Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10
That God’s sovereign will is not fatalism is vitally important regarding God’s sovereign will and our salvation. Some insist that Reformed Christians teach: (a) that people have no choice in salvation; (b) that God saves people whether they want to be saved or not, and (c) that God condemns some who want to believe because they are not chosen. My response to these assumptions regarding predestination is simple. There may be people to teach these falsehoods, but such teachings are not Reformed. They are perversions of Reformed theology. So what is the truth?
God commands all people to believe in (trust in) Christ and repent, which will result in forgiveness and salvation.
All people are dead in sin and therefore unable to believe and repent because, while dead in sin, no one wants to believe and repent!
Therefore God would be fully justified if He were to condemn everybody for our sin.
But God is not only a just Judge, He is also graciously loving. So He has predestined that some will believe and repent. He is not obligated to save anyone, much less everyone. So God has sovereignly elected some to be saved.
How are those He has elected to salvation be saved? God graciously regenerates those He has elected to salvation (they are born again). Once God regenerates individuals, they are given new hearts that want to believe and repent. God does not force them to believe and repent; He graciously gifts them with saving faith and repentance. Once the gifts of faith and repentance are received, the elect choose to believe and repent—because they now want to. YES, the saved must choose to believe and repent, but they only do so because God has elected them to salvation and given them hearts that desire to follow Christ.
What about those who are lost? Does God keep them from believing and repenting? Absolutely not! They are simply left to choose according to their sinful desires.
Everyone must choose to trust Christ and repent to be saved. Those who are saved choose to be saved but only because God elected and then regenerated them. The lost choose not to be saved because in their sin they have no desire.
Four Explanatory Footnotes:
God does not elect and regenerate anyone based on anything about them, or because of anything they do. It is God’s sovereign will.
What difference does this make? Because salvation is solely of the Lord, He alone receives all glory, and the redeemed have nothing about which to boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Regeneration precedes faith, not as most incorrectly think that faith causes regeneration.
What a comfort it is to know that as we pray for God’s will to be done regarding the salvation of loved ones, He will save His people!