This series ends where it started, “…Salvation is of the LORD” (Jonah 2:9). The conclusion of the Scriptural evidence that Salvation (1) began in Eternity Past, in the Eternal Purpose in Christ Jesus; called Eternal Justification (Ephesians 1:3-11); (2) was worked out on the Cross by Christ in His vicarious and expiatory Sacrifice in payment for the sinner’s sin debt (eternal death); called Judicial Justification (Romans 3:24-25; 5:1-2); and (3) the sinner, in Regeneration, receives this knowledge of his Eternal and Judicial Justification in the Atonement of Christ; called Experiential Justification, is overwhelming.

(See John 1:12-13; 6:44-45, 63; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:8-9; Romans 8:1-16; Galatians 4:1-7.)

Then the question arises, “What is man’s part?” Man’s part is two-fold:

First: “Receiving” (John 1:11-13) “…But as many as received him…” So the man who wants to have a part in his Salvation says, “If I don’t receive Him, He will not come into my heart.” The objections to this are:

(a) “Receiving” is passive; not active.

(1 Corinthians 4:7) “For 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?”

 Otherwise, you could boast. (See Romans 4:16; 11:6; Ephesians 2:8-9.)

(John 1:12-13) “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: (13) Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The receiver is a prepared receptacle made to receive. This receiving is passive by the sinner; but made active in the sinner by the Sovereign Work of the Spirit of God in Regeneration (which verse 13 above proves). Salvation is a Gift (Ephesians 2:8-9); from beginning to end. Salvation is of the Lord (in Eternal Justification, in Judicial Justification, and in Experiential Justification; it is God’s Work in the sinner that brings the sinner to confession).  It is all God’s work; from eternity past in the Eternal Purpose of God in Christ (Romans 8:29-30); to the Cross, where Christ made Atonement for the sin debt of sinners (Romans 3:24-25; 5:1-21); to the Work of the Spirit of God in Regeneration (Romans 8:14-16). Remember, God made the receptacle to receive. The clay did not make itself a receptacle to receive. The clay water pot, if placed under the water spout, receives. This is passive receiving, to which end the pot was formed by the Potter.

(b) You can’t receive if you can’t perceive what it is that you are receiving. Therefore, the sinner must be quickened and drawn (John 6:44-45, 63, 65; Ephesians 2:1).

Second: “Confession” is by mouth and by water baptism. But as already stated in this article, confession is proof of regeneration in the heart of the believer. It is the result of the New Birth or of Conversion.

When a human baby is born or birthed, then comes the cry. The cry does not give life (life begins at conception; only God can give life; John 6:63), but gives proof of life. Life and development of the sinner in the womb of grace, and then brought to birth, is all of the Spirit of God (John 3:8). Life is not dependent on your confession; but confession is the outward proof of the inward Life (Christ, Eternal Life; 1 John 3:24; 5:20) dwelling within the believer.

Believing (trusting, obeying, confession) is the result of regeneration, not the requirement or the cause. The Cause is the Spirit of God. He is Life (Romans 8:1-16).