Why Did I Come To Jesus Christ in Faith? (Part 5)

One of the greatest changes in my thinking - a change that has helped me realize why I came to Jesus in faith - concerns the matter of faith and repentance. It is profound; yet simple. I didn't start the process. It was part of God's grace. In Ephesians 2:4-10, Paul says, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." How could I have missed seeing this truth - "...even when we were dead in our trespasses (He) made us alive together with Christ..." and not see that God had to do something in my life before I could respond in faith? Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:7-8, "Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” That verse seems inconsistent with the idea that my response of faith brought the new birth.

However, when I put faith on the other side of "made alive" and "born again" things started to make sense. The dark shadows that have hung over my life for so long began to lift. It was an astounding thing to suddenly realize that IT WAS NOT ME. My response of faith really was the evidence of the new birth - not the cause. I realize now that I should have wrestled with John 6:37-40 and verses like these a lot sooner. Over the years, I would start and then back away. It has been a source of peace to listen to those words that Jesus spoke. "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Jesus clearly ruled out the idea that I could start the process. In John 6:44, He said, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day."

It now seems plain that the new birth (regeneration) was and is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit and that comes before any act of saving faith. One noted writer has said, the "cry of faith is the first sound a new born babe in Christ makes. We do not get God to bring regeneration by trusting Christ; we trust Christ because He has done it to us already." Because of God's work in regenerating my life, I could make a personal response that I had to make and was then free to make. The personal response that I made was the result of being acted upon by God. It was a response that was absolutely essential to receiving the salvation that Jesus obtained for me on the cross. It enabled me to repent and turn from sin to grace - all because of grace.

Some might try to explain that God's work in my life was based on His prior knowledge of my choice. He certainly knew the choice I would make. But as far as I am concerned, that explanation is a product of human reasoning trying to deal with God's sovereignty in salvation, the ramifications of election, predestination, calling and the secret counsels of God. There is still much that God has not explained when it comes to the outworking of His sovereignty and human responsibility in salvation. I am content with that and satisfied with verses like Deuteronomy 29:29. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." I am satisfied to know that I am saved; that He calls me by a new name and that He makes all things new. Scripture is very clear that neither I nor anyone else can come to Jesus unless drawn by God. He says in John 6:65, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by my Father." This is a troubling thought for some people. They struggle with it. Jesus recognized that some would take issue. He began the explanation in John 6:61-65 by asking, "Do you take offense at this?" Many do take offense. It has been and is the center of much debate and personal attacks. That saddens me. It is not my intention to join the debate in writing about these difficult areas. I am simply explaining how that truth has impacted my life. I don't have to understand or explain how God works all of this out. What overwhelms me is to realize that had God not been sovereign in my salvation, I would have been lost for eternity. It certainly leaves me without room to boast or feel proud that for reasons beyond my understanding, God called me and enabled me to have faith. Contrary to what some might argue, this view does not in any way lessen my views on the importance of evangelism and missions. In fact, it has just the opposite affect. I know that it, unlike any other view, gives me a real reason to pray for the lost - to pray that God would break down their resistance and show them how sinful and hopelessly lost they are without Jesus - just as He did for me. Because of God's sovereignty in salvation, I can ask Him to give the lost a new heart and open their eyes. I can pray that He would make His grace irresistible. I can pray that God would pursue them and overwhelm them with His glory. The truth of the Spirit's sovereignty gives me real motivation to witness in the face of seemingly impossible situations. I firmly understand why a simple verse like John 3:16 can open the door to salvation and how it can happen when God makes one's heart alive.

I remember that moment when God began to act upon me. It was like a tugging at my heart. I remember the faint longing to come to Jesus and be forgiven. I remember how that longing built with intensity. I pursued that longing and it made an eternity worth of difference. If a person has that spark and nothing more, don't back away. It is God acting upon your life. Run to Him. Take hold of Him. I did that. It opened a floodgate of grace. With that came right legal standing with God (justification); sonship (adoption); the right and ability (through faith, His Word and the power of the Spirit) to be transformed into the likeness of Christ (sanctification). With that came the capacity and ability to keep going (perseverance). Finally, it meant that my ultimate destiny upon death would be to go to be with the Lord and receive a resurrection body (glorification).

Just think that behind these awesome truths is the gentle call of Jesus spoken so long ago and recorded for us in Matthew 11:28-30.

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

Why Did I Come To Jesus Christ in Faith? (Part 4)

When I turned to the truth that "salvation belongs to the Lord, I began to gain a new understanding and appreciation of what God had done in my life that summer of August 1946. Initially I had no understanding about my salvation beyond John 3:16. As time went by, what little I understand got buried by ideas that blurred or minimized the truth of God's sovereignty in salvation. As a result I could never find peace and assurance. The new life that God had given me became an effort at moral conformity. I paid a heavy price trying to measure up to prevailing ideas of what being a Christian meant. When I think about how my life unfolded, it is a miracle that I have been able to return to the place where I started and discover anything worthwhile.

It is a miracle that I have been able to re-examine my conversion. It is a miracle that I am now able to see the events of August 1946 in terms of God's sovereignty. A verse that describes the reason for the change is Isaiah 45:22. God says, "Turn to (look unto) me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other." That was how salvation came to me that moment in summer of 1946. That is how understanding of that salvation finally came to me in the winter of 2009. I struggled in vain as long as my focus was on the idea that I somehow had initiated the process. Without realizing it, that understanding caused something that I never wanted. It put me in the place of God as Lord and Savior in salvation. I never really saw it that way until now. Until I looked to Him as the starting point for understanding and the source of my salvation, the foundation for my Christian life was as fragile as an eggshell. As a result, I experienced fear, insecurity and spiritual emptiness for a large part of my life. Even worse, this wrong focus kept me from fully seeing and experiencing the richness of the Gospel - Jesus Christ. I didn't understand that this initial life saving look was meant to be a life long and intense look.

The way out of this quagmire has been to go back to the summer of 1946 and seek to correctly understand what happened. It has been a unique experience. I have been reminded of something that happened when I was in the tenth grade that, in a way, describes what I have experienced. In the tenth grade, I came to realize at the expense of a poor test grade that I could not see the questions that had been written on the blackboard. I initially thought I was sitting too far back in the class. Confounding the problem was the fact that I was not permitted to move closer to the blackboard. As it turned out, I needed glasses. I still remember looking through my first pair of eyeglasses and clearly seeing the leaves on trees. Until then much of what I saw was just a blur. That is what my spiritual vision has been like when it came to my salvation. What I am now seeing as I look through the lens of God's sovereignty is even more dramatic. For the first time, I have been able to look at my response of faith in proper alignment to the new birth. I have been able to understand why I came to Jesus Christ in faith.

I know my response of faith was not the result of a spark of human capacity being ignited. There were, of course, human factors used by God - like the faithfulness of my parents to the Lord and His Word, their word of witness to me and the Sunday School teachers who faithfully presented Scriptures like John 3:16. There were the human factors of prayers - especially those of my parents. I am thankful that they believed in the power of the Gospel unto salvation and in the power of the proclamation of the Gospel as well as the need to proclaim that Gospel to me. I don't recall them specifically articulating those beliefs; but, in looking back at their lives and the way they witnessed to me, I know those beliefs were real and true. I never realized until recently as I have reviewed their witness in my life just how strongly they did believe in the power of the Gospel and the proclamation of that Gospel - how strongly they believed in backing that up with prayer. They also believed in the witness of godly lives. That did not go unnoticed. It took awhile to really see how God used that in my life. Whether they fully realized it or not, my parents had committed my eternal destiny to nothing more than the power of God, His Word and the simple proclamation of a little verse like John 3:16. They had committed my eternal destiny to God's sovereignty and it was by the sovereign act of God that I was brought to faith. In a sermon, entitled "Free Grace," delivered 150 years ago on January 9, 1859, Charles Surgeon summed it up. He said,

"If thou be saved, thou hast had nought to do with it; God has done it. If thou be saved, thou hast not deserved it. It is mercy undeserved which thou hast received."

“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

You Call Me By A New Name

Betty and I are members of The Village Church in Highland Village, Texas. One of the songs we sing there is entitled "Restoration." It was written by David Brymer. Our worship leader, Michael Bleecker, introduced the song to us a short time ago. It is one of the most moving songs we have heard in a long time. I referred to the song in an earlier post because of the impact that it has had on my life - particularly the words used in the title of this post. Because of the struggle that I have gone through concerning my salvation, this song has come to have a very special meaning. It may seem small to some, but to me, being able to sing those words and know deep within that they are true in my life is very significant. When you reach the point of wondering if your salvation is for real or was just something you had created and then have God bring you to the realization that it was real because He had done it, well, a song like that can be very moving. For me to say after years of struggle, "You call me by a new name" was to experience something very liberating. I could affirm that what God said and did in my life as a nine year old boy was true. I could praise Him for erasing the pain of many spiritually troubling years caused by not understanding that my salvation belonged to Him. The song has meaning because it expresses an amazing breakthrough and transformation in a person's life - including mine. It affirms, in a moving way, the truth that God does indeed bring restoration. He does make all things new - not just in our initial salvation but along the way when, for whatever reason, the joy and assurance of that salvation gets stomped into the ground. I still have more to say about why I came to faith in Jesus Christ; but I wanted to take a brief rest in the journey and read these words,

"You bring restoration, You bring restoration, You bring restoration, to my soul. You've taken my pain and You call me by a new name. You've taken my shame and in its place, you give me joy. You take my mourning, turn it into dancing. You take my weeping, turn it into laughing. You take my mourning, turn it into dancing. You take my sadness, turn it into joy. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, You make all things new, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, You make all things new, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, You make all things new, all things new. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, You make all things new."

and hear them sung.

A Message for the New Year

Part of what I have experienced in this "Amen Journey" is expressed in the Scripture that is the basis for a sermon by Charles Spurgeon. In Revelation 21:5, Jesus says, "And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” This message by Charles Spurgeon is worth reading. He delivered that sermon on January 1, 1885. It is still a timely message for 2009. It is entitled "Sermon for New Year's Day."

May the words, "Behold, I make all things new" become true in our lives this year in ways we cannot fathom. Whatever situation we may face, we need to call out to Him in faith asking Him to "make all things new." Betty and I hope you enjoy this message. Happy New Year.

“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

Why Did I Come To Jesus Christ In Faith (Part 3)

I don't think I have ever clearly understood why I came to Jesus Christ through faith. I have had some answers; but they were never satisfying - that is until recently. I know what part of the problem has been - I have not wrestled with the great statements of Scripture concerning how God saves. This greatly impacted my life in terms of peace and assurance. Over the past several months things have changed. The truth that "salvation belongs to the Lord" has become more than truth in a book on a shelf or one cloaked in haziness. My efforts to understand have involved a new focus. As a result, I have been able to look at my salvation history in a way that I believe finally squares with God's Word. The change in focus involves the truths of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. Much of my focus over the years has been on the latter. I believe in God's sovereignty; but I have not been able to go there when it comes to my salvation. I have been putting human responsibility first in the process. Once I began to focus on God's sovereignty in salvation and discover just how awesome and all encompassing that sovereignty is, I have found that it is only truth that explains and defines my salvation history. It is the only truth that gives my salvation meaning and content. It is the only truth that has freed me from the hazy thinking that has gripped my life and kept me bound. It is like a door has been opened. I am not sure what all I will find beyond that door; but one thing is for sure - I have found peace. That has deepened my thankfulness that it is God who saves and that He saves even though we may not understand all that is involved when it happens.

I have re-examined the mixture of explanations about salvation that seemed to float around my life after I was saved. They were never firm convictions. They never answered the questions that pressed down on my life. Over the years I have heard a great deal about how to get people saved; but not much was said about why a person could believe in the first place. I had been a Christian for nearly 25 years before I ever heard words like "justification," "sanctification," "election" or "calling." For some reason, when it came to the sovereign role of God in salvation, we did not go there and face the straight forward statements of Scripture. Most of what I heard kept human responsibility in the forefront. A friend once told me that he felt if a pastor ever preached portions of John 6 concerning God's sovereignty in salvation that pastor would be asked to leave the church. I thought that might be an exaggeration; and yet I know that when I taught verses like those found in John 6, I didn't deal with them head-on.

Much of what I had to consider over the years rested on the idea that an unsaved person had some type of natural ability to believe the gospel. It was a matter of somehow convincing a person to believe. Along with this thought was the explanation that God had left a little light in each person that could be turned on by human choice or persuasion. Once that happened a person then needed to repent and believe, and, as a result, they would become a "born again Christian." I never used that term because I did believe if you were a Christian you were born again. I just didn't know the finer details of the work of God in the new birth. Getting a person to exercise their free will was seen as the key that would unlock the door to salvation. There was never much said about the power of the Word and the Holy Spirit in salvation or God's sovereign role. I am not entirely sure why this was true. I know that I avoided the strong Scriptures on this point. I guess that was because I could never get those verses to square with the idea that a person had some degree of natural ability to choose. I knew that there were teachings that ignored the truth of human responsibility to believe and repent as well as the need for presenting the Gospel. I heard one man state that he had always been saved and one day he just realized it. I lived in an atmosphere of understanding that looked upon any teaching that God is sovereign in salvation as the equivalent to teaching this extreme view. I think that some felt that such teaching would lead one to accept that extreme view. That did not prove true for me. I have finally found a statement that expresses what I do believe. It is expressed in the doctrinal statement of our church and I this is my belief because I find that it is squares with Scripture.

Looking back over my life, I can say that I knew nothing about any of these wide ranging explanations when I became a Christian. I can say the things that I learned never gave me assurance. This was especially true when I kept running into Scriptures on God's sovereign role in salvation. As a result, I was left trying to re-assure myself; but as long as it was a "me plus God" type of cooperation in salvation, I struggled. I know now after carefully re-examining my conversion, from the standpoint of Scripture and God's sovereign work, that I initiated nothing. If people could have looked into my life before I was acted on by God they would not have seen any initiation on my part. Up until the time God acted upon my life, I thought I was fine. Was I in for a rude awakening. I am certain that a human being did not convinced me of my sin and guilt. I realize now that because of God alone, I went from knowing facts about Jesus to seeing my need for Jesus - and seeing Him for who He is. I realize now that when I saw the need to reach out to Him in faith and repentance it was entirely God's work of grace. I see now that the process did not begin with me and did not happened through the natural processes of my mind or human reasoning or persuasion. I realize there is alot that I don't understand and there is alot that I don't need to understand. I will just be thankful that I am saved and keep pressing forward to grasp all that God will permit me to understand.

When John 3:16 became personal to me in the summer of 1946, it happened in an imperceptible way. When I look at that time in my life, it was like a light was turned on in a darken room. It was like one moment it was dark and then in the next - there was light. The truth of that life saving verse changed. I know now that what happened was solely the result the work of the Holy Spirit. It happened to me apart from any natural ability or power of human reasoning. It would have been impossible for me to do any of that. In fact my so-called natural ability first led me to deny that I needed to do anything. Secondly it caused me to think that if I needed to do anything, it was something I could handle. Without a supernatural change in my life, this natural ability would have served only to keep me in bondage rather than lead me to turn to Christ. There is really only one explanation that makes sense. There is only one thing that squares with what happened in my life. It was the work of God, the power of His Word and the work of His Holy Spirit.

At the risk of repetition, I feel a need to emphasize how deeply I struggled to understand and find assurance. The reason - it is more than an academic struggle. It has been a life or death struggle. For so long I had seen my act of faith and repentance as a choice that I made on the basis of human ability. Much to my regret, I let my salvation rest on that choice. I kept re-examining that choice; but never in light of Scripture. That left me at times feeling like I was dangling over hell. That thought brought abject fear to my life at times. I thought, "What if I died and found out that all I had going for me was just a choice." I knew down deep there had to be more. The only way I could deal with it was to try to push it aside; but it just continued to surface. Part of a song that we sing at our church has these words - "He has given me a new name." There were times when I could not bring myself to sing those words. I wanted to but all I could do was bow my head and pray, "Father please let that be true for me." There is another line in the song that says, "He brings restoration." Those are the words we see on the screen; but what we actually sing sounds to me like "Bring restoration." That would be my prayer as others sang. That cry of my heart was growing faint. The other night in our services I got to sing those words with a glad and thankful heart. I was no longer living with a sense that time was running out for me. I was experiencing restoration.

I had been living as if the validity of my justification originated from a process that started with human choice. When my inadequate understanding of God's sovereignty was stirred into the mix, it left me desperately wondering, at times, if I was even one of God's elect. Had I just elected myself? I had been on the verge of accepting that as true; but I kept pressing forward. In the midst of that turmoil, God did bring restoration. He enabled me to acknowledge that as long as I could, in anyway, start the process of salvation, I would never find peace. I would not find peace pursuing something that was contrary to the truth as expressed in Jonah 2:9 - "Salvation belongs to the Lord!" I would not and could not find peace in the idea that somehow I started the process when Scripture plainly says in Ephesians 2:1-3 "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." I have been able to accept the fact that the only choice I could make in that state would have kept me bound in sin. After years of struggling and after years of trying to ignore the struggle, I finally have peace, assurance and security. I finally have more than some vague feeling that Christ loves me and died for me. I know that as a nine year old boy in the summer of 1946 God gave me a new name. I know that is true because God is sovereign in my salvation - because salvation belongs to Him and it is His gift to me.

“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”