"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men" (Titus 2:11, NKJV).
"Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart, as in the rebellion" (cf. Heb. 3:15). God authored a plan of salvation: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" (cf. Heb. 2:3). "Behold now is the day of salvation" (cf. 2 Cor. 6:2). God has a future for His people and offers them abundant life. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" (cf. Jer. 29:11). "...I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly" (cf. John 10:10). God's kindness and goodness toward you is not leniency but meant to give you space to change. "...Not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance" (cf. Rom. 2:4).
But we are in a predicament and cannot realize God's plan. We are totally, but not utterly depraved, which means you are as bad off as you can be and that every part of you is corrupt, even though you are not as bad as you can be. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (cf. Jer. 17:9). We are a "sinner by birth, by nature, and by choice", according to Chuck Swindoll. "Indeed it is the straightedge of the law that shows us how crooked we are" (cf. Rom. 3:20, Phil.). We are "free but not freed," says Augustine, of Hippo. We are free agents who are culpable and blameworthy and guilty, and all we can do is sin --we're guilty as charged ("non-posse non peccare," says Augustine [literally, "unable not to sin"]) period, case closed.
We cannot please God: "We are like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags" (cf. Isa. 64:6). We are in a no-win situation and cannot gain the approbation or approval of God no matter what we do--we cannot clean up our act or prepare ourselves for salvation, except admit we are unqualified. "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). There is a great chasm, rift, or cleavage between us and God. "But your iniquities have separated you from your God..." (cf. Isa. 64:6). Jonathan Edwards preached back during the Great Awakening in 1741 that we are "sinners in the hands of an angry God" (cf. Deut. 32:35). Furthermore, God doesn't hear our prayers as unbelievers: "...Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear" (cf. Isa. 59:2). We are even blind to the truth of the gospel: "Whose minds the god of this age has blinded..." (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4).
We cannot clean up our act or get it together--don't get me wrong; we can come as we are to Christ, we just can't stay that way. We are "by nature a child of wrath" and cannot reform ourselves enough to please God. "Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil?" (cf. Jer. 13:23). "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" (cf. Prov. 20:9).
There is an exit strategy: Jesus comes to the rescue and shows a way out of our dilemma. This is no "do-it-yourself" proposition, but God taking the initiative and paying the price we couldn't pay on our behalf. "But God demonstrates His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (cf. Rom. 5:8). "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, all we like sheep have gone astray, and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (cf. Isa. 53:5-6). "Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Col. 2:14). "For Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (cf. 1 Pet. 3:18). "For He made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us..." (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21). This is called the propitiation, atonement, and reconciliation and is what God did for us on the cross through His Son Jesus Christ, and what was needed for our forgiveness (sort of like paying the price with His blood per Lev. 17:11).
Christ died for "whosoever will" (cf. John 3:16) and no one who will do His will be left out (God calls everyone to hear the outward call of the gospel via preachers per Titus 2:11 noted above. However, the offer of the inner call is to ""all whom the Lord our God will call" (cf. Acts 2:39). God does the wooing and actually compels us to come to Him with irresistible grace and an effectual call and we refer to as efficacious in its result. "No one can come to Him unless the Father who sent Me draws him ..." (cf. John 6:44). This is called one of Christ's "hard sayings." "No one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father" (cf. John 6:65). I am not offering religion to you, but a relationship and way of life. It is not "do" but "done." "The just shall live by faith" (cf. Hab. 2:4). It's a "done deal" and we cannot add to God's work, because Jesus said, "It is finished."
But the prerequisite to salvation is repentance by the grace of God or His unmerited and undeserved favor. "... [God[ commands all men everywhere to repent" (cf. Acts 17:30). Repentance is an about-face, a 180-degree turn, a turnaround, a change of mind and heart and action, a turning from sin toward God. "Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, and times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord" (cf. Acts 3:19). "For godly sorrow leads to repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted..." (cf. 2 Cor. 7:10). God gives space and time to repent and is patient: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (cf. 2 Pet. 3:9). God is being good for a reason--He wants repentance.
God grants repentance, so we should ask Him (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25). "Then God also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life" (cf. Acts 11:18; cf. 5:31). "...If perhaps, God will grant them repentance..." (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25). True repentance always accompanies saving faith as the flip side. The combo is called believing repentance or penitent faith. They are seen in juxtaposition in certain passages like Acts 20:21 and used interchangeably in others like Luke 24:47. God puts a new man in the suit, not a new suit on the man! We're changed from the inside out!
We must be regenerated or born again, or born from above. Irresistible grace makes us willing on the day of salvation (cf. Phil. 2:13). "Salvation is of the Lord' (cf. Jonah 2:9). The Spirit regenerates like the wind blows where it wills (cf. John 3:8). "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh" (cf. Ezek. 11:19, cf. Jer. 24:8).
We are at the mercy of God: "...so then, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy" (cf. Rom. 9:16). Our destiny is ultimately in God's hands and we are not the masters of our fate or captain of our souls, God is in control. We are born "...not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (cf. John 1:13).
You must have faith to be saved, for only faith pleases God, (cf. Heb. 11:6) and it is impossible to please Him without it. Everyone has faith, they just have to exercise what they have; everyone has faith in something or someone. We must have a "heart belief" and not just a "head belief" or mere assent or agreement; it must involve the intellect, knowing the fact;, the will, being obedient; and the heart or emotions. Real saving faith produces good works and if no fruit is present there is no faith. The Reformers taught that we are "saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone." Acts 26:20 says that we must bring forth the fruits of repentance (cf. Luke 3:8).
Faith is quickened within us and comes by the hearing and by the hearing of the Word of God (cf. Rom. 10:17). "For by grace are you saved through faith [the instrumental means], and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." "God has dealt to each a measure of faith" (cf. Rom. 12:3). Peters epistle was directed "to those who have obtained like precious faith" (cf. 2 Pet. 1:1). "This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent" (cf. John 6:29; cf. Acts 14:27).
Doubt is a human problem, not just a Christian problem. There is a doubt-faith continuum we all reside on. Doubt is an element of faith, not its opposite and often resides with faith because no one knows all the answers or it would be knowledge. "I believe, help thou mine unbelief." Perfect faith is nonexistent. If left to ourselves, none of us would believe, and we are no more virtuous because we do: "There but for the grace of God, go I," (George Whitefield). God has poured out grace on His chosen ones: "...as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed' (cf. Acts 13:48). "He greatly helped those who believed through grace" (cf. Acts 18:27).
The general call is to all but God gives His invitation to whosoever will: the poor, imprisoned, blind, and oppressed, according to Isa. 61:1. The offer is not "swimming instructions for a drowning man, but a reprieve to a man on death row, who is guilt," ( Paul Little). The invitation is as follows: "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk, without price" (cf. Isa. 55:1). "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness, I have drawn you" (cf. Jer. 31:3). "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (cf. John 3:16).
We must respond to the good news about Christ. That He died for sinners (they must know this), that He was buried, and that He rose again (for us personally--to know He died is history; to know for us is salvation). There is no place for cheap grace or peace or easy-believism that thinks we can be saved without surrendering to His ownership of our lives and lordship over us and live in the flesh after its desires. We must trust in Christ as Savior and submit to Him as Lord. We must count the cost of following Him as Lord of our life. "Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision" (cf. Joel 3:14).
The search for God begins at salvation and we cannot find Him but that He found us:
"Sow for yourselves in righteousness; reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you" (cf. Hos. 10:12). "But you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart" (cf. Jer. 29:13). "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near" (cf. Isa. 55:6).
The three things we must do are as follows:
(1) Admit our need that we are a lost sinner in need of salvation and alienated, estranged, or separated from God.
(2) Believe in the gospel message that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again all on our behalf as a substitute. This implies that He is God in the flesh or the incarnate God of the same essence as the Father--His Deity.
(3) Confess Him openly before men as Lord, not being ashamed of Him, that He is the Lord and your personal Lord. "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved" (cf. Rom. 10:9).
Man is incurably addicted to doing something for his salvation, according to Charles Swindoll, but in a works religion you can never be sure and have the assurance of heaven. Here is a simple sinner's prayer you might want to echo:
Lord Jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead and died on my behalf as a lost and condemned sinner. Come into my heart and reign as Lord of my life, as I commit to following You as a disciple in the fellowship of Your church. I hereby repent of all known sin and desire to be changed by Your power and not to look back. Amen [So be it! Let it be!]. This is not some magic formula to say but the condition and sincerity of the heart is paramount--only God sees this.
Now, a transaction has taken place and we should not confuse fact and feeling or works and grace. God says it in His Word, I believe it in my heart, that settles it in my mind. There are several verses of comfort and assurance:
"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool|" (cf. Isa. 1:18).
"But as many as received Him to them gave He the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name" (cf. John 1:12).
If you have honestly (God doesn't ask for perfect, but unfeigned or sincere faith) trusted Christ for your salvation and have stopped trying to save yourself, you have accepted the gift of life eternal that begins now and goes on forever, forgiving your sins, past, present, and future. Your salvation began in eternity, was realized in time, and is going to be consummated or fulfilled in heaven. God erased the tape, as it were, gave you a clean slate, and doesn't recall your sins--they are deleted permanently. Look at the following verses:
Our position before Christ:
"As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (cf. Psa. 103:12). "I am He who blots out your transgressions and will not remember your sins" (cf. Isa. 43:25). "I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins" (cf. Isa. 44:22). "....You have cast all my sins behind Your back" (cf. Isa. 38:17). "If You, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared (cf.Psa. 130:3-4). "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more;' (Heb. 8:12).
"The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God" (cf. Rom. 8:16). But reassurance is found in Scripture, and we should stand on the promises of God and take Him at His Word. "He fills us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (cf. Rom. 15:13). Simply find a verse that means something to you and gives you what you need to hear and cling to it as a spiritual birth certificate. My favorite is John 6:37 saying, "The one who comes to Me I will in no way cast out [permanent salvation or eternal redemption]."The Word of God coupled with the testimony of the Spirit is our assurance (cf. Rom. 8:16).
Some others are as follows: "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand..." (cf. John 10:27). "And this is the testimony: That this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life... These things I have written to you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life: (cf. 1 John 5:11,13). My favorite is what Michael Faraday quoted when he died: "For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day" (cf. 2 Tim. 1:12). Soli Deo Gloria!