Salvation: Why me? - 535




A fellow at a Bible study I attend asked the question that had troubled him. “Why did God pick such an ungrateful, faithless, people as the Jews of the Old Testament to be His ‘Chosen Ones’?
I can’t help thinking it was for this purpose: To give hope to the rest of us ungrateful faithless people. And the purpose for that hope is simple, to bring glory to Himself. God is glorified in His Justice; dispensing the consequences of sin. God is glorified in His Mercy; taking those consequences of your sin and mine onto Himself. God is glorified in His Grace; giving eternal life and “child” status to those who cannot earn it and do not remotely deserve it.
We are saved from our sin for the same reason God picked the Jews and in the same manor that He is glorified in creation; it is to His glory to make something out of nothing, and without Jesus we are nothing.
Romans 8:28 says “God works all things together for good to them who love the Lord, to them who are called according to His purpose.”
ALL Things! My sin, my weakness, my ungratefulness, my lack of faith? Yes, all things! God uses the junk, filth, and blasphemy of our lives to remind us of our need for a Savior. The knowledge of His justice causes fear in those who are unrepentant, and fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (noted three places in scripture) and wisdom is the beginning of understanding God. A man who fears for his salvation can be shown the path to it.
The knowledge of my sin is the overcoming of my ungratefulness. How can I not give thanks to God when I know He has forgiven me such a great transgression? My lack of faith demonstrates my need for the Author of my faith (Hebrews 12:2) and like the man in Matthew chapter nine, my lack of faith causes me to cry out “…help Thou mine unbelief”.
I have looked at someone oozing with talent and personality and leadership and thought what a great Christian that he would make. With all those gifts God could surely use them. In reality, in most cases, God would first have to break them with the knowledge of their sin; His justice; their lacking; His completeness; their depravity; His righteousness; their need; and His forgiveness. Those talents may rise again in that fellow following His conversion but only after going through the fire – the cleansing fire that brings us to need Him.
The question of why God chooses some and not others becomes redundant in light of 1 Timothy 2:3,4 – “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”. In His sovereignty God has given up what he desires to receive those who desire Him. So why me? Why you? Why any one of us ungrateful humans? To glorify Himself God has chosen to reveal Himself to all who will receive Him and oddly enough that seems to be the weakest of men. Not by our might but by His grace - He is worthy of Glory.