From time immemorial men have quenched their thirst with water without knowing anything about its chemical constituents. In like manner we do not need to be instructed in all the mysteries of doctrine, but we do need to receive the Living Water which Jesus Christ will give us and which alone can satisfy our souls.
When you get saved, you get saved not because you deserve it, but because you simply let God save you and because you confess your own poor sinful state and your inability to save yourself.
If indeed Christ provided a propitiation and expiation for all human beings and for all their sins, then, clearly, all persons would be saved. Universal atonement, if it is actual, and not merely potential, means universal salvation. However, the overwhelming majority of Christians who reject limited atonement also reject universal salvation. They are particularists, not universalists.
If the final decision for the salvation of fallen sinners were left in the hands of fallen sinners, we would despair all hope that anyone would be saved.
Nobody is born into this world a child of the family of God. We are born as children of wrath. The only way we enter into the family of God is by adoption, and that adoption occurs when we are united to God's only begotten Son by faith. When by faith we are united with Christ, we are then adopted into that family of whom Christ is the firstborn.
Author: R.C. Sproul Source: The New Birth, Tabletalk, March 2007, p. 7.
Perhaps the most difficult task for us to perform is to rely on God's grace and God's grace alone for our salvation. It is difficult for our pride to rest on grace. Grace is for other people - for beggars. We don't want to live by a heavenly welfare system. We want to earn our own way and atone for our own sins. We like to think that we will go to heaven because we deserve to be there.
Author: R.C. Sproul Source: Suffering and Merit? Tabletalk Magazine 1989, p. 5.
The Father did not strip the Son of His eternal glory but the Son agreed to lay it aside temporarily for the sake of our salvation (Jn. 17:1-5).
Author: R.C. Sproul Source: The Blueprint of Redemption, Tabletalk, Feb. 2004, p. 7,
What can I give back to God for the blessings he's poured out on me? I'll lift high the cup of salvation - a toast to God!
Indeed, in conversion, a man must make a decision. We shy away from that term because in modern jargon a "decision" has come to be identified with an outward expression, such as raising the hand or going forward to the front. While such external acts have nothing to do with forgiveness of sins, the heart must make a decision to be saved.
Author: Walter J. Chantry Source: Man's Will-Free Yet Bound, The Banner of Truth magazine, Issue 140
From time immemorial men have quenched their thirst with water without knowing anything about its chemical constituents. In like manner we do not need to be instructed in all the mysteries of doctrine, but we do need to receive the Living Water which Jesus Christ will give us and which alone can satisfy our souls.