We ask the question,
Why is someone a Christian?And we might answer—we probably usually answer—Because he believed the gospel.And that is true, and importantly true. But then we go on and ask,Why did he believe and others did not?They both heard the same message. One believed; the other did not. Is it therefore that there was something commendable in the Christian—there was something more spiritually pliable in him or her, something that was more receptive to the Word of God? If so, then our salvation will eternally rest upon that—something in us that caused us and made us to believe whereas the other did not. But the Bible says no. That is not it at all.Salvation is not caused by anything in the Christian but because of God’s sovereign election of individuals to be saved through faith in Christ. And God will work that faith in us. It is not a faith that arises out of our own resources. It arises out of the sovereign grace of God.
Now, my friends, what good news that is for us—that we rest our salvation hopes not on anything that originates or must be sustained within ourselves. After all, isn’t it true that we are so weak and changing? We are so mixed in our affections. We are so inconstant in our faith. I like to say, I thank God that I do not have faith in my faith. I am not relying on my faith, on my believing, me generating faith to save me. Oh, I am going to be saved through faith—but my salvation, our salvation, rests on the sovereign grace of God, beginning with his predestination and choice in eternity past. Paul’s firmest and ultimate cause for thanking God for the Thessalonians’ salvation is found in this verse: “For he has chosen you.”1
Richard D. Phillips
4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,