"[H]e predestined us ... according to the purpose of his will" (Ephesians 1:5, ESV).
Paul would not boast, but in the Lord, but he was forced to tell of his sufferings for Jesus (cf. 2 Cor. 11) as if they were the marks of Jesus, a crown, and not just a feather in his cap. Jesus warned him of the great things he must suffer for sake of His name upon his salvation experience in Acts 9:16. We are all that we are by the grace of God, not just Paul. "By the grace of God, I am what I am..." (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10). George Whitefield said, upon seeing a man dragged to the gallows, what he thought: "There but for the grace of God, go I." That's humility, thinking of others rather than yourself, (if God were to withdraw His restraining grace from us, we'd be all worthy of prison or worse!), and thinking of your unworthiness compared to the grace of God.
None of us was elected conditionally, but unconditionally, and not according to anything we did or didn't do, or any work or righteousness in the flesh. "Grace reigns through righteousness." (Cf. Rom. 5:21), and that means that grace is sovereign and when God decides to send grace it's irresistible and effectual in its purpose according to the will of God. God's sovereignty is over everything and absolute and is not limited by our freedom--what He says and decrees will happen according to plan! We have "believed through grace" (cf. Acts 18:27), and God quickened faith within us, as we received faith or were given it, and didn't achieve it--it's a gift, not a work! If it were a work we would have merit to boast of. Merit is opposed to and counter to grace; we cannot earn salvation, didn't deserve it, and can never pay God back for it.
It is important to be grace-oriented to get away from the paralysis of legalism and the mentality that we have a performance-based faith and works earn favor with God or that we can ingratiate ourselves with Him. "The faith you have is the faith you show, they say in theology. Christians aren't saved by good works, but unto them and in order to do them as a result of gratitude and a changed heart. We are indeed saved by faith alone, as the Reformers taught, but not by a faith that is alone! Faith without works is dead, according to James 2:17 and we are not saved by them, nor without them, for they prove our faith as fruit--as a sign of a good tree. (Ephesians 2:10 says we are "saved unto good works, which God ordained beforehand, that we should walk in them.") God's providence guides us to a productive life of good deeds and works.
We cannot believe, except by grace, because Jesus said that we can do nothing apart from Him: "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (cf. John 15:5). Every good thing comes from God, the Ultimate of Goodness or Supreme Good (of Plato), and source of all blessings; and every perfect gift is from grace to us to be stewards of. Our righteousness, then, is not a gift or offering to God, but His gift to us! "Who makes you to differ? What do you have that you didn't receive?" (Cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). If left to ourselves, none of us would've chosen Christ (cf. Matt. 22:14, "Many are called, but few are chosen" and cf. John 15:16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you"). We weren't inclined to come to Him, and our destiny is ultimately in the hands of God, not ours!
The good works we do are God working through us as vessels of honor doing His bidding and will. "I will not venture but to speak of what Christ has accomplished through me" (cf. Romans 15:18). "... you have done for us all our works" (Isa. 26:12, ESV). Our fruit is from God per Hosea 14:8 and the fruit of the Spirit is God's blessing on our lives as He cultivates us and causes us to grow; gifts are given, fruits are grown. We don't automatically exhibit all the fruits as infant believers, but must grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, as 2 Pet. 3:18 exhorts.
Understanding grace is paramount to comprehend that salvation is all grace (the work of God according to John 6:29, ESV, which says, "... This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent..!) and not our work: "Salvation is of the LORD," according to Jonah 2:9 and that means it's not synergistic or a cooperative venture with God, nor a work of man alone apart from God's aid, but wholly accomplished by God; salvation is the accomplishment of God, not the achievement of men, which is religion trying to gain the approbation of God and reach out to Him--Our God took the initiative and reached down to us in grace, seeing our hopelessness, and desperateness without His intervention. He called us, not because of our works [of righteousness or pre-salvation works], but according to His purpose and grace (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9). Works say "Do," while God says, "Done."
No one can pat themselves on the back or give themselves kudos for achieving salvation as if they were wise, good, virtuous, or even intelligent! It remains a mystery why God chooses some and not others ("the elect obtained unto it and the rest were hardened" according to Roman 11:7 and Acts 13:48 says that "as many as were appointed unto eternal life believed."
The Golden Chain of Redemption from Romans 8:29-30 makes it patent that God loses no one in the shuffle from foreknowledge to glorification--all who are called are justified, not some lucky ones who endure through trials or don't "lose their salvation." These verses militate against the prescient view that God elected us because we had or would have faith, instead, we are elected unto faith, not because of it--there is no room for any merit in our salvation. You must distinguish between the inward call of God, which is always effectual, and the outward gospel call given by us to the lost to exhort them to repent and believe in Jesus, which can turn on deaf ears and be ineffectual.
And so none of us has the right to get a big head, even Paul had a thorn in the flesh to keep him from getting one, and we are all one in Christ, with no elite believers who are privileged or especially blessed--God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality (cf. Rom. 2:11; Acts 10:34). If we think we came to Christ on our own and by our own ability without being wooed, we probably left alone too and don't have the Spirit. If we don't need regeneration or grace to believe, what good is it and who needs it? The only ones who get the call are the ones the Father grants can come to Him and the ones He draws or woos (elko or to drag in Greek--implying force).
There is no second blessing, or higher life, or work of grace, as some holiness-movement believers (Neo-Pentecostal or charismatics) will have you believe--nowhere are we commanded or exhorted to seek the "baptism" of the Spirit. "We are all baptized into one body by the Spirit" (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13). There is one Lord, one faith, and only one baptism according to Eph. 4:4! Soli Deo Gloria!
Paul would not boast, but in the Lord, but he was forced to tell of his sufferings for Jesus (cf. 2 Cor. 11) as if they were the marks of Jesus, a crown, and not just a feather in his cap. Jesus warned him of the great things he must suffer for sake of His name upon his salvation experience in Acts 9:16. We are all that we are by the grace of God, not just Paul. "By the grace of God, I am what I am..." (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10). George Whitefield said, upon seeing a man dragged to the gallows, what he thought: "There but for the grace of God, go I." That's humility, thinking of others rather than yourself, (if God were to withdraw His restraining grace from us, we'd be all worthy of prison or worse!), and thinking of your unworthiness compared to the grace of God.
None of us was elected conditionally, but unconditionally, and not according to anything we did or didn't do, or any work or righteousness in the flesh. "Grace reigns through righteousness." (Cf. Rom. 5:21), and that means that grace is sovereign and when God decides to send grace it's irresistible and effectual in its purpose according to the will of God. God's sovereignty is over everything and absolute and is not limited by our freedom--what He says and decrees will happen according to plan! We have "believed through grace" (cf. Acts 18:27), and God quickened faith within us, as we received faith or were given it, and didn't achieve it--it's a gift, not a work! If it were a work we would have merit to boast of. Merit is opposed to and counter to grace; we cannot earn salvation, didn't deserve it, and can never pay God back for it.
It is important to be grace-oriented to get away from the paralysis of legalism and the mentality that we have a performance-based faith and works earn favor with God or that we can ingratiate ourselves with Him. "The faith you have is the faith you show, they say in theology. Christians aren't saved by good works, but unto them and in order to do them as a result of gratitude and a changed heart. We are indeed saved by faith alone, as the Reformers taught, but not by a faith that is alone! Faith without works is dead, according to James 2:17 and we are not saved by them, nor without them, for they prove our faith as fruit--as a sign of a good tree. (Ephesians 2:10 says we are "saved unto good works, which God ordained beforehand, that we should walk in them.") God's providence guides us to a productive life of good deeds and works.
We cannot believe, except by grace, because Jesus said that we can do nothing apart from Him: "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (cf. John 15:5). Every good thing comes from God, the Ultimate of Goodness or Supreme Good (of Plato), and source of all blessings; and every perfect gift is from grace to us to be stewards of. Our righteousness, then, is not a gift or offering to God, but His gift to us! "Who makes you to differ? What do you have that you didn't receive?" (Cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). If left to ourselves, none of us would've chosen Christ (cf. Matt. 22:14, "Many are called, but few are chosen" and cf. John 15:16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you"). We weren't inclined to come to Him, and our destiny is ultimately in the hands of God, not ours!
The good works we do are God working through us as vessels of honor doing His bidding and will. "I will not venture but to speak of what Christ has accomplished through me" (cf. Romans 15:18). "... you have done for us all our works" (Isa. 26:12, ESV). Our fruit is from God per Hosea 14:8 and the fruit of the Spirit is God's blessing on our lives as He cultivates us and causes us to grow; gifts are given, fruits are grown. We don't automatically exhibit all the fruits as infant believers, but must grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, as 2 Pet. 3:18 exhorts.
Understanding grace is paramount to comprehend that salvation is all grace (the work of God according to John 6:29, ESV, which says, "... This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent..!) and not our work: "Salvation is of the LORD," according to Jonah 2:9 and that means it's not synergistic or a cooperative venture with God, nor a work of man alone apart from God's aid, but wholly accomplished by God; salvation is the accomplishment of God, not the achievement of men, which is religion trying to gain the approbation of God and reach out to Him--Our God took the initiative and reached down to us in grace, seeing our hopelessness, and desperateness without His intervention. He called us, not because of our works [of righteousness or pre-salvation works], but according to His purpose and grace (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9). Works say "Do," while God says, "Done."
No one can pat themselves on the back or give themselves kudos for achieving salvation as if they were wise, good, virtuous, or even intelligent! It remains a mystery why God chooses some and not others ("the elect obtained unto it and the rest were hardened" according to Roman 11:7 and Acts 13:48 says that "as many as were appointed unto eternal life believed."
The Golden Chain of Redemption from Romans 8:29-30 makes it patent that God loses no one in the shuffle from foreknowledge to glorification--all who are called are justified, not some lucky ones who endure through trials or don't "lose their salvation." These verses militate against the prescient view that God elected us because we had or would have faith, instead, we are elected unto faith, not because of it--there is no room for any merit in our salvation. You must distinguish between the inward call of God, which is always effectual, and the outward gospel call given by us to the lost to exhort them to repent and believe in Jesus, which can turn on deaf ears and be ineffectual.
And so none of us has the right to get a big head, even Paul had a thorn in the flesh to keep him from getting one, and we are all one in Christ, with no elite believers who are privileged or especially blessed--God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality (cf. Rom. 2:11; Acts 10:34). If we think we came to Christ on our own and by our own ability without being wooed, we probably left alone too and don't have the Spirit. If we don't need regeneration or grace to believe, what good is it and who needs it? The only ones who get the call are the ones the Father grants can come to Him and the ones He draws or woos (elko or to drag in Greek--implying force).
There is no second blessing, or higher life, or work of grace, as some holiness-movement believers (Neo-Pentecostal or charismatics) will have you believe--nowhere are we commanded or exhorted to seek the "baptism" of the Spirit. "We are all baptized into one body by the Spirit" (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13). There is one Lord, one faith, and only one baptism according to Eph. 4:4! Soli Deo Gloria!
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