There are basically only two religions in the whole world. The one begins with the free will of man, and the other begins with the sovereignty of God. The first one keeps telling you what “you must do” for God, and the second declares what “God has done for you” that you could not do for yourself. The religion of “free will” pictures salvation as a possibility for all men if they are willing to cooperate with God by believing. The religion of free grace presents salvation as a certainty for all of the elect of God because God gives faith as a gift. Does your preacher keep emphasizing “do,” or does he talk about “done”?
The many varieties of the religion based on man’s free will differ only on what man must do in order to find acceptance with God. One says he must go to Mecca and kiss the sacred rock; another says he must bathe in the Ganges River; another says he must be baptized by immersion; and others say he must produce faith with his free will. The theological term for this view is auto-soteriology, which means “self-salvation,” or salvation depending, in some sense, on man’s cooperation with God. The religion of free grace is called theo-soteriology, which means “salvation depending wholly on God’s grace and power.” The biblical gospel is “God saves sinners”–period. That means God (all by himself with no help at all from the sinner) saves (actually and truly and not merely “tries to save”) sinners (helpless, hopeless, guilty, hell-deserving people who can do absolutely nothing to earn or merit God’s favor). The gospel is not “God gives every man a chance to be saved if the sinner will only cooperate by furnishing the necessary faith.” In theo-soteriology, all of the glory belongs to God alone because his sovereign grace and power alone is what makes the difference. In auto-soteriology, the glory is shared by God and the sinner because it was “the sinner’s willingness” that ultimately made the real difference between himself and other lost people that enabled God to effect salvation.
Genesis 11:1–9 shows these two basic ideas in the words let us as these words are uttered by man and the same words are uttered by God. “Let us [man] build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven…” (auto-soteriology) is the religion based on man’s will. It begins with man and his effort. “Let us [Triune God] go down” (theo-soteriology) is the religion of sovereign grace that comes to a depraved sinner and enables the dead sinner to repent and believe.
When a knowledgeable believer says, “The Lord saved me,” he does not mean the Lord Jesus Christ saved him. He means, “The Lord God the Father saved me in electing grace; the Lord God the Son saved me by his atoning death; and the Lord God the Holy Spirit saved me by opening my heart and giving me faith.” Each member of the blessed Trinity has a specific, and essential, part to play in every sinner’s salvation.
One of the clear proofs of how man-centered our theology has become in the last one hundred years is the nearly total absence of either hymns or sermons depicting the sovereign electing grace of the Father or the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Remember that we have been saved by a triune God. Should we not gladly acknowledge and worship the Father for his electing grace even as we praise the Son for his vicarious death? Are we not duty bound to acknowledge and worship the Holy Spirit for raising us out of spiritual death and giving us the gift of faith and life? There is an absence of good hymns depicting the work of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit because of the failure to grasp the biblical doctrine of total depravity. That is the subject of this booklet.