Why Believers Believe
Drawing from Titus 3:3-7, Tom Shrader walks through the human condition of total depravity and the nature of God as perfectly good, kind, and loving, building to the central claim that salvation belongs entirely to God. The Father elects, the Son redeems through His substitutionary death, and the Holy Spirit regenerates the sinner's heart — leaving no room for human initiation or achievement in salvation. The teaching calls both believers and unbelievers to humility: Christians to gratitude, and those without faith to respond to Christ's open invitation to come.
“My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great savior.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Grace for Life, Grace for Living
Recorded: 2008 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 53 min
Themes: salvation, grace, humility, gratitude, depravity, redemption, faith, hope, new believer, struggling with doubt, feeling unworthy, seeking salvation, young adult, questioning faith, longtime christian, spiritually complacent
Scripture: Titus 3:1-7, John 3:16, Revelation 7:10, Romans 3, Romans 1, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2, John 17, 1 Corinthians, Ezekiel 36, Colossians 1, Jonah 2:9, Genesis 3, Isaiah, 1 John 4:8
Theological Themes: total depravity, election, substitutionary atonement, regeneration, soteriology, trinitarian salvation, monergism, sanctification
Full Transcript
Introduction
I am not the person who was supposed to be up here today. Tom called me yesterday in the middle of dealing with a topical chemotherapy treatment for his skin — which is literally what it is — that burns off the bad cells on your face. Some of it got into his eye accidentally, and his eyes swelled shut. He could not see his notes, and he certainly did not want you to see him, given that he was already red last week and this week has all kinds of different colors going on. So he called me and said he needed me to preach — not just fill in with something, but to preach exactly what he was going to preach. He handed me his notes, and for those of you who know Tom, he has the worst handwriting in the world. His notes looked like lines drawn all over the place. I got the gist of what he was going to say, and that is why I am up here. We are going to deliver the same content.
Church Announcements
Before we get into that, if you would pull out your bulletins, there is an insert inside that is really important. East Valley Bible Church is more than just what happens here in the chapel at 8:30 and 10:30. Right now, simultaneously during both morning services, there are hundreds of people over in the conference center in a different musical and venue expression. Tonight at six o'clock there is a different expression as well, so there are three different venues and six different services in total.
Soon we will move to two services per venue. After November 16th — around the 22nd or 23rd — there will be two services in this room in the morning, two over in the conference center, and two of an entirely different venue also in the conference center. That will mean the four o'clock service that currently meets in this room will no longer exist after November 16th.
The most important thing to know about November 16th, however, is that we are doing some remodeling in this room, and it is our 17th anniversary celebration. We are all going to meet together as one body at Mesa Amphitheater at 10 a.m. on November 16th. Directions are on the back of the insert. We rarely get that opportunity — I believe we have only done it one other time in our history, at our 15-year anniversary. Tom is going to give a message that is highly relevant to where we are as a country and an economy. I highly encourage you to be there and to invite friends. It will be a great time.
Grace for Life, Grace for Living
If you would, open your Bibles to Titus chapter 3. We are in a series called *Grace for Life, Grace for Living*. The pastors on staff have been discussing this series for months, and when Tom brought a group of us together and shared the title, I immediately responded that I loved it. Grace for Life communicates the idea that those of us who are sinners and spiritually dead are brought to spiritual life by grace. Grace for Living then captures the idea that we are not merely saved by that grace, but sustained by it — we live in it and walk in it.
I love that phrase for its theological richness, flowing directly from the Bible, but I also love it personally. That is why I had such an immediate affinity for it when Tom shared it with me. I did not become a Christian until I was about 17, in high school. When I came to Christ, there was no church involvement and no parachurch involvement. As I look back on it, the only thing I can attribute it to is that God was pursuing me — He was on my tail.
A Personal Journey to the Local Church
I came into college as a new Christian, and it took me two years to land in one church. I had no concept of body life. When people told me it was really important to be in a local church, all I thought that meant was showing up on Sunday and listening to someone speak. I had no idea it meant believers connecting with believers, or that the church was people. I viewed the church as the service, and that was it.
After about two years of college, I began to understand that I needed to plug into a church. I went to a really good friend of mine — who at the time was, and still currently is, the State Director of Fellowship of Christian Athletes — and I told him I needed a church. His response was immediate: "I'll send you to a church you'll never leave. Go to East Valley Bible Church in Gilbert." At that time, when you were at ASU, there was no reason you would ever go south. There was no Chandler Mall, there was nothing. I drove out here thinking, where am I going, driving past cows and fields.
When I arrived, God confirmed for whatever reason that this was where I was supposed to be. By about the second or third week, Tom began to preach into my life in a significant way.
Why Believers Believe
These truths we are looking at began to answer some deep questions for me. I was a kid who never wanted to be a church kid. It wasn't appealing to me. I didn't really care. And all of a sudden, I was. I changed dramatically in that period of time.
There were other things too. I had some experiences with my really good friends. We had a friend who died in high school, and a sports ministry — Fellowship of Christian Athletes — at our high school did a memorial service for him. That night was one of the most powerful senses of the Spirit of God I have ever had in my life. I wondered why I sensed that so strongly, why I was so moved and so empowered, when a whole bunch of my friends were not. They talked about how people had manipulated the situation to talk about God.
Why was it that I sat in certain moments when the gospel was presented and I responded, and my buddies didn't? Because what I knew deep down was that these were better guys, more moral guys than I was. They were smarter than I was. Some of them even had more church background than I did. Yet something happened to me. The truths we are looking at began to answer these questions.
Two Things That Revolutionized My Life
After I came to Christ, two things revolutionized my life. One was the doctrines that flow out of the Grace for Life idea — God's sovereignty and salvation. The next was the realization that the gospel is not just the ABCs of the Christian life. It isn't just where you begin. It is the A to Z. At any point in my Christian life, I am standing on grace just as much as I was before I had even taken step one. Those two realizations were revolutionary for me.
This Grace for Life idea has been more than quite powerful in my life. As I have begun to see the scriptures, there is not much else that moves me as much as the truth of this gospel. So we are going to look at it together.
What We Are Trying to Get Across
What we are talking about today is why you and I believe, if we do believe — and where salvation is found and who holds it. So if you are here and you are not a believer, what you are about to hear is the amazing nature of God, His love, and how He works in salvation. If you are a Christian, pay close attention, because what we are talking about is why you believe.
We say John 3:16 — yes, amen, one of the great passages. But the issue is: why does that person believe? Does the Bible talk about it? I would not stand up here and deliver this message if the Bible did not talk about it.
Titus 3:1–7
So here we go — Titus chapter three, verses one through seven.
*"Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."*
Let me set this context. What Titus is telling us is the way we should live — Grace for Living, the way we should live. But he ties it directly to this: the only way you will live that life is if you understand Grace for Life. That is where he goes next.
God Saves Sinners
The whole of this teaching can be boiled down to one statement: God saves sinners. Based upon this passage, we are going to look at sinners, then at God, and then at what ultimately happens when the two meet. I would start with God, but the passage starts with sinners, so we will walk through it in order.
The Condition of Sinners
Verse three: *"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another."*
This is what Scripture carves out clearly: human beings are sinners. There is not one aspect of our nature that is not corrupted and tainted by sin. The Bible is very clear that we were born into sin and that we are totally depraved. The illustration used is this: if sin were blue, we would all be Smurfs — blue all over. That is the Bible's teaching on the human condition as we come into the world.
Because one man, Adam, sinned, and we were all in Adam, all die — because all have sinned.
We Sin Because We Are Sinners
We don't sin and then become sinners — we sin because we are sinners. I'm not born a blank slate. This is not hard to convince me of, even just practically speaking, because I have two kids. One of the best defenses of human depravity is that you really don't have to teach a child to sin. You have to teach him to do good, to tell the truth. You don't have to teach him to lie.
Braden right now is coming out of potty training. We try to get him to go down to sleep, and we say, stay in your bed, don't get out, don't open the door. So now he starts yelling, "I got to go potty, I got to go potty" — because he knows we don't want a mess on his bed. We take him to the bathroom, and he just sits there and stares at us and doesn't go potty. I didn't teach him to do that.
Romans is really interesting when it tries to convince us of our sinfulness. There's a section that says, let me tell you how you know you're sinful: you get frustrated with people for doing things that you yourself do. You condemn those people, and you yourselves do the very same things. I saw this play out sitting in the car with my kids. Braden was about two and a half, Yale was just under one. Braden was tired and started whining, we told him to stop, and then he belted out screaming — and when one of them screams, the other one screams.
We were in a little Honda, two kids in the back screaming. I always tell my wife, just think of it like a chorus — just put yourself in the midst of a chorus and enjoy it, because otherwise you'll go bonkers. So Braden's screaming, Yale starts screaming because Braden's screaming, and then Braden says, "Yale, stop screaming." I just exploded laughing. This kid told the other one to stop screaming — when Yale was only screaming because Braden started screaming. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. We don't have to teach our kids to sin. They just do it. They prove Romans right in front of our faces.
What Titus 3 Says About Our Condition
Titus 3 says that we ourselves were once foolish. What does foolish mean? Lacking understanding. The Bible is very clear that we lack understanding in spiritual things — that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Natural man cannot discern spiritual things. So in our sinfulness, we are foolish; we lack understanding of spiritual truth.
The passage also says we are disobedient — rebellious. First and foremost, in our sinfulness, we rebel against God. We don't want to do things His way. We don't want anybody, even God, telling us how to live. And so that rebellion spreads into all areas of life — we don't like our bosses telling us what to do, we don't like our parents telling us what to do.
In our sinfulness, we are also led astray. Another version says deceived, or purposely led astray. Sin deceives. It makes you buy into something it cannot deliver on. We think we know a better way than God does. And then the passage says we are slaves to various passions and pleasures. Get this picture clearly — enslaved, shackled. And what you are shackled to is sin. Sin becomes your master.
This is testified in our own lives. That's why Paul said, "Why is it that the things I want to do, I can't do, and the things I don't want to do, I do? Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" You don't have an option. You're enslaved to various passions, pleasures, malice, envy, and hatred.
Spiritually Dead People Produce Funk
This is what Ephesians describes as being spiritually dead. When you're dead, all of this funk comes out of you. Think about a dead person — they're funky, they stink. Sick smells come off of them. The sight is disturbing, and it produces a sick feeling in your stomach. Spiritually dead people produce the same kind of thing: all types of funk, sin, nastiness.
A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to be up in Pinetop with a group of guys, and one of them was sharing from Romans chapter 1. That passage says, "The wrath of God is being revealed and poured out against the unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who in their unrighteousness suppress the truth." It then talks about all the manifestations of that suppression — men exchanging natural relationships for unnatural, women doing the same, people treating each other poorly, hatred and malice and envy and contempt, everything getting twisted.
Think about that word — ungodly. When you are ungodly, all types of funk gets produced. Sin. Separation from God. This guy was talking, and he said that when he used to read Romans chapter 1, it bothered him deeply. He believed it, but it seemed like God was being really mean — just pouring out His wrath on all these people. But then he realized that these people were acting the way they were acting because they were ungodly. And then he told this story.
The Elephant Illustration
Much came together for me when I was watching the animal channel. I came across a special on elephants set in a wildlife preserve in Africa. The preserve was overpopulated with elephants, and the decision was made to kill off all the older elephants and keep the younger ones. Over time, the younger elephants started doing the craziest things.
Researchers watched as these young elephants walked up to rhinos, drove their tusks into the rhino's side, and when the rhino fell into the water, used their trunks to push it under and kill it. This behavior didn't appear in just one elephant — all of them started acting this way. When they came into contact with each other, they would fight, erupt in aggression, and turn violent.
Experts were brought in, and they said plainly: this is not the way elephants are supposed to act. They are not acting like elephants. A specialist was called, and the first thing he asked was, "Where are the older elephants?" When told they had been removed, he said, "There's your problem."
He explained that elephants go through a life cycle in which, as they approach adolescence, they give off a substance that runs down their leg — a signal to the older elephants that they are hitting adolescence and need an older elephant to father them to maturity. An older elephant will come alongside and teach them how to use their strength, how to use their power, how to be an elephant. Without the older elephants present, that cycle continued far longer than it was supposed to, and the aggression escalated into all of that destructive behavior.
The specialist's conclusion was this: that is humans. When we are separated from God, we act not like humans — not the way God created us. Colossians chapter 1 says that all things were created by Christ and for Christ. The pinnacle of that creation is man, made in His image. When we are separated from God, we do all types of hellish things — sin, ungodliness, unrighteousness. We are sinners.
God Saves Sinners
Now we turn to God. God saves sinners. We have seen sinners; now we look at God. Verse 4 says this: "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared." This phrase is really important.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have existed eternally in loving communion with one another. The Father loving the Son, the Son loving the Spirit, the Spirit loving the Father — this community of love is the triune God. And this passage tells us that intrinsic to God's very nature is goodness. The Father is intrinsically good, the Son is intrinsically good, the Spirit is intrinsically good. For all eternity, goodness has been flowing in and throughout the Trinity.
God is also kind. The Father is intrinsically kind, the Son is intrinsically kind, the Spirit is intrinsically kind. Throughout all of eternity, kindness has been flowing back and forth between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And 1 John 4:8 says, "God is love." Love flows through the very nature of who God is — in His very character.
So when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appears, great things begin to happen. Here is a God who is loving, kind, and good at His very core. And yet He is also holy. The Bible is very clear that God is holy — without blemish, pristine, no sin, no blemish. His love is holy love, perfect love. His goodness is perfect goodness, His kindness perfect kindness, His grace and mercy perfect grace and mercy. He is holy.
What Happens When God and Sinner Collide
The interesting thing about a holy God and sinners is that sin cannot be in the sight of a holy God. They are exact opposites. So what happens when God and sinner collide?
Verse 5 answers that with its first three words: "He saved us." The rest of the verse says, "not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior."
Sin and God cannot simply be together. For salvation to happen — for this redemption, this bringing together of sinner and God — something in the middle has to take place. Romans chapter 3 is very clear that in order for God to be just, sin had to be paid for. God in His holiness could not overlook sin. Romans chapter 3 says that in God's divine forbearance He overlooked former sins, but then Christ came into the world, lived a perfect life, and died a criminal's death on the cross. In the believer's place, He took the wrath of God and the full weight of sin upon Himself, so that God could be just and sin could be paid for.
But He did not only pay for sin. Romans 3 also says He would be "the justifier of those who believe" — that He would be both just and the justifier. So what comes together when God and sinner meet is this: God, who has eternally existed in love, moves out in love. John 3:16 — "God so loved the world that He gave." He moved out to fix brokenness, to heal brokenness, to bring sinners — His own creation — back to Himself. But something had to happen first. He could not simply overlook sin, so He sent His Son to die on a cross and take the full wrath of God as payment.
Salvation Belongs to God
Salvation belongs to God. Revelation, chapter 7, verse 10, presents a picture of all nations, tribes, and tongues standing before the throne of God, looking upon Him, crying out in a loud celebratory voice. Here is what they are saying: "Salvation belongs to our God and unto the Lamb." It belongs to the One who sits on the throne. Salvation is God's property.
So when we look at this passage and it says He saved us, we have to ask: who saved us? The implication of the passage is very clear — God. And who is "us"? Sinners. God saves sinners.
The Current We Cannot Escape
There is a writer I have come across who posts personal reflections online. He wrote this, and I love the humanness of the phrase. He said that people assume when you are swimming in a river, you are supposed to know which way you are going. He acknowledged that is sometimes true, but noted that certain currents are very strong — and when we are caught in those currents, we need somebody to come along, pull us out, and guide us in a safer direction.
What I love about that illustration is this: sin is a current far too strong for us to pull ourselves out of. Sin is a current far too strong for the person sitting next to you to pull you out of. They are in the same current. The person three rows in front of you is in the same current. The person at work is in the same current. So who is going to pull us out? God saves sinners.
Diagramming the Sentence
Let us break that down for a minute. In a sentence there is a subject, there is a verb, and there is a direct object. The subject is the actor — the one acting. The verb is the action. The direct object receives it.
So in the statement "God saves sinners," God is the subject, saves is the verb, and sinners is the direct object. This is very important, so follow closely.
Bible teacher John Piper tells a story about his son coming home from school one day complaining about English — about subjects, predicates, verbs, and direct objects. His son wanted to know when he would ever use any of it in his life. Piper looked at his son and said, "English matters. Subjects matter. Verbs matter. Direct objects matter. You will use this in your life. It is important. Let me tell you how important it is — you go to hell if you don't know them."
That is a striking way to make the point, but here is what Piper was saying: if you think a sinner saves the sinner, you are not reading your Bible correctly. If you cannot see that God is the one who saves sinners — that there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved — it matters eternally. Sinners do not save sinners. I do not save myself. Salvation is of God. It belongs to Him.
The Grammar of the Gospel
Consider what happens when the sentence gets mixed up. If someone says "the ball threw me" instead of "I threw the ball," you might chuckle. But if someone goes to the Bible and misreads who the subject is, who the verb belongs to, and who the direct object is, that is not a laughing matter. That is serious.
God is the subject. Saves is the verb. Sinners — we — are the direct object. God, the Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working together — saves. That means He does everything, first to last, to reconcile man back to Himself and into glory. It is deliverance from the wrath of God and the destructive results of sin.
Sinners. God saves sinners. You can put your own name in here. People guilty before God, helpless, powerless, unable to do God's will — foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing their days in malice and envy. That is the company we keep. God saves sinners.
It Is All About God
So what does this say, when you boil it all down? Salvation is of the Lord. It is all about God, and it is not about you or me. Now, someone might say, "Yeah, but I had faith." Romans says that faith itself is the gift of God. It is all of God.
Christopher Wright is a biblical scholar who is absolutely incredible. There is a book called *Salvation Belongs to Our God* that I am currently reading with some other church planters, and it is phenomenal.
Salvation Belongs to God
Christopher Wright says this: when the Bible talks about salvation, God is the key. He is the center, the prime actor. Because salvation, according to the Bible, is the property of God, this means that salvation can never be a matter of human initiation or human achievement. Never.
If salvation belongs to God, then He holds it — it is His property. And we are over here as sinners. Nothing based upon our initiation or our ingenuity will get us salvation. Ephesians chapter 2 tells us it is a gift of God. We can't get it. God has to give it. Because salvation belongs to Him, it's His property — I can't take what's not mine.
He Saved Us
Look at verse 5 again: "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness." Not of any of our doing. Now, the first three words of verse 5 are really important: *He saved us.* The verse then goes on to describe what happened through Jesus' substitutionary work on the cross — His life, death, and resurrection.
There are some people who struggle so much with what the Bible plainly says that they begin to redefine terms. They redefine words like election, choosing, and atonement to mean things those words don't ultimately mean. What the text clearly states is this: He saved us.
There are many people who try to avoid the reality that God was on a mission to save His people. Remember the Christmas message — He will come and save His people from their sins. Many people don't like that idea. They don't like the idea of election and choosing, so they begin to say that what God ultimately did upon the cross was make a way. He made salvation possible, but now it's up to you.
What Jesus' Prayer Reveals
Let's see what Jesus says about that idea — that God made a way, but now it's up to you. Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, right before He is about to go to the cross. He prays what we have labeled the High Priestly Prayer in John 17. And this is not a casual prayer — He is sweating blood. This is intense.
Listen to the words of Jesus' prayer: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You. Since You have given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him." So consider the alternative view for a moment. If Jesus went to the cross merely to make a way, then there existed the possibility that nobody would believe and nobody would be saved by what He did. Would He still go?
Remember, Jesus is in the garden saying, "God, if there is any other way, let it be done." Can you imagine if God had said to Him, "By the way, Jesus, what You are about to do is not really going to save anybody — it's just going to provide the option, and then let's hope they believe"? Jesus has knowledge. He would have been looking at us and asking: so I am dying on the cross, shedding My blood, enduring the wrath of God, so that I can hope they believe?
No. He saved us. When Jesus Christ goes to the cross, He dies, takes the full wrath of God, and pours out His righteousness into all of those who would repent and believe — those whom the Father had given Him. He accomplishes the work the Father gave Him. As 1 Corinthians says, the Son gives back to the Father all whom the Father had given to Him. He accomplishes His mission. God saved in sending His Son. He actually saved.
Nothing in Us
The next thing we see from this is that salvation is not because of anything in us. "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness." We can't save ourselves. It's nothing that we have done. It is all about God.
Again, Christopher Wright says: "Salvation is not something that we human beings can accomplish or earn by any means, even including religion. Salvation is in God's hands. It is not something that any human religion can offer as a reward for doing this or that ritual or following this or that practice. Salvation belongs to God, not any religion." Salvation, as biblically understood, is not at human disposal or a matter of human achievement.
Wright then bullet points several realities of what the Bible teaches about salvation. One: we do not control salvation. Two: we cannot dispense salvation to others. Three: we certainly cannot sell salvation or offer it on our own terms.
Many of you have been in places where people are trying to sell you the gospel — but the problem is they are trying to sell it on their own terms, and it is not theirs to sell. God may call us to proclaim the gospel, but it is His gospel, and it is on His terms. We are not the ones who decide who gets to have salvation or not. And we cannot threaten or take away salvation from those to whom God has granted it. It is God's decision, God's gift, not ours. Don't peddle the word of God. It is not yours to peddle.
Initiated, Achieved, and Secured by God
Wright then goes on to say that because salvation belongs to God, salvation is — and you may want to write these down — initiated by God's grace, achieved by God's power, offered on God's terms, accomplished by God's Son, secured by God's promises, and guaranteed by God's sovereignty.
Salvation at the Heart of God
I want to take it back to the very nature of God. Love, kindness, moving into brokenness, healing, salvation — this is at the heart of who God is. It is flowing through His veins. Genesis chapters 1 and 2, God creates everything good. Then in chapter 3 the fall happens: man sins and falls into sin, and even creation falls with him.
Now God is laying out the curses. He sets His curse upon Adam, sets His curse upon Eve, and then He looks at the serpent — Satan — and He says: you think you got the best of Me, you think you won, but let Me tell you something. I am going to put hatred, enmity, between your seed and hers. He looks at Eve, because out of Eve would come Jesus. Between your seeds I will put hatred, and you will try to do something, but you will only bruise His heel — He will crush your head.
From the very beginning, the moment we fall into sin, salvation is at the heart of God. He looks at Satan and says: you will not win. I will win, and I will crush your head. When Jesus came, He crushed Satan, sin, and death, out of the motivating, loving power of God. "For God so loved the world that He gave His Son."
Revelation 7:10, the end of the Bible, shows us this was the preordained plan of God all along. People are crying out before the throne: "Salvation belongs to You, God, the One who sits on the throne." And then, more towards the middle of the Bible, in the minor prophet Jonah, many biblical scholars say that the core biblical message comes out in Jonah 2:9. What does it say? "Salvation is of the Lord."
The Roles of the Trinity in Salvation
So if we look inside the Trinity and ask what roles the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each play, let us run through them. The Father elects and chooses those who will be saved. We cannot get around that, as much as it may gnaw at us. Ephesians chapter 1 is very clear: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, who has chosen us before the foundations of time, to be holy and blameless."
Some people do not like that. They do not like the words election and choosing. But chosen does not mean choice. This is not like walking into a store and picking the USDA choice beef — the pick of the litter. If you want to stay with that illustration, what God chooses would be the meat so rotten, old, stinky, and disgusting that they will not even give it to the dogs. And God, in His love, moves toward it and says to you: though you are sinful, rotten, and full of funk, I am going to take you back and redeem you — buy you back to Myself.
The Son Redeems
So the Father elects and chooses sinners. Now, how does He accomplish their salvation? This is where Jesus comes in — Jesus redeems. That word means to buy back. Say a man comes into a pawn shop and brings a ring he had given his wife. He says he needs cash and wants to sell it. The pawnbroker looks at it and says, this does not look like a man's ring — whose is it? It is my wife's. Does your wife know you are here to sell it? No, she does not, but I need cash right now. But here is the key: the man says, I am going to buy it back.
Redemption — to buy something back. The very nature of "back" means it was already his. In the same way, we are God's. Do you understand that? Colossians 1 tells us all things have been created by Christ and for Christ. We are the only thing in all of creation made in His image. We are God's. And so God is on a love mission to buy back His people. Jesus Christ dies a gruesome death on a cross, faces the wrath of God, to buy us back. It is love that is motivating it.
The Spirit Regenerates
The Father elects, the Son redeems — now what happens? The Spirit regenerates. Look at verse 5: we are "not saved by works of righteousness, but according to God's own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior."
Regeneration literally means rebirth, or a changing of your nature. Your desires, your purposes, your reasons for living — why you live — ultimately change at the core. This is when Jesus goes to Nicodemus and says, "You must be born again. You must be born of water and the Spirit." J.I. Packer, in *Renovating the Heart*, says that Jesus' phrase "born of water and the Spirit" harks back to Ezekiel 36, where God is pictured as symbolically cleansing persons from sin's pollution by water and bestowing in them a new heart by putting a spirit in them — the promise of the new covenant: I will be your God, you will be My people, I will take out a heart of stone that hates Me and put in a heart of flesh.
Now, if you say that in your experience you made a decision for God, what you experienced is the work of the Holy Spirit. As I sat in those rooms and responded to the gospel, that was because God had already worked in me and changed my nature to actually want the things of God, to actually move toward God. That is precisely why the idea of election as God simply looking down the corridors of time and seeing who is going to choose Him does not hold up. If He looks down those corridors, He sees a bunch of people who hate Him and have no responsiveness to Him in their nature. The message of the cross is foolishness to the natural man. Natural men do not understand spiritual things. What has to happen first is regeneration. The Spirit applies the work of the Father and the Son, the heart changes, and now —
Salvation Belongs to God
The Father wills your salvation. The Son accomplishes your salvation. And the Spirit applies it. Now, knowing natural human tendency, I know some of you may resist this. Some of you sitting here may ask, "Well, then why should I pray for anybody? What about free will?" And if you are sitting here as an unbeliever thinking, "I might as well not come to Jesus, because if I'm not elect—" that is the essence of pride.
Let me paint this picture for you. In God lies perfect love, perfect holiness, perfect justice, perfect kindness, perfect goodness. In Him lies salvation. In you lies death, disobedience, despondency, hatred, and the twisting of all types of good things that God has given. You are hating others and hated by others. That is where this leads — death.
Life or death. God says, "Choose this day whom you will serve. Choose this day and choose life." And Jesus is very clear: "Come." Come, all you who are thirsty. Drink of the well. In Him you will find life. Come to the waters and you will never thirst again. Come to Him, you who are hungry. Come, buy and eat. Buy bread that will sustain your soul. Come find salvation.
The Principles We Carry With Us
As we leave here, what are the principles we take with us? The first is this: salvation is of God. It is there, not here. Salvation belongs to God. This truth breeds humility and thankfulness and celebration for Christians.
And if we are not yet believers, this is the clarion call of God: Come. See your condition. See His beauty. Come, because His offer is extended to you. Come, buy and eat. Come, buy bread — and Isaiah says it costs you nothing.
A Great Sinner and a Great Savior
Here is the last thing we walk away with. John Newton, writer of the great hymn "Amazing Grace" — and there is a true quote seen in the film *Amazing Grace* — as a very old man said this to a friend: "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior."
God saves sinners. You and I are great sinners, but Jesus is a great Savior calling out to you in love: "Come to me."
An Invitation
If you are here today and you have questions, and you simply feel God saying "come," there are pastors down at the front. You may be here as a Christian who believes, but who is facing desperate circumstances. God is the Savior. Come to Him and pray. There will be pastors down front.
Let's pray. God, we thank You and we praise You for the gospel. Thank You that You are the One who saves, that it is not dependent upon me. God, all the work that You have done breathes humility and gratefulness, and I pray that You would breathe it in us — that we would not be arrogant people, but that, like Isaiah, we would be undone, grateful, celebrating, and willing to go for You. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.