Salvation is God Given

Salvation is God-given, God-driven, God-empowered, and God-originated. The gift is not from man to God. It is from God to man. "It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us in sending his Son to be the way to take away our sins" (I John 4:10).

Grace is created by God and given to man. "Sky above, make victory fall like rain; clouds, pour down victory. Let the earth receive it, and let salvation grow, and let victory grow with it. I, the LORD, have created it" (Isa. 45:8).

On the basis of this point alone, Christianity is set apart from any other religion in the world. "No other system, ideology or religion proclaims a free forgiveness and a new life to those who have done nothing to deserve it but deserve judgment instead."

To quote John MacArthur: "As far as the way of salvation is concerned, there are only two religions the world has ever known or will ever know – the religion of divine accomplishment, which is biblical Christianity, and the religion of human achievement, which included all other kinds of religions, by whatever names they may go under."

From Max Lucado, In the Grip of Grace, (Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1996), p. 71.