Salvation
Acceptance or Application?

 
Part 1    Part 2    Part 3
 
 
In this final part, we are going to actually see how salvation takes place in the believer, taking them from being an unbeliever to a believer.
 
(1 Cor 6:9-11 KJV) Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, {10} Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. {11} And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
 
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 is a resume about the condition of man and the manifestation of the dead condition of man. The Apostle Paul gives this list and then tells the Corinthians that some of them were partaking in the very things he listed. This resume could very well describe every believer before they became believers. Now we are going to see what God has to do to bring the Elect to salvation.
 
Draw
When a person is unsaved, they are spiritually dead and we saw this in the beginning of this study. A person in this condition is unable to make any type of spiritual decision. So what has to happen, is when God begins to call a person to salvation, He literally has to draw them.
 
(John 6:44 KJV) No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
 
Now the word draw which is used in John 6:44 is the Greek word “hellkuô” which means to “drag, draw, or force.” It can also mean “persuade” but it is not used in that fashion in the 8 verses where it is used. Since no one is seeking God, then it is God who does the seeking for His sheep. We saw this in part 1, where God stated that He is the one who will seek out His sheep. Man is so steeped in sin that he wants nothing whatsoever to do with God. In fact, man hates God because in Romans 5:1, we are told that we are at enmity with God. (Eph 2:16 KJV) And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: Once we become saved that enmity is abolished. Now because of that enmity, God must come to us and gives us chance to accept His Son as Savior, right? No, we are such enemies of God that He must literally drag us or force us to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn’t sound much like free will to me. Are we on the right path?
 
(Acts 21:30 KJV) And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut.
 
In Jerusalem, Paul had created another one of his uproars, as he did in Ephesus and Philippi. (Acts 16:19 KJV) And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, Any time you bring the truth of God, you will always be opposed. So in Acts 21:30, we see that Paul was asked nicely if he would accept leaving the temple. Oh no we don’t, we see Paul being forcefully dragged out of the Temple. The word “drew” is the same word used in John 6:44. God’s truth is the enemy of both unbelievers and religion. As Paul was dragged out of the Temple, the Elect is dragged out of unbelief.
 
(James 2:6 KJV) But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
 
Let us look at one more verse to see the use of the word “helkuô” and it is found in James 2:6. The rich men oppress the poor people and that is something which has not changed down through time. In James 2:6, they are “drawing” the poor people into the courts of that time. They are not inviting them or asking them, they are dragging them before the magistrates. When you receive a subpoena, you are not being asked to make a decision whether to come or not. You are being forced to appear in court, whether you like it or not. God saves us according to His will and not ours! The sooner we understand that, the sooner we will understand how blessed we are that we were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. God could have skipped your name and guess what your destination would be?
 
God Regenerates Our Soul
One of the aspects of being an unregenerate person is the fact that we are spiritually dead. Since God is a living God, He requires that people who worship Him must be spiritually alive. (John 4:24 KJV) God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So those who are unsaved do not have the Holy Spirit indwelling them and therefore cannot worship God in spirit and truth. Since man is unable to regenerate his own soul, God has done that also.
 
(Rom 6:13 KJV) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
 
Romans 6:13 teaches us that we are to yield ourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead. Since we were dead in sins at one time, after salvation we are considered alive. In fact, Romans 6:4 speaks of it as “newness of life.” (Rom 6:4 KJV) Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
 
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ had performed three physical resurrections. In Luke 7, He raised the son of the widow of Nain. In Luke 8, He raised the daughter of Jairus and in John 11, He raised Lazarus from the dead.
 
(Luke 7:14 KJV) And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.
 
(Luke 8:52 KJV) And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.
 
(John 11:43-44 KJV) And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. {44} And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
 
All three of these resurrections have one major principle in common. None of these people raised themselves from the dead. They were dead and the only thing which awaited them was burial of their bodies. In fact, Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. The Widow of Nain’s son was about to be buried and the daughter of Jairus had just died. The principle they all had in common was that when they were resurrected from the dead, it was done from an outside source. In the case of these three, the source was the Lord Jesus Christ. These three people, who were dead, had no will of their own but were totally dead. This physical death is a picture of a person who is spiritually dead. Remember we saw the word for “dead” in Ephesians 2: 1 & 5 as “nekros” which means “lifeless, dead, or useless.” When the Lord Jesus Christ came upon the scene, in all three cases, all He did was speak and they all arose from the dead.
These three resurrections show us that a person being dead is unable to raise themselves from that state of death. For a person to be raised from the dead, it requires a power which holds more power than death. The only ones who have that power over death is the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Man does not have authority over death but is only subject to it. Have you ever known anyone who can will themselves one more day of life after they have died? I think you know the answer to that.
 
In the same manner, one cannot will themselves into Heaven from a state of having a dead spirit. They cannot even will the common cold out of their living bodies and they are going to will themselves into Heaven from the source of a dead spirit? The same situation must take place as it did for the physical resurrections. There must be a power greater than spiritual death who can bring about spiritual life. The spiritual resurrection must come from an outside source.
 
There are three verses which speak about being spiritually resurrected with Christ and they all show that it is the work of God who raises the believer from spiritual death to spiritual life. In each of these verses we find the word “sunegeirô” which means “to rise or be raised up with another.”
 
(Eph 2:5-6 KJV) Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) {6} And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
 
In Ephesians 2:5, we saw that we were spiritually dead in sins but it does not end there. We read that God had quickened us (made us alive) together with Christ. That is, just as the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, according to verse 6, we have been spiritually raised from the dead, in fact, we were made to sit in heavenly places with Christ. In other words, we are still physically alive but something happened in our spirit and that was the spiritual resurrection whereby we went from being dead to living. If you notice it was the work of God who took us from death to life.
 
(Col 2:12 KJV) Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
 
In Colossians 2:12, we read that we are raised with the Lord Jesus Christ in spiritual resurrection just as Christ was raised in the physical resurrection. The same operation or working of God who raised Christ from the dead, raised us from spiritual death. Again how could a spiritually dead person will themselves from death to life?
 
(Col 3:1 KJV) If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
 
Colossians 3:1 speaks about the believer “being risen with” Christ and now because we are made alive unto God, we no longer only seek what this world offers according to our flesh but we look beyond the flesh horizon and seek the things of Heaven. Why? Because we were raised spiritually from spiritual death to spiritual life which now allows us to seek the things of God. Remember in Romans 3, the Scripture states that no one seeks after God? That is because the world is in an unsaved state of spiritual death but once God makes us alive, we are now able to seek the things of God because we now desire those things above the world.
 
We have been raised with Christ from spiritual death to spiritual life. It is interesting to note that God makes Himself our Savior and we do not make Him our Savior. A spiritually dead person does not have the ability to communicate with another human being on a spiritual level, so how could some people believe so arrogantly that they, in their state of spiritual death, can make Christ their Savior? Since when does the creature dictate orders to the Creator?
 
The Holy Spirit
After a person is raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, they are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth and He becomes our guide in the Scriptures and for all of life.
 
(John 14:17 KJV) Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
 
John 14:17 teaches us that the Holy Spirit will dwell with us and He shall be within us, that is, indwell us as children of God. It is this indwelling which sets the Christian apart from all other people in the world.
 
(John 16:13 KJV) Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.
 
John 16:13 teaches us that the Holy Spirit is going to guide us into all truth, that is because He is God, the third person of the trinity.
 
Faith to Believe
Not only does God draw us, He raises us up spiritually from death to life, causes the Holy Spirit to indwell us, and then He gives us faith to believe. One of the greatest misunderstandings is that a person can exercise faith and accept Christ as their Savior. Once again we must ask how can a spiritually dead person have faith to ask for anything? If a person is spiritually dead, then it would also follow that their faith would also be dead because faith is a spiritual thing and without faith there can be no belief in God.
 
(1 Cor 12:8-9 KJV) For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; {9} To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
 
In the early church, there were specific spiritual gifts given to individual believers. One of those gifts was the gift of faith. Now Paul had written the first Epistle to the Corinthians around 54 A.D.
 
(Gal 5:22 KJV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
 
Paul had written the Epistle to the Galatians between 58-60 A.D. We read in Galatians 5:22, that now faith was no longer a specific gift given to certain individuals. All those who are saved are given faith as a fruit of the Holy Spirit which means it is universal in the body of Christ.
 
Many free will people tell others that they need to exercise their faith to accept Christ. The problem with that teaching is the three verses we have just looked at. Faith, being a fruit of the Holy Spirit, means that a person must have the Holy Spirit before they can have faith. (Rom 8:9 KJV) But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. We do not receive the Holy Spirit by faith but we receive faith by the Holy Spirit. This means that a person must be saved before they can have faith, and further, it also means that a person cannot believe unless they have faith. So once again we see that salvation is a total act of God whereby a person receives salvation, then they are indwelled with the Holy Spirit and then they are given faith which means they can now believe. Faith is a noun which means it is a person, place or thing. Believe is a verb which means it denotes action. When a person has faith, they will be able to believe because that belief is built upon faith. If an unregenerate person thinks they have faith, then what is the basis of their faith since they are spiritually dead, this would mean their faith is dead and their beliefs are based upon a dead spirit. So the order is salvation first, then faith, and then the ability to act on that faith which is belief.
 
Summation
The tile of this study is Salvation: Acceptance or Application. We have found, with sufficient Scripture, the reality that an unsaved person is spiritually dead and that deadness precludes any living spiritual activity. This means that a person is absolutely incapable of accepting Christ from a spiritually dead position. Dead is dead which we have seen. It is God who initiates our salvation and then maintains it with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Since God has to literally drag us from darkness to light, how then can that be an act of our will. In fact, our will resists God’s will because we are in opposition to Him owing to our spiritual deadness. That spiritual deadness can only be removed from the believer by an outside source. Just as we read about Jesus raising three people from the dead. These dead people had no will of their own and when the Lord told them to arise, they did. Just as the believer is told to believe, we do because the shackles of darkness have been removed by God and not by our own voluntary will. Let me just end up this study with the following two verses which we have already seen.
 
(John 1:12-13 KJV) But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: {13} Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
 
It is a shame that free will proponents always leave out verse 13, because it shows that salvation is not of man’s will but of God’s will. That is the reality and if you have read this monograph and still continue to believe and teach free will, then you are going against what the Bible teaches in all the verses that we saw. It is not my words that are important but the word of God, which in the case of the use of words like chosen, elect, called, predestinate, are self-explanatory. Man in his spiritually dead condition likes to puff himself up with the devil’s pride and believe that he is in a position to make Christ His savior. My friend, you cannot make the God of this universe do anything. Admit you are the clay and He is the potter and He can mold you any way He desires even unto salvation. As I said in my testimony, I did not seek salvation but God gave it to me, and without my permission.
 
I really cringe when I hear Christians say, “Give God permission to work in your life.” Are you kidding? Do you know who you are talking about? That statement is so loaded with self-absorbing pride it is definitely in the devil’s vocabulary because it is not in the biblical vocabulary. I am glad God saved me because my prior life was nothing but a bridge to the future death in an eternal hell. Let us start teaching the truth and drop this satanically inspired “Calvinist Vs. Arminian” feud. What I gave here is not from Calvin but from the Bible. You will not read one quote from Calvin in this study. It is all taken from the King James Bible Cambridge Text. May the Lord open your eyes to the fact that you are the creature and He is the Creator!
 
(Acts 13:48 KJV) And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
 
From what we have gleaned in this study, salvation is definitely by application and not acceptance. God applies it to those He named before the foundation of the world and within their life span, be it young or old, they will receive salvation by divine decree. When the last one is saved, then it is all over and we fly away. If God had to wait for a spiritually dead person to accept His Son as Savior, the end would never come and the return of Christ would never happen. This is why God rules over His salvation plan and not man. God saves according to His will and one day He will reach the last name and that will be the last day.
 
One last point. Many teach that if one accepts Christ, then we become the elect of God. If a person can accept Christ, then why does God have to elect? Think about it!

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