Acts 15:11
No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
The context of this passage is during a meeting of believers where they were discussing this new thing of the Holy Spirit being given to Gentiles. To me, this quote from Peter clearly lines up with the rest of Scripture. There is no requirement that has to be met before God saves. It is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved, just as all are. It is God’s grace that saves - not our faith, not our belief, and not our repentance. All those things and many others are the RESULT of God’s application of His Grace to our lives.
As proof I go right back to the Scriptures that I’ve been sending. If a lost man believed and repented, that would be pleasing to God, correct? Well Romans 8:8 says a lost man (a man controlled completely by the flesh or sinful nature) can NOT please God. There are no ifs, ands, buts, or excepts to that Scripture. So no matter how you look at it, a lost man believing and repenting would not get him saved because #1 it would be works - an action taken by man to gain salvation; #2 it would not be pleasing to God anyway because a lost man can not please God; and #3 it would make God a respecter of persons in that He saves only those who first believe and repent - and God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34).
A lost man following the prodding of the Holy Spirit would have to understand Truth, correct? Or at least he would have to consider it NOT foolishness. Well, 1 Corinthians 2:14 clearly says a lost man understands NOTHING from the Holy Spirit because it is foolishness to him, and he WON’T accept it. In that passage Paul tells us that a lost man will NEVER follow the “prodding” of the Holy Spirit.
I could go on but the bottom line is that we are saved by God’s Grace. Yes, God’s grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8), His faith, but it is God who measures out what faith we have (Romans 12:3) - and in the case of the lost, the lack of faith. They don’t have faith because God hasn’t given it to them. Just as Moses told the Israelites in the wilderness the LORD has not given them a mind that understands, eyes that see, or ears that hear (Deuteronomy 29:4).
Jesus raises up EVERY man God draws (John 6:44), NOT every man who “accepts” the drawing.
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