The Source of Salvation
John 1:10-13
"He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
God knows how effective the temptation of pride can be, so He reminds us that we are wholly and completely dependent on Him. This is particularly true when it comes to the matter of our salvation. We do not get saved as a result of a long period when we are gradually trying to get closer and closer to God, reforming ourselves. Because of our sin nature, we have no interest in that. Paul wrote, “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (Romans 3:11).
Instead, salvation comes because God sent His Son to seek for us. God's love and mercy and grace are nowhere more clearly displayed than in the salvation of sinners. He wants us to be saved, or no one ever would be. Charles Spurgeon said, “Oh, if He had given up after the first ten years—if He had ceased to care for some of us after fifty different occasions in which we had choked conscience and quenched the Spirit, then we should have been lost! But He would not be turned away.”
In his poem “The Hound of Heaven” English writer Francis Thompson described God's message this way:
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
God's free offer of salvation was the result of His purpose and plan, not of anything that we are or have or can do. He offers it as a gift, and we have only to receive it. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).
Growth Principle:
We must never lose sight of the magnitude of the free gift of salvation—how much we needed it, and how only God provides it.