Salvation Facts

• We all have a will.
• The will is the power of choice, our ability to choose.
• The will is the governing power that controls all our faculties.
• By nature, our wills are all taken captive by satan.
• We all serve self by default
• The only way to change masters is for us to make a deliberate choice to take our wills from satan and give them to God.
• Satan does everything in his power to keep us from making that choice.
• The only way we will ever want to make that choice is if we appreciate Jesus' offer of salvation.
• The only way we will ever appreciate it is if we take an earnest look at the cross.
• That earnest look will convince us of our desperate sinfulness and of God's love.
• We will see our need, and see the remedy for our condemned state.
• With that awareness, we can choose to change masters by giving our wills to God.
• If we don't resist, we will be drawn to make a complete surrender.

When we truly surrender our wills to God, it is the same as:

• Being saved
• Receiving eternal life
• Being Born again
• New birth experience
• Being Justified
• Being Converted
• Being Forgiven
• Giving your heart to Jesus
• Becoming a child of God
• Being adopted into God's family
• Being accepted in the Beloved
• Being In Christ
• Falling on the Rock, and being broken
• Humbling ourselves at the cross
• Dying to self
• Being redeemed
• Being reconciled to God
• Becoming a new creation

God's miracle is that He

• Forgives us
• Accepts us
• Credits Christ's life and death to our account
• Takes away the death penalty
• Removes us from under the condemnation of the law
• Adopts us into His family
• Fills us with His Holy Spirit
• Connects us with Divine power
• Brings our will into harmony with His will
• Brings our thoughts and actions into harmony with Him
• Changes our nature
• Gives us a new heart

We are now dead to self. Our self-directed life has been put away, incapacitated, removed from power. We are filled with love, faith. We believe that God is telling the truth and doing what is best for us. We are willing to lay down self because we recognize it as our enemy. We have given ourselves completely to God. Kneeling at the cross is the highest place to which man can attain.

This experience places us on the road to sanctification. Our first step was to surrender our wills. The second step is to choose to keep our wills surrendered. If we make that choice every day, all day, we are

•  Abiding in Christ

•  Daily dying to self

•  Taking up our cross and following Jesus

•  Walking in His footsteps

•  Becoming sanctified

•  Experiencing a life of victory

•  Working out our salvation

•  Submitting to God

•  Denying self

•  Listening to God's voice

•  Walking by faith, not by sight

•  Trusting in the Lord

•  Developing a relationship with Jesus

•  Becoming co-laborers with Jesus

•  Walking in the light

•  Being filled with the Spirit

•  Overcoming by our testimony and the blood of the lamb

•  Overcoming all sin

•  Triumphing over all temptations

If one makes a partial surrender, but doesn't make a complete surrender of his will to God, he experiences a “Patchwork” religion. Part of self and part of God. He may seem to be successful for a time. He may get rid of many bad habits. He may life a seemingly good life. But he won't experience the joy, the peace, the assurance of salvation, the victory over sin that a surrendered Christian will. He is not actually connected to God. He is a professed Christian, a phoney. The Christian requirements will seem difficult to him. He won't enjoy true worship and Bible study will be superficial at best. He will always be leaning to the worldly pleasures. He may be a cultural Christians all his life, and still be lost in the end, because he never made a complete surrender. “Almost, but not wholly saved, means to be wholly lost.”

• Selfishness is the source of all our problems.
• The new birth is a rare experience.
• We receive salvation only when all self-justification is put away.
• Christ asks for unreserved consecration, undivided service
• Complete surrender of self is the basic requirement for salvation
• God requires entire surrender before justification can take place
• We can't surrender completely if we don't sense our sinful condition
• Faith is the means by which we grasp hold of God's promises
• Faith enables us to connect to divine power to overcome
• Without that vital connection we cannot obey God.
• At every step we must renounce self
• God give the surrendered supernatural power
• The motive power is changed
• The desires and interests change
• Their will becomes God's will
• God's will in them is all-powerful
• All God's promises are power charged.
• It's easy to obey when we are dead to sin.
• A true Christian puts Christ first and last in everything
• We can stay surrendered only by earnest prayer and untiring effort.
• Satan laughs and angels weep when we refuse to surrender.
• Satan trembles when the weakest person prays.
• The only reason people fail in the Christian life is they haven't surrendered all.
• We should stay on our knees until we have unutterable longings for salvation.
• Then we will have evidence that our sins are pardoned.
• Without absolute surrender, our case is hopeless.
• If we hear the gospel and resist, our conscience is hardened.
• There is no guarantee that the next time we hear, that we will be moved to repent.
• If we continue to resist, our desire for God may completely fade, never to return.
• If we do not resist, we will be drawn to Christ.
• The rewards for following Christ completely will be beyond our highest dreams and expectations.

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