“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)” (Eph.2:4-5).  It is only after God draws by “quickening” the natural heart of man that he is, in any way, able to incline himself toward Christ, not before (Jn.6:44).  And God does this “drawing” while we are dead in our sins.  He does not wait for dead people to act or react.  First God intrudes, then man concludes. First God renews the heart, then man agrees to start.

Man is a fallen creature.  He is fallen completely and, thus, being without Christ, he is irretrievably lost—he is dead in his sins and utterly unable to extricate himself (see The Fellowship Commentator, Vol. VI, #2000-1).  Like an animal that has stumbled into quicksand or a tar pit, natural man is beyond self-help —he is without hope.

In the very day that Adam, the federal head and initial representative of the human race, disobeyed God, he died spiritually and ultimately, physically (Gen.2:15-17; Rom.5:12).  Thereafter, all humanity lost spiritual contact, and that contact must be restored if salvation is to occur.  Only Yahweh, by his directive, can restore spiritual contact.  Man on his own or from his own inner desires can never initiate Independent contact unto salvation.  To save a person, God intervenes in his time, with a pardon, at his pleasure, with an enlivening of the person’s evil heart, prodding it to come to Christ willingly.  Afterward, through that internal call that often gets activated by some special event, the person becomes aware of his need for salvation (cf. Acts 9:1-6).  Man merelyreacts to this internal prodding, stimulating urging; he never initiates godly action that results in salvation.  Interestingly, this compelling and insistent internal call may not be dramatic, at first.  The apostle Paul reacted stubbornly to an internal call that consisted of “goads” or “pricks.”  Since Paul persistently and consistently refused to answer that nagging internalcall, it went to the next level: Christ knocked him down and blinded him to get his undivided attention.  Do you need to be knocked down also?

When God really calls, when Christ wants you to listen, you will hear and you will answer.  Paul was an agreeable servant after that eventful trip, right to the end of his life.  If anyone refuses the internal call of God (God is longsuffering), and it really is God calling, that person is in danger of having serious trouble somewhere down the road.  We should not make the mistake of presuming that God uses sappy, pleading, and begging altar calls.  He is in charge and you are not!  Be honest: do you really need a lot of conflict and discord in your life before you respond to God?

Only two states of natural mankind exist regarding spiritual issues.  Everyone is included in one or the other state: the saved and the unsaved, the lost and the found, the dead and the alive, the pardoned and the condemned.  Which one are you?

“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 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, whom he [the Father] poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by his grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Tit.3:4-5).  Salvation is of grace, not race.  Salvation has to do with the grace and mercy of God.  Run like the wind from anyone or any church group that says you must qualify for salvation according to an “Israel-Identity” plan, good deeds, or by following laws.  There is neither Greek nor Jew (Col.3:9-11). 

The Lord and present ruling King of the earth is Jesus Christ (Matt.28:18; Jn.3:35). Yahweh God will have mercy upon whomever he will, and he will have compassion upon whomever he will (Rom.9:15).  No person has anything to say about it.  Our ideas of “fairness” are invalid against God’s sovereign will.  He will pardon and give salvation to anyone he pleases, and he will withhold salvation from anyone he pleases.  Every human being that has ever lived, or whoever will live, deserves justice, that is, death and total annihilation, but some will receive mercy, grace, and life.  Who receives mercy?  That decision is not up to us, but up to God who calls us into the presence of his Son, Jesus Christ.  We cannot control the giving, by God, of his gifts.  God knows the hearts of man—we do not.  The Word of God will shut the mouths of liars forever.  Liars will have no part in the inheritance of eternal life.  (Continued...)