cannot enter the kingdom of God. A spiritual washing must happen before one can have faith and enter the kingdom of God. What was this spiritual washing? It was the new birth or the washing of regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
…not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5)
Regeneration, the new birth, and the quickening power of God are the work of the Holy Spirit in the free grace salvation of God. It is what Jesus is describing to Nicodemus that must happen first before one can come to faith.
Which Comes First, Faith or the New Birth?
The issue before us is the order of the new birth. This is a key question and one that divides many Christians. Most Christians believe that they produce their faith by the use of their free will with the help of God. Once they produce faith then God gives them the new birth and they are saved. There are problems with this view.
The first problem is the words of Jesus Himself. Jesus was saying to Nicodemus that the new birth has to happen first. He is saying that before someone can have spiritual sight (faith) and before he can enter the kingdom of God (salvation), the new birth must happen first so the spiritually dead sinner can see and enter the kingdom. Again, the key word is “unless” in John 3:1-5.
The second problem with this view that faith comes before the new birth is that it makes salvation a reward rather than a gift from God. According to the free will view, we get this new birth and thus salvation after we are able to produce faith by our own ability of the will. If we use this ability well to produce our faith, God gives us the new birth, regenerates us, and then we are saved. We earned it by being able to somehow process this spiritual information by our free will while being spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. This would be a spiritual impossibility.
The free grace view maintains that regeneration or the new birth comes before faith therefore salvation is truly a gift and not a reward. Now, on whom does God bestow this gift of regeneration and on what basis? The grace or gift of the new birth is bestowed on those God has chosen, before the foundation of the world, to give it to. This is how God, in His free grace salvation plan, brings His chosen vessel to Himself. He does it by the power of His grace in the new birth, not by any power of the will of the spiritually dead unsaved sinner. The basis of why one receives the new birth is, as was said earlier, according to the secret good pleasure, counsel, and purpose of God. (Eph. 1:5, 11)
It is only by the work of regeneration of the Holy Spirit that a spiritually dead unsaved sinner can be raised spiritually from death to life. It is only then that such a person can receive the gift of faith from God. It is the Spirit who gives one eternal life. The flesh or wills of men profit nothing.
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)
How the Holy Spirit Brings Us to Faith
Let us now turn to some verses in Scripture that describe the work of the Holy Spirit as He brings God’s elect to saving faith. We know from the Bible that for one to be saved the person must repent of his sins and have faith in Jesus Christ. We know that faith comes from God. It is His gift to us, not our gift to God. (Eph. 2:8-9) As Christians we do the believing but only after God has graciously opened our hearts so that we can believe. An excellent example of this is the case of Lydia.
Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. (Acts 16:14)
We see here that God opened Lydia’s heart first, that necessary action by God in regeneration before faith can happen, and then she believed the things Paul shared with her about Jesus Christ. The heart here is just a synonym for the will. The Lord opened her will. Could Lydia have believed in Christ without God first opening her heart or will? The answer is an obvious no. The opening of her will first was necessary because her will was dead in sins. The opening of the heart or will is the new birth. This is accomplished by God, not by man or by his will.
27 Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. (Acts. 14:27)
Here we see God opening the hearts and wills of many who were Gentiles. Who is in control of faith here? Was it by the will of God or by the will of men? It was God Who determined to give faith to the Gentiles. The Gentiles could not have come to faith just like Lydia could not have come to faith unless God opened their hearts or wills for them to be able to receive His gift of faith. This was a sovereign decision by God. He did not show the Gentiles this grace in the Old Testament, but He did in the New Testament. Praise God!
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)
When this verse says no one can come to Jesus, it means no one has the ability or power to do so. Their spiritually dead wills are not able to accomplish this. The drawing of the Father refers to the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit to draw or drag the chosen sinner to faith in Christ.
Repentance is something we normally think comes from us, but Scripture records that repentance is as much a gift from God to us as faith is.
Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. (Acts 5:31)
When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” (Acts 11:18)
From these two verses, we see that it is God who gives or grants repentance to people. He did this for the Jews and for also the Gentiles. It is necessary that for a person to repent, God must turn his heart to repent and turn him away from his sins. The person does the repenting just like the believer does the believing, but only after God has opened his spiritually dead and hardened heart or will so that he has the ability to repent and believe. It can only happen by the new birth before repentance and faith occurs, not by someone’s free will. This is what Jesus is telling Nicodemus in John 3:3, 5 when He said that “unless” a person is born again, he cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. The “unless” (the new birth) must happen before spiritual sight (faith) can happen and before entering the kingdom (salvation) can occur.
For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, (Phil. 1:29)
…if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, (2 Tim. 2:25)
These are also two more verses which show it is God who gives faith and repentance to people so they can believe and repent. The word “grant” which means to give is the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit opening their wills so that they can come to Christ.
There are two verses that not only tell us Who causes this new birth but also who is not the cause of this regeneration or quickening.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 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)
Here we see clearly that those who believe and receive Christ were born (again), not by the will of man but by God. You don’t see free will here, but you do see this birth taking place by the power of God.
So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. (Rom. 9:16)
This verse also tells us our faith and salvation comes not from the person who wills it (free will), nor from one who tries to obtain it by doing good works (running). Salvation and the new birth only come from God in His marvelous mercy toward us. We did nothing to earn it or bring it to pass. It was by His free grace of mercy in His choosing us to salvation before the world began.
Another way to understand this new birth is that it is accomplished by the quickening power of God. To quicken means to make alive.
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, (Eph. 2:1-2)
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (Eph. 2:4-5)
In the KJV, the word “quickened” is used instead of “made us alive” which is used in the NKJV. Notice here that we were spiritually dead and then God made us alive by the new birth. It was God “who made us alive” not our wills. We had no faith when spiritually dead. God made us alive so that we could see and enter the kingdom of God by faith. We must not get the cart before the horse. The new birth comes first to quicken us out of our state of spiritual death so that we can come to faith in Christ. Note that it is the Holy Spirit who gives us whatever measure of faith we possess. We must not exalt ourselves to think we brought ourselves to faith. It is entirely a free gift from God and not of us. (Eph. 2:8-9)
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. (Rom. 12:3)
So, it is evident that the only power that can bring us out of a state of spiritual death is the quickening or regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. We can’t see spiritual things nor can we enter the kingdom of God because we are spiritually dead without any spiritual understanding. (Rom. 3:11) When God graciously gives us the new birth, He opens our eyes so we can see and gives us spiritual legs to walk into the kingdom. It truly is the same type of miracle that Jesus did when He gave physical sight to the blind, made the lame walk, and raised dead people back to life. It is a spiritual miracle rather than a physical miracle but a miracle just the same.
Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple. (Psalm 65:4)
It is the Holy Spirit, in His regenerating, drawing, and dragging power that causes the chosen, unsaved person to come to Christ and be saved. Without this wonderful grace and power, an unsaved person could never come to Christ.
6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Dt. 30:6)
This is an Old Testament verse that describes the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. It is God who spiritually cuts away the foreskin of sin that has blinded their wills so that they can see and live spiritually and love God with all their being. This can happen only by the gracious act of God because their hearts or wills are dead.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 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. (Ezek. 36:26-27)
Again, we see these hearts are hearts of stone, hardened by sin. This is describing their wills which are hard and obstinate. No free will here. The Holy Spirit then, by His powerful grace, gives them a new heart and causes them to be saved and to walk in His statutes. This is accomplished, not by their wills of stone, but only by the wonderful grace of God who softens and causes their wills to be obedient to Him.
1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. (John 17:1-2)
We see in these verses the power of God to give eternal life to all of God’s chosen vessels. By His omnipotent power and authority over all flesh, Jesus gives eternal life to all those the Father gave Him. For no one can resist God’s will or power.
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. (Isa. 55:11)
The witnessing power and success of the Word of God will never fail to accomplish the will of God. If it did one time, this verse could not be true. The Word will accomplish God’s will every time because it will bring to salvation every one of those the Father planned or chose to save and gave to His Son. It is by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit that this happens.
We also see the great power of God the Holy Spirit in drawing or dragging His chosen ones to Himself in the call of Jesus’ disciples.
18 And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him. 21 Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him. (Matt. 4:18-22)
These fishermen left everything immediately to follow Jesus. They left their occupation and their family to follow this itinerant preacher they knew little of. They did this because of Jesus simply commanding them to follow Him. How could they not obey the power of God’s voice when even the wind and sea obey Him?
Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” (Matt. 8:26-27)
We see this same power used in the case of Levi.
13 Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them. 14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. (Mark 2:13-14)
Levi was a tax collector who earned a very good living taxing the people. He was set for life if he just did not make any mistakes with the Roman authorities. Yet he gave it all up after this stranger just walked by and said, “Follow Me.” That simple command of two words overpowered his will that would have wanted him to stay. He could not withstand the power of Jesus’ command, so he left everything and followed Him.
Can Those God Wants to Save Resist His Will?
In this segment, I want us to look at a couple of verses that are often quoted to show that those whom God wants to save can resist His will by their free will.
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matt. 23:37)
First, chapter 23 is about Jesus denouncing the religious leadership, the scribes and the Pharisees, for their evil deeds. In verse 37, Jesus criticizes them for doing all they could to prevent Him from getting His message across to their children. The “you were not willing” part of the verse is referring to the religious leadership in Jerusalem, not to the children.
Actually, all unsaved people are unwilling to come to Christ, for no one seeks Him. (Rom. 3:11) They will all resist any spiritual enticing or pleadings. (1 Cor. 2:14) Before one is saved, he can’t come to Christ unless and except God works the miracle of regeneration in his heart or will. (John 3:3,5; 6:44; Acts 16:14)
Jesus Christ possessed two natures. One was His human nature and one was His divine nature. We see His human nature when He “wept” at Lazarus’ funeral, when He asked His Father to remove the cup at the Garden of Gethsemane, and when He tired, was thirsty, and needed rest and sleep. In the garden His divine side knew it was the Father’s will for Him to suffer the cross, yet His human side requested that this cup be removed. (Matt. 26:39) We see also that Christ’s human side did not know the time of His return in power and glory to the earth after His resurrection (Mark 13:32), yet His divine side, of course, did know this fact.
Therefore, in His human, compassionate side, He would have gathered the children under His arm, even though His divine side knew that only the Father’s elect would be so gathered. His point of this verse is to denounce the religious leadership for the hardness of their hearts. However, they had no power over Him to prevent Him from bringing these children to Him if any of them were one of His elect. Jesus will not lose a single person given to Him by the Father. (John 6:39) These religious leaders could never resist or prevent Jesus from bringing His elect to Himself. For no one can resist His will.
“…For who has resisted His will?” (Rom. 9:19)
The same can be said of Acts 7:51.
51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
Stephen is here talking to those Jews who were about to stone him to death. They resisted the Holy Spirit in that they rejected the message of Christ. Most of those he was referring to were not among the elect of God. We know that at least one of those Jews was numbered among the elect. It was Saul who later became the Apostle Paul.
We need to remember that the gospel call is both external to the “many” and internal to the “few”.
14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:14)
All men will resist the Holy Spirit until God, in His grace, touches the wills of His chosen people, opens their hearts, minds, and wills so that they will come to Christ most freely and willingly. No one comes kicking and screaming against their wills to Christ; they come freely and willingly because God has touched them and inclined them by His Spirit of grace to come to Christ. This internal call they will not resist because they want to come to Christ being made willing by God. This He did for Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), to Lydia of Thyatira (Acts 16:14), and to every other person who has come to faith in Christ (Eph. 2:8-9). No one can resist His will (Rom. 9:19) to bring every single person the Father gave to the Son before time. (John 6:39)
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. (John 6:37)
Here Jesus makes a promise that cannot be broken. He promises that every single person the Father gave Him, all the Father’s elect, “will” come to Him. Not maybe or possibly or if they use their wills properly. They will come. It is a certainty. The Holy Spirit will draw or drag them to Jesus for certain. It is a guarantee and promise from God Himself.
But What About the Whosoever Will?
I remember once hearing a preacher make the following statement very emphatically in a sermon when talking about the salvation of man.
“It’s not the elect, it’s the whosoever will!”
Although this preacher certainly had enthusiasm for evangelism during his message, he didn’t understand the Scriptures on this particular point. If he had, he would have known that the “whosoever will” are the elect and only the elect. Every Christian is the elect of God. I have given many passages in this chapter showing that God, in His grace, touches, softens, inclines, and causes the wills of spiritually dead unsaved men who have been chosen by Him to come to Christ freely and willingly. They are the “whosoever will”. They can’t come by any free will of theirs, but they will certainly come when God quickens their dead wills mercifully and wakes them up spiritually.
13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Phil. 2:13)
Can You Lose Your Salvation?
Another debate among Christians has to do with whether or not we can lose our salvation once we have come to saving faith. Since this is a work of free grace by the Holy Spirit, I want to address this issue here, so I will try to examine the most important verses on each side of this issue.
Scriptures that Prove the Eternal Security of the Believer
First, I want to discuss the eternal security of the believer. This is part of the free grace plan of salvation and also a work of the Holy Spirit of God. The eternal security of the believer simply means that once God has saved us, His elect, by our faith and repentance, we are forever saved as a child of God and can never lose this as the Holy Spirit has sealed us until the day of redemption. God would not choose us for salvation before the foundation of the world only to let us perish later. The power that raised us to Christ when we were spiritually dead will also keep us saved throughout our life. Praise God!
40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. (Jer. 32:40)
Jeremiah tells us that when God saves these people by His everlasting covenant that He will continue to be faithful to His people. He will instill a fear in their hearts or wills so that they will not depart from Him.
24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24)
All of God’s saved by their faith in Jesus Christ have everlasting life. They will not come into judgment for their salvation but have passed from spiritual death to spiritual life. If they have everlasting life how can it be taken away? It can’t because it is everlasting.
Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. (John 17:12)
Jesus will keep from losing salvation those the Father has given the Son, His elect. Not a one will be lost. Only the son of perdition, Judas, who was never one of the elect of God, was lost. Judas was chosen by Christ to be a disciple but not to personal salvation. This was all accomplished so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)
The saved of God receive an eternal inheritance that will never fade away and that is securely reserved in heaven for them. They are kept eternally secure by the powerful grace of God through faith and salvation which will be revealed on judgment day.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Eph. 4:30)
Once we are saved, the Holy Spirit of God seals us to Himself. No one can break that seal, for we are sealed until the day of redemption. The day of redemption is the day when we get our glorified bodies at the resurrection of life on the last day (John 6:39) when Jesus returns to earth. That is when our bodies and spirits find full redemption and are reunited into a wonderful new and eternal body.
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. (Eph. 1:13-14)
Here is another verse regarding the sealing of the Holy Spirit who keeps us saved for all eternity. The Holy Spirit of promise seals God’s people once they believe, and guarantees our eternal inheritance in heaven. Jesus Christ purchased our redemption with His blood and the Holy Spirit seals us to the day of our bodily resurrection when Christ returns to earth.
There are many verses in the Bible that state believers in Jesus Christ have everlasting life. Perhaps the verse we are most familiar with is John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that