Essay Five
Christ’s Decision for Us
The thrust of modern evangelical preaching is to encourage sinners to ‘make a decision for Christ’, and on the basis of this decision, the sinner gets saved, obtains the gift of eternal life, and is assured of going to heaven when he dies, providing he does not commit some unpardonable sin. The scriptural basis for this message is of course, John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Romans 10:9 adds the further condition of, “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.”
Making a Decision for Christ
These two conditions of believing and confessing are euphemistically referred to as: making a decision for Christ, accepting Christ as our personal Saviour, or, giving our heart to Jesus. With this theology in mind, wouldn’t it be nice if the preacher could keep track of who was saved, and who wasn’t, and be able to tell how effective his preaching was by counting the converts? So, we add to the process of getting saved, the raising of hands, the altar call, or some other sign that the sinner is genuinely saved. Well, what’s wrong with that? Nothing, except Satan has now been given the perfect instrument to immobilize the babe in Christ – namely, doubt.
If Satan can get us thinking that we had something to do with our salvation, he can just as easily persuade us that we didn’t do it quite right. Maybe we weren’t truly repentant. Maybe we promised God we would not commit a certain sin, and then we backslid. Maybe we weren’t really serious about becoming a Christian. Maybe we didn’t understand the scriptures about salvation. Maybe we didn’t really give Christ our whole heart, as if our desperately wicked heart could play any role in our salvation. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
The Natural Man Receiveth Not the Spirit of God
But sinners must have something to do with their salvation. After all, we have to believe and confess, don’t we? Can the carnal man believe God? I Corinthians 2:14 says, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him”. Can the carnal man confess Christ as Saviour and Lord? Matthew 16:16-17 says, “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven”
The Words I Speak are Spirit and Life
God’s Spirit must already dwell in the minds of sinners before they can believe or confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” (I Corinthians 12:3) The source of God’s spirit is the word of God. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63) “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.” (James 1:18)
Chosen in Him before the Foundation of the World
What do the scriptures say about man’s role in his salvation? Ephesians 1:3-6 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
If Christ made a decision to save us before the foundation of the world, then we must conclude that we had absolutely nothing to do with our salvation. Furthermore, if Christ reckoned us as saved before the foundation of the world, then we must have been saved in our mother’s womb (Isaiah 49:1), the day we were born, and the day before God opened our eyes to the fact that he had saved us before the foundations of the world were laid. Where then is there room for doubt in so great a plan of salvation?
Luther put it this way. “Man, before he is created to be man, does and endeavours nothing towards his being made a creature, and when he is made and created he does and endeavours nothing towards his continuance as a creature; both his creation and his continuance come to pass by the sole will of the omnipotent power and goodness of God, who creates and preserves us without ourselves. . . So, too, I say that man, before he is renewed into the new creation of the Spirit’s kingdom, does and endeavours nothing to prepare himself for that new creation and kingdom, and when he is re-created he does and endeavours nothing toward his perseverance in that kingdom; but the Spirit alone works both blessings in us, regenerating us, preserving us when regenerate, without ourselves . . . But He does not work in us without us, for he re-created and preserves us for this very purpose, that He might work in us and we might co-operate with Him.” (Bondage of the Will, page 53)
If God be for Us who can be Against Us?
Romans 8:29-32 says, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things?” Lord, you don’t understand. I wasn’t really saved until I made a decision for Christ, until I gave you my heart. Such nonsense!
Nothing can Separate Us from the Love of God
Instead, our reply must be, “If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39)
If our salvation is in any way founded upon the will of man, then we could just as easily lose it through a decision of the flesh. Thank God it is not, as clearly stated in John 1:13, “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Are we just splitting doctrinal hairs? Are we making much to do about nothing? Or, is the issue our confidence that “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus”, versus the doubt caused by putting just a little confidence in the flesh? Jesus Christ made a decision for us before the foundations of the world were laid, and his Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God (Romans 8:16). God’s children need to know this Good News!