How God Saves His Chosen People by Granting Them Saving Faith
Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ should be a daily, weekly, and annual event for Christians (1 Cor 15). Jesus’s resurrection from the dead is the basis for the hope of resurrection for each believer in Christ. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life (Jn 11:25).” He also said, “He who believes in Me shall never die (Jn 11:26).”
Remembering that God created humans, body and soul, the giving of eternal life occurs in separate events. First, the resurrection of the soul of God’s elect occurs when the Holy Spirit causes that one to be born again of God (Jn 3; 1 Pet 1:3). This is regeneration or the granting of new life. The regenerated soul shall never die.
It is the body of sin and death that must still be resurrected from the dead in the future. All our days are appointed by God (Ps 139:16), even the vaporous ones visited by an early death. The fact is that the dead (bodies) will all rise from the dead. Some will rise to glory, while others will rise to be sentenced in the Day of Judgment (Mt 25:46; Jn 5:28–29).
The Day of Judgment is the Day of God’s vengeance and wrath against rebel sinners. Having been conceived in sin and born with a sin nature (Ps 51:5; Eph 2:3), the reprobate practice sinning all the days of their lives. Without the mediation of Christ our Savior (1 Tim 2:5), the non-elect will suffer the judgment of their sins (Rom 1:18). Their punishment is eternity in the fiery hell of the lake of fire (Mt 25:46; Jude 7; Rev 20:14–15). Responsible for their own sin, these also resisted the Gospel call to repent and believe the Gospel of God.
It is God’s eternal purpose, revealed in the Bible, to set apart a people of His own choosing for salvation (2 Thess 2:13; 2 Tim 2:10). In truth, God is saving a remnant (the elect) from His own wrath, poured out against sin and sinners (Rom 1:18–32; 1 Thess 1:10). Jesus Christ incarnated, lived, died, and rose from the dead in order to take away sins of His people (Mt 1:21; 1 Cor 15:3).
The death of Christ, that is, His shed blood has justified guilty sinners before God. As the substitutionary sacrifice, the Lamb of God was slain in the place of His bride, His church (Jn 1:29; 10:11, 15; Eph 5:25). The result is right standing before God. It is an alien righteousness one that has been imputed to those for whom the Father gave to Him in eternity past (Jn 6:37). It was God the Father who predestined His chosen people to adoption as sons (Eph 1:4–5). It was Christ who purchased His church with His precious blood (Acts 20:28; Rev 5:9). It is God the Holy Spirit who grants both repentance and faith (Acts 5:31; 11:18; Phil 1:23), to whom He is sent by God the Father and God the Son (Jn 14:26; 15:26).
It is all grace and only grace that saves God’s people from their sins (Mt 1:21; Eph 2:8–9). Grace is God’s work to plan, execute, and apply salvation to those on whom He has shown mercy (Rom 9:23). If salvation is by grace alone, in Christ alone, then we must know what it means to enter Christ by faith alone.
Faith “in Christ” means one is “in Christ.” This is a spiritual position resulting from a transfer out of the domain of darkness (Col 1:13). The unbeliever, by definition does not trust in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. The unbeliever is outside of Christ, and Christ is outside of the unbeliever’s soul (heart and mind).
Without God, that is, without communion with Jesus Christ, the unbeliever sets his heart and mind elsewhere. The natural man is unwilling and unable to trust Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his or her sins. The sinner cannot generate a faith that justifies him before God because faith is a product of grace (Eph 2:8–9). Faith is not “of yourselves”; rather, it is a gift of God.
God gifts faith to each elect, redeemed soul when the Holy Spirit is sent (gifted) to the one whom God sets His love upon. God’s love is poured out in our hearts when God’s Spirit is sent into our hearts as a permanent resident (Rom 5:5; 8:9, 11; 2 Cor 5:5). The indwelling Holy Spirit obviously believes the truth of God’s plan of salvation because He is the Spirit of truth (Jn 16:13), who sanctifies God’s people with the Word of truth (Jn 17:17).
Faith in Christ comes by hearing the Word of God preached by the man of God (Rom 10:17), who is called by God and sent by God to preach Christ and Him crucified…to all people (1 Cor 1:23; 2 Cor 4:5). All people are called to repent of their sinful rebellion against God (Acts 17:30). Sinners are unwilling and unable to respond to the Gospel call, which is why God’s grace must be enacted.
The implanted Word gives life to the one effectually called to repentance and faith (Acts 5:31; 11:18; Jas 1:21). This new life is the abundant life of God in the soul of a man (Jn 10:10; 2 Cor 5:17). It is life by the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life and it is a life that surely believes. God cannot deny Himself or His work to bring about so great a salvation.
We, therefore, see that faith manifests where the Spirit of God and of grace has taken up residence. The eternal spirit promises to never leave nor forsake the indwelt soul who has been born of God, spiritually. Thus, faith in Christ is a fruit of the Spirit of Christ (Gal 5:22).
Jesus Christ never leaves nor forsakes His own. Therefore, those “in Christ” have a faith that is ordained by God, sustained by God, maintained by God, and which remains in the believer because the One who grants faith is faithful to keep it unto glory. Then the glorified saint will see for himself; and faith will no longer be necessary because we will see Jesus as He is…and we will be like Him (1 Jn 3:2).
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
May 23, 2023
