A Witness, a Testimony, and a Decision

God sent John the Baptist to witness about Jesus. His witness forces each person to consider, Will I reject Jesus or will I receive him? What will I do with Jesus?

John 1:13

If we are all lost in darkness, enjoying the perverse pleasures of sin, content to rebel against God, how do some believe? Verse 13 explains why some receive Jesus. Behind every decision a person makes to turn and receive Jesus stands the decision of God to give that person new life. We can only be saved through the direct intervention of God. Apart from his choice of us, we would never choose him.

Before we dive into the final phrase, “but of God,” which pulsates with the profound truth of God’s sovereignty, we should note three wrong reasons people think God saves them.

First, some think God saves people because of their racial or ethnic background(“not of natural descent”). This understanding pervaded Judaism in Christ’s day. There was a widespread belief that a person would be saved simply because Jewish blood flowed through his veins.

Second, some think God saves people because of their sincerity. The phrase “will of the flesh” pictures a man and a woman coming together with great passion to conceive a child. No matter how sincere or passionate you are about spiritual things, you will only be saved if God draws you to himself.

Third, some think God saves people because of their effort. The phrase “will of man” could be translated “will of the husband.” A husband and his wife can carefully plan to have a child, and their planning may pay off in nine months, but no man can plan his way into the family of God. No amount of work or human effort will bring a person spiritual life.

People will only experience the new birth if God chooses to regenerate them. Upholding every decision to believe is the foundation of God’s sovereign grace. James also attributes our new life to God’s choice: “By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth” (Jas 1:18; emphasis added).

Many people don’t like this teaching because it detracts from man’s efforts. That’s exactly the point! The truth that God chooses sinners and those sinners simply respond (not the other way around) elevates God and humbles us. And humility is exactly what we need. Everything that has happened to a Christian for good, especially his salvation, is directly attributable to the work of God in him. Nothing in him merited salvation. Even when he exercised faith, he did so because God gave him that gift (Eph 2:8-9).

Shannon Brown, a good friend of mine, found himself in China on Mother’s Day, 2006. He and his wife were there to pick up the newest member of their family—a ten-month-old girl who had been abandoned the day after she was born. A few months before they went overseas to meet her and bring her home, he had written about their decision to adopt:

I think within a nanosecond of deciding to adopt we knew what our daughter’s name would be. In fact, I don’t really ever recall discussing it that much. Perhaps it’s because of why we chose to adopt. Our driving motivation was to rescue a little girl and give her a family with hope for the future.

This helpless little girl who lives on the other side of the earth will receive all of the benefits of being my child. I will clothe her and feed her. She will take on my name and receive my deepest affection. She will be the object of my love. My energies will be directed towards helping, instructing and training her to be happy, with a secure knowledge that I will never leave her. I will pour out my heart to introduce her to the Savior of the world who can take away all her sins and give her eternal security.

Of course, all of this is done as we completely depend on God and his strength.

Where would we be without the love of God? Where would we be without him revealing himself to us in Scripture? Where would we be without him divinely sacrificing his own Son and seeking us out to rescue us?

So for us, and what this adoption is a reflection of, we only had one name to choose from . . . Grace. (Used by permission)

Is there a better word than grace to describe the adoption of this little girl? She could do nothing to become part of this family. No desire on her part would have connected her with this man and woman who would become mommy and daddy. Her adoption into this loving family was the result of someone outside of herself choosing to love her, to receive her, and to give her the right to be called their child. Someone had to do for her what she could not do for herself. That’s grace, and that’s exactly what happened to us who have believed on the name of Jesus. Like this little girl, we were helpless and hopeless until someone did for us what we could not do for ourselves. God chose to love us. He received us to himself, and he gave us the right to be called his children. This is grace.