The Sovereignty of God and Salvation

When we say that the Lord is sovereign we mean that the Lord is in full control of all things. We all affirm this but what about in the places where we have, subconsciously, reserved activity just for humanity? One such place is in the area of our salvation.

It is commonly believed that men are saved when they choose Christ as their Lord and Savior. We contend that a man, in order to be saved, must make the act of moving towards Christ and seeking Christ's mercy and forgiveness in order to be saved. But ponder this for a minute with me and be open to the scriptures as we explore this truth. We tend to focus, almost exclusively, on the actions of men in salvation and minimize - if not altogether dismiss - the activity of God in salvation. However, if the Lord is sovereign, not only does He play a role in the salvation of man, but He must also play a prominent role in it. I think the scriptures bear this out. Let's consider a small few. Paul says,

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with

every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the

foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love"

(Ephesians 1:3-4).

There is much in these verses but let's consider Paul words that God chose us...before the foundation of the world." It cannot be any clearer than this that, before we ever existed in this world and before the world itself existed, God chose us. This means that God decided that those who know Christ were predestined to be His children before we were born. The blessings of verse 3 are for those who were / are, the chosen in verse 4. This speaks to what Paul further teaches in Romans 8:29

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in

order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

To be chosen (Ephesians 1:4) is to be foreknown. The word foreknown conveys the truth that God knew us before we knew Him and before the foundation of the world. It means something deeper as well. To foreknow is, literally to forelove. In other words, when Paul speaks about the Lord foreknowing us and choosing us, it means that He loved us before the foundation of the world. This is why Paul ends Ephesians 1:4 with the words "In love":

“even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and

blameless before him. In love" (Ephesians 1:3-4).

Paul is teaching us simply that God's love was set upon us before the word was formed and before we loved Him. Our love for the Lord, our choosing of the Lord, is a response to His love for us. Paul says that all of us, prior to Christ, we dead in and because of sin (Ephesians 2:1-3). In other words, spiritually we had not life - no desire or passion or thought - in or for the Lord. We were like a man in the casket at a funeral: without life. The person in the casket cannot "accept" or "choose" anything because they are dead! We were morally and spiritually dead to God,

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one”

(Romans 3:10–12)

This was us before God did a work in us. Dead to seeing and doing any and everything that honored the Lord. Paul says that is what we were until the Lord intervened and gave us life:

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,5 even when we

were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved"

(Ephesians 2:4-5)

Even when we were dead God gave us life. God gave life where there was once, only death. We did nothing. We were dead and, therefore, could do nothing. God gave life and brought salvation upon us and this is why Paul ends verse 5, "by grace you have been saved." He adds more to this truth when he writes, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

Salvation is totally the work of the Lord. His life resuscitated us from real death. If He does not breath into us life there is no way we could ever be made alive to see, know and respond to His work in faith. The faith we have is not technically our faith. It is His gift (Ephesians 2:8). I believed in the Lord and I did, actually choose the Lord. None of us can be saved without choosing the Lord. The question, however, is this: What came first? My choice of Him or His choice of me? The Apostle John put it this way: "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

My ability to see the Lord as my savior and to love Him for His work on the cross is only my fruitful response of His love towards me. In other words, His love awakened me from the depths of death and caused me to see what my dead eyes could not see. His love revived my dead life to do what it could not, previously, do. I saw Him and I loved Him because He lavished His love upon me - first.

Sometimes we struggle with this because we believe, at some point, we have to be somewhere in the equation of our salvation. The truth is that we are a factor just not one that is honorable. Our place in our salvation is at the spiritual morgue. All we bring to the table of salvation is that which Jesus died for - our sin. If we added an iota to our salvation it would no longer be by grace but by our effort. This is why Paul says these words which truly sum it up

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the

day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).