ELECTION  IS  JUST  NOT  FAIR!

For many people, the doctrine of election is one that just does not make sense, for it appears to contradict the teachings that God is Love and no respecter of persons. It is even seen as a doctrine which shuts many people out of heaven who desired entry. Thus, it is concluded that the doctrine of election is just not fair; that God would be unjust to select only some people to show His grace and mercy towards, in granting the gift of salvation, and simply leave the rest to themselves, or worse still, consign them to hell. The real reason behind such a conclusion is the flawed foundation upon which these notions are based—a foundation which says that man is not dead in sin as a result of the Fall but is merely a wounded soul, with the ability and desire to seek and choose God, intact. The concept of ‘free will’ stands in eternal opposition to the doctrine of free grace. The doctrine of free will is irrevocably linked with that of universal atonement. The result of such a devilish mix is the teaching that Christ has died for all, that salvation is an offer and not a promise, and everyone has a free will decision to make—to either choose Christ as their Savior or to ignore His ‘offer’ of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Naturally, such thinking produces an enmity against the doctrine of election and considers it as something wholly unjust and unfair, for man is seen as having no choice in the matter. It deems that a God of love would never override a man’s ‘free will’, He would never choose one man over another to show His grace and mercy to. Man in his natural lost state equipped with a carnal mind blinded by the subtleties of Satan can see only one thing and that is, that though man is lost, he can at any time turn from his carnal ways, choose God and take up His generous ‘offer’ of eternal life based on his own repentance. To understand the doctrine of election is to understand that salvation is reliant upon God’s Sovereign choice based on His free grace and not man’s choice or decision based on free will, that it is God’s love for man and not man’s ‘love’ for God which is the motivating factor behind anyone being saved. In order to properly comprehend election based purely on grace, we will not commence our study with an examination of this doctrine but with the doctrine that concerns man’s spiritual state after the Fall in the Garden of Eden. This will show whether or not man possesses some innate ability to call upon God from a supposed free will, or whether this is an utter impossibility based on man’s separation from God. Just what happened to man when he sinned for the first time against a Holy God and where did it leave him in terms of his standing before God? This booklet will proceed to bring the reader the Scriptural response to such questions, as well as a study of election itself, and show conclusively that not only is election by grace just and fair, it is the only way a man can be saved.

Adam and Eve lived a perfect, harmonious existence in the Garden of Eden. They communed with God and enjoyed all the pleasures He bestowed upon them. The animals God had created were their friends, food was abundant, water flowed freely, they basked in perfect weather, death was unknown and what’s more, God was their Benefactor, their Provider Who saw to it that they wanted for nothing. It is hard to imagine that this paradise would be the backdrop to the single most devastating and far reaching event that man has ever brought about: rebellion against, and disobedience to, God. In Genesis 2 "...the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:16,17). Since God is the Source of both physical and spiritual life, disobedience to Him would mean instantaneous separation from Him and therefore from life itself, in both its physical and spiritual forms. God had expressed His will by making it clear to the man that he could eat of every tree he wanted in the Garden but not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the laying down of this law God was not withholding anything from man that was necessary to his existence. On the contrary, God was promising and assuring him an immortal life upon his obedience. But this was also a trial of Adam’s obedience upon pain of eternal separation from God. One wonders what went through the mind of Adam after God’s command, and that of Eve after Adam had informed her of the Lord’s decree, but we have enough to deal with in their ensuing actions.

The key word in the above two verses is without doubt the word ‘die’. A proper biblical understanding of the meaning of this word will unlock any mystery this verse may hold for those who believe that die may not mean die at all but contain some esoteric connotation or component. To allay any such thought, our study of the word ‘die’ as used by God in His warning to Adam reveals it to mean just what it says: ‘dead’, ‘to lose one’s life,’ ‘worthy of death,’ ‘destroy,’ ‘die,’ ‘kill,’ ‘slay very suddenly’. How much clearer could the meaning of any word be? And to quell any thought, to immediately dispel any notion that the word die may mean something other than death in other parts of the Bible and thus be viewed by some as reason enough to cast doubt on the actual meaning of it in Genesis 2, we reveal that in EVERY instance where the word ‘die’ is used in both Old and New Testaments, ALL speak of death. NONE refer to merely a state of sickness or being unwell which would imply hope of recovery, which is the baseless, indefensible definition given by those who hold to the doctrine of free will and its sister teaching of universal atonement. Man has not been left in a self-help situation, but one of total spiritual helplessness. Just as no man can halt the process of decay in his body and avert the inevitability of physical death, so too, no man can reverse his state of spiritual death and separation from God, or revive his spiritual life. There is no Scripture which will support the notion that man is not dead in and because of sin, that he is not without God or utterly without hope of reaching out to God. No Scripture can be found that even remotely suggests there was the slightest remnant of spiritual life which remained in man after he sinned in the Garden. Why do you think the Lord used such an absolute ‘game over-end of argument’ word such as DIE? No better word could have been used than die to express what would happen to man if he ate of the forbidden fruit. Any word other than die would have left room for hope and reason to believe that man could raise himself up in some way. But the specific word die was used for a specific reason and that was to express precisely what condition man would be left in, physically and spiritually, if he disobeyed God. No word expresses finality and complete loss of all hope better than die. The word die does not mean a reduction in the standard of life, that man would in some way become retarded, but the total absence of life. Physical death does not retard or hinder, it is a cessation of all activity! So too, spiritual death has not placed man in a state of spiritual retardation but in one of lifeless inactivity, incapable of any action. Man is not in a state of spiritual deceleration, but has been completely halted and is utterly irreparable. Die is the sort of word no one needs any instruction in order to understand its meaning. It is a word which immediately brings to mind such terms as no hope left, all is lost, you can stop praying now, etc. It is as simple as where there is death there is no life and where there is life there is no death. As the old saying goes, ‘Where there’s life there’s hope.’ It is equally true to say, ‘Where there’s no life there’s no hope’. You cannot be said to be dead if there remains in you even a spark of life. Therefore, God had no right to say man would die if after the man sinned he would still possess some degree of spiritual life. Now, to deny all this because of one’s long history of believing the erroneous teaching that man is not dead in sin but merely sin sick, not drowned in sin but able to reach out for the life saver which has been thrown to him, is to deny the clear word of God on the matter and, as we shall see, is to give a nod of approval to Satan’s claim that man would not die. There is no basis my friend, no Scriptural reason, to believe that man is not dead in sin but merely sin sick and able to come to God of his own free will. Nothing in the whole of God’s Word will stand with you on that.

"The nature of the death threatened can be determined only from a consideration of all that was involved in the curse actually inflicted. This we know to have included the instant withdrawal of the Divine favor and spiritual intercommunion upon which man’s life depended (see Gen. 3:24). Hence the alienation and curse of God; the sense of guilt and corruption of nature; consequent actual transgressions, the miseries of life, the dissolution of the body, the pains of hell. The consequences of Adam’s sin are all comprehended under the term death, in its widest sense. Paul gives us the summary testament that "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). The full import of the death which was threatened to Adam can only be seen by considering all the evil consequences which have since befallen man. It was primarily spiritual death, or eternal separation from God, which was threatened; and physical death, or the death of the body, is but one of the first fruits and relatively unimportant consequences of that greater penalty. Adam did not die physically for 930 years after the Fall, but he did die spiritually the very moment he fell into sin. He died just as really as the fish dies when taken from the water, or as the plant dies when taken from the soil." Man died spiritually after he sinned against God and was consequently separated from God. No one denies that physical death is being dead to life, yet curiously many denounce the doctrine which teaches that spiritual death is just as literal as physical death and means being dead to God! "If a man were dead, in a natural and physical sense, it would at once be readily granted that there is no further possibility of that man being able to perform any physical actions. A corpse cannot act in any way whatsoever, and that man would be reckoned to have taken leave of his senses who asserted that it could. If a man is dead spiritually, therefore, it is surely equally as evident that he is unable to perform any spiritual actions..." It is as simple as this: a man that is dead CAN’T... You can tack on anything you like to the end of this sentence and it will make equal sense whether you are speaking of physical or spiritual death.

The source from which this whole denial of man’s spiritual death as a direct result of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil originates is Satan. "And the Serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die" (Gen. 3:4). Incidentally, the word die here is the same word in the original Hebrew used by God in Genesis 2 and carries with it the same meaning. Satan’s statement was in direct contrast to what God had told Adam would occur if he ate of the tree. Doubt is the mother of denial and doubt is the seed which Satan sowed in Eve’s heart, beguiling her through his subtlety (see 2 Cor. 11:3) and causing her to be the first subscriber to the vacuous lie that there would be no such consequence as death—physical or spiritual—if she ate of the tree. Perhaps she was enticed into believing that Adam had in some way misinterpreted or misrepresented what God had told him. Or maybe she was manipulated into thinking that God had lied to Adam and was trying to keep something good from him for she saw "...that the Tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise..." (Gen. 3:6). The bottom line to all this is that all who believe man is merely sin-sick believe and promote Satan’s lie to Eve that she would not surely die, for they say ‘we are not surely dead’. Satan’s statement to Eve that she would not surely die was, of course, an out and out lie. Satan "...is a liar, and the father of it" (Jn. 8:44). God said man would die, meaning death, both physical and spiritual, would ingress the man’s life and he, left to himself, would never be the same again. His relationship with God would be eternally broken. Man would no longer seek God and call out to Him but he would seek to hide himself from Him. In life man sought God but in death man hid himself from God and sought no communication with Him. Satan had told Eve that she would not surely die, that on the contrary she would benefit from disobeying God and that her act of defiance would free her from God and make her and Adam as gods: "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:5). Today, the lie that man would not die has spawned the popular notion that man is merely sin-sick, wounded by the fall but not fatally, and that he has an innate power that enables him to come and choose God at any time he so desires. James Arminius, the founder of Arminianism, taught "The lost sinner needs the Spirit’s assistance, but he does not have to be regenerated by the Spirit before he can believe, for faith is man’s act and precedes the new birth." This flies directly in the face of the Scripture which says "...quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name" (Psa. 80:18). It is said that human nature was seriously affected by the Fall and that it damaged relations with God but not eternally; many of the cords which bound man to God have been broken but man has not been completely cut off. All are agreed that Satan’s attempt to assure man that he would not die if he disobeyed God was a lie. His denial, in part, was comprised of the lie that man would not die physically, so what makes anyone think that Satan’s lie did not also mean that he would not die spiritually? He totally lied about the one, so how can any argue that Satan’s lie about death did not also include in it the cessation of spiritual life? No one denies that he was lying about physical death, for all know that man does not live forever, that his mortal body eventually dies. So how can anyone argue that Satan’s lie about spiritual death meant that there would not be a cessation of life there also. Satan had nothing on which to base what he said to Eve, because it contravened and opposed what God said would occur. Likewise, the person who believes in man’s fictional state of spiritual sickness and not spiritual death, also has absolutely no ground upon which to build such an untruth. It would be like having a roof but no walls with which to hold it up. It would be as crazy to believe in the non-spiritual death of man as it would be to deny the reality of physical death! Physical death is being dead to physical life and spiritual death is being dead to spiritual life. To believe and try to defend Satan’s lie is to attempt to grasp the air or to catch the wind. It is an utterly fruitless and superfluous exercise which can only lead to a sinner’s Hell. Though there are many who believe in the doctrine of free will, the principle of safety in numbers just does not apply, for error can never be justified or become truth by sheer weight of numbers. Those who hold to it simply do not realise where the principle of this teaching comes from or where this lie is leading them. Hopefully, after reading this they will have a clear understanding of the big picture.

Again, man did not immediately die physically after he sinned but the process of corruption, the dissolution and decay of his now mortal body, did begin. The use of the word ‘die’ as the consequence of man’s disobedience insists upon this. To die is to be separated. It is a separation from life. Death, be it physical or spiritual, denotes an irreconcilable and irreversible separation. Just as no man who dies physically can of his own ability return from the dead, so too, no man in his spiritually dead state can do anything to alter his condition nor can any other man restore him from his lost state. Such a reconstruction is beyond the realms of human ability. No one would dare dispute the fact that the word die in our passage means physical death. Even after the most extensive and exhaustive examination of the word, a man would be a fool to suggest that the word die in Genesis 2 does not mean physical death, so why and how could it mean anything other than death when it comes to man’s spiritual condition also? Surely if death, when pertaining to the spiritual, meant anything different to what it means in the context of the physical, a different word would have been used to describe spiritual death. If such were the case, then at the very least the word die would have been given a dual meaning. But we see in Genesis 2 that one word—die—was used to describe what man’s physical and spiritual condition would be should he disobey God. How can such a word as die have two different meanings when it is expressed in such a way as to convey one certain and indubitable outcome? How can the word die mean two separate things when it has only one meaning? How can it be said to mean death in the physical sense, and yet in the same sentence suddenly come to mean sickness in the spiritual sense? What kind of monstrous semantic surgery would have had to have been performed on the word die in order to rearrange its features so as to present two images and not one? All agree that the Fall affected man both physically and spiritually, so how can one word have a dual meaning when used in the same sentence in reference to two things? God specifically used the word die to tell what would happen to man physically and He specifically used the word die to describe what would happen to man spiritually. God used the same brush (the word ‘die’) to paint the same picture—DEATH! Granted, there are many words that have various shades of meaning and connotations which can be used in different ways but the word die, as used not only in Genesis 2 but throughout the whole Bible, has only one meaning: death! Only one thing can rightly and legitimately be inferred from a clear written statement, and that is the exact intention of the writer. Can the reader think of a way to use the word die to mean anything other than death in all its finality? Moreover, can the reader find any such example in the pages of Scripture? Even when it is used in a merely figurative way, the sense is always to express cessation, finality, loss of all hope, utter despair or end of life, die is never used to mean sickness or a feeling of being unwell. The words die, died, diest and dieth appear a total of 548 times in the Bible (462 in the Old Testament and 86 in the New). In every instance these words are used NOT ONCE do any of them carry the sense of being unwell or sick. The words carry the following meaning in the Old Testament: breathe out, i.e. expire, die, be dead, give up the ghost, perish; dead, to lose one’s life, worthy of death, destroy, die, kill, slay very suddenly; dead, the dead, their place or state, ruin; death, die, execution as a doom; cease, die, surely throw down, rot, smite out; a flabby thing i.e. a carcase, died of itself. And in the New Testament: to finish life, expire, demise, be dead, decease, die; to die off, be dead, die, be slain; to decease, be dead; ruin, damnable, destruction, die, perdition; to destroy fully, perish, destroy, die. Anyone yet to be convinced that die means death just does not want to believe it.

Of all the words God could have used to describe the consequence of man’s partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He chose one word and one word only and that word was ‘DIE’. If the word die did not mean death in the spiritual sense as well as the physical, God would have used the word die to describe what would happen to man physically and an entirely different word to describe what would happen to man spiritually, so that none could falsely accuse Him of being the author of confusion in the matter of man’s physical and spiritual state after the Fall. But there was obviously no need for Him to do this, for He placed what would happen to man both physically and spiritually under the one word, DIE! It was so important and significant a word that even Satan used it to deny what God had said would occur if He was disobeyed. Had Satan used any other word than die he would not have been opposing what God had said. God used die and so to deny what God had said Satan had to use the word die also. It is a word which cannot be mistaken in its meaning. It is a word which allows no room for life! It gives no cause to believe that there is hope. 'Die' means finality, culmination, the permanent ceasing of all activity. IT IS NOT A DESCRIPTION OF A DISEASED LIFE BUT A DECEASED LIFE! It does not suggest a present but unwell life but outright ABSENCE of life! The word ‘die’ does not imply a state of sickness, no mere deterioration, but indicates utter desolation! Who in their right mind would use the word die in reference to a sick relative or friend? No one! Then why is God accused of using the word die to refer to a state of sickness? Has anyone ever warned the reader of certain sickness if they eat too many sweets by saying they will die if they over indulge? If someone is critically ill or even in intensive care, the first thing that comes to mind is ,‘at least they’re not dead’. The term sick denotes that there is still the presence of life, albeit an unwell life. So no matter how sick a person may reportedly be, the presence of sickness, by definition, implies the presence of life. Has anyone ever described a sick person as being dead? A person in the last days of a terminal illness may be referred to as ‘as good as dead’ but they cannot be regarded as already dead. They cannot be pronounced dead until all life has expired. A person may be sick and dying but they cannot be sick AND dead! So why would anyone ever think that God would use the word die to mean sickness? The word die in Genesis 2 covers both physical existence and spiritual life like a shroud. How, in light of this, can anyone come up with the preposterous and nonsensical conclusion, especially after reading God’s statement that man would surely die if he ate of the tree, that die does not mean die but something other than death? Did it mean anything other than death in the physical sense? Of course not. Then what justification does anyone have to even suggest that it might mean anything other than death in the spiritual sense also! Can the reader find one instance in the Bible where the word life does not mean life? Surely if God did not mean to say that Adam would literally die both physically and spiritually, He would have not overlooked such an important detail, but would have chosen another word to specify that man would die physically, yet spiritually would only become unwell, corrupted yet not devastated, seriously affected in his affections for God yet not destitute of them, that man would be separated from the life of God but that his relationship with God would only be damaged yet not irreparably so. How foolish would a person be to even entertain such a thought in light of the overwhelming evidence of the biblical meaning of the word die. If die does not mean die in the Genesis passage despite all of the evidence to the contrary, then what does any word in the Bible mean? There would be no certainty to the meaning of any word and private interpretation would be the order of the day — a case of everyone attaching to a word whatever meaning they saw fit to suit their particular doctrinal bias or denominational allegiance. One could find some reason to cling to the belief that die does not mean die in Genesis 2 and 3 if there were other sections of Scripture where the word die did not mean die. But even this faint ‘hope’ is dashed because THERE IS NO SUCH INSTANCE, NO PRECEDENT, IN THE ENTIRE BIBLE WHERE THE WORD ‘DIE’ DOES NOT CLEARLY MEAN ‘DIE’! So we see that there is no biblical justification for the belief that man is not utterly dead spiritually and that he can of his own free will reach out and choose God.

Man immediately died spiritually after he sinned against God. This we know from God’s own words: "...in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). The word day does have several shades of meaning in the Old Testament and can refer to an age or an actual period of twenty-four hours, but it is used here to mean a point of time or a moment. So the verse reads: ‘...in the moment, at that point of time, that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ "(Adam and Eve) experienced spiritual death immediately, resulting in their shame and their attempt to cover their nakedness (Gen. 3:7). Sin and/or the presence of spiritual death required a covering, but man’s provision was inadequate; so God made a perfect covering in the form of a promised Redeemer (Gen. 3:15) and a typological covering of animal skins (Gen. 3:21)." Before man sinned he possessed a death-free spiritual and physical existence—benefits he received from a loving God. The penalty for sin was the withdrawal of such blessings, leaving man in a state of spiritual and physical death and of eternal separation from God. The opposite of obedience is disobedience, the opposite of life is death. Both physical and spiritual death has passed on to the whole race of man and did not merely cease with Adam and Eve or with their immediate offspring. The following verses provide a clear indication of this: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12); "...through the offence of one (the) many be dead..." (Rom. 5:15); "...by one man’s offence death reigned by one..." (Rom. 5:17); "...by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation..." (Rom. 5:18); "...by one man’s disobedience (the) many were made sinners..." (Rom. 5:19); "..by man came death....in Adam all die..." (1 Cor. 15:21,22).

Now if for whatever reason a person, even in light of such convincing biblical evidence, remains unmoved from his position that man is only sin-sick and able of his own free will to reach out to, and call upon, the true God, surely it would be right to expect that discernible evidence for such a belief would be found in passages throughout the Bible, especially in the New Testament. One of the surest ways to learn if something is actually Scriptural—according to what God says—is to search the Scriptures with diligence, not in order to find only a verse or two or a collection of verses which are saying the same thing and then close the Bible satisfied that one’s doctrine has been verified and one’s beliefs confirmed, for such is the domain of the cultist, but to see a constant and consistent theme present throughout the pages of not only the New Testament but also the Old Testament and which are supported by other doctrines taught in the Scriptures. There is no contradiction in truth.

We shall now enter the second phase of our study of the spiritual state of man and see what the Scriptures have to say. For any who are yet to be convinced in their minds and who want more proof of man’s post-Fall spiritual condition, we trust the following will be of assistance in your examination of whether man has a free will to choose God or whether being separated from God means that man in his current lost condition is utterly without hope, not able to come to God because he has no will—no natural propensity—to come to God and is thus dependant solely upon the mercy of God. This study will show beyond a shadow of a doubt that man is completely and utterly dead in sin, dead to God, and therefore without will and without hope in this world.

Firstly, it is right to assume that the intention of the majority who read this booklet is to believe only in that which God says and to reject any and every thought and idea of man’s that would establish a prejudice against, and seek to lead us astray from, the Word of God on the matter at hand. This is why we are about to delve into the Scriptures themselves, for they are the very Words of God. If you could go to God and ask Him specific questions concerning man’s spiritual state etc., He would say nothing different to you than what He has already stated in His Holy Word. In fact He would simply point you to His written Word, for this is the means He has chosen to communicate His Truth in these last days. Let us then begin our study with the Book of Romans: "...there is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one....there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3:10-12,18). From this passage we see that no man is righteous in the sight of God, that is, no man is in right standing with God by nature. Man without God is simply unacceptable to Him and an abhorrent sight. And no man can become righteous by his own attempts at obedience in the sight of God because "...by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight..." (Rom. 3:20). We have just seen the Scriptures say that man is a totally unprofitable creature. Nothing he does or can do is of any profit to him in terms of reinstating himself back into God’s ‘good books’, gaining His favor etc. Man has been rendered useless (which is what the word unprofitable means as used in Romans 3) by the penalty his disobedience to God has drawn. No amount or degree of subsequent obedience will profit man one iota. Nothing he can do can in any way be beneficial to him or bear fruit in the sight of God for "A corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit" (Matt. 7:17ff. cf. Lk. 6:43). Paul the apostle in commenting on his unrenewed nature prior to conversion said, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing..." (Rom. 7:18 cf. Gen. 6:5). "There could not be possibly a stronger expression of belief of the doctrine of total depravity. It is Paul’s own representation of himself. It proves that his heart was wholly evil. And if this was true of him, it is true of all others." Nothing man can do can attract the favor of God. In fact, all that man does is done, as it were, with his back toward God for he does not know God. This is due to man’s sinful nature and spiritual deadness, his separation from God, and therefore his estrangement from spiritual life itself. No less important is the fact that no man by nature is a seeker of God. This is quite a statement, for on the surface it would appear that many millions of people are currently seeking after God. They are genuine and serious in their search for God and salvation but these things do not, in and of themselves, ensure that any of them are seeking after the true God. Religions abound with sincere and dedicated followers who believe they are on a spiritual pilgrimage in search of God. But God is not playing games here. He is extremely serious and quite adamant when He declares that there are NONE who seek after Him. And who is there to deny this when it is God Himself Who has said it? God means what He says and He says what He means. So whatever it is that man is doing in all his religious enterprises, there is one thing we can be sure he is not doing and that is seeking after God. The reason that there is no man who seeks after God is that man is spiritually dead to the true God. These two teachings complement each other perfectly and form a mutually supportive alliance. Man, by nature, does not know God. He does not understand God nor the way to God hence the myriad of religions with their seemingly endless number of failed methods and plans of seeking and reaching God. Because man is said to be no seeker of God, it stands to biblical reason that he does not desire the true God, but only those gods of his own imagination. The fact that God states there are none who seek after Him is enough to send shock waves throughout the religious world, and accentuates the fact that man in his natural state is alienated from God, a hater and despiser of God, for there are none who seek or desire Him. Every image of God which man has is patently not the true God, for God says there are none who seek after Him. The word seeketh as used in Romans 3 means ‘to search out’, ‘investigate’, ‘crave’, ‘require’, ‘demand’, ‘worship’. No man, by nature, does any of these things when it comes to the true God. No man by nature requires, demands, or worships God, therefore no man by nature seeks God. All that man can do, in fact the best a man can do, is seek after false gods requiring their favor, craving their attention, whilst under the illusion that they are seeking the true God. Such is the state of the damned! Always busy, always active, always "...learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 3:7), and therefore the God of truth. No man by nature is in search of God. No man by nature craves the God of election, but despises Him. No man by nature demands to have the true God, or worships Him. How else would, or could, one describe man’s unprofitable, spiritual condition other than by a state of being completely dead to God! Just as man is utterly dead spiritually, so too, the sum total of his religious pursuits is utterly unprofitable to him. It would be laughable if it were not so serious, that in all of man’s ‘free will’ endeavors to reach God and please God and attempts to recommend himself to God, man has gained nothing for there is no fear of the true God in any man in his natural, fallen and sinful state. How ironic that with all of man’s supposed ‘free will’ there is not one who has freely chosen, in and of himself, to go after the true God, to seek Him and to worship Him! Now how, in light of this irrefutable evidence, can the notion be seriously considered, let alone honestly believed, that man by his own free will can come to God? The fact that no man seeks God is confirmed in Jesus’ own words found in John 5:40: "And ye will not come to Me, that that ye might have life" (cf. Jn. 6:44). No man by nature can will to come to God because no man can come to God. No man by nature has the ability or capability to come to God, Jesus says. No man by nature has ever sought, or can ever seek, God because in his spiritual state he is dead to God. He is lifeless. Man, as a creature spiritually alive to God by nature, is extinct. Man cannot seek that which he is ignorant of. Man in his blindness, lostness and eternal state of separation from God, cannot seek after the true God nor will any come to the true Jesus. Man will not come to God, he will not seek God, because he CANNOT. This is something of his own doing and he has no one to blame but himself. His miserable spiritual state prevents him from ever desiring the true God in and of himself. All man can do in his imperfect and utterly devastated lifeless spiritual state is seek after imperfect and lifeless gods, in whom there is no salvation.

The apostle Paul, in writing to the Ephesians, tells how God has made alive those who were once dead in their sins: "And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1 cf. Psa. 80:18). "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Col. 2:13). Notice that these scriptures are not saying, ‘And you hath He made well, who were sick in trespasses and sins’, nor are they saying, ‘And you being sick in your sins hath He made well’. The word used in both the above verses to describe man’s spiritual condition in sin is DEAD and the Lord is said to have quickened and not merely made well, the formerly dead sinner. Here we see clearly the two conditions that man can be in before God: either dead in sins or made alive unto, and by, God. The word quickened in these verses means ‘to make alive’, ‘give life’, ‘vitalize’. The word vitalize means ‘to make living’, or ‘alive’, or ‘to endow with life’. It comes from the Latin word vita meaning life and can only be used when referring to someone or something that had previously been without life, lifeless. The word quickened is primarily used in the New Testament of raising the dead to life (Jn. 5:21; Rom. 4:17, 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:22,36), but is generally used in reference to salvation, the "Impartation of spiritual life and the communication of spiritual sustenance" (Jn. 6:63; 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:6; Gal 3:21). God is as much the sustainer as He is the cause of spiritual life. The antithesis of the word quickened is ‘to put to death’, ‘to kill’. The language here is not that of the sick being made well, not that of the wounded being recovered, but that which was once DEAD being now made ALIVE by God Himself. Paul also refers to the now saved Ephesians as once being "...by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:3). Before their salvation, whilst children of wrath, the Ephesians were said by Paul to have been "...at that time...without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having NO HOPE, and WITHOUT GOD in the world" (Eph. 2:12). To be without God is to be without hope. The word without in this context is as strong and clear as the word die. To be ‘without’ something means to not have it. It means the complete absence of whatever is being spoken about. To be without Christ is to be separate or apart from Him. To be without God is to be ‘Godless’. It is to be "Destitute of God and therefore devoid of reason. To be without Divine help, forsaken by God and excluded from communion (or communication) with God." To be a child of wrath is to be without hope, which is to say, without God. To not have God is to live a hopeless existence. Man by nature is in a helpless and hopeless state. Carefully considered, such a scenario paints the most daunting of pictures. In fact, just as the Word of God shatters the rock like a hammer (Jer. 23:29), these verses demolish any notion of free will, any basis any man has ever dared to have upon which has been pinned the slightest confidence in ever thinking that he can and does by his own power and will, choose to come to God. To be without God is to truly be without spiritual life. God is the Source and the Sustainer of all life, be it physical or spiritual, and without Him there is no physical life that has not within it the seed of death and that will not die, and no spiritual life at all: "...all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist" (Col. 1:16,17). There is no hope of salvation for man without God. Nothing man can do which can recommend him to God, nothing which can attract His attention or gain His favor. When the apostles asked the Lord Jesus who it is that can be saved, Jesus answered with the following, sobering words: "With men this is IMPOSSIBLE; but with God all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26). Salvation is creation, it is resurrection (see 2 Cor. 5:17). It is not something which can be initiated by any creature but only by the Creator. Yes, with man salvation is impossible. Not even his fabled free will, according to the Lord Jesus, can help him out of such a dilemma! Clearly, Scripture says that if left to himself man has nothing in him that wants God or seeks God. Every fibre of his being is constantly pulling him away from God. Nothing he can do which will profit him in any way, no deed which can justify him before God. In fact all man’s personal efforts at recommending himself to God exacerbates his situation and further condemns him, for all his efforts are tainted indelibly with the stain of sin and are a reminder of his fallen, hopeless and cursed state. Man’s righteousnesses are all imperfect, and are seen as filthy rags by a Holy God. Only the Righteousness of Christ can recommend a man to God. Everything man does and seeks to offer as some sort of recommendation that he is worthy of salvation, has within it that which condemns him—the awful mark of sin! Just when man thinks he has done something or reached a level which he thinks will impress God and that none, including God, could deny him a place in heaven because of his efforts, the Scriptures, like a bucket of ice-cold water, bring sobriety to the man’s thinking by revealing the reality of his evil and insipid nature, thus the putridity of his efforts and his being wholly unacceptable in the sight of God. If ever there was a word to describe man’s sinful and fallen state, no other word could more fittingly be used than ‘dead’! What other word could better describe man’s spiritual state before God than ‘dead’? Man is not in right standing with God, he does not seek God, therefore does not desire God and consequently could never choose God. The Fall has plunged man into a vicious cycle where he will not come to God because he cannot, and he cannot come to God because he wills not. The Scriptures have made it perfectly clear that man has no intrinsic will that desires God, let alone the capacity to choose God. Man, in his natural state, does not want God and therefore if left to himself will remain without God for the duration of his life and into all eternity. There are none righteous, the Bible says, and so there would never be any man able to stand before God acceptable and in right standing, for there are none who seek Him. This evidence presents a case that is altogether incontrovertible and shows man to be a most miserable creature who was once the apple of God’s eye, but now in his natural state is infested with sin and a living abomination who, rather than seeking and crying out to God for help, is, by his own doing, hopelessly trapped in a maze of his own construction which has no exits, no passages of escape. "The descendants of Adam have sought out an immense number of inventions, in order to find happiness in the world, without God, which have only proved so many variations of impiety and iniquity." "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions" (Eccl. 7:29).

Now I ask the reader where, praytell, does free will fit into God’s plan of salvation? I dare say that if man is without hope, this would include any fictional free will to want God, seek God or choose God. How absurd would it be to say that though man is without God and without hope he can still choose God of his own free will!! If man is without God he is without hope. But without hope of what? Without hope of salvation! However, if man has a free will to choose God, then he is not without hope of salvation. In fact, the doctrine of free will teaches that without man God is the one without hope. Without a man’s free will decision for God, the Lord has no hope of saving anyone! If a man were placed in the middle of the Sahara desert with no water, no shade and no clothing, what hope would he have of surviving? NONE whatsoever! How much less hope does fallen man have who is surrounded, both within and without, by a desert of sin with no saving God in sight? Far worse than the poor soul depicted in the movies who is buried in the desert sand up to his neck with a bowl of water in sight but no way to reach it, man by nature is completely buried in the sand and cannot even see the water, let alone have a chance of reaching out for it, for he is suffocated in sin!! How can any man choose God whilst in such a condition? How can a man choose God if there is no man who seeks God? How can one seek that which one cannot see? If a man could, of his own free will, choose God, would this not mean that he would first have to seek God, desire God and want God? It stands to biblical reason that if there is no man that seeks God, then there is NO man that can choose God, in and of himself, and therefore no such thing as ‘free will’. In any event, what good would free will be to a man in light of the Scriptures which tell us that there are none who even seek God? This would be like having a car with a working motor but no wheels with which to transport it! Man can ‘rev his engine’ all he likes but without wheels he’s going no place. For those who are saved, the above are purely rhetorical questions. But for those who currently believe in the free will of man to choose or reject God, they are questions which require examination in the cold light of day and demand answers. The fact that there are none who seek God is something which God has ‘concluded’ after witnessing for Himself the state of all mankind: "God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. EVERY ONE OF THEM is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Psa. 53:2,3 cf. Psa. 14:2,3). Man by nature does not understand God nor does he understand the way to God. Therefore how can it be said that any man seeks God when it is clear that he has no inherent desire for the true God? The whole basis, or motivation, for choice is desire and a man will not choose what he does not desire; a man does not choose what he cannot want.

There are many, millions in fact, who do seek after idols and false gods believing them to be the true God but there are NONE by nature who seek after the true God. This is further evidence of man’s spiritual deadness, his separation and alienation from the true and only God. Man by nature is bereft of God. Man by nature is an enemy to God and under God’s wrath (see Jas. 4:4). The spiritual state of man has never been made clearer than in the following Scripture: "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the LIFE of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph. 4:18 cf. Psa. 58:3). To be spiritually dead is to be spiritually blind to the true God, hence man’s continuous, and quite mad, scramble for false gods. Man is alienated from the life of God, the Life that is God. To be alienated means to be estranged, to be a non-participant. Man by nature is a non-participant in the life of God. He is dead, without God, and unless God comes to the man by grace and mercy and makes the man alive again unto Him he will forever remain in such a state. There is no spark of light left in man that desires God, for man is said to be in darkness. In fact, the Word of God says that man loves the darkness: "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (Jn. 3:19 cf. Eph. 5:8). "The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked..." (see Jer. 17:9) for in all his ways man never seeks the true God, never God’s glory, but always his own glory. Man is alienated from the true God, he is ignorant of the true God and he is blind to the true God. Left to himself, man’s life is described perfectly in the following verse: "...the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead" (Eccl. 9:3 cf. Psa. 49:20). God even says that "...every man at his best state is altogether vanity" (Psa. 39:5) and that all of mankind is as "...an unclean thing, and all (his) righteousnesses are as filthy rags..." (Isa. 64:6). "Behold, He (God) putteth no trust in His saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?" (Job. 15:15,16 cf. Job 4:18). "How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in His sight. How much less man, that is a worm? And the son of man, which is a worm? (Job 25:4-6). Left to himself, man’s life is nothing but a vain mess, a mish mash of wicked deeds and vain religious pursuits that, far from pleasing God, conspire to increase His wrath upon him. Now I ask you, in light of such overwhelming evidence, how can a man drag himself out of this quagmire, this sinful bog, and stretch out his hand towards God and say, ‘I choose you’? Be not deceived. The best a man can achieve in his mortal life on earth is nothing but utter vanity. He reaches no higher than the ground, though in his mind he is convinced his efforts have reached heaven and are there presenting a case for his admittance. There is nothing man can do which is of any profit to him in the sight of God for there is no good thing that indwells man by nature. Even man’s best deeds are all seen as nothing but filthy rags, fit only to be thrown on the dung heap without further thought. The saved man has no problem in believing this. In fact, just like the apostle Paul, he confesses it and turns from all his former deeds, his dead works, which he thought recommended him to God, and now desires only the Righteousness of Christ (see Phil. 3:4-10).

If the reader will be honest with himself and lay aside all prejudices, he will admit that there is no room for the doctrine of ‘free will’ among Bible truths such as these. Even the atheist would say, though he believes not in the existence of God, that the Bible definitely says there is nothing in man that would or could lead him to God, nothing in him that has any tendency towards the true God. It does not take a genius to see that the idea of free will is diametrically opposed to everything the Scriptures say about man’s state before God. If such a thing as free will did exist, then the Scriptures themselves would have no right in saying that man is without hope in this world. Of course man would have hope in this world if he has a free will to choose God! And if man has a hope then the fact that he has not God is of no real significance, for despite his being God-less, this is in no way a hindrance to him in choosing God at any time. There is no need for a man to be made alive again by the power of God for he is alive enough to choose God of his own power, if the doctrine of free will is true. This line of reasoning has given birth to the idea that God without man is without hope. If a man has a free will to choose God then he has a built-in hope, which survived the Fall, of one day being saved. If man by nature has a free will to choose God, then it stands to reason that some at least will choose Him, that one day some will seek God and so the Scripture that declares that there is no man that seeks God must be changed to ‘some men seek God’. No longer will that Scripture be absolute for all men by nature for all time, but would need to be changed or modified, in fact it should never have been written because, according to those who believe in free will, all those who have thus far been saved have chosen God, and therefore sought God, of their own free will. So when a man quotes Romans 3:11, he is actually guilty of a serious mistake if he does not point out that God has made an error here and changes the verse to read ‘some men seek after God’. Clearly this is all so absolutely ridiculous as to beggar belief that any could possibly fall for the lie that man is not spiritually dead but has a free will to choose God at any time he so desires. It is only the man who remains in a dead-in-sin and dead-to-God state, that believes in the existence of and need for free will, for none who savingly believe in the Gospel of God believe in the free will of man. The doctrine of free willism is inextricably linked with the satanic lie that Adam and Eve would not die after disobeying God as God had promised. If they did not die, then all their faculties to some degree would remain intact, or at least enough of them that would be needed to choose God in and of themselves. However, you will notice in examining Adam and Eve’s immediate actions after they had sinned that neither Adam or Eve went out seeking God. Neither of them went searching for God, crying out to him to forgive them and save them. No indeed, but rather their now sinful state dictated that the natural and instinctive thing to do was to flee from God. And this is the seed which is now in every man! Man is not a neutral creature. No man can be indifferent to God. Either a man is saved by God or dead to God. Either he believes and has the true God or he does not believe and stands alone or with his imaginary false gods. Despite Adam and Eve’s alleged ‘free will’, "...they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden and the Lord called unto Adam..." (Gen. 3:8,9). They attempted to hide their shame so "...they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons" (Gen. 3:7) rather than call on God. Who was it that did the calling? Who was it that was doing the seeking? It was not Adam and his wife who sought God, but God Who came searching for them: "And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?" (Gen. 3:9). God called out to them and not the other way round. And for those who say ‘This was only one instance where man chose not for God but there are many where men have chosen God’, try and find one Scripture that will support such a claim. Adam and Eve’s actions are indicative of every man’s attitude towards the true God by nature. It is not man who comes to God but God Who comes to man.

This brings us to what will prove to be a most interesting study of such words as choose and chosen. Let us now examine the Scriptures in order to see exactly who does the choosing, man or God. Firstly, we go straight to Peter’s first Letter to view perhaps the clearest statement which properly demonstrates who the chooser is in the matter of salvation. Speaking to saved people Peter says, "...ye are a CHOSEN generation...that ye should shew forth the praises of HIM WHO HATH CALLED YOU out of darkness into His marvellous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). In one fell swoop, this verse shows conclusively that which is undebatable and non-negotiable: MAN IS NOT THE CHOOSER, he is not the one who chooses God, he is not the one who makes the first move, but GOD is the Chooser. Clearly, this verse informs us that it is God Who calls His people out and not they who call Him in. Notice also that these chosen ones are not merely called out of darkness, but into His marvellous light. "Thus the choosing is included in the calling." The word chosen in this verse is eklektos in the original and means ‘chosen out, select, favorite, elect’. It is not man that has called out to God by some mythical free will, but God Who has chosen to call certain ones out of darkness into His light. God is at the controls, not man. The saved man has come out of darkness, not because of any free will response, but by the very power of God! This is due to the fact that he has been chosen and is not a chooser. Like Lazarus, the elect are called forth by God to come out of the grave and into the light of day and just as Lazarus could do nothing to make himself alive in the tomb, let alone get up and walk out of it under his own power, so too man in his natural state can do nothing to get himself out of his sinful state and calmly walk out of the darkness of his spiritual grave into God’s marvellous light. It is God’s Power and not man’s free will by which a man is made willing to come to God: "Thy people shall be willing in the day of THY power..." (Psa. 110:3). One of the most forceful Scriptures that clearly demonstrates how a man comes to God says: "Blessed is the man whom THOU CHOOSEST, and CAUSEST to approach unto Thee..." (Psa. 65:4 cf. Psa. 33:12). Not only is God the chooser but He is also the cause behind a man’s approaching Him. It is not a case of God choosing and then the man responding with a decision to approach God, but it is ALL of God, it is God Who chooses and it is GOD WHO IS THE CAUSE BEHIND A MAN APPROACHING HIM! Such is the inability of man — such is the sovereign grace of God. If man could come to God by his own ‘free will’ then should not Psalm 110 be saying, ‘Thy people shall be willing in the day of their own power’. These verses from the Psalms are clearly teaching that it is not by any power of man’s that he should come to God but strictly, wholly and solely by the power of God. Man is made willing by the power of God, which is the cause behind a man approaching God and not by a choice, made possible by his own power, which he makes at his own discretion and which is seen by God as a green light or command for Him to act and choose them for salvation. God’s Sovereign will is not subject to any man’s ‘will’. God does not appoint eternal life to those who first choose him but the Scriptures say, "...as many as were ordained to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48); "...And THE LORD added to the Church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47). "It was the Lord Who did this. There was no power in man to do it; and the Christian loves to trace all increase of the Church to the grace of God. (God) caused, or inclined them to be joined to the Church....The word ‘church’ properly means those who are called out, and is applied to Christians as being called out, or separated from the world." God’s people are identified by the Scriptures as the ones who have been called out by God, not the ones who have called out to God. Many "Believe in a ‘conditional election’, based, as they suppose, upon foreseen faith and evangelical obedience to its objects. This, of course, destroys election in any intelligible sense of the term, and reduces it to a mere recognition or prophecy that at some future time certain persons will be possessed of these qualities....God is careful to elect only those whom He foresees will elect themselves." If you believe the true God, you have been ordained to believe so by God. It is God’s doing, not yours. Man does not choose nor does he will to choose, but has to be MADE willing by the power of God. The Scripture does not say ‘As many as believed were then ordained to eternal life’ but "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed."

The words choose, choosest, chooseth, choosing and chose appear only a total of 7 times in the whole of the New Testament and in no instance are any of these words used in reference to a man choosing God. This is a highly significant and quite astonishing fact, which doubtless will come as no small surprise to those who believe in man’s free-will decision for Christ. If the doctrine of free will were true, it would be reasonable to suppose that at least one of these words in at least one verse would be speaking about a man choosing God. But there are none! The Lord Jesus Christ never once told anyone to choose Him. He did the choosing and then said, "Follow Me". Now it must be pointed out that these 5 words do appear a total of 87 times in the Old Testament however, as in the New Testament, there is no instance of any of them which speaks of a man choosing God. The only passage from the Old Testament to which a free willer can possibly turn as ‘proof’ to support his belief is the old favorite found in Joshua 24:14-22. In this passage we see Joshua speaking to the chosen people of God, Israel, saying, "Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the Flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the Flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Josh. 24:14,15). Joshua is commanding all the tribes of Israel (see v. 1) to fear the Lord and serve Him and to put away false gods. But if they thought it was evil to serve the Lord, Joshua told them to make choice among the false gods, (either those of their fathers or of the Amorites), as to which they would serve. The people answered, "...God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods....we will serve the Lord" (Josh. 24:16, 21), to which Joshua replied, "...Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve Him..." (Josh. 24:22). It is vital that we not lose sight of the fact that these people were ALREADY the people of God. They were not choosing to become the children of God for God had already chosen them and brought them out of Egypt. They had said "God forbid that we should forsake the Lord", the word forsake in this verse meaning to relinquish or leave. These were the children of Jacob who are referred to in Scripture, not as those who have chosen God, but as those who have been chosen of God: "...ye children of Jacob, His chosen ones" (1 Chron. 16:13 cf. Psa. 105:6). God’s people, both in the Old and New Testaments, are always referred to as His chosen, My chosen or the ones whom He has chosen, etc. (Deut. 14:2; Isa. 43:20, 44:1; Mk. 13:20; Jn. 15:19; Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 2:9). The tribes of Israel had sinned and strayed and been disobedient to God, and all Joshua was saying to them was either serve the false gods or the true God. All these people had done, and all these verses are showing, is that they repented before their God. This whole passage is about repentance by a people who were already God’s people and not about them choosing to become God’s people. All God’s people stray and disobey at times but all repent and return to the Lord, not based on their free will choice of Him, but on their being HIS CHOSEN ONES (see Psa. 80:3,7,19). God will never leave or forsake His people, therefore they will always remain with Him: "For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people" (1 Sam. 12:22). "...I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee....I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me" (Heb. 13:5 & Jer. 32:40). The Scriptures say that God makes covenant with His chosen, not with those who ‘choose’ Him (see Psa. 89:3).

In contrast to the limited use of the words choose, choosest, etc in the New Testament, the single word chosen is used a total of 29 times in the New Testament. Again, not once is it used in reference to man having chosen God. In the Gospel of Matthew it is used 3 times. Once of God choosing Jesus His servant (12:18), and in two passages referring to the many that are called but few actually chosen (20:16; 22;14). The word chosen appears once in the Gospel of Mark. Verse 20 of chapter 13 reads in part "...for the elect’s sake, whom He hath chosen..." Notice here that the Scripture does not say that the elect have chosen God, for how then could they rightly be referred to as the elected ones, but very distinctly it is said that the elect are all the chosen of God. Again, God is the Chooser, for He alone is the One with Free Will, and His people are said to be the chosen or the elect of God. The word chosen appears twice in the Gospel of Luke. Firstly in 10:42 referring to Mary having chosen that good part (listening to Jesus’ words), and in 23:35 where we see the religious rulers deriding Christ, saying that He should save Himself from the cross if He be the Christ, the chosen of God. The word chosen is used four times in the Gospel of John. All are in reference to Jesus having chosen His apostles (6:70; 13:18; 15:16; 15:19. John 15:16 is where Christ specifically points out to His apostles "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you..." "The word here translated ‘chosen’ is that from which is derived the word ‘elect’, and means the same thing." The Book of Acts contains the word chosen a total of seven times. Acts 1:2 refers to the apostles whom Jesus had chosen. In 1:24 it is used of the choice God would make as to who would replace Judas. God speaks to Ananias in 9:15 of Paul being a chosen vessel unto Him. Acts 10:41 tells us that God raised Jesus and showed Him openly, not to all but to those witnesses God had before chosen. Acts 15:22 and 25 speak of men chosen by the apostles to go to Antioch. And Acts 22:14 is where the word chosen is used in reference to Paul being chosen by God to know His will etc. Notice that there is complete and unfathomable silence concerning any man ‘choosing’ God, a silence which cannot and must not be ignored. Further on in the New Testament we see that the word chosen appears once in the Book of Romans and is in reference to Rufus being one "...chosen in the Lord..." (Rom. 16:13). The word chosen appears three times in Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians. Twice appearing in 1:27 in reference to God having chosen the foolish and weak things of the world. It also appears in 1:28 regarding God having chosen things which are despised by the world. Chosen appears once in the second Letter to the Corinthians regarding one chosen by the churches to travel with Paul and others (8:19). In Ephesians it also appears only once. Ephesians 1:4 says, "According as HE HATH CHOSEN US in Him before the foundation of the world..." Paul is here speaking of himself and other believers as ones chosen by God in Christ Jesus before the world began. In light of this single Scripture alone, one would find it impossible to remain in the corner of free willism, for how can anyone be said to have chosen God when it is God Himself Who bears testimony that HE is the One Who has done the choosing, and that BEFORE the very foundation of the world! This is said so as to make clear that election is not based on what a man has done or on what he was foreseen would do, but solely on the grace of God and not on any work of man’s (see Rom. 9:11). Even if man could do the choosing, God has beaten him to it, as it were, and chosen men before any were even created, before the very foundation of the world. Whatever man believes about conversion, it cannot be referred to as his choosing God, for this would imply an ability to do so which contradicts what we have seen the Scriptures say about man’s spiritual state. Choosing, deciding, who will be among the elect of God, the saved who will enjoy an eternity of bliss with the Lord, is purely the domain of God Almighty!! Not only has God made it abundantly clear that HE is the one who does the choosing He has added, so that no one can rightly claim that they have made choice of Him, that His choosing was done BEFORE the very foundation of the world!! This in itself rules out any idea of free will being the determining or deciding factor in a man’s salvation. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 shows that "...God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation..." Again we see God as the one Who does the choosing, from the beginning, and not man. This is to show that man plays no active part in election, in his being elected—that election is in no way based on what man has done, should do, could do or was foreseen would do, but only upon the purpose and will of God: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done (foreseen or otherwise), but according to His mercy He saved us..." (Titus 3:5). Mercy and grace do not come in response to a good and deserving work, because of any redeeming feature, but IN SPITE OF the complete absence of any meritorious act or desire. 2 Timothy 2:4 is where we see the word chosen used in reference to a soldier endeavoring to please the one who has chosen him to be a soldier. James 2:5 talks of God having chosen the poor of this world. Peter in his first Letter speaks of those saved ones as being chosen of God and precious (2:4). And as we have already seen, 1 Peter 2:9 says that the saved are a chosen generation and not a generation of choosers. Finally, Revelation 17:14 speaks of those who are with the Lamb as "...called, and chosen, and faithful." And so we see that in all of the New Testament not a single Scripture is to be found which describes man as choosing God or that any man chose God, chooses God, chooseth or choosest God or any instance where a man has chosen God! In contrast to this, and that which stands as an eternal reminder of just WHO CHOOSES WHOM, is the multiple number of times the Scriptures proclaim the realm of choice as being solely that of God.

Further to our study and in contrast to the words choose, chooseth, choosest, choosing and chose appearing only 7 times in the New Testament, it will no doubt be extremely disconcerting for the free willer to learn that the words elect, elect’s, elected and election appear 27 times in the New Testament. Significantly, all but one are in reference to those who are chosen or elected by God to receive salvation through Jesus Christ. No reason though for the free willer to hold out any hope that perhaps this one verse is in support of his doctrine—the odd one out is merely a reference made to the elect angels (1 Tim. 5:21). Yes, even the angels that are with God are there because God elected them.

The irresistible and undeniable conclusion to our study is that no such thing as a free will choice by man for God exists in the Scriptures, for NEVER ONCE do the Scriptures refer to the saved as those who elected God, or those who have chosen God! They are ALWAYS spoken of as recipients, as those who are the chosen ones elected by God not according to anything they have done or will do, not according to their choice of Him, not according to their having desired or loved Him first, but according to His will. What room would there be for grace in a world where man could, of his own free will, choose God? Where would mercy fit in if a man needed nothing but his own free will to simply come and choose God and accept what He has ‘on offer’? And let not the free willer even begin to think that he chooses God after God has visited him with grace, because if God has made the first move it is of a surety that move, and all that springs from it, has been motivated by His love: "We love Him because He FIRST loved us" (1 Jn. 4:19) and God’s love for His people was the motivating factor in His sending His Son "...to be the propitiation for our (those whom He loved—the beloved, see v.11) sins" (1 Jn. 4:10). Everything to do with a saved man’s affections for God, including his faith, has come because God loved the man FIRST. Seeing that it is without question that God has made the first move, it stands to biblical reason that salvation is solely by Him from the very beginning and that it is by His free will that one comes to God. The saved man is not saved because he believes, but believes because he is saved. No man can come to Me, Jesus said, except—making it explicitly clear that there is no other way—the Father draws him (see Jn. 6:44 cf. Psa. 65:4). This is an unreserved statement on the Lord’s part and is an out and out denial of the existence of any free will in man which can lead him to God. It is God Who comes to a man and if it is by the free will of God that a man is saved, it can be certain that man will be saved for who can resist His will? It is God Who has made the choice and not man. It cannot be argued, as many would have us believe, that we choose God because He chose us or that He chooses us because we chose Him. Many will recall their school days where one was to be chosen from among a group of children for a sporting event. Two children were captains and they made their choice of who they wanted on their team. The children who were to be chosen did not make the choice, only the captains did. How silly would it be to say, ‘The captain chose me and then I chose the captain’! Of great significance is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is called the "...Captain of their (believers) salvation" (Heb. 2:10). The word Captain here means ‘Originator, founder, leader, chief, first’. In Hebrews 12:2 it says, "Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith..." Amazingly, the word for both captain and author in the original Greek is the very same word archegos! Jesus is the initiator, or the source of the faith with which a man believes the true God, and is the completer of salvation. There can only be one instance which can rightly and biblically be described by the word ‘choice’ in the matter of a man’s salvation and that is that the choice was made by God before the foundation of the world, before man was even created. One is either the chooser or the chosen. A man cannot be both. Just as a man cannot cause his physical conception or birth, so too, he cannot in any way be the author, the cause, the originator, the instigator or in any way the catalyst, of his spiritual conception and re-birth. Something which does not exist cannot will itself into existence. God gives spiritual life according to His grace and purpose, according to HIS Free Will, and not according to man’s, for he has none when it comes to the matter of spiritual regeneration. A man can have religious thoughts and desires etc., but he has nothing in him, of his own nature, which can lead him to the true God. Nothing which could be the impetus for any decision for God, no incentive or natural impulse emanating from his sinful nature that would drive him to God. As was discussed earlier, seeing that no man can recommend himself to God or be justified by God because of any work the man does, any ‘good deed’ he has performed (see Gal. 2:16), it is obvious that this rule precludes any idea that a man can choose God, thus drawing His affection and meriting His favor. One cannot overstate the fact that salvation comes when God gives, not after a man does.

It is said by many advocates of the ‘free will decision’ doctrine that those whom God has chosen are the ones He saw, as He gazed into the future, would one day choose Him. This would make salvation something which does not come solely by the grace of God, thus making Him not the only one responsible for salvation and with rightful claim to all the glory for salvation, but something which is offered by God and chosen by man, thus making the success of salvation conditioned or dependant on the act or work of man. According to this line of thought, salvation is not dependant on the will of God but ultimately on the will of man, free from any Godly influence. The saved are the ones "...who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow; He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son..." (Rom. 8:28,29 cf. 1 Cor. 8:3). "In the language of Scripture, something foreknown is not simply that which God was aware of prior to a certain point. Rather, it is presented as that which God gave prior consent to, that which received His favorable or special recognition. Hence, this term is reserved for those matters which God favorably, deliberately and freely chose and ordained....Used of persons, to foreknow with approbation, to foreapprove or make a previous choice of, as special people (Rom. 11:2 cf. 1 Pet. 1:19,20). Foreknowledge and foreordination are logically coordinate. The former emphasizes the exercize of God’s wisdom and intelligence in regard to His eternal purpose and the latter emphasizes the exercise of God’s will in regard to it. What He has decreed is what He has decided." God has predestinated those whom He fore-loved to salvation. God has entrusted a people, whom He chose before the foundation of the world, to His Son. He has done this that His Son should die for them and establish a perfect Righteousness for them. "Nothing outside of God Himself moved or influenced Him to save sinners. It was His love and purpose to glorify Himself that caused Him to save sinners." "There is no place in the Scriptures for an election which is carefully adjusted to the foreseen actions of the creature. The Divine will is never made dependant on the creaturely will for its determinations." Can you begin to see how the doctrine of man’s free will snatches the reins of Sovereignty from the Will of God. It is the Will of God that is the mover of men and no ‘free will’ of man’s. It is God Who changes the hearts of men toward Him and not man on his own (see Prov. 21:1). "...Salvation is of the Lord" (Jon. 2:9) and He does not require man’s help in the matter. As has been established, man is utterly helpless and hopeless in his natural fallen state, so how could man be the initiator or even a contributor in the slightest degree to his own salvation? Man is bound to a floating log, by his sins and sinful nature, that is careering down river towards the waterfall, with no way of releasing himself. This matter of ‘free will’ claims no small part in the ultimate salvation of a man but lays claim to that which instigates his regeneration. God’s hands are tied before and until man’s moment of free will comes and only then may God act, but only with man’s permission. Those who wrest the Scriptures say that "Faith is the sinner’s gift to God; it is man’s contribution to salvation." Man does not act because of the grace of God but, according to the free willer, it is man who makes the initial move, which God patiently awaits, to which God then responds! It is a case of "God can’t unless you will" or "God can’t if you won’t".

Why did God send a Savior if man had a free will strong enough to reach out and choose God? The reason Jesus was sent as Savior to the earth was to do what no man could do: establish a perfect righteousness before God—fully obey the law of God that had been so terribly abused and satisfy the demands of the justice of God by taking His people’s sins and nailing them to His cross. There is no condition for salvation that Christ did not meet. If man could save himself he would not need a Savior. Seeing that a Savior has been provided, it is clear that man does need a Savior so in order to find out if there is anything a man can do or must do to contribute to his own salvation, we need to examine just what the Savior has done. If what He has done to save a man leaves room for that man to contribute to his salvation, or in any way conditions that salvation on the man, then the free willer has a case. However, if what Christ has done to save the elect of God from their sins is complete—leaving nothing to chance by leaving the final decision to man or any part of salvation conditioned on man—and assuring, nay demanding, the salvation of those for whom He died, then the free willer does not have a leg to stand on. If all the glory for salvation belongs to God, then this is a resounding declaration that He has done all that was necessary for the salvation of a man, including the granting of the gift of repentance and the reception of Christ, leaving man as a mere recipient of God’s good grace and mercy. If all the glory for all of salvation belongs to God, then it stands to biblical reason that He is responsible for every part of salvation and that man has done nothing that warrants him a share in that glory. This is made perfectly clear in the following Scripture "In Whom (Christ) also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will: THAT WE SHOULD BE TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY..." (Eph. 1:11,12). "The affirmation here is not merely that God accomplishes the designs of salvation according to the counsel of His own will, but that He does everything ...He has an agency in causing the emotions of our hearts. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13 cf. 1 Cor 12:11)." Scripture declares that Christians are a chosen people that they should show forth the praises of Him Who has called them (see 1 Pet. 2:9) and not boast in anything which they have done: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ..." (Gal. 6:14). The Bible does not call a man’s positive response to the Gospel a ‘choice’, but a case of man being made willing to receive Christ by the will and power of God alone. Man’s receiving is not that which precedes, but is always something which follows God’s making the man willing to receive Him in the day of His power. This is why salvation comes, not by a free will choice of man, but a gift given by the free grace of God. No man can be inclined towards Christ unless God has blessed the man with that inclination, not merely making his receiving Christ a potential thing dependant on man’s free-will decision, but guaranteeing it because of GOD’S purpose and will. God makes the man willing to receive and He is the cause or reason a man can and does approach Him. Really, all this is summed up perfectly by the Lord Himself when He said "No man can come unto Me EXCEPT THE FATHER..." (Jn. 6:44). Christ did not say anything about man’s coming being conditioned on, or something achievable by, anything the man could do. Christ did not say, ‘Except the man does this or that’, or, ‘Except the man meet this condition or that condition’, but the sole condition was that except the Father does something no man can ever come to the Savior. This is not some issue of semantics, but of the clarification and proper meaning of terms. A bottle does not choose its contents. It plays no part in producing what is put into it. So too, man like the bottle is merely a recepticle. And just as with the bottle not being able to do a single solitary thing to remove its cork, man has no part in something as significant as ‘removing the cork’ so as to prepare himself, to make himself receptive and submitted to, that which is about to be given him. It is all done by God. It is not man who prepares himself before he ‘chooses’ God, but God Who prepares man and makes him receptive, willing to receive not able to choose the Savior. We have given much evidence to show that there is nothing inherent in man that can dispose him to choose, or even want to choose, the true God. This act of receiving Christ, of being willing to receive Him, is initiated, instigated, carried out by and is performed, because of God. The saved man is a beneficiary of God’s benefits, not a co-administrator of director of them. All the glory for salvation belongs to God and man has no claims to it. God is responsible for ALL of salvation from beginning to final glory and there is nothing man can say he has done to contribute to any part of salvation. There is no room for a man to boast, for all the glory belongs to God. God is just as much responsible for a man’s willingness to receive Him as he is for the man’s salvation unto glory. Salvation is not some reward granted by God based on a ‘free-will’ decision of man’s but is something that God gives as part of His blessed, benevolent and unmerited favor towards the man.

The whole of christendom virtually chants, as if it were, some mystical mantra: ‘Salvation is by grace, salvation is by grace,’ and yet they do not understand what they are saying when they utter the word grace. Grace is something which cannot be merited and therefore to say that after a man chooses God, the Lord then responds by granting His grace, is ludicrous. Grace is not motivated by a deed of man but by the mercy of God. Grace and mercy, by definition, are things given in light of there being no redeeming feature of, or act by, man which could justify him. If salvation is given freely and solely by the unmerited grace of God—not according to ANYTHING man has done but according to God’s purpose and will—then what the free willer is believing in, whether he knows it or not, is a salvation not based on grace but on works, something given as a deserved wage which the man has earned the right to have and which demands that God supply. If you do something that makes another respond in a certain way, then you are the one who has prompted that person’s action. It has not come by an independent act of volition on their part but as a response to what you have done. Your act has brought on, or caused, an effect. If the free willer is right, it is no longer the Person and Work of Christ, the imputation of His Righteousness and the non-imputation of sin, that demands man’s salvation but something which man has done. Paul the apostle asks,"...who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" (1 Cor. 4:7). "Had not God interfered and made a difference, all would have remained alike under sin. The race (of man) would have together rejected His mercy; and it is only by His distinguishing love that any are brought to believe and be saved." When a person says ‘I chose God’, they are glorying, boasting, in themselves. They are saying it is they themselves, by their choice of Him, that has made them to differ from the one who has not made such a decision. It is not free grace, but free will that is gloried in and seen as that which has made the difference. As we shall see later, NOT EVEN THE ATTRIBUTING OF THIS FREE-WILL DECISION TO GOD’S ENABLING GRACE CAN REDEEM THIS FALSE DOCTRINE. No, my friend, it is God Who makes the difference between saved and lost and not man. GRACE IS GOD, NOT YOU! All that a saved man has he readily, joyfully, admits he has received from God as a gift and not something he went out and chose or earned. The apostle John confirms this when He said, "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven" (Jn. 3:27). Speaking to believers James said, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights..." (Jas. 1:17). In the very next verse James declares: "OF HIS OWN WILL begat He us with the word of truth... (Jas. 1:18 cf. 1 Pet. 1:23). James makes it very clear that salvation is a gift from above that God gives according to His own will, and not man’s ‘free will’. When we combine the words of Paul, "...it is not of him that willeth..." (Rom. 9:16) with those of James, "Of His own will begat He us..." (Jas. 1:18), it is made abundantly clear just whose will is responsible for a man’s salvation. And yet there is still more confirmation for those who remain unconvinced. John says that those who have received Him, who have been given the power, or privilege, to become the sons of God, who believe on His name "...were born, not of blood, NOR OF THE WILL OF THE FLESH, NOR OF THE WILL OF MAN, BUT OF GOD" (Jn. 1:13 cf. 1 Pet. 1:23). Now if these things were reversed, if the Scripture had said ‘Man is not born again by the sovereign will of God but by the free will of man’, there would be no controversy. Such words would not be difficult to understand and comprehend would they? So why, it must be asked, cannot the free willer see that salvation is not of man, it is not of a man’s will, but of the WILL OF GOD, which is what this Scripture is plainly teaching! There is no confusion in the Scriptures of just whose will is responsible for a man’s being born again: NOT OF THE WILL OF MAN BUT OF THE WILL OF GOD! End of argument. There is no controversy in the Scriptures about whose will was involved in the salvation of a man. It is not the Scriptures which create confusion, but the blinded minds of men who can only perceive what their sinful natures allow them to see. The controversy and confusion exists only in the blinded minds of lost men.

Christ came to the earth to save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21).The sins of man demand man’s suffering in hell for all eternity. No man can come to God based on his own efforts at obeying God’s law for in all his efforts man shows that he is a sinner, for his ‘obedience’ is far from perfect. "...a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ...for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified" (Gal. 2:16). Works are something which a man can do but which are unprofitable to him in the sight of God. Man is not saved by what he does or because of anything in him, but by that which is of Christ and freely given. So we see that salvation does not come by the works of man nor by a man’s will. In all man’s ‘obedience’ there is sin. All his attempts at obeying God’s law achieve nothing because the law reveals that none of his obedience is perfect, therefore no man can be said to have truly obeyed the law. The more a man seeks to obey, the more his efforts reveal just how much of a sinner he really is: "...by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20). And so man can never establish a perfect righteousness for himself, which is the only thing that can recommend him to God. The fact that man is an unrighteous creature is inextricably linked with the fact that there is no man that seeks, or desires, God. Man’s failure to seek God, coupled with his unrighteousness, reveals a heart that is so hardened against God that the last thing anyone in their right mind could ever conclude about man is that he could one day come of his own ‘free will’, of all things, and choose God. Even if there was such a condition of salvation, that a man must choose God, no one with any sense would predicate such a choice as coming from the ‘free will’ of man. Man has no free will other than to choose SIN, SIN, SIN over and over and over again!! It may not appear as sin in man’s eyes but it most definitely does in God’s eyes. No matter how zealous for good works a man may be, no matter how religious he is, none can be justified by what they do "...for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified" (Psa. 143:2). The Psalmist says, "If, Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand" (Psa. 130:3). "We cannot justify ourselves before God, or plead ‘not guilty’. If God deal with us in strict justice, we are undone." "It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed..." (Lam. 3:22). It is not man’s good deeds or ‘free will’ choice of God that preserves man and keeps him free of the wrath of God, but solely by God’s mercy is a man made acceptable: "And BY HIM all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:39 cf. Isa. 53:11). "Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him" (Rom. 5:9). Now let not any accuse us of saying that man cannot choose to do good instead of evil; That he cannot choose to restrain his temper instead of letting someone feel the full brunt of it; that he cannot choose to help his fellow man rather than decide to ignore his cries for help; that he cannot choose to drink lemonade rather than get drunk on beer. Of course man has the ability to choose one thing over another but in his rotten sinful state he cannot in and of himself, according to the Bible, go against his sinful nature—his state of spiritual deadness—and choose God: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil" (Jer. 13:23). Man does not seek God, because he is dead to God. He does not understand Him, he does not know Him and he does not want Him, so how could he ever choose Him? Man is spiritually dead to God and therefore has no ability, no capacity, no propensity, nothing in him which can generate a love for God or which can cause him to lean towards God and make a free-will decision for Him completely of his own power. The Scriptures verify this. In sharp contrast to the false doctrine which claims a man can choose God, man, in his natural fallen state, is said by the Scriptures to be one who constantly and continually ‘chooses’ NOT to seek God. This is obvious, for God says there are none who seek Him. This means that at any given moment, be it the past, present or future, NONE have, do, or will seek God! Man, in accordance with his sinful character, remains consistent in his failure to seek or desire the true God. No serious Bible student can deny this and so all that is left is the lonely little notion that man’s positive response to God is not the fruit of God’s grace towards the man but the outcome of man’s free-will decision to choose God. There is nothing in Scripture to base this on and thus no sanction for a single soul to believe it. It is all part of a false gospel which promotes a false god who cannot save. Truth is the first casualty of a false gospel and people’s souls being forever lost in the flames of hell is the end result.

Christ came and obeyed the law perfectly, having not been born of the seed of man but by the Holy Ghost. Christ was free of sin, perfect God in the form of a perfect Man and in His obedience there was no sin present, no imperfection. He wholly succeeded in what He set out to do. Incorporated into Christ’s obedience unto death to establish perfect righteousness, was His payment for every sin of every one He died for, so that God’s Justice is now satisfied and there is no need for any punishment to be inflicted on those people for whom Christ died and on whose behalf He endured God’s wrath towards their sin. Their sins have been charged to Christ and His Righteousness charged to their account (see 2 Cor. 5:21). Before God, all for whom Christ died stand perfect forever: "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth" (Rom. 8:33). Now please tell me where does man fit into all this? The square peg of man’s supposed free will simply will not fit the round hole of God’s method of salvation. In light of all the evidence to the contrary how, it may be asked, ‘can salvation be conditioned on man?’ What is it that man must do, and therefore can do, that Christ has not done or failed to do? God has elected to set His love upon certain individuals chosen before time began. They have all been predestinated to be called and justified by grace through Christ (Rom. 8:30), and upon nothing of their own doing; Righteousness has been established for them; Justice has been satisfied on their behalf; and because of what has been done for them, not to mention the fact that God has chosen them not to receive His wrath but for the purpose of being saved, they will all receive Christ the Savior. Not because of their choice but because they are His sheep; not from anything which originates within them but because of the grace of God, the mercy of God and the Spirit of God enlightening each and every one: "...of HIM are ye in Christ Jesus..." (1 Cor. 1:30). Each one is regenerated, not of anything inherent in them but by the Holy Spirit of God. All the glory for salvation belongs to God. The ‘motor’ of spiritual life is not kick-started by man, for by nature he has no idea where the Key is to engage the motor. As a matter of fact, man by nature thinks his spiritual motor is fine and running smoothly! The regeneration of man begins with, and is maintained solely by, the will of God. Notice that everything we are saying points to God and is giving Him all the glory for every bit of salvation, leaving absolutely no room for a man to lay claim and boast of his part in salvation. THE TRUE GOSPEL BELIEVER BELIEVES ALL OF SALVATION IS ALL BY GRACE—ALL BY GOD. There is no room in the Gospel which comes from God for a man to boast of any initiating act, contributing work or deed of cooperation upon which his salvation is dependant. However, as with all man-made gospels, including the one which teaches the free will of man, there is always room for a man to boast which is why they are so popular, for they all appeal to man’s fallen nature. Thus, they are concluded to be false gospels which cannot save. With all his religious zeal, a false gospel is the only gospel a man, by nature, can come up with or reach out for. The false gospel of man’s free will is just as much a figment of man’s imagination as any other false and deceptive gospel. These gospels are the only ones which make any sense to the natural mind of man, hence their popularity and allegiance to them. The word boast as used in Ephesians 2:9 means ‘glory’ ‘joy’ or ‘rejoice’. This verse informs us: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8,9). There is nothing for man to boast in, to rejoice in as having originated from him, when it comes to the matter of salvation. It is purely an act of grace which is received through a faith which does not even come from man but is a gift given by God, not as a reward, not as some wage, not in response to something which man has done, but as a free will gift of God. Man comes to God because of, and in the day of, God’s power and by reason of God’s will. There is nothing that man must do, believe, repent, etc., that is not given to him as a gift. A man must believe, a man must repent, but these are both gifts given from above and not things which a man can work himself up to and choose to do or pluck from the quiver of his own righteousness. Nothing can be, or needs to be, added to that which is already completed. God’s plan of salvation is a perfect plan. It is a plan which does not depend on man’s ‘free will decision’ to take part in it, for THIS PLAN WAS FORMED IN LIGHT OF THE FACT THAT NO MAN WOULD SEEK GOD OR COULD SEEK GOD!! The whole plan for a salvation by grace and mercy was necessitated and formed to give God all the glory and leave no room for man to boast in anything he has done or was enabled to do. The entire plan for salvation had to be by grace, for there was no other viable ‘option’. God had to receive all the glory and so salvation had to be all of God. If salvation was possible with man, then the glory for it would have been all man’s or shared between God and man. But as salvation is impossible with man via works, it can only be made possible by God through His grace, thereby God is the only one responsible for it and to whom ALL the glory rightly belongs (see Isa. 42:8). Those who promote free will do boast in what they have done. They are always saying ‘I have chosen Christ’, or ‘I have accepted Christ’, or ‘I have made Christ my Lord and Savior’. Now they may say that they praise God for their ‘choice’, comforting and assuring themselves that they are giving all the glory to God because they are praising Him for what they have done, but the reality of the situation is that such people glory in themselves, they exalt themselves and not God. Just as the bottle played no part in producing its contents, so too, the saved man has played no part in producing the saving faith that is now in him solely because of the grace of God. What’s more, the saved man does not wish to claim any work on his part that has contributed to his salvation. The truly saved man gives all the glory to God for having saved him, for he knows that he in no way played any part in attracting God’s grace or influencing His choice of him.

The following illustration shows just how subtle this shifting of the glory for salvation is. However fine the line between saved and lost may be, it is clear, distinct and well defined by Scriptures such as these: "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I THANK THEE, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I FAST twice in the week, I GIVE tithes of all that I possess.’ And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful unto me a sinner’. I tell you THIS man went down to His house justifed rather than the other: for everyone that EXALTETH HIMSELF shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Lk. 18:11-13). Notice here that the Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other men. He then proceeded to boast, just as the free willer boasts in his ‘decision for Christ’, of what he did, obviously believing, in light of his attitude towards the publican, that his acts of obedience in some way contributed to his gaining God’s favor, even though he believed he was attributing all the good he did, not to himself, but to God. The publican, however, did not mention even one ‘good’ deed that he had done. He brought none of his righteousnesses with him, which is the case with every truly saved person (see Phil. 3:9), but humbly asked for God’s mercy, providing evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work upon him. He was not seeking or expecting to be justified by any of his own works, whether he attributed them to God or not. The publican, along with every truly saved man, shares the same mindset as the apostle Paul: "...God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ..." (Gal. 6:14). The publican did not expect his works to make the difference between Heaven and Hell, nor did he look to anything he did, but only to God and His Mercy. To humble oneself is not a condition a man must meet in order to come to God, but is an evidence of God coming to the man. It is not man’s free choice for God that makes the difference between heaven and hell but God’s free will choice of man. Christ said this man, the Publican, rather than the Pharisee, was justifed. The word justified in this passage means ‘to render (i.e. show or regard as) just or innocent, free, be righteous’. Notice also that Christ referred to the Pharisee, who attributed his good deeds to God, as one who did not merely have things wrong and just needed a little correcting, but as one who exalted himself. If a man does not believe the Gospel wherein is revealed the righteousness of Christ, he shows by his ignorance that he seeks to establish a righteousness of his own (see Rom. 10). So too, the man who believes that anything he has done is that which makes the difference between saved and lost, even though he praises God for it, exalts himself and not God, and remains in an unjustified state. God never overlooks the error that leavens the whole lump (see Gal 5:9). The truly saved man does not say ‘Come and see what God has enabled me to do for my soul’ but "...I will declare what HE HAS DONE for my soul" (Psa. 66:16). Be not deceived. Those who adhere to the doctrine of free will, that a man must make a free-will decision for Christ before he can be saved, conditions salvation not on God’s election of grace and Christ’s atonement for sin, but on a work or act of man. Man must make his decision for Christ before salvation can be given to him rather than man’s receiving Christ being something which is the result or fruit of salvation by grace being granted a man by God’s love-motivated election of him. The free willer who insists he does not take any of the glory for salvation away from Christ because he attributes his positive decision for Christ to God’s enabling power, has been taught a lie. He is exalting himself, and not God, according to the Scriptures. Notice also in our passage just how many times the Pharisee used the word ‘I’. He said it 5 times whereas the publican made no mention of himself other than for God to be merciful to him. Notice how there is no cause to believe the publican was in any way boasting by his request, but plenty of reason to believe that the Pharisee was boasting. The free willer is in the same boat as the Pharisee. He exalts not God but himself, for he is constantly drawing attention to what he has done rather than only seeking to draw the listener’s attention to God and what He does. ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’, is all they say: ‘I chose Him, I love Him, I accepted Him, I sought Him, I found Him, I came to Him, I, I, I....’ The true believer says ‘God has elected me, He chose me, He has visited me with His glorious grace, His Son died for me, His righteousness was imputed to me, He took away my sins, He was merciful to me, He gave me the gift of faith, He caused me to repent and approach Him, He, He, He...’ I am sure the reader can see the difference between the two. One exalts himself while the other humbles himself and is justified. The free willer’s gospel teaches a salvation by works, for it allows room for a man to boast in his salvation even though, to his mind, he denies this by attributing his obedience, in the form of his free will decision for Christ, to God. Such people are LOST. In this we see that boasting is not excluded by a gospel which teaches that salvation is conditioned on a man’s works, or hinges on a man’s free will decision, but it is only ever excluded by THE Gospel Message which teaches that salvation is by grace through faith in the Person and Works of Christ Jesus the Lord, attributing all of salvation to Him and conditioning no part of it on man. Grace does not enable a man to believe, but provides, as a gift, the only faith which can and does believe the Gospel. Only THIS Gospel leaves no room for a man to boast; only THIS Gospel saves. Faith in this Gospel alone humbles the believer, excluding all boasting, for it conditions all of salvation on Christ. (see Rom. 3:24-28).

What can man boast of? Most free willer’s say that God visits people with His grace, presents the Gospel to them and they then make their choice whether to accept God or not. Some free willer’s say that man’s choice is made even before God’s grace appears on the scene. All free willer’s say that God has sent Christ His Son to die for everyone and now, having done all they can, the Father and His Son Jesus sit and wait in hope that someone will choose to accept them and what they have done! God is awaiting man’s decision about His ‘offer’, according to the free willer. The choice, it is said, is completely up to man. He is free to choose for God or against God. Some go so far as to say that God has cast his vote for man, Satan has cast his vote against man and now man has the deciding vote as to where he will spend eternity. What kind of a God is this whose vote carries with it no more weight, or influence, than that of Satan or even man’s! This is the Sovereign King of the universe? God will not influence man either way but just makes His ‘offer’ and hopes for the best. God cannot influence man. In fact, they say God is a gentleman and would never go against the will of man, He would never try and influence a man’s will one way or the other. My friend, YOU HAD BETTER HOPE THAT GOD INTERFERES IN YOUR LIFE AND SAVES YOU FOR IT IS ONLY BY GOD’S WILL THAT A MAN IS BEGOTTEN OF GOD!! "Of HIS OWN WILL begat He us..." (Jas. 1:18). The doctrine of free willism makes man the sovereign over his own destiny and turns God into a helpless onlooker. Man being left with the ultimate decision that will determine his fate is something which is akin to Satan’s lie to Eve rather than to anything God has taught. If you believe in the free will of man then you cannot believe in the Sovereignty of God. If you believe in the free will of man then you cannot believe in the free grace of God. You cannot believe that it is God’s grace alone that makes the difference between saved and lost. You cannot believe that God has the free will to choose those He wants saved, when you believe that every individual man has the exclusive right and ability to make this choice by his free will either for God or against God. Just as salvation is either by God’s grace or your works (see Rom. 11:6), so too, it is either by God’s will or your will. God’s grace is not subordinate to man’s will and God’s will is not subservient to a man’s works. Salvation is not conditioned on a man’s works but on God’s will. The Sovereign God has rule over everyone and everything and His will is not subject to anyone else’s will, but only to His own purpose and glory. He has mercy on those He has chosen to be merciful to and has no mercy for those whom He has not chosen. The doctrine of free willism changes man from being a creature without hope into one with such power and authority that it can determine its own fate, whilst turning the Almighty God into the one who has no hope of saving anyone by His will.

A serious ramification of the false doctrine of man’s free will and its sister teaching, universal atonement, is the corruption of the saving work of Christ on the cross, emptying it of its true worth and supplanting it with a lie. The whole essence of atonement is ripped apart and replaced by a corrupt version. This counterfeit atonement, along with all others, makes Christ’s death no longer about His dying for the sins of His elect—all whom God had given Him—His shed blood no longer that which ensures that the penalty for sin is paid and that no one for whom that precious blood was shed will spend a single moment in hell, but rather His death is turned into something which was done on behalf of all men, every individual ever born! The success of this atoning death rests, not on the blood of Christ which was shed for sin, but on man’s decision to accept or reject what Christ has done, Who, like the Father, can only sit and hope that people will not reject what He has done for them. The Scriptures know absolutely nothing of such a system of ‘salvation’. From the sacrificial types of the Old Testament to the teachings of the New Testament on the eternal redemption accomplished by the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:12), nothing of this type can be seen. This author has written several booklets which go deep into detail concerning the death of Christ and whom that death was for and are readily available upon request, so we shall not go into this in any great detail here. Suffice it to say, the Old Testament sacrificial system was ordered by the Lord (see Lev. 16). The annual sacrifices of the high priest were ordered by God to be performed, not for every individual in the world, the success of which being determined by their individual choice to accept what was done on their behalf, but they were ordered to be done only on the behalf of God’s temporal people, Israel. The success of the high priest’s annual sacrifice was dependant on its being performed to the specifications and directions given by God and upon HIS acceptance of them. These Old Testament sacrifices were merely a type of what the Messiah would do for His people. "By the typical system, God was not only educating His people for the ‘good things to come’, but was also preparing human language to be a fit medium for the revelation of His grace in Christ. It is to the types we must turn if we would define aright the sacrificial terms of the New Testament....the doctrinal statements of the Epistles are frequently couched in the language of the types, and can only be rightly interpreted in the light which they furnish." Christ was to sacrifice His very life on the behalf of all those whom God chose to give unto Him and not for every individual or even those who ‘would’ choose Him: "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to AS MANY AS THOU HAST GIVEN HIM" (Jn. 17:2 cf. Matt. 11:27). Again, the success of this sacrifice, just like that of the Old Testament high priest, depended on God’s acceptance of it. After all, it was God to Whom the sacrifice was being made. It was to God that Jesus Christ offered Himself, God accepting what Christ had done solely on the basis that His effort was in direct accord with God’s will, and that Christ’s sacrifice was perfect, meeting every demand that God’s justice and law decreed needed to be met in order for a man to be saved. Also, when turning to the Old Testament to learn about Christ’s sacrificial death, we see that the sacrifice which God directed the high priest to make, which was a type of what Christ would do, was a substitutionary sacrifice. The success of this sacrifice did not depend on its acceptance by those for whom it was made, but was wholly dependant on God’s accepting it. CHRIST’S SACRIFICE WAS OFFERED TO GOD, NOT MAN (Heb. 9:14). It was offered to God on the behalf of those whom God had ALREADY chosen, therefore its effectiveness was not dependant on a man’s free-will decision to accept it but on Christ and His sacrifice and the One to Whom it was made. Writing to believers, Paul said "...Christ...hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice TO GOD for a sweet smelling savour" (Eph. 5:2 cf. Gen. 8:20,21). Again, like the Old Testament sacrifices, Christ’s sacrifice was not for every individual in the world but solely for those whom God had elected and in turn had given to Christ to perform sacrifice for. Christ so loved the Church that He gave Himself exclusively for it: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it" (Eph. 5:25; see also Acts 20:28) The Church, of course, is Christ’s Bride made up of all God’s elect, or called out ones. Jesus states: "I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep....I lay down My life for the sheep" (Jn. 10:11,15). In writing to a fellow believer, Paul the apostle spoke of the Savior "Who gave Himself for US, that He might redeem US from ALL iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar (special, one’s own) people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14). In illustrating the love of God for His people, the apostle John, writing to Christians, said: "...He laid down His life for US..." (1 Jn. 3:16). And Paul the apostle, speaking to Christians, said: "Christ hath redeemed US from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us..." (Gal. 3:13), thus eternally linking Christ’s death with guaranteed redemption for all those for whom He died. The effectiveness of Christ’s sacrifice depends, not on a man’s choice to receive it, but on the sacrifice itself being performed to exact specifications. As Christ’s sacrifice was a substitutionary sacrifice, this meant that "...by means of (Christ’s) death...they which are called (those for whom He died) (will) receive the promise of eternal inheritance" (Heb. 9:15). Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, ensuring the Father’s acceptance of what the Son had offered and purging from dead works the consciences of all those for whom He died (see Heb. 9:14). Christ did what He did on the behalf of all those whom God had predestined to receive His grace and He accomplished all that He set out to do for them, thus making certain their reception of His work for them—not by their free will choice but by the grace of God, by His free will, that they, in time, be saved.

One of the questions the person who believes in free will often asks in light of his claim that election is unfair is: ‘If God does the choosing then why didn’t He choose everyone?’ Such a question is rather foolish and comes from a less than astute mind, for in asking it one shows that one has missed the point entirely: if God has done something, is it not right that He has done it and has He not the right to have done it? If we play the Devil’s advocate for a moment we may well ask, ‘What right has God to choose any man for the purposes of salvation for they are all sinners, none are righteous and there are none who seek or desire God?’ Who is man anyway that he should turn and shake a fist at God and complain that He has not done what the mind of natural fallen man is convinced would have been the fair thing for Him to have done. ‘Why hasn’t God chosen everyone, or at least more than would be lost?’ is another favorite ‘argument’ put forth by the free willer. Does not God, as Absolute Sovereign, have the right to do as He wills? And who amongst us would dare accuse God of doing anything which is unfair or unjust? If the reader supposes that I am arguing incorrectly here, that I am simply making a presumption based on a false interpretation of the Scriptures, and thereby justifying my belief that God has sovereignly elected some to salvation, and trying to prove this by assuming that God has done it, placing it under the banner that anything God does is just and right, therefore concluding that election must be right, will no doubt be surprised that my argument, far from being incorrect, is sourced from the Scriptures themselves.

Romans 9 is a chapter in the Bible which has been known to be completely ignored by some Arminian (free will) ministers as they ‘work their way through’ the book of Romans each Sunday morning. And after reading its contents, there is little wonder. The doctrine of sovereign election is so foreign to the mind of man and he is so at enmity with it, he even resists it when it is seen clearly in the Scriptures themselves. He ignores it and acts in denial of it. As is so often the case, when man has no answer for that which he does not want to see and believe, he simply either ignores or fashions it so as to make it fit with his own pre-conceived ideas. They come up with a theory that they are happy to believe and blend their interpretations with truths they are willing to accept, thereby producing a hybrid truth acceptable to their oh so delicate spiritual palates. An interesting aside to this is the fact that no one, apart from three ancient and heretical sects — the Ebionites, the Encratites and Cerinthians, believed that the Book of Romans was uninspired. Whilst not denying it was written by the apostle Paul, these three groups "...rejected it because they could not make its doctrines harmonize with their views of other parts of the Scriptures." Let those of us who wish not to emulate such an appalling God-dishonoring mind-set, turn now to Romans 9 and see for ourselves exactly what it tells us. Speaking of Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac and Rebecca, Paul the apostle states: "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, THAT THE PURPOSE OF GOD ACCORDING TO ELECTION MIGHT STAND, not of works but of Him that calleth; It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Rom. 9:11-13). What a passage to confound the free willer! No wonder the Arminian minister prefers to conveniently shy away from this chapter in Romans and hide these things from his listeners. These verses show clearly that God made choice between Jacob and Esau before they were even born! God made choice between them as to which He would love and which He would hate. This was done, the Scriptures say, so that the purpose of God according to election might stand, an election which obviously could not have been based on any deeds, actual or foreseen, good or bad, that man had done or would do. The saved are those who are elected by grace through faith, not by anything they have done, that none should boast. The good works they do were appointed, or prepared, for them to do and they were not elected because of any good works they were foreseen would do: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). Notice the saved are created in Christ Jesus UNTO good works not because of good works. GRACE, BY DEFINITION, RULES OUT ANY WORKS, FORESEEN OR ACTUAL!! The need for a salvation by grace cancels out a salvation made possible by, or conditioned on, anything a man can do. This choice, between Jacob and Esau, was not made because of their foreseen works, either good or bad, but of God that calleth according to His grace and the purpose of His will. This passage demonstrates that God’s election is not based on anything a man does, including a man’s choosing God, because it is made clear that God has chosen to love those He will love and hate those He will hate before their birth and solely according to His mercy—solely of Him, not of works. God’s election of a man is not based on anything a man has done but on mercy and grace, which are evidently given to show that there is nothing in a man or anything he can do which can recommend him to God. Salvation is based on all that God has done and upon nothing man has done. Salvation is not according to the deeds of man, but the will of God to be gracious and merciful. How much clearer could God have demonstrated what His election of grace is based on? Significantly, grace is always contrasted with works in the Bible, in other words, what God has done and what man has done. Salvation is either by the grace of God—something He does—or it comes by the decision of man—something he does. Scripture says that "...election (is) of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace..." (Rom. 11:5,6). A perfect example of those who strive for salvation by their works, or who think they can gain it by some free will effort on their part, is shown in Romans 11 particularly verse 7: "...Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded". Paul bore witness that Israel had a zeal for God but not according to knowledge which is why, in this ignorant state, the Jews sought, and believed there was a need, for them to establish a righteousness of their own instead of submitting themselves to Christ’s righteousness which alone saves (see Rom. 10:1-4). The fact that salvation is purely by grace and not obtainable by any strivings on man’s part is plainly shown in the following verse: "...I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me" (Rom. 10:20 cf. Isa. 65:1). If salvation is by something God has done it cannot in any way, shape or form be something which comes by, after or as a result of (which would make it dependant upon) something man must do or has done. Again, if salvation is based on good works foreseen, then it is a salvation conditioned on man. Such a lie is only taught in a gospel based on works and not grace. IF IT IS NOT ALL GRACE, ITS NOT ALL GOD, and, IF IT IS NOT ALL GOD, THEN SALVATION CANNOT BE ALL BY GRACE. Either way you look at it, if any part of salvation is conditioned on man it becomes something which is by works and not grace, even if the work is attributed to the grace of God.

Notice in this next verse from Romans 9 that the apostle anticipates the response which immediately besets the mind of natural man upon hearing that election is based on the Sovereign will and grace of God: "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid" (Rom. 9:14). Is this not precisely the same response to the biblical doctrine of election that we hear from every adherent to the false doctrine of free will? ‘Its just not fair! God would be unjust to choose some and not allow everyone to have a free choice in the matter of accepting Him or not. The doctrine of election is evil because it sends to hell many who wanted to go to heaven but had no choice in the matter because they were not chosen of God’. How can the doctrine of election based on the free will of God be unfair when we have seen that the Scriptures state clearly that, if left to himself, NO man would, or could, EVER choose God!! It has been clearly and Scripturally established that no man seeks God, therefore how can any man choose that which he does not seek! Salvation is not about fairness or unfairness, its about the mercy and grace of God saving such a sinful wretch as man. Its about what is right. There is nothing unfair about it, for God is a Just God and all He does—WHETHER WE BELIEVE IT OR NOT—IS JUST AND RIGHT AND FAIR according to His grace, mercy, purpose and will. Scripture speaks of election in terms of mercy, grace and the will and purpose of God and is therefore just and proper. It does not go against the grain of God’s Holiness, but is a product of it. So we see that the accusation of unfairness is really a smokescreen, which atempts to hide the glory of God’s mercy and grace in electing some to salvation based on His will. But if the reader insists on hanging his hat on the word unfair, this author is glad to talk about what is unfair. What is unfair is that man has disobeyed the Holy God. Sin is such a horrific thing that there are barely the words to describe the evil which man has perpetrated upon God. What is unfair is that man has sinned horribly against a Holy God Who had done nothing but love man. Man has sinned appallingly against God, having counted His love as a deception which restricted man rather than being his sole source of blessing and protection. Man’s decision to disobey God is what has brought him physical death and of even greater significance, spiritual death, separating him eternally from God. HOW MAN HAS TREATED GOD IS WHAT IS UNFAIR! It is utterly abhorrent, a disgrace. God ‘responds’, not by allowing every man to go on his way to hell—which He would have been perfectly justified in doing—not by abandoning His creation as they rightly deserved, but by electing some of these dead, ungodly and undeserving sinners to salvation despite their anti-God natures and based on nothing whatsoever of their own doing, no redeeming feature of theirs, but based on His love shown in the glorious Person and redeeming Work of His dear Son Jesus. This is real love and there is nothing unfair about it! It is not love which is based on the proviso: ‘you do this and then I will love you’. It is based on commitment and devotion, come what may! Salvation is conditioned on God’s love-motivated choice, not man’s free-will decision. In writing to the believers at Rome, Paul showed the wondrousness of God’s love: "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). The Sovereignty of His choice is made clear by this Scripture. "Here we see that His love was not extended towards His elect because they were good, but in spite of the fact that they were bad." Free will is founded on the arrogant assumption on the part of unregenerate man that he can actually do something which can recommend himself to God, or is necessary in assisting God in completing His salvation plan. Far from being a virtue, it is the height of human arrogance and presumption to think that man can do anything to get saved, to find favor in the eyes of God. Equally arrogant is the thought that man, once ‘saved’, can do anything to keep himself saved or get himself unsaved. There is no room for the True Christ of the Gospel in such thoughts and beliefs, for they do away with the sufficiency, finality and eternality of what Christ has done. "Is there unrighteousness with God?" Paul asks. Is it an act of unrighteousness for God to choose one man over another even before either man is born and has done any good or evil? Now let not the free willer be mistaken here about exactly what is being asked. Paul is asking, in direct relation to the very doctrine of election which is based on the Sovereign will of God (which the free willer is vehemently opposed to), ‘Is God unfair, even worse, is He unrighteous in choosing some based on grace and mercy alone before any good or evil works have been done?’ This question is one which is aimed directly at the very heart of election based purely on grace, so it is vital that we continue on in this chapter of Romans to see what God says on the matter. The claim that election ‘Is just not fair’, is directly answered by the Word of God. There is no need for this matter to be argued by men with their opinions, for we can simply go to the Bible itself, not for man’s answer, but GOD’S ANSWER!

Paul’s inspired answer shows that far from being unjust, wrong or unfair, the doctrine of election is "Explicitly taught in the Old Testament and is founded on the principles of equity, and on just views of the Sovereignty of God." "For He (God) saith to Moses, ‘I WILL have mercy on whom I WILL have mercy, and I WILL have compassion on whom I WILL have compassion’" (Rom. 9:15). These words of the Sovereign God were spoken originally to Moses in Exodus 33:19 where, in response to Moses’ desire to see God’s glory (v. 18), God said: "...I will make all MY GOODNESS pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; AND WILL BE GRACIOUS TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS, AND WILL SHOW MERCY ON WHOM I WILL SHOW MERCY" (Ex. 33:19 cf. Ezek. 18:4). Interesting to note how it is God’s Absolute Sovereign will that dictates to whom He will be gracious and whom He will not, which is seen as an evil concept by the free willer, but which the Scriptures reveal is directly related to His Goodness. "All God’s reasons of mercy are taken from within Himself....Therefore God’s mercy endures forever, because the reason of it is fetched from within Himself." God’s mercy and goodness are based on His will—that which comes from within Him—because these things could not be based on our will, for none of us seek God by nature, or our deeds, by which no man can be justified. God’s declaration in Exodus 33:19 that He will show mercy to whom He will show mercy is "...regarded not as proof of stern and inexorable justice, but as THE VERY PROOF OF HIS BENEVOLENCE, and the highest which He thought proper to exhibit. When men, therefore, under the influence of an unrenewed and hostile heart, charge this as an unjust and arbitrary proceeding they are resisting and perverting that which God regards as the very demonstration of His benevolence. The sense of the passage clearly is, that He would choose the objects of His favor, and bestow His mercies as He chose." There was no other basis upon which they could be distributed. "None of the human race deserved His favor; and He had a right to pardon whom He pleased, and to save men on His own terms, and according to His sovereign will and pleasure." So there is no mistaking the reason why Paul has included these verses in his answer to the allegation that God would be unrighteous in choosing those whom He loved before they were even born, and his conclusion to all this is seen in the very next verse: "So then, it (salvation) is NOT OF HIM THAT WILLETH nor of him that runneth, but OF GOD THAT SHEWETH MERCY" (Rom. 9:16). Salvation is of God Who shows mercy! In other words, salvation is of God and comes as a result of His mercy, not a man’s decision. "(Salvation) is not to be ascribed to the most generous desire, nor to the most industrious endeavor of man, but only and purely to the free grace and mercy of God." God says in His Word that salvation, in particular election unto salvation, is not according to a man’s ‘will to be saved’. Election is not based on, and salvation is not gained by, a man’s will to do anything. Neither man’s will nor his efforts can be said to in any way attract, induce, cause or bring about, his election. The sole catalyst for election, according to the Scriptures, is the mercy of God and the fact is that He shows that mercy on whomsoever HE WILLS. People say that sovereign election is not conducive to a level playing field for not all can come, but only those who have been chosen. My friend, THERE WOULD NOT EVEN BE A PLAYING FIELD WERE IT NOT FOR THE MERCY OF GOD in His electing some to salvation!! Central to the free willer’s argument is the popular phrase ‘whomsoever will may come’ (derived from Revelation 22:17), but who wills to come? There are none who seek God, so how can any by nature will to come to God? Let every free willer hear the following words of the Lord of Election: "All that the Father giveth Me SHALL COME TO ME; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (Jn. 6:37). All whom the Father has elected and given unto Jesus will come to Him believing His Gospel which reveals the only way to salvation. None can come to the true God by a counterfeit christ (see Jn. 14:6). The reader may be assured that all who do come are all those whom the Father has given to the Son and whom the Son, in turn, will not cast out. Jesus says, "NONE can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him..." (Jn. 6:44). In other words, no man can will to come before the Father causes the man to come. If God had not elected some to come no man would have ever come to Him. IT IS WHOMSOEVER GOD WILLS TO COME THAT WILL COME, FOR NO OTHER CAN COME. "(God) has regard to a definite number; and on that number He intends to bestow eternal life; and no one has a right to complain. It is proof of His benevolence that any are saved; and where none have a claim, where all are justly condemned, He has a right to pardon whom He wills." Salvation is not the result of a man’s will, nor is it the result of a man’s strenuous, intense efforts, his works and ‘good’ deeds. Election unto salvation is solely of God Who shows mercy, not to all, but exclusively to those HE CHOOSES and has willed to be merciful towards. Argue all you like free willer. Rant and rave all you care to, you can never change these Scriptures. You can never change Who God is and what God is like. "...before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no Savior....That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside Me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things" (Isa. 45:6,7). "...There is no God else beside Me; a Just God and a Savior; there is none beside Me....I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me...MY Counsel shall stand, and I WILL DO ALL MY PLEASURE" (Isa. 43:10,11; 45:21; 46:9,10).

The effect of the influence of God’s Spirit on the heart is to make His people, those chosen before the foundation of the world before they had done any good or evil, willing in the day of His power: "Thy people SHALL be willing in the day of Thy power..." (Psa. 110:3). "Eternal life is not bestowed because man had any original willingness or disposition to be saved, it is not because he commences the work, and is himself disposed to it; but it is because God inclines him to it..." Man is not pardoned because of anything he has done but solely because of the will of God, because God chooses to pardon him based on His will. "The sinner, however anxious he may be, and however much or long he may strive, does not bring God under an obligation to pardon him, any more than the condemned criminal, trembling with the fear of execution, and the consciousness of crime, lays the judge or the jury under an obligation to acquit him. Weep and strive he may, but in this there is no ground of claim on God for pardon; and, after all, he is dependant on His mere sovereign mercy, as a lost ruined, and helpless sinner, to be saved or lost at His will. Salvation, in its beginning, its progress, and its close, is OF HIM. "...GOD HAS CHOSEN the foolish things of the world to confound the wise...THAT NO FLESH SHOULD GLORY IN HIS PRESENCE. But OF HIM are ye in Christ Jesus..." (1 Cor. 1:27,29,30 cf. 2 Cor. 1:21,22). He has a right, therefore, to bestow it when and where He pleases. All our mercies flow from His mere love and compassion, and not from our deserts. The essential idea here is, that God is the original Fountain of ALL the blessings of salvation."

After reiterating that God will have "...mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth (Rom. 9:18), Paul again anticipates the response, which he no doubt often received from many of those who were in a lost state who protested after hearing his preaching on God’s sovereignty and election by grace: "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will? (Rom. 9:19). "Why does He blame men, since their conduct is in accordance with His purpose, and since He bestows mercy according to His Sovereign will?" On the surface this would seem to be a pretty fair comment on the doctrine that teaches that salvation is not based on what a person does but solely on God’s will. How can God still find fault with a man whom He has not chosen to be willing in the day of His power, for how can any man resist the will of God. ‘If God has not chosen a man to be saved, what fault then is it of the man who never calls on God and continues on in his sin? He never had a chance to repent because God chose not to have mercy on him.’ Is this not the crux of the free willer’s argument against sovereign election. Is this not the cornerstone to his statement that ‘Election is just not fair’. Of course it is. It is important to note that this is not an objection that has arisen in our day to some new doctrine which has come from the minds of hyper-calvinist extremists, but has existed in all ages and is not neglected in the Scriptures, but raised and dealt with under God’s direction because it is HIS doctrine against which people murmur. Those who believe that election shuts out many from heaven fail to realise, or have conveniently forgotten about, man’s sinful nature being that which shuts a man out of heaven. Election based on mercy and grace is the only thing that opens Heaven’s Gate to an undeserving sinner. Election is an act of mercy and can in no way be rightly judged as an unrighteous edict.

This is now getting to the heart of the matter, the real nitty gritty of the issue of salvation and election. Again, the answer will not be provided by the words of this author but by the very Word of God. Listen to the Holy Spirit inspired words of the apostle Paul as he makes his reply: "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?" (Rom. 9:20,21). Let us pause here to look carefully at Paul’s reply, to reflect on what God has said through him. The first thing we need to notice is that Paul does not correct his complainant. He does not say to him, ‘Now wait just a minute friend, you have completely misunderstood what I am saying. I am not saying that election is all up to God and that the man He does not choose to be merciful to goes to hell without a hope of being saved. I am not saying that God chooses those He will love and those He will hate solely based on His will before the people have even been born. I am not saying that salvation is solely of God’s will and not man’s.’ Notice that Paul says nothing of the kind. His immediate answer here shows that the one who is remonstrating with him is quite correct in his understanding that God chooses those who are to be saved based on His will and mercy and not their will or deeds, and that indeed none can resist God’s will. There is nothing wrong, strange or unfair about the Absolute Sovereignty of God in Paul’s eyes! As we shall see, God’s basis for election, far from being something unfair, is proper and right and the only way any could be saved. It is proper and right for God to choose those He will have mercy towards and appoint others to His wrath, for there is nothing a man can do to attract God’s mercy. No man by nature attracts anything from God other than His wrath. Speaking to believers Paul said, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us..." (1 Thess. 5:9,10). Clearly, and based on His will and mercy, God has appointed or predestinated some to obtain salvation and others to wrath. None can shake a fist at God and say, ‘I wanted you but you would not have me’. Have we not seen that the Scriptures state clearly that there is none righteous and that none seek after God and that those found by Him were not in the process of seeking Him? If the Lord could only choose those who chose Him, how could it be possible that any would come to Him? In the day of whose power then would a man be made willing to come to the true God? If man can choose God of his own free will, then it would be in the day of man’s own power, his own innate ability to will to come to God, that would save him. Since Scripture teaches clearly that none seek Him, none can come to Him unless they are made willing by Him in the day of His power. This punches a massive hole in the laughable ‘defenses’ of the free willer, who insists that God chooses those who first choose Him, that a man’s election is based not solely on God’s will but inspired by man’s free will decision for Him. Paul’s first words of reply are a direct assault on the one opposing his doctrine and all those who would dare come with the same mind-set. They are the very words God inspired Paul to write and what God would say to any man who approached Him with such an attitude today: "O man, Who art thou?" In other words, who are you, mere sinful wretch, to complain against God, to dare dispute with the Sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords? Away with such a mind-set borne by the insolence and horror of man’s original sin against God! Paul shows here that man in his natural state is unqualified to understand the matter of election and so he castigates the man for such an attitude against God and His doings. "Who gave man the authority, or invested him with the prerogatives of judge over his Maker’s doings? Nowhere is there to be found a more cutting or humbling reply to the pride of man than this." This is precisely why the doctrine of sovereign election is so hated by the natural mind of fallen man: it cuts right through man’s pride and leaves no room for him to boast. Remember, it is not the doctrine of election by grace that is in question here—there is nothing strange, wrong or unfair about it. The only thing which is odd, strange, wrong, unfair and out of place in this passage from Romans IS THE ATTITUDE OF THE MAN WHO IS OBJECTING TO IT! What right has any man to dispute with God over what God has done and the way He has chosen to do it? "...Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25); "...wilt thou condemn Him that is most Just? Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? And to princes, ye are ungodly? How much less to HIM that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? For they are all the work of His hands" (Job. 34:17-19). Even a lost man like king Nebuchadnezzar knew that God is Sovereign and does whatsoever He wills and that no man has any right to judge what He does and dispute His Will or object in any way: "...all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and HE DOETH ACCORDING TO HIS WILL in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto him, ‘What doest Thou?’" (Dan. 4:35). Has God ever done anything wrong or unjust or unfair? Of course not. Shall not God do right! saith the Scriptures.

Paul goes on in his discourse to show that man is merely a creature, a creation given birth to by the will of God with no influence over its Maker. Man has as much right to dispute with God over His election based on grace as a lump of clay has to dispute with the potter for having made part of it into an ash tray and the other into an ornamental object to be admired. This sentiment is found in Isaiah 29:16 which says in part: "...shall the thing framed (formed) say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?" In other words, "Shall the potter be considered of no more account than the clay?" "WOE UNTO HIM THAT STRIVETH WITH HIS MAKER! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, What makest Thou?... (Isa. 45:9). This whole discourse about the clay and the potter is designed to teach God’s sovereignty and election based on His will. Make no mistake about it, the hater of sovereign election is one who strives with his Maker, and "woe unto him" saith the Scriptures. "...God is greater than man. Why dost thou strive against Him? For He giveth not account of any of His matters....Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him?..." (Job 33:12,13; 40:2). "(God) is not only more wise and powerful than we are, but more holy, just and good, for these are the transcendent glories and excellencies of the Divine nature; in these God is greater than man, and therefore it is absurd and unreasonable to find fault with Him. God is not accountable to us. It is an unreasonable thing for us, weak, foolish, sinful, creatures, to strive with a God of infinite wisdom, power and goodness. He reveals as much as it is fit for us to know: "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God..." (Deut. 29:29)....Those who quarrel with God do, in effect, go about to teach Him how to mend His work." "Shall the clay say to him that forms it, ‘What makest thou? Why dost thou make me of this shape and not that?’ Shall we impeach God’s wisdom, or question His power, who are ourselves so wonderfully made? Shall we say, He has no hands, Whose hands made us and in Whose hands we are? It is as unnatural as for the child to find fault with the parents, to say to the father, What begetest thou? Or to the mother, What hast thou brought forth; Why was I not begotten and born an angel, exempt from the infirmities of human nature and the calamities of human life?" "Any being has a right to fashion his work according to his own views of what is best; and as this right is not denied to men, we ought not to blame the infinitely wise God for acting in a similar way."

The following passages of Scripture show well just Who the Lord is and how His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways not our ways (see Isa. 55:8-11): "Shall any teach God knowledge....Behold, God exalteth by His power: who teacheth like Him? Who hath enjoined Him His way? Or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?....There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord....Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counsellor hath taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgement, and taught Him knowledge, and shewed to Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing....All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?....For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counsellor?....For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him?..." (Job 21:22; 36:22,23;Prov. 21:30; Isa. 40:13-15,17,18; Rom. 11:34; 1 Cor. 2:16). Who more than God has the right to do what He wills? This in essence is what these Scriptures are all saying, ‘Cannot God do what He wills? Is He not God? Can He not do whatsoever He wills and it always be right and good?’ Do you doubt God? Do you doubt that He is Just and Right in all that He does? Is it not proper to trust that the Holy and Just God will do right? Do you presume to instruct God in what He should do and how He should do it? If man is said to have a free will, what makes him think that God has not a free will and that He can and does do what He wills with His creation? As we’ve already seen, the Bible says that God does whatsoever He wills in heaven and on earth, and there are many other Scriptures which corroborate this, such as: "...our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased" (Psa. 115:3); "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, THAT did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places" (Psa. 135:6); God Himself says "...My counsel shall stand, and I WILL DO ALL MY PLEASURE...I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it" (Isa. 46:10,11); "...I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it" (Ezek. 22:14). It is also clear from the writings of Paul in speaking to, and of, believers that they are "...predestinated according to the PURPOSE OF HIM (not according to anything foreseen that they would do) who worketh all things after the counsel of HIS OWN WILL: that we should be to the praise of HIS glory..." (Eph. 1:11,12). The incontestable Sovereign right of God to do as He sees fit is also seen in the words of Paul in Romans 9:21: "Hath not the potter power over the clay..." In other words, "Does not God have the right to do with man as HE pleases? Moreover, is not and will not what God does be just and right?" Not incidentally, the word power here does not merely denote physical power or ability, but authority. In other words, has not God the absolute and legal right—the authority—to do as He wills. We are given clear insight into the authority God has to grant salvation to whomsoever He wills in John 17:2, where we find that the Father has given POWER (authority) to the Lord Jesus Christ over ALL mankind to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him, not to as many as have chosen Him: "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him." Paul’s statement, ‘Hath not the potter power over the clay?’, is a highly significant one, for in it Paul alludes to Isaiah 64:8 which says: "But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand." Notably, the verse mentioned earlier which spoke about man’s righteousnesses being equivalent to filthy rags in the sight of God, appears just two verses prior to this one.

Has it not struck the mind of the free willer that those who believe in sovereign election according to free grace are aware of the arguments that are raised against it, and yet there is no complaint about the sovereignty of God and His right to choose whomsoever He wills to be saved issuing forth from their lips? Surely the free willer is not ignorant of the fact that truly saved (Gospel believing) people have dealt with this issue from the Scriptures and are perfectly comfortable with such a God and a God-honoring doctrine as election? Has the free willer not considered that the issues and questions that arise in his mind did also arise in the mind of those who are now born again and see clearly that salvation is impossible with man and only possible by the mercy of God? That none can pull themselves out from under the wrath of God, for all are under eternal condemnation requiring an act of mercy by God Himself to rescue them. Of course the true believer has thought of these things, but however many questions he might have had, however limited his understanding may still be about the workings and Will of God, He does not dare dispute with God, he does not dare go against what the Scriptures are plainly teaching, but calmly and humbly accepts Who God is and what God is like, for the Spirit of the Scriptures has made this abundantly clear to him. Man has no right to come to God in and of himself even if he could, for God accepts only that which is of Him. No man has the right to claim or expect the mercy of God and seek favor from Him based on his ‘free will’, for the mercy of God is inspired by the will of God and not by any man’s spontaneous decision to accept Him. God is right to bestow His grace and mercy upon those He has chosen and mould them as the potter does the clay, and no one has the moral right to complain. The truly saved man accepts this. The lost man is at enmity with it, he fights against it and struggles with it. One of the princes of Arminianism, John Wesley, so hated the doctrine of election by God’s Sovereign Will that he went far beyond complaining against it and actually called the True God ‘My Devil’! The saved man believes in the Absolute Sovereignty of God and His right to elect those whom He wills. The lost man scoffs at this and dubs it foolishness at best and satanic at worst. "God would do no injury to those who were left, and who had no claim to His mercy, if he bestowed favors on others, any more than the potter would do injustice to one part of the mass, if he put it to an ignoble use, and moulded another part into a vessel of honor. God does no injustice to a man if he leaves him to take his own course to ruin, and makes another, equally undeserving, the recipient of His mercy. He violated none of my rights by not conferring on me the talents of Newton or of Bacon; or by not placing me in circumstances like those of Peter and Paul. Where all are undeserving, the utmost that can be demanded is, that He should not treat them with injustice." And we have seen, in the very words of the Scriptures themselves, that there is nothing unjust in the doctrine of God’s sovereign will nor any unrighteousness with the God of election. No man who is not saved, be he religious or not, has ever complained that he has not the true God. Every man believes he has the true God. Man just continues on in his sin with a ‘don’t stop me’ attitude oblivious to the fact that he has chosen the wrong god, evidenced by his believing in a false gospel. If a man insists that he has chosen God, it is the wrong god he has chosen. If the god you have embraced has taught you that your salvation is conditioned on your free will choice of him, you have a counterfeit god who cannot save. Listen to how the Lord speaks: "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in My hand..." (Jer. 18:6). The fact that natural man cannot see the fairness in God sovereignly electing those whom He wills to be saved and not electing others, does not give any man the right to complain against God or think that He has done wrong in His plan of election. The saved sinner knows full well that before he was saved he had no desire for the true God, and that only because of God is he now a saved person, his salvation coming about, not because of anything he has done, or could do, but solely according to the will and purpose of God based on His grace and love, never more highly demonstrated than in the death of Christ for those whom the Father had given Him. We don’t know why God has chosen one man and not another apart from what His Word clearly states, and that is that He has done it according to His will and purpose, the design of which is to glorify Him: "...He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be (not because we were, or foreseen we would be) holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved" (Eph. 1:4-6). God has chosen His people before the foundation of the world. Notice the link between God’s predestination and His will and grace. This predestination is according to His good pleasure and because it is based on His will and not on a man’s free-will decision for Him or any other work of man’s, it is to the praise of the glory of His grace which has made us accepted, and not to the praise of any ‘magnanimous act’ of man’s. God is Sovereign and Omniscient. He knows all things and so it is clear that He is infinitely more wise than a man, or even all men put together, so who are we to judge anything God does or has done as being unfair and unjust?

The one thing those who have been taught free willism have missed in all their ‘reasonings’ is the fact that man is not a neutral creature. Man is not innocent—he is not even born innocent but is guilty from the womb (see Psa. 51:5; 58:3). Man is a lost creature. We have shown in this booklet just how lost man is. He is not afflicted with some cureable ailment, but has been cut down by death. He has sinned against God and stands justly and eternally condemned for his sin and is rightly and deservedly under the wrath of God. He has forfeited any ‘right’ he may have ever had to an audience with God (see Prov. 15:29; Jn. 9:31), to His benevolence by having sinned against Him. Now all that man is deserving of is wrath and punishment and it would have been right, just and fair if God had not chosen before the foundation of the world to provide a Savior; not to elect any to salvation, but to leave all of us to an eternal existence without Him and an eternity without hope. Who could have complained if that had been the case? If God had merely left us all in our sin? I guarantee you that if God had left all of us in our lost and sinful state and made every man aware of his condition, we all would have been clamouring for His grace and mercy, knowing full well there was nothing in us that could in any way recommend us to God or meet any condition for salvation. Was God under an obligation to save even one man? Would there have been any injustice had God left us all in our sin and under His wrath? These are the types of questions every free willer needs to ask himself and answer honestly. Would God have been unjust if He had left all mankind in their sin, ultimately to end up in the fires of Hell, there to suffer eternal punishment for their sin? No man in his right mind could or would say that God would have been wrong in doing this! Therefore, does God’s having chosen to elect some unto salvation purely according to the good pleasure of His will fuelled by His grace and mercy, SUDDENLY make Him unjust and this act of mercy unfair, simply because He has not chosen all, or at least left the matter of salvation to the decision making power of the ‘free will’ of those whom HE knew would never, and could never, of their own accord seek Him? On the contrary, how UNFAIR would God have been had He left the determining factor of man’s salvation upon the shoulders of those He knew did not have the ability or capacity to ever choose Him!! "The executive of a country may select any number of criminals whom he may see fit to pardon, or who may be forgiven in consistency with the supremacy of the laws and the welfare of the community, and none has a right to murmur; but every good citizen should rejoice that any may be pardoned with safety. So in the moral world, and under the administration of its Holy Sovereign, it should be a matter of joy that any can be pardoned and saved; and not a subject of murmuring and complaint that those who shall finally deserve to die shall be consigned to woe." The question ‘Why was He not merciful to all’, can be answered succinctly: God did not need to be merciful to any; He was under no obligation or constraint to be merciful to one single soul. The guilty have not a leg to stand on. NONE have a right to expect mercy simply based on the fact that God has chosen to be merciful at all. There is nothing man can plead, nothing he can do, that will attract the mercy and grace of God. He has become an unclean thing, an abomination to God, not fit to be even looked upon let alone with grace: "...yea, the stars are not pure in His sight. How much less man, that is a worm?..." (Job 25:5,6). Please, free willer, do not pursue the vain argument of what is fair and unfair when it comes to God’s dealings with man, for you will not like what you find. What would have been fair is if man was left in his hopeless state. But thankfully salvation is not based on man’s idea of ‘fairness’, it is not based on what a man deserves, or what he tries to do to redeem himself, for if it were none would have ever been saved. Salvation is solely and justly founded on the will, grace and mercy of an Almighty Sovereign God Who does whatsoever He wills. It is one of the greatest truths in existence that God is Sovereign, that He does do all that He pleases, that only God could ever justify a man and rescue him from his certain doom. Imagine if God could not do whatsoever He pleased and that all were left to fend for themselves in some superfluous struggle for salvation. Man cannot will himself saved—therefore only by God’s will is a man saved. God is the only one who is right in this entire universe and God is the only Hope for salvation any man can have. God is the only one who is perfectly free to do what He wills without anyone having any legal right to register a complaint or seek to give advice or counsel as to the fairness of what He has decreed. God is Just! Hence, Paul’s first response to those who would argue against God’s Will to do what He desires is, ‘Who are you O man to dispute with God?’ Who gave man any right to argue against God? God certainly didn’t! How dare any man seek to enter into dispute with God about what He has done and how He has done it! Paul’s argument is as follows: "Man is in ruins; he is fallen; he has no claim on God; all deserve to die. On this mass, where none have any claim, He may bestow life on whom He pleases, without injury to others; He may exercise the right of a sovereign to pardon whom He pleases; or of a potter to mould any part of the useless mass to purposes of utility and beauty.’ Salvation is an act of grace and THERE CAN BE NO UNFAIRNESS IN AN ACT OF GRACE OR AN ACT OF MERCY. God has chosen, from a miserable pile of unworthy sinners, those He will be merciful to. There is no unfairness in such an act, nor is there any unfairness in not choosing the others but allowing them to receive their just deserts, for this is what they are appointed to and deserving of. Will the Lord Jesus become unrighteous when He comes "...taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord..." (2 Thess. 1:8,9 cf. Rom. 3:5)? Has not God the right to do with His mercy as He sees fit and to exercise His wrath upon the guilty? Just like a man has the right to purchase whatever he wants from the market place, so too, God has the right to choose those whom He wants saved. The decision is made by the one who has the power to purchase. The Church of God has been "...purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28). How silly would it be for one to rush over to a person who has purchased something, complaining that they did not purchase more of the same or something other than what was purchased! It is the prerogative of the purchaser to purchase what he wills, just as it is God’s prerogative to purchase whom He wills by the blood of His Son.

It is appropriate at this point in our study to look more closely at the word fair to see exactly what God is being accused of by those who oppose the doctrine of Sovereign election based solely upon the free will of God, and judge it to be unfair. To be fair means to be free from discrimination or dishonesty. To be fair also means to be in conformity with rules or standards. So when the adherent to the doctrine of free will makes his claim that election according to the sovereign will of God, and not the free will of man, is ‘just not fair’, he is saying that God would be dishonest if election were according to His Sovereign will, and that He would not be in conformity to the rules or standards of fair play. Let me ask the free willer, ‘Whose rules or standards are you judging the God of the universe by? By whose rule do you judge the God of sovereign election to be unfair?’ By His Rule, or your own corrupt notions of what the rules and standards of fairness are that God should be abiding by? The accusation that God is guilty of unfairly discriminating against those whom He has not chosen—discrimination being a no-no word in western society, principally because it has lost all of its true meaning and been kidnapped by those obsessed with political correctness—is one which the free willer often gives voice to in presenting his case against the God of Sovereign election. How can God be guilty of discriminating unfairly against those whom He has not chosen, when we have just seen that those who are left in their sin are DESERVING of nothing but His wrath. GOD HAS NOT DISCRIMINATED UNFAIRLY AGAINST ANYONE, BUT HAS ACTED MERCIFULLY TOWARDS SOME, GIVING OTHERS ONLY WHAT THEY DESERVE. The Scripture most often cited in support of the lie that sovereign election means that God unfairly discriminates against those whom He has not chosen, is that which says God is no respecter of persons. The free willer’s understanding of the discriminatory aspect of God’s Character is completely warped. God not being a respecter of persons does not exclude Him from choosing one man instead of another, for see how He treated a whole nation of people, Israel, unlike any other nation: "...the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you....For Thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be Thine inheritance....Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance" (Deut. 7:6-8 cf. Psa. 147:19,20 cf. Lev. 20:26; Deut. 14:2; 1 Kings 8:53; Psa. 33:12). God not being a respecter of persons means that He will not be influenced in His choice based on a person’s rank in life, family name, nationality, or how respected one may be in society, or by any number of charitable deeds or the lack thereof. "God will not save a man because he is a Jew, nor because he is rich or learned, or of elevated rank nor by any external privileges. Nor will He exclude any man because he is destitute of these privileges." The Scripture which speaks of God being no respecter of persons is Acts 10:34: "Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons" (cf. Rom. 2:11; Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25). The context of this Scripture involves the conviction that many in Peter’s day had about the Jews being the nation that God peculiarly favored above all others and that no person of any other nation was to be granted salvation. "Peter here says that he has learned the error of this doctrine. That a man is not to be accepted because he is a Jew, nor is he to be excluded because he is a Gentile." The very next verse bears this out: "But in EVERY nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him" (Acts 10:35). Of course, there are none who fear God by nature (Rom. 3:18) or who can work righteousness before Him (see Isa. 64:6) unless they have been elected by God to serve Him and to do those works which have been prepared for them to do (see Eph. 2:10). God could never discriminate between men based on their deeds, on anything they have done, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), and every man at his best state stands equally rated before God as being altogether vanity. Man at his best and doing his best to recommend himself to God, stands before Him as if he had never done a thing! Man’s efforts at recommending himself to God are negligible at best and are an insult to the saving righteousness of Christ. All men are equal before God in the sense that they are all sinners, therefore it cannot be said that God is a discriminator or respecter or persons based on anything they do or don’t do, for all stand equally condemned. But God IS a discriminator of persons according to His will—which is His prerogative—according to His electing love by which He has predestinated all those whom He foreknew, or foreloved, to be conformed to the image of His Son (see Rom. 8:29,30). God is a Covenant God and therefore a discriminating God, but not according to any laudable characteristic in man or commendable deed done by man. God discriminated between Israel in the Old Testament and every other nation, but not according to any special status it had among men: "But because the Lord loved (them)..." (Deut. 7:8). So too, in the New Testament He discriminates between His people chosen by grace and those whom He has not chosen but appointed to wrath. He loves one and hates the other. God has singled out, or chosen and predetermined, those He will show mercy to and those whom He has appointed, ordained or purposed, to receive His wrath (see Rom. 9:11,15,22 & 1 Thess. 5:9 & 1 Pet. 2:7-9).

What the person believing in free will must ask themselves is, ‘How can a man lost in sin, dead in sin and dead to God, possibly choose God?’ How can his case for free will stand when faced with the overwhelming array of Scriptures which declare that election is something done by God before the foundation of the world, before any man was ever born, that none of this was according to anything man would do, could do, or had done but solely according to the Father’s will? How can any man choose God when God Himself says that there are none who seek Him, none who desire Him, none who worship Him, by nature? How can a dead man rise and walk without the power of God? How can a man love God if God has not loved the man first? And if God has loved the man first, then any and every positive response to God from the man is a direct result—an outgrowth, or fruit—of God’s everlasting love upon the man, and nothing whatsoever that originated from within the man. There is no room for man to boast, that is, no room in God’s only Gospel for a man to boast. The great Gospel which teaches that salvation is by grace through a faith that is not from man, is not produced by man, not something which lays dormant in man like some Kundalini serpent waiting for him or God to awaken it, but is a gift given to him by God. It is not something that stems from within but that which is given from without; not that which arises from the heart of man but that which comes down from above. The saving faith which Grace provides is not that which comes from within you, but from without you and with out you! It does not require your assistance to be sent, or in its arrival, or to accomplish the purpose for which it was sent. The only Gospel God gives testimony to is that one which teaches that a man is not saved according to anything he has done, or has the potential to do, or has been enabled to do, but solely by the grace of God. The grace of God is not something which makes a man’s choice of God possible. Just like the adrenalin pumped into the lifeless heart does not give the heart a choice between pumping again or not, but is the agent which restores it to life again on its terms! So too, God’s grace bestowed upon a man unto salvation makes the man willing, it does not merely make a man’s willingness to receive God viable. Therefore there is no choice, as it were, to be made on the part of man. The choice belongs to God and He quickens, makes alive, those whom He wills. Man does not choose life, for he cannot, IT IS CHOSEN FOR, AND GIVEN TO, HIM by a merciful God: "...the Son quickeneth whom He will" (Jn. 5:21 cf. Matt. 11:27). This is in reference to those He raised from physical death as well as those who were dead in trespasses and sins. "It was in the power of Jesus to raise up any of the dead as well as Lazarus. It depended on His will whether Lazarus (Jn. 11:43) and the widow’s son (Lk. 7:12) should come to life. So it depends on His will whether sinners shall live. He has power to renew them; and the renewing of the heart is as much the result of HIS WILL as the raising of the dead." And we all know that the circumstances surrounding a physically dead person being raised to life could include nothing that the dead person did to deserve being brought back from the dead, nothing he did to make it possible, but solely something done outside of his capabilities and without any assistance or cooperation from him. In other words, the dead man could not refuse or resist his being made alive again by God. In fact neither Lazarus or the widow’s son had any awareness that they were to be brought back to life, no consciousness that such a thing would happen, until they were actually made alive again by the power of God. Likewise, the spiritually dead man is not aware of his state nor can he do anything to raise himself to spiritual life. This is something done completely outside the person, dependant on and performed wholly by Another. Not by a work of man’s for God would then be a discriminator of men based on what they had done. Speaking to believers, Paul the apostle states that the "...love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us..." (Titus 3:4,5). Salvation does not follow an act of man performed with the aid of God, but always as a result of the will and grace of God. If man has a free will and he must use it to choose for God before God can save him, would not this ‘free will act’ by man be correctly termed a work of righteousness? And if so, would not then the love of God have appeared in the wake of a man’s righteous work/choice and therefore make salvation something which is not according to God’s mercy but man’s obedience? Be not deceived! God has never started to love a man after that man has done something to attract God to him! God’s love for His chosen is everlasting: it has no beginning and no end (see Jer. 31:3). God is not a respecter of persons: His election is not according to works but according to grace. It is not according to what a man does, but according to what God has done. SALVATION IS ACCORDING TO MERCY NOT MERIT!! God not being a respecter of persons is the absolute bulletproof evidence that proves man has done nothing and can do nothing to make God choose him over another man who has failed to do the same. God not being a respecter of persons means that God’s election of a man is not according to anything a man has done, or is, that makes him to differ from another, but despite what he cannot do! IT IS NOT A MAN’S LOVE WHICH DRAWS HIM TO THE SAVIOR, BUT GOD’S LOVE OF THE MAN WHICH DRAWS HIM!! (see Jn. 6:44,65). Anything which IS OPPOSitE to the Scriptures OPPOSES the Scriptures. The love of God, in Jesus Christ our Savior, did not appear because of any man’s works but solely because of God’s mercy. So too, salvation does not come when a man chooses but because God has already chosen.

The person believing in free will is no doubt firmly convinced in himself that he believes what this (Titus 3:4,5) and other Scriptures like them are saying. But the reality of the situation is that believing God has done His part and Jesus has done His part by dying upon the cross, and all that now remains is for man to do his part—to choose God—in order to complete this triumvirate, denies the grace and mercy of God as that which alone makes the difference between heaven and hell, and replaces it with a righteous work of man’s which usurps the rightful place of God’s benevolence. The system of ‘salvation’ which decrees that none are saved without a free-will decision by man, makes salvation conditioned upon what a man does and not solely on what God has done. Therefore it is a gospel of works and not God’s Gospel of grace. Suddenly, we no longer have the situation that salvation is of the Lord but as the direct result of a corporate effort between God and man. Man acts and God responds; a sort of cause and effect deal. But the cause and effect principle does not work with God in the matter of salvation, for He is BOTH the cause AND the effect. It is not a case of man saying, ‘I want you to save me’ and God then saves him, but rather God saying, ‘I want to save you and behold I have done it!’ But if one listens to the free willer, we suddenly have salvation being not only impossible with man but also impossible for God unless man, through his ‘free will’, ‘lets God in’, rather than the Scriptural logic of salvation being impossible with man but only possible with God. No longer is it God’s power behind a man’s willingness to come to the Lord, but according to the free willer man’s willingness is the sole power behind his decision to be saved. The doctrine of free will negates, it nullifies and blots out, the doctrine of salvation conditioned solely on the grace and mercy of God revealed in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ the Savior. Paul said that he did not frustrate the grace of God seen in Christ’s death, by conditioning his salvation on any work of his: "I do not frustrate (neutralize or violate) the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal.2:21 cf. Rom. 11:5,6). What Paul is saying is that if Christ is not, by His Person and Work, the Alpha and Omega (the beginning and the end), the Author and Finisher, of all of salvation, then He is no Savior at all. If any part of salvation is due to, or conditioned on, anything a man does then grace is frustrated, salvation is by works and Christ has died in vain (see Gal 5:1-4). In other words, if any part of salvation is achievable, any condition which can be met, by anything or anyone other than by Christ and what He has done—what has been provided in and by Him—then Christ’s death was all in vain. The doctrine that bases or conditions salvation on what a man must do, is a doctrine which neutralizes and violates the doctrine of salvation by grace and trespasses upon what Christ has done. The Scriptures say, "And being made Perfect, He became THE AUTHOR OF ETERNAL SALVATION unto all them that obey Him" (Heb. 5:9).

Christ has said, "No man can come to Me, EXCEPT the Father which hath sent Me draw him..." (Jn. 6:44 cf. Jn. 14:6; Jer.31:3). The word except is a conditional word meaning if not, unless or before. None can come to Christ BEFORE the Father draws him. None have a hope if God does not draw, and, none can possibly come to Him unless the Father comes to them first. We see from the Savior’s own words that none can come to Him unless a specific thing occurs and if that thing, God’s drawing the man by His love, does not occur then it is impossible that any man can come to the Savior. Obviously that which must occur before a man can come to Christ is not a free-will decision on man’s part, for He has just said that no man can come, meaning that in and of himself no man can possibly come to God before, if not or unless, God has acted first. The absolute certainty that a man cannot come is inseparably linked with the fact that no man wills to or wants to come. If this were not the case, we would have the nonsensical situation of a man wanting to come to God but not being able to because God had not come to him first. Such a scenario would conflict with the words of Jesus: "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (Jn. 6:37). The drawing of a man by God is done by their being taught of God, shown clearly in the verse which immediately follows John 6:44: "...And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath LEARNED of the Father, cometh unto Me" (Jn. 6:45). Just as a net full of fish being drawn to shore or into the boat is not in the boat or on the shore until the drawing is completed, so too, none can be said to be in Christ whilst the drawing (dragging) is taking place but only after the process is completed. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the Propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn. 4:10). The love that motivated God to send His Son to die for His chosen is not their love for Him for "...while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8), but rather His love for His people: "We love Him, BECAUSE He first loved us" (1 Jn. 4:19). God’s love for His people guarantees their love for Him. Christ’s dying for those God had given Him was not due in any part to their character, but because of His desire for their welfare. Christ is not saying in John 6 that none will ever come to Him, but that none can come to Him of their own accord, confirming His words to the apostles in Matthew 19 that salvation with man is impossible, if that one vital ingredient is missing: The will of God, the love of God, which draws the man to Him. That vital ingredient, or catalyst, to man’s coming is not the fictional free-will decision of man for God, it is not man’s choosing God, but the one thing Jesus speaks of as making a man able to come, nay that which assures he WILL come, to the Savior is the drawing of the man by the power of God. "Nothing outside of God Himself moved or influenced Him to save sinners. It was His love and purpose to glorify Himself that caused Him to save sinners." So we see in this Scripture that no man can come to God unless God draws the man to Him. In order to draw a person, God must first have loved and chosen that person before the world began: "The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an EVERLASTING love: therefore WITH LOVINGKINDNESS HAVE I DRAWN THEE" (Jer. 31:3). This was not done because of anything that person had performed, or was foreseen would perform, but was done before the foundation of the world according to God’s will, purpose and grace, leaving no possible room for anyone to boast and say, ‘God chose me because I chose Him’, or, ‘He chose me because He knew I would choose Him and not reject Him.’ The doctrine of free will is that which makes God a respecter of persons and salvation a reward rather than a gift! The chosen ones are they whom Jesus refers to as "..the children which God hath given Me" (Heb. 2:13) and never as ‘those who have chosen Me’. Further on in the Gospel of John, Jesus says, "...no man can come unto Me, EXCEPT it were GIVEN unto him of My Father" (Jn. 6:65 cf. Matt. 13:11). The word except here is the same used in John 6:44. Jesus is saying that none can come to Him before this grace is given—NOT CHOSEN—unto him of the Father. If there was anything that man could do to get himself into a saved state and remain so, grace would not be needed and these two statements of Jesus would be wrong. It is of interest to note that after Jesus had told the people this, "From that time many of His (professed) disciples went back, and walked no more with Him" (Jn. 6:66). "Many may be expected to be offended by the doctrines of the Gospel. Having no spirituality of mind, and really understanding nothing of the Gospel, they may be expected to take offence and turn back." God’s elect people on the other hand will never leave Him or abandon His Gospel, for they have the same mind-set as Peter’s: "To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life" (Jn. 6:68). People think that all Christ has done is paid for sin and the rest is up to man. No, my friend, Christ has done far more than just pay for sin. He has ENSURED that all for whom He died, all whose sins have been imputed to Him, all who have been given His righteousness, can stand before God as righteous and acceptable. Christ saves a man, He keeps the man saved and in right standing with God, not based on what the man has done, is doing or will do, but solely on His Person and His Work on the behalf of the man for whom He died.

Being close to the truth is not close enough and close enough is not good enough. One can be assured of this for the Lord Jesus has said:"...Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice" (Jn. 18:37 cf. 1 Jn. 3:19). One is either pregnant or not pregnant, one is either in the house or outside of it and one is either of the truth, believing in the truth, or believing in a lie. If a man claims that he cannot choose God in and of himself, that this choice can only be made after he has had the grace of God bestowed upon him, and is convinced by this that he believes in salvation by grace, then he is only fooling himself. Salvation is not initiated by a choice made by man even with the grace of God. Man’s ‘decision’ is not the starting pistol that sets salvation running towards him. Salvation comes because of the will of God, motivated by the love of God, and according to God’s timing: "...in the day of THY power..." (Psa. 110:3). It certainly does appear to lost man, that a person’s conversion is due to their life-changing choice or decision but in reality, in God’s eyes, GOD is the one Who made the choice, and before the world began, and what we actually witness in the conversion of a man is the result of the choice which God alone has made. The dead man who has been raised again to life cannot be said to have played any part in his revival. God, by His power, decrees that the man should rise and according to God’s will the man is raised. The man rises not in obedience to God’s command but as the direct and guaranteed result of God’s command. It cannot be said that the man rises because of his choice. It cannot be said that Lazarus arose and came out of his tomb by any free will choice he made. In order for Christ to receive ALL the glory, which was the case in the raising of Lazarus, there must be no room for Lazarus to boast in the fact that he is alive again. The spotlight must be solely on Jesus. Lazarus was made alive again by the power of God. It was something which was bestowed upon him, not something offered to him and conditioned on his will to be alive. Just as man played no part in his physical creation, so too man plays no part, nor is there any requirement for him to, in his spiritual re-creation. The revival comes in the day of God’s power, not man’s. God’s command that a person arise from the dead, be it physical or spiritual death, is the catalyst for life and nothing else plays any part in it. God speaks and it is done. It is how He has created everything and it is how He saves those whom He has chosen by His grace before the foundation of the world.

My friend, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is THE issue. It is a life and death issue! This matter of Sovereign election is not something, which man in his natural fallen state has wrongly termed unfair, that can be mistaken by a person who is truly saved. The glorious and Sovereign election according to the will and purpose of God, according to His mercy and grace, is part of God’s Gospel, therefore essential to the preaching of it, and is precious and dear to every saved person, having been heard and believed at the time of their conversion, for to be converted is to be changed from one attitude or belief to another. The lost man’s attitude/belief is that election is not fair and therefore he concludes that a man needs to make a free will choice in order to be saved. Such a doctrine states that it is not God who makes the difference between saved and lost but man’s free-will decision for God.

Why it is a fatal error to not believe the truth of Sovereign election by the free grace and will of God and other Gospel essentials such as the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, the eternal security of a man whom God has elected unto salvation, and that unless one is submitted to the Righteousness of Christ one cannot be saved, is that not believing these truths, or even being undecided as to whether one believes them or not, shows that one is believing something other than the Truth of God, which naturally contradicts His truth. That which does not come from God is that which opposes Him and what He has said. The person who believes in that which God has not said is in ignorance/darkness, which is what a person in a saved state is brought out from in the first place. Either way, they are not believing the Truth. Belief of the truth, which is revealed in the doctrine of God, which every true believer abides in, is what distinguishes a saved person who has been brought out of darkness into God’s marvellous Light, from a person who is lost and sitting in darkness. The state of every man by nature is shown clearly in the following verse: "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph. 4:18 cf. Jn. 1:5). The blinded heart cannot pump the blood of eternal life. None can be born again and yet remain in darkness and ignorance of what the Gospel is, for "...if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost" (2 Cor. 4:3). If the Gospel is hid to any man, he cannot see it and he is therefore ignorant of it. This is evidence that he is lost, for God has not revealed His truth to Him. The truth of God is revealed to His elect and to others it is not given: "...it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given....he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it" (Matt. 13:11,23). Just as in physical birth one is brought out of darkness (the womb), so too, to be born again (spiritual birth) one is brought out of darkness (ignorance of the truth) into God’s marvellous Light—where knowledge of His Truth lies. Ignorance is an unmistakeable sign of lostness. Ignorance is the womb, if you will, from which a man receives no sustenance but is brought out of when he is given birth to by God through His Truth (Jas. 1:18). The Bible teaches that one cannot believe in the true Christ whilst in ignorance of Who He is and what He has done. One is not born as long as one is in the womb—one is not born again as long as one is in ignorance. Only after one has heard of the true Christ can one rightly claim to believe in Him: "In Whom (Christ) ye also trusted, AFTER that ye heard the Word of Truth, THE GOSPEL of your salvation: in Whom also AFTER that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1:13). This Scripture shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that one cannot believe in the true Christ who has not had that Christ revealed to them via the word of truth, His doctrine: His Gospel. The only hope for sinners is revealed in God’s Gospel Message: "For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before IN THE WORD OF THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL" (Col. 1:5). The message of the sure hope of Heaven lies in the doctrines of the Gospel and none can bear fruit unto God before they hear His Gospel and know the grace of God IN TRUTH (see Col. 1:6 cf. Matt. 13:23). One cannot believe and trust in Christ until after one has heard His Gospel and none are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise who have not believed that glorious Gospel, wherein Christ and His Righteousness are revealed, and rejected all others (Rom. 1:16,17). One cannot have true saving God-given Faith, if one does not believe the one, true, God-given Gospel. One cannot have true saving faith if one believes that one was saved whilst believing in another gospel, because true saving faith trusts only in one Gospel and believes only one Gospel to be the truth, and only one Gospel that can save. This would be like a person who wrongly imagined twelve inches to be a certain length, then upon discovering how long twelve inches really was, they nevertheless insist that their previous appraisal was just as accurate as that deemed by the ruler! None are saved whilst insisting they were saved before hearing and ‘believing’ THE Gospel, for the very Gospel of God which such people claim to believe, denies that such a thing is possible! Such people often base their salvation on a variety of experiences and see such life-changing and morally reforming episodes as unquestionable proof of spiritual rebirth, despite the absence of the Seed of God by which a man is born again: the Gospel. God recognises only one Gospel as His and so do all His people. The Gospel of God will have no part of a person who professes his love for it and yet is married to another gospel. One must be dead to all other gospels before one can savingly and rightly be joined to God’s Gospel. The Gospel of God cannot be yoked together with one who believes he was saved prior to hearing and believing it and who will not reject every other gospel he previously believed in. This would be like having two wives, a case of spiritual bigamy if you will. Equally, none are saved who insist that such a person is saved or says that a person who has not heard or does not believe THE Gospel, is saved regardless. For they are saying—contrary to what the Gospel declares—that one can be ignorant of the Gospel—wilfully or otherwise—and be nonetheless saved. Salvation, then, would be something based on a person’s sincerity and ‘genuine desire for God’ rather than on God’s genuine love for a person, shown by His revealing His Gospel to them and providing the faith to believe it. Any gospel that is not THE Gospel simply cannot save. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mk. 16:16).

The true Christian Faith is not a religion, nor is it primarily a lifestyle. True Christianity is all about a message—God’s Message—the Gospel, in which the Righteousness of Christ is revealed. This Gospel reveals the spiritual condition of man and God’s way of salvation. Salvation is deliverance. It means to be rescued or freed from a place of danger and brought to a place of safety. It also means to be preserved, to be kept. Salvation is God saving, or rescuing, a sinner from the eternal punishment rightly due unto his sin and transferring him to a state of eternal safety and security, where the law no longer demands punishment and Justice is satisfied. Now, how does He do this?

Before we answer that we need to find out why salvation is necessary in the first place and to do this, we need to revisit what God says about the spiritual condition of man. In the Book of Genesis we see the account of Adam and Eve. God made Adam and Eve perfect, free of sin, and gave them a beautiful garden to live in and enjoy, with wonderful trees providing succulent fruits. Their life was one of tranquil days of love, happiness, contentment and of peace with God. God said they could eat from any tree in the Garden but warned that "...of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). Death, previously unknown, would enter their lives—not merely physical death, but of greater significance, spiritual death. To their shame Adam and Eve did eat of the forbidden fruit and death did enter their lives that very day, just as God had promised. Physically, they did not die immediately but the ageing process of decay and corruption, the breakdown of their physical bodies, did begin that day. However, they did immediately die spiritually. They were no longer acceptable to God for they had become sinners and were unclean in His sight. This death, both physical and spiritual, has passed on to every person ever since. The Scriptural evidence for this is abundant. "...by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon ALL men..." (Rom. 5:12). This is because Adam, the first man, was made the representative of all mankind by God. As their representative, Adam’s sin was imputed (charged) to them, his descendants, the entire human race: "...by one man’s disobedience (the) many (those he represented) were made sinners..." (Rom. 5:19). The fact that both you and I sin offers undeniable proof that we are sinners and shows that we come from the sin seed which began with Adam. Just as a grass seed will only produce grass, so too, the sin seed will only produce sinners. And every sinner needs a Savior.

Most people readily admit that they are not perfect, but a source of comfort for many is that they see themselves as only minor sinners. Most people’s assessment of themselves is along the lines of, ‘I am basically a good person. I know I’m not perfect but at least I’m not as bad as that person’. They judge themselves by comparing themselves with others they deem not to be as moral or charitable as they, and according to this standard, they judge themselves to be basically good people, and, to the religiously minded, right with God. Everyone can find someone who has sinned worse than they have, with whom they are keen to compare themselves. Many do not see themselves as having committed any serious sin, which they consider to be something like murder, armed robbery or other such crimes of extreme violence. Man, filled with an ignorance based optimism produced by his natural fallen condition, sees reason to be hopeful, mainly because of the sins he has not committed, but turning a blind, yet convenient eye, or remaining in wilfull ignorance, to those which he has done. To think like this is to miss the whole point. While it is true that some have sinned more than others, and to worse degrees, the reality, not to mention the gravity, of the situation is that we have ALL sinned against God: "For ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). We may be able to impress one another with our moral lifestyles and charitable natures and be seen by our fellow man as righteous, but in God’s eyes all are sinners and all come far short of His standard of approval, His glory. Man has missed the mark, or target, and as for having registered points with God by his feeble attempts to make amends for his sins, by doing ‘good’—man isn’t even on the scoreboard! Man in his lost state is under the impression that if he does his best then God will accept him, for what more can a person do than his best? This is the sin that deceives every man by nature (his unsaved state). The fact that we are not perfect shows conclusively that we are sinners in need of a Savior, and that we can do nothing to save ourselves. This also means that even at his best, no man can turn to God and choose Him, for no man seeks Him. God says, "...every man AT HIS BEST state is altogether vanity (unsatisfactory)" (Psa. 39:5); "...they are together become unprofitable..." (Rom. 3:12 cf. Jn. 6:63; Rom. 7:18). The best a man can do to recommend himself to God falls far short of the perfection which God demands: "...we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses (good deeds) are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities (sins), like the wind, have taken us away" (Isa. 64:6). Notice that this verse of Scripture is not talking about our bad deeds being unacceptable, for that is something which is obvious to all, but that our very best deeds are as filthy rags in the sight of the Holy God. Religion teaches that our best deeds will recommend us to God, but God says that even at our best we fall far short of His Standard of acceptance. This is because we are sinners and all we do is imperfect and therefore unacceptable to a Perfect God. God’s accepting man in this condition would be unfair to His Holiness. If our best deeds are as filthy rags, one can only imagine how our worst deeds appear in God’s sight. It is obvious that man needs something far greater than his best deeds, and someone far greater than any mortal man could ever be, in order to be saved—made acceptable in God’s sight. The doctrine that teaches man is dead to God and consequently that there is nothing he can do to recommend himself to God, including choosing God with so called ‘free will,’ is so vital to knowing the true God that if one does not believe this, then one joins with the Arminian in believing and promoting Satan’s lie to Eve that she would not surely die (Gen. 3:4) for they say, ‘we are not surely dead’. Thus they are guilty of saying that Christ’s death was in vain: "...if righteousness (right standing with God) come by (obedience to) the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal. 2:21). This obedience includes choosing and coming to God based upon one’s so-called free will, which in the context is an act of obedience on the part of man upon which he has conditioned salvation. When speaking to the most religious people of His day, Jesus said, "...ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (Matt. 23:28). Man judges according to the outward appearance but God judges according to what is in man: "...for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7), and at the core of every man is the sin seed: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9).

No matter how ‘good’ a man can become, all his efforts fail to address the root problem: his sin nature. If I may use the following illustration, man trying to get to God by what he does is like a man who has one foot nailed to the floor. No matter how much the man struggles or runs, the best he can ever do is go around in circles! He never gets anywhere because the root problem, the reason why he runs around in circles and never achieves anything, has not been addressed! For a solution to all this, the root problem must be addressed, which in this case is that his foot is anchored to the floor. The fact that we are sinners, with no redeeming quality, is that which condemns us and it is a fact which none of us can change. It is the root problem and for it to be dealt with effectively, it must be dealt with by God His Way. Nothing we do, don’t do, or stop doing can alter our sinful nature one bit. A rotten apple, no matter how fragrant it’s aroma may be, can never alter the fact that it is ROTTEN! And no one is going to accept a rotten apple to eat, no matter how fragrant it is! So too, God will never accept an imperfect and sinful man, no matter how many ‘good things’ he might do, because his good deeds are all imperfect and can never do away with his rotten sinful state. No matter how many times a person believes they have obeyed the speed limit, this can never undo, or make up for, the instance when they broke the speed limit, and the full penalty must be paid. That you have broken the law cannot be excused simply because you had, up until that time, not broken it. Man’s condition, and the fact that he can do nothing to change his state before God, is highlighted by God Himself in the following verse: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil" (Jer. 13:23). The Word of God also says, "...verily every man AT HIS BEST state is altogether vanity" (Psa. 39:5); "...there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom. 3:12); "For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" (Eccl. 7:20). Where there is imperfection there is sin and where there is sin there can never be perfection, and therefore no grounds for acceptance with God. One must have all his sin removed and perfection put in its place, in order to be right with God. Despite all of man’s enthusiastic religious endeavors, including the erroneous belief that he can choose God at any time, the Lord says, "...There is NONE righteous, no, not one: there is NONE that understandeth, there is NONE THAT SEEKETH after God. They are ALL gone out of the way, they are together become UNPROFITABLE; there is NONE that doeth good, no, NOT ONE" (Rom. 3:10-12). Now if man did have a free will, he would have the capacity to choose God. The whole purpose of God in giving man a ‘free will’ would have been so that some at least would choose him. And so in light of this, would it not be proper to say that some, by choosing God, have done a good thing? But how can any have done this good and noble thing, choosing God, when we have just heard that God Himself states that "THERE IS NONE THAT DOETH GOOD!!" Quite a dilemma isn’t it?

The standard by which we are to judge ourselves is the one that God has set: perfection—and if we are honest, we will admit that we are imperfect. We all fail the test no matter how ‘good’ we are or how much better than others we believe ourselves to be. The greatest commandment is to love God with all our being (perfectly). The Lord Jesus says: "...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law..." (Matt. 22:37-40). No one, not even the most religious person around, could ever say he has loved God perfectly and his fellow man as himself. So we see then that, far from being guilty of only ‘minor sins’, we all stand guilty before God of the greatest sins. Consequently, the concept of ‘minor’ sins is a false one. Moreover, to break even one of God’s laws is to be guilty of violating the Law as a whole: "For whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (Jas. 2:10), and God has made clear to us the penalty for sin: "For the wages of sin is death..." (Rom. 6:23). Sinners cannot be saved by their obedience to the Law of God, for we have rendered it impossible that any of us should be justified and saved by the Law, in that we have broken the law and thus exposed ourselves to the penalty of the Law: "...cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to them" (Gal. 3:10).

Society often gets into an uproar when a judge lets a criminal off with just a warning or hands down a light sentence. The judge that does this is actually perverting justice, he is not a just judge. He might be showing mercy, but that mercy comes at the expense of the justice he claims to be a servant of. When someone commits a crime, they should pay the full penalty that the law demands for that crime. God’s Justice, on the other hand, is never perverted, or left unsatisfied because of His mercy. While it is true that God is a God of love and mercy, it is just as true and vitally important to note that He is also a Just God, a Just Judge. God never sacrifices His Holiness to His love and mercy. God never shows mercy at the expense of His Justice. God did not even spare His own Son from being delivered up unto death when the sins of His elect were charged to Him (see Rom. 8:32). God declares of Himself: "...The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin...WILL BY NO MEANS CLEAR THE GUILTY..." (Ex. 34:6,7) and "...there is no God else beside Me; a Just God and a Saviour..." (Isa. 45:21). In order for God to be the Savior and at the same time Just, without perverting His justice, His law must be obeyed perfectly and His justice, which demands full payment for sin, must be satisfied. How could this be accomplished? How could God save anyone based on perfect obedience and full payment for sin when no man is able to meet these demands? Therefore, how could God remain Just and at the same time be the justifier of the ungodly?

God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus Christ, into the world. Jesus was conceived in the womb of a virgin by the agency of God the Holy Spirit. He was not born of the seed of man and therefore did not carry within Him the sin seed, which is resident in every man (Lk. 1:31,35). He did not descend from Adam but came down from Heaven and was therefore without sin. Consequently, He and all that He did, was wholly acceptable to God (Matt. 3:17). Just as Adam is a representative, so too is Christ. But while Adam is the representative of all mankind, evidenced by the fact that all have sinned, Jesus Christ is the Representative of all those God gave Him—those whom God chose to save—through faith in His Gospel. The fact that Christ was not the representative of all, but only of those whom God gave Him, His elect, is evidenced and made obvious by the fact that not all believe/will believe His Gospel. These, and these alone, are the ones Christ laid down His life for. Writing to believers, the apostle Paul said, "...God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth (faith); whereunto He called you by our Gospel..." (2 Thess. 2:13); "As Thou (the Father) hast given Him (the Son) power over all flesh, that He (the Son) should give eternal life to as many as Thou (the Father) hast GIVEN Him" (Jn. 17:3). Being chosen by God for salvation was not something that could be earned or merited, it was not a reward, for the choice was made by God before the creation of any man, solely according to His Will: "(God) hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, NOT ACCORDING TO OUR WORKS, but according to His own purpose and grace, which WAS GIVEN US in Christ Jesus BEFORE the world began" (2 Tim. 1:9 cf. Titus 3:5); "...He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world...Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, ACCORDING TO the good pleasure of HIS WILL" (Eph. 1:4,5). "The elect of God are chosen by Him to be His children, in order that they might be made to believe, not because He foresaw that they would believe." Faith, like everything else pertaining to salvation, is a gift given by God, it does not originate within ourselves: "For by grace (unmerited favor) are ye saved through faith; and that NOT OF YOURSELVES: it (faith) is the GIFT of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8,9). There is no such thing as a self-made Christian: "For we are HIS workmanship created in Christ Jesus..." (Eph. 2:10). Saving faith ALWAYS believes THE TRUE Gospel, never a false one, for it is the faith that comes from God (2 Thess. 2:13,14). The faith which does not save, which does not come from God as His gift, is that which believes that salvation can either come before or without belief in God’s only Gospel. The Faith that God gives finds comfort, refuge and security ONLY in the doctrine of Christ. The faith that God does not give finds comfort, refuge and security in anything but the doctrine of Christ.

Jesus Christ is the Substitute of all those God chose to save, of all those the Father chose/elected and gave to Him. As their Substitute, He lived the life of perfect obedience to God’s Law that none of them ever could, thus providing the obedience they needed to become right with God: "...by the obedience of ONE (Jesus) shall (the) many (those He represented) be made righteous" (Rom. 5:19). As their Substitute, He died and was resurrected, thus paying the penalty in full for their sins: "(Jesus) was delivered for our (those He represented) offences, and was raised again for our justification (acquittal)" (Rom. 4:25). Jesus blotted out "...the handwriting of ordinances that was against us (those He represented)...and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross" (Col. 2:13,14). God’s Word says that all the sins of those for whom Christ died were transferred to Him, and that His Righteousness would be charged to them: "For He hath made Him (Christ) to be sin (a sin offering) for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21 cf. Rom. 4:6,8). He Who did no sin was charged with the sin of others, and they who did no righteousness, were charged with the Righteousness of Him. God will not, indeed cannot, charge sin to those for whom Christ died, for all their sin has been imputed to Him and His Righteousness to them! All those for whom Christ was made sin are those who will never perish, for they have been made the righteousness of God in Him (see Gal. 3:13), and they are loved of God just as much as Jesus is (see Jn. 17:23). Just as Adam’s sin was imputed to all he represented, thus condemning them, Christ’s Righteousness is imputed to all He represented, thus justifying them (making them righteous). Man is judged a sinner even before he is born, before he has done any evil, for he carries within him the sin seed and is conceived in sin, going astray from the womb (Rom. 5:13,14 & Psa. 51:5 & Psa. 58:3). Ever noticed that children, even at a very young age, don’t need to be taught to do wrong, IT JUST COMES NATURALLY!? All those Christ represented (lived and died for) WILL BE SAVED: "Therefore as by the offence of one (Adam) judgement came upon all men (all he represented) to condemnation; EVEN SO by the righteousness of One (Christ) the free gift came upon all men (all He represented) unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience (the) many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall (the) many be made righteous" (Rom. 5:18,19). The imputation to Christ of the sins of God’s chosen people and Christ’s Righteousness being imputed to them, is the only way that God can remain Just and at the same time be the Justifier of sinners. The penalty for the sins of God’s chosen has been paid in full in and through Christ’s death, and the perfect righteousness for their justification has been established by Christ’s perfect obedience unto death. "To declare, I say, at this time HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS: that HE might be Just AND the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). Man could never be justified by his imperfect righteousness, but only by the perfect Righteousness of a Substitute, Jesus Christ. God’s Law has been fully and perfectly obeyed by Christ, His atoning blood has been shed, and the resulting Righteousness charged to all those whom the Father gave Him. "...David...describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works....Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Rom. 4:6,8). There is no reason for those chosen by God to perish, and therefore none of them ever will, for their sins have been charged to Another and they now have the Righteousness of Christ. God’s Justice has been fully satisfied by Christ’s death on the cross for the sins of His people. Christ’s death on the cross was His offering to the Father on behalf of all those the Father gave Him to die for and redeem. This sacrifice was accepted by God and thus all for whom this sacrifice was made are shown to be the chosen of God, the redeemed of God, the elect of God, THE BELIEVERS in God. No one for whom He has died shall be cast into Hell, and, He has died for no one who is cast into Hell. To be truly saved, one must EXPECT NOTHING MORE and ACCEPT NOTHING LESS than Christ’s glorious Righteousness as that which ALONE is necessary to attain and maintain a state of salvation from beginning to final glory.

The popular, yet false, belief that there are many religious paths one can travel but that all lead to the true God, is a lie from Hell which continues to deceive people to this day. How can one group, for instance, that teaches that Jesus is not God and another that teaches that Jesus is God, both be right and leading people to the same God? Likewise, how can one who says that Christ’s death has accomplished eternal redemption for all for whom He died be teaching the same jesus whom the Arminians say only made salvation possible, attainable, for all if only they would choose him? Once something like this is pointed out it becomes clear that all the different religions, even the multitude of ‘christian’ denominations, do not lead to the same god, let alone the True God, for not only do they differ greatly in what they say about God and the way to salvation, they often totally contradict each other. There are many wrong answers that can be given to 2 + 2, but there is only one correct answer. So too, there are many false gods and many false christs in religion’s supermarket, although this can never erase the fact that there is only ONE TRUE God and that there is only ONE TRUE Christ. Just as your answer to an equation will reveal whether you know the correct one or not, what you say about God and about Jesus Christ will show whether you believe in the True, or in one of the many counterfeits which cannot save. God warns that many "...pray unto a god that CANNOT save" (Isa. 45:20). Only ONE road leads to God: "Jesus saith.., I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (Jn. 14:6) and "I am the Door: by ME if any man enter in, he shall be saved..." (Jn. 10:9).

Religion, even that which professes to be ‘christian’, claims to know what it is that man can do to ‘make his peace with God’. But their teachings about salvation are false, for they all teach that man must, thereby implying that he can, do something in order to get saved and/or stay saved. ALL OF RELIGION CLAIMS THAT THERE IS SOME INHERENT QUALITY IN EVERY MAN THAT CAN CAUSE HIM TO REACH OUT TO GOD, OR THAT THERE ARE DEEDS MAN CAN DO WHICH WILL RECOMMEND HIM TO GOD. This is the identifying mark of religion’s false gospel. Religion has lied to man in saying that by a man’s will and work he can come to God. The Lord Jesus says, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him..." (Jn. 6:44). Notice that man’s coming is not according to his choice, but exclusively that of the Father’s. Man’s inability to come to the Lord proves conclusively that there is nothing intrinsic in him that can prompt a choice for God. Jesus is saying that no man can come to God unless God has come to the man first. He did not say none will come unless they choose Him but that none CAN come unless the Father draws them. True Christianity is not about what we must do to get saved, but about what Christ has done to save His people from their sins. The word religion comes from the Latin word religare meaning to tie up, or to bind. Religion binds you to a system of laws and duties which must be obeyed if you are to see Heaven and if disobeyed will condemn you to Hell. God declares in His Holy Word that man cannot do anything to get saved—HE CANNOT CHOOSE TO BE SAVED—or stay saved, that salvation is 100% God’s work from start to finish—from beginning to final glory—and that no one is saved who believes contrary to this. Can the reader not see that the doctrine of free will leaves room for a man to boast that he has done something to begin a process of salvation, even if he attributes his decision for God to God, and that only the doctrine of God’s Sovereign election is that which removes any ground upon which man can boast? Salvation by grace is NOT God enabling the sinner to do something which will recommend him to God. Salvation by grace is God doing EVERYTHING that was necessary to ensure the SALVATION of His elect and MAINTAIN it. This is why salvation is according to the promise of God and not the deeds of man. In order for salvation to be by grace, it must be by the faith given by God, not by a work done by man: "Therefore it is OF FAITH, THAT IT MIGHT BE BY GRACE; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed..." (Rom. 4:16). Everything outside the Gospel of God seeks to usurp, or at the very least share, the glory for salvation which alone is God’s. Only God’s Gospel gives Him ALL the glory for salvation. What better news could there possibly be for man than to learn that God, Who demands perfection, does not save sinners based on their imperfect efforts—He cannot, for they can never meet His requirements—but on the perfect obedience unto death (the Righteousness) of Jesus Christ? The Bible does not say that obedience is unnecessary, that one can simply believe in Christ and then live as one pleases (see Rom. 6:1,2). Obedience is very important in the life of a saved sinner, but that obedience is not what saved him or keeps him saved! To believe that it is, is to believe another gospel which denies the completeness of the Righteousness of Christ to save and maintain salvation and says that one needs to, at least to some degree, establish one’s own righteousness in order to get saved or ensure one remains saved. The saved man is "...complete in Him" (Col. 2:10). The Christian is "...sanctified by God the Father, and PRESERVED in Jesus Christ..." (Jd. 1 cf. Psa. 97:10). The word preserved here means to keep an eye on, to guard from loss or injury; "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO (not because of) good works" (Eph. 2:10). Anyone who bases their salvation, or believes it to be in any way to any degree dependant, on what they do and don’t do, shows that they are not submitted to the Righteousness of Christ, but instead are seeking to establish a righteousness of their own (see Rom. 10:1-4). A salvation conditioned to any degree on a man’s obedience would be unsustainable. Unless it is all conditioned and reliant on Christ it cannot even exist, let alone last. Again, a believer’s obedience is important, but it is only by the obedience of ONE, Jesus Christ, that a man is made righteous and that state of righteousness is sustained (Rom. 5:19).

This is the Gospel that saves. This is God’s Good News. Only those who believe the Gospel, which reveals Christ’s Righteousness alone as that which saves sinners and keeps them saved, will enter into Heaven with nothing to fear. Those who do not believe this Gospel shall be damned—condemned to Hell forever (Mk. 16:16). Scripture says that the day is coming when "...the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, AND THAT OBEY NOT THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST" (2 Thess. 1:7,8). No matter how many ‘good deeds’ a man may perform, they can never be a substitute for his ignorance/disbelief of the True Gospel. The righteousness, or good works, of man, which includes his so-called free-will decision for God, coupled with belief in a mere handful of Bible truths, is no safe conduit to salvation but rather a raging torrent that will take him to the waterfall and drop him to his doom. Man’s righteousness is not the Perfect Righteousness of Christ’s, therefore his sins remain charged to him. Those whom the Lord is not willing should perish, never will perish, for they have been provided with a Savior Whose Righteousness alone saves. God has given them to Christ, He has committed and entrusted to the charge, or care, of Christ the Savior, all those whom He is not willing should perish and they shall all be saved. These are God’s sheep, they hear His voice and believe and follow Him. Just as the Father has given them to His Son, so too, He has given His Son as Savior to THEM!

A cursory reading of the Scriptures often leaves a person with only a superficial understanding of what God is saying and not the proper one. Those who refuse to study and ‘dig deeper’ into a verse or doctrine, display an attitude of prejudice. He who does not reason from the Scriptures, reveals a bias against that which he fears he may discover will prove what he believes to be wrong. He who will not reason from the Scriptures is a slave to that which he holds to, which he is not willing to have examined and therefore not permit it to be challenged, even by the Light of God’s Word. He has pre-judged something based on inadequate, insufficient, or false, information, refusing to allow himself to view ALL the evidence. Such a person reveals an unteachable spirit and an unwillingness to stand corrected and see God’s Truth. He is enslaved to the traditions of men and religious institutions, wilfully ignorant of what God’s Word is saying. Such a person is in a religious comfort zone. All he has is a vain religion, the god of which cannot save him. "To act without clear understanding; to form habits without investigation; to follow a path all one’s life without knowing where it really leads, SUCH IS THE BEHAVIOR OF THE MULTITUDE."

The only ‘qualification’ required, in human terms, for one to be saved is: "..believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved..." (Acts 16:31). The very next verse in this chapter reveals that those who gave this answer to the man who asked, "What must I do to be saved?" "...spake unto him the WORD OF THE LORD..." The context of this chapter shows that the Word of the Lord which they taught the man was indeed the GOSPEL (see Acts 16:10). The only way one can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to hear God’s only Gospel wherein Christ and His Righteousness is revealed: "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17). True saving faith will not come by hearing any other gospel—which is filled with words other than God’s Word. The Scriptures make clear that saving faith is not something that comes from man, but is a gift given to man by the grace of God which believes in no other gospel but God’s unique and only Gospel (see Eph. 2:8).

"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth....for THEREIN is the righteousness of God revealed..." (Rom. 1:16,17).

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