Ephesians 1:4-7
4 According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the Beloved.
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
As a long-time discipler of men, I've often heard them say, in the "new believer" stage, something like, "I keep sinning. I ask God for forgiveness, but I think I've asked too many times. I feel like maybe I'm not saved anymore, that God has cast me out of His family. How can He forgive me when I keep falling into sin? Will God take me back even though I keep messing up?"
At the heart of statements like these is a fundamental misunderstanding of the Gospel. As the great hymn "Rock of Ages" declares,
"Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace:
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Savior, or I die."
No one comes to God with something that He needs, with something they have that He doesn't. God extends Himself to the lost person through the offer of salvation solely because of
His loving, merciful, gracious nature. The idea that God sent His Son to die for us because "we were worth it" is deeply false, a lie that appeals to the very thing that keeps us from God: Self. In actuality, God reaches out to the lost individual when they are in a condition rightfully deserving of His wrathful judgment; when, in fact, they are at enmity with Him, rebels shaking their fists in His face, living constantly in defiance of His will and way.
Titus 3:3-6
3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
Colossians 1:21-22
21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,
22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—
Ephesians 2:1-5
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Of course, the lost person's evil condition doesn't necessarily manifest in overt displays of outrageous wickedness: murder, rape, theft, gross sexual perversity, etc. The average unrepentant sinner is rarely as evil as they could be, constrained by social conventions, laws of the land, and their own conscience. They look over at the Jeffrey Dahmer's, or Adolf Hitler's, or Bin Laden's of the world and comfort themselves that, however immoral they may be, they aren't anywhere as bad as these evil madmen. Under this "I'm not as bad as the worst of us" thinking, it's...difficult to accept what God says about them in the passages above. But if there is any doubt as to God's view of their sin, they need only consider the following passages:
Proverbs 6:16-19
16 There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood,
18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil,
19 A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.
James 2:10
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
God's standard of righteousness isn't our own. He regards a proud, arrogant look on a person's face as much a moral abomination as murder! The one who lies is as abominable in God's eyes as the murderer. The person who pits people against one another, causing strife among them, is also as abominable to God as any murderer.
In regards to God's view of the lost person the situation is worse still: God's standard for His acceptance of anyone is
His own perfectly, holy, righteousness; not the worst moral monster to which we can compare ourselves, by which comparison we think ourselves pretty wonderful. No, God says to us, "Be holy as I am holy," which makes His acceptance of us, on the basis of our conduct, impossible. If we break any
one of the "links" of the "chain" of God's Moral Law, we've broken the entire chain and stand as guilty before God as if we'd broken every one of the "links" individually.
So, no one comes to God for salvation having earned His acceptance of them in any measure. As the hymnist wrote, "Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to thy cross I cling."
2 Timothy 1:9
9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Continued below.
