I am, in the very moment of writing this, brought low in spirit once again to a place of gratefulness, thankfulness, and joy. I write to you not about what I have done in my life before the Lord saved me. And, if not before He saved me, it must surely not be about me after He has saved me. For that would only be a waste of our time. I am here to share the good news of what the LORD does for wretched sinners, and why He does it.

• He saves wretched sinners from hell and everlasting separation from Himself by imputing their guilt upon His Son, Jesus Christ, and thereby imputes the Son’s righteousness to the sinner, and therefore making them acceptable in His sight.

(see 1 Timothy 1:15-17; Romans 7:24-25).

• He saves wretched sinners for His glorious purposes so that He would be made known amongst every tribe, tongue and nation by those whose hearts before He regenerated them, hated Him. (see James 4:4).

I am not sure what you are familiar with when someone gives “their testimony”. I’d guess it could be, as seems is normally the case, how I accepted Jesus, where I was at when I did it, what I prayed when I did it, or if I “cried” (which we all know makes this whole prayer sincere anyways, right?. NO! I am not going to tell you that because it wouldn’t be sincere. It would basically be a lie. However, I cannot resist my understanding now, on this side of salvation, being made clearer through my reading of the Bible, that this work of salvation is indeed not about me. I did not save myself. I cannot save myself. Christ, however, can! And He, in His loving kindness, did!

Being on the “saved side” of salvation, I am actually able to say with full confidence in the Son of God, that Jesus is LORD, and that He gave His life for my ransom, and thereby alone, being given the ability to know the Truth. I would much rather Christ save me when He is ready, and Him do so at the moment He has initiated, (which He did by the way) rather than me “inviting Him into my heart” when I am ready and feel like it, or even worse, making sure I have spent enough time “praying about it” to make sure it is “really what I want” in life. Which, I did by the way, many years ago, and it proved fruitless. Who was I even praying to for that matter, right?

First of all, this latter, more popular, desirous view, is not a Biblical approach to understanding salvation. Second, the real result of this type of ‘inviting’ view of salvation, is supported with Scripture only in reference to the actual condition of the heart of man being wicked and deceitful, and that no good thing can come of it. You decide if that is a salvific claim you want to put your hope in. Third, Scripture also supports the true reality of this unbiblical view of salvation, in that no one can say that “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor. 12:3) except by the Holy Spirit. Or rather, man can only make this statement by way of true belief, which alone comes from a regenerated heart by the Holy Spirit’s work alone. In like manner, a personal prayer to Jesus of “asking or inviting Him into your heart” upon your request, does not, however, motivate God, nor does it require Him in that moment, to grant to you the salvific work He alone does by His own initiation. Which, He in His own will, sets apart for the moment He saves you by the Holy Spirit, giving you a new heart, awakening you to the Truth of the Gospel, and thereby you recognize the deadness of your heart without Him, and you thereafter repent of your sin and boldly confess with your mouth, and believe with your new mind, this being your new “heart”, that Christ is not only your Lord and Savior, but that He is also the only Lord of all!

“I didn’t invite Jesus into my heart; He gave me a new one”- Scotty Smith

Might I add, in relation to this “accepting Jesus into your heart”, would only imply then, if it be with true genuine repentance and sincerity of heart, and you have professed “Jesus is LORD”, your mind was changed before those words were conceived and then born from your lips. You possess the Spirit of God within you first. Before then, there was no desire within you to know such glory and majesty and forgiveness and love and a hatred for your sin. Therefore, I conclude and know, because I testify it happened to me, that regeneration precedes faith! And now thereby alone,

I, like-minded with John say, He must increase, but I must decrease (see John 3:30).

I, like-minded with Paul say, For I decided to know nothing among you but Christ and Him crucified (see 1 Cor. 2:2).

My testimony, although being of the experience I had in the conversion of my heart from self to Christ, is yet still only a blip of an expression of that which only God can do, and has done by His grace alone, through the gift of faith alone, in His Son Christ alone, in accordance with the Scriptures alone, for His glory alone.

Think about this: When Christ, the beloved Son of God died on the Cross, God the Father looked away (Matt. 27:46). In my years of going to church, I would hear this and wonder why God would do such a thing. No preacher would stop to ponder or help confused people like me understand the reality of “God the Father looking away from His only begotten Son”. This utterly crushed the Son! And the best way I can translate that, is that this great exchange of the righteousness of Christ being given to those wretched, God-hating sinners, for whom He died, happened when God the Father looked away from Christ, His only begotten Son.

There was only one thing about Christ that caused the Father to look away, and that was His only begotten Son Whom He divinely loved, taking on the sin of those He chose from the foundations of the world, and imputing to us the righteousness that God required to save such a wretched people. Yet at the same time, as we read in Isaiah 53:10, “God the Father was pleased to crush Him”.

I have read this many times as an unsaved cultural christian. But at my conversion, with an awakened mind, opened eyes, and a softened heart, was different as I actually pondered this anew. I thought about my very state of unbelief, my unrepentant heart, and my unconfessed sin, which is when all of this was taking place, and the moment I truly believe the Lord saved me.

This Isaiah 53 passage ministered to my heart (or my conscience) the love of God by the Holy Spirit. I repented of my sin and believed upon the beloved, sinless Son of God; our everlasting, precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory!

I must admit I never thought about this in regards to sin, nor did I think about God’s love for not only His Son, but His love for me at that very moment. I cannot grasp the thought of me being Known by God before I was even born, much less grasp the immense love He has for all those who would come to Know Him, or rather those He has chosen to reveal Himself to by His very own initiation and perfect timing; (See Romans 9:11). This is the effectual call, as the 1689 London Baptist Confession states in chapter 10 section 2. (Read)

I look back at times like that and many other events in my life and see the hand of God. And as this testimony goes, so do those moments God had His hand upon my life, which alludes to the fact that I clearly had nothing to do with it. In fact, I didn’t want anything to do with it. I had to understand the Gospel in the Light of the glory of Christ alone. Christ alone had to do the work, or else I would still be lost in sin, and I would still not want anything to do with Him. Or His Word. Or His people!

It wasn’t a genuine prayer of repentance that generated the Salvation of Christ to my heart.

But It is the very power of the Holy Spirit’s work that would cause me to pray such a genuine prayer for desires opposing those I once loved. Praise the Lord for the glorious gift of salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord! What an amazing, oxymoronic way to save His people! So that we can know this work of Christ alone! Yet not I, but through Christ in me!

It is an awesome thought of how the Lord saves people who are dead in sin. While rejecting God, ignoring God, hating God, and having no desire for God, He takes their stone-cold, hardened, dark, disgusting, sick heart against Him, and turns it into a heart of flesh so that we may get a glimpse of His majesty, and be summoned and humbled by His Holiness, and hear His call to “repent and believe in the gospel” and live for Him. (Mark 1:15b). And this indeed is what God has done for me in Christ, His only begotten and beloved Son.

Amongst many glorious passages of Scripture that illuminate God’s purposes for redemption, I come to none other than Ephesians 2:1-10, which will conclude, as I mentioned earlier, my expression of what God has gloriously accomplished for all believers in Christ the Son, by grace through faith. (Read Eph. 2:1-10) Amen! Thank you for your time!

May Christ alone be glorified!