As I've stated before, I was raised in "church" my whole life. From the time I was born till the past few years I "went to church" every Sunday. It was the same every week. Some guy would stand up for about 15-45 minutes going on and on about some patch of Scripture. At the end he would call for anyone who "wants" to come up to the front and pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart to do so. He always told us it was our free choice and that we had to make a decision for Christ before we could be born again.
For years I accepted this "formula" as fact. It was totally up to us whether or not we would let Jesus come into our hearts, be our Lord, and save us from our sins and hell.
As I got older and would read the Scriptures I began to read things that just didn't make sense with what I'd been taught my whole life. Words like election and predestination muddied up this way of thinking. I wasn't sure how salvation could be totally God's doing if I was the one who had to choose to accept it. I also didn't understand how someone could be spiritually dead and yet have enough spiritual oomph to reach up and get to Jesus. It seemed to me like there was a puzzle piece missing but I was sure that it was probably just a word game and that this was just Satan's way of trying to confuse me.
After intense study and a couple of years to chew on what Scripture says about man, God, and how God and man relate to each other in the actual salvation process, I'll be reviewing what the Scripture teaches on this. It will be broken down into several parts.
1. The total depravity of man.
2. The irresistible grace of God.
3. The atoning death of Christ.
4. The unconditional election of God.
5. The inevitable perseverance of the saints.
Check back on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting this upcoming week to read more about this subject.
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