The Sovereignty of God in Conversion

"...but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and t oGentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." 1 Corinthians 1:23

This is something that has been on my heart today. Lately I have been talking with quite a few people about the conversion and the so called "free will of man" to choose for or against Christ. Over and over and over again I hear the age old arguments that man has free will to decide for himself whether or not Christ is what he desires. I have to say, at the end of all the discussions and debating, that it just isn't true. I don't think people understand what the conversion event really is, and this has solidified many who think it is of man and not of God.

The first thing we must understand is that the conversion has been promised of God. God promised over and over again in Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah (and really in all the prophets) as God taking out the stone hearts of men and putting in them the fleshy hearts God wants them to have. Jeremiah 32:40 says it like this:

"I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me."

You see what is happening here in the new covenant? It is God who puts the fear and love of Him in our hearts. It is God who promises that we will not turn away. It is God who is underneath and above and through the whole thing! How dare we try to take it from His hands and place it into our own, extremely incapable hands!

The second thing we fail to notice if we embrace the "free will" idea is that we are totally blind to God. 2 Corinthians excellently points out:

"And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

If we cannot see that light, we are not going to choose it, and both Satan and our own unbelief has blinded us doubly to the light of the gospel. We cannot choose the gospel because we cannot see the gospel! So, what happens then? How do we get saved? How do we choose Christ? 2 Corinthians has the answer just a few verses after the above one:

"For God, who said 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

I want you all to realize that when God speaks something, He doesn't just command it. When God commands, His words create that which He commands. When Jesus wanted Lazarus to come out, there was an absence of life in Lazarus. But when Jesus called "Lazarus, come forth!" His words created life in the corpse, and Lazarus couldn't help but come out! Some have semi-jokingly said that Jesus had to be specific and say "Lazarus, come forth" because if He would have just said "Come forth!" then every body in all the world would have come forth from the grave! The word of God has THAT kind of power! When God wanted to create light into the universe, all He said was "Let there be light!" and from nothing, His simple words created that light!

It is the same way with faith. God says into our darkened, blinded hearts, "BE LIGHT!" and there is! There is light, and we see it, and believe! God says "Charlie, BELIEVE!" and I cannot help, after viewing His awesome glory through that light, but believe and fall to my knees crying "Yes, Lord!" THAT is the gospel! THAT is God! THAT is "irresistable grace!" Let us rest in that unspeakably great truth today!