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Consider some lessons from this glorious passage of Scripture:
We see the universal offer of salvation in Jesus Christ (“that all men through him might believe ... as many as,” Joh. 1:7, 12). Men can receive Christ; all men can receive Christ. This is not trick language. There is no “sovereign” election here that in any way limits salvation to only certain men. “Election” is a wonderful Bible doctrine; “sovereign election” is a man-made Augustinian heresy. Christ was rejected by the world at large and by His own nation, but He is received by the “as many as.”
Salvation is by receiving and believing. “Receive” and “believe” are synonyms to describe how to be saved. The sinner must “receive” Christ. He is a Person; He is alive; He is risen from the dead. Salvation requires that each individual personally and individually receive Jesus Christ. The sinner must “believe on his name.” He must believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the only Saviour. To believe is not mere mental assent. It is to believe from the heart, which is the complete inner man. The “word of faith” is to “confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and ... believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead” (Ro. 10:8-9). Philip told the Ethiopian eunuch that he would be saved “if thou believest with all thine heart” (Ac. 8:37). Peter described saving faith when he said, “And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God” (Joh. 6:69).
Salvation is to be “born ... of God.” It is a supernatural new birth. It is to be born of the Spirit (Joh. 3:5-6). It is “the washing of regeneration” (Tit. 3:5). It is life from the dead (“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins,” Eph. 2:1). It is to have “newness of life” (Ro. 6:4). It is to be “a new creature” in Christ (2 Co. 5:17). It is to be delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son (Col. 1:13). It is to be “sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13). It is to have the Spirit of adoption (Ro. 8:15). It is to be “in the Spirit” (Ro. 8:9). It is to be sanctified by the Spirit (1 Pe. 1:12). The new birth is life changing. It is absolutely impossible to be born again and not be changed. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Co. 5:17). The new birth has evidence. It is like the wind which cannot be seen but can be discerned by its effects. “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (Joh. 3:8). The new birth is the well-spring of the true Christian life. To live for Christ one must first be crucified with Christ and made alive in Christ. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). The true Christian life is Christ’s new life in me. You cannot “work out your own salvation” until you have salvation working in you (Php. 2:12-13).
Salvation is to be given “power to become the sons of God.” “Power” is exousía, “authority, right, permission, power to do something. ... The words éxesti and exousía combine the two ideas of right and might” (Complete Word Study Bible). This describes the greatness of God’s free salvation that was purchased by Christ. The sinner in his natural state is not a son of God; he is dead in trespasses and sins, lives according to the prince of the power of the air, is without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world (Eph. 2:1-2, 12). By receiving Jesus Christ and God’s gift of salvation, the sinner is granted the power to become a son of God. “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26). “Power” is judicial and governmental terminology. In Adam, the sinner is condemned by the great Judge for having broken the righteous and just laws of the universe. In Christ, the sinner is justified by the same Judge because the law has been propitiated or fully satisfied. The believing sinner’s sin-debt has been paid in full by the precious blood of Christ.
Salvation is not something that man can do (“Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”). Salvation cannot be produced by good works or religion or reformation or philosophy or any human device whatsoever. The Calvinist argues that if the sinner could believe on Christ it would mean that salvation is of the will of man, but the passage itself refutes this logic. On the one hand we are told that the new birth is not “of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,” but the same passage says that the new birth is by receiving Christ through faith. Verse 13 simply means that the new birth is not a product of human will and effort. It is “not of blood,”, meaning it is not of human genealogy, not by being born into a Christian family. The new birth is not “of the will of the flesh,” meaning it is impossible for man to regenerate himself by his own will. The new birth is not “of the will of man,” meaning no man can produce the new birth in others. A father, mother, preacher, teachers, soul winner, etc., cannot will another person into regeneration. Man cannot convert himself and he cannot convert others. Man cannot work up the new birth; he cannot will it to happen; it is not the product of being a member of a certain race or tribe or party; it is not by the power of religion or reformation. It is a supernatural miracle of grace that Christ works in the sinner who believes in Him, who receives Him, who comes to Him. “A person welcomes Jesus and responds in faith and obedience to Him, but the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit is ‘the cause’ of regeneration (Joh. 3:5-8)” (Bible Knowledge Commentary). Salvation is 100% of God from beginning to end. Man cannot enlighten himself, cannot convict himself, cannot draw himself, cannot regenerate himself, cannot sanctify himself, cannot keep himself, cannot glorify himself. From man’s side, salvation is “from faith to faith” (Ro. 1:17). Augustus Toplady described the proper reception of God’s free gift in his hymn “Rock of Ages” (1776):
Not the labor of my hands Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All could never sin erase,
Thou must save, and save by grace.
Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace:
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Savior, or I die.
In this passage we see that to “believe” is not a work. Saving faith is not a work. To believe on His name is “the empty hand that receives God’s free gift of salvation.” This refutes the Calvinist interpretation of Ephesians 2:8-9, which claims that “faith” is the gift of God. It is not faith that is the gift of God; it is salvation that is the gift of God. To receive that gift by faith is not a work.
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