The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord

'The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord'

— Psalm 37:39

Salvation is not something that sinners do for God. Salvation is something that God does for sinners. Salvation is not a cooperative effort of God and man, in which God does his part and man does his part. ‘salvation is of the Lord!’ It is entirely the work of God’s free, sovereign, irresistible grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the thing we must come to understand is this: the God who saves is sovereign in the exercise of his serving power. No part of a sinner’s salvation is to be ascribed to the works, the merit, or the will of the sinner. From start to finish, from beginning to end, salvation is the work of God’s free, sovereign, irresistible grace in Christ. Election is by grace. Redemption is by grace. Regeneration is by grace. Justification is by grace. Preservation is by grace. Sanctification is by grace. Glorification is by grace. And in the whole work of salvation, God is sovereign in the exercise of his grace and his saving power towards sinful men.

God sovereignly selects the people whom he will save. It is a self-evident fact that God does not save all men. Some people do perish. Some people do go to hell. That being true, it is also a self-evident fact that, it never was God’s intention, purpose, or desire to save all men. The Word of God is very clear in this matter. From eternity of old, before the world began, God chose to save some of Adam’s fallen race and determined to save them, passing by the rest, refusing to show them mercy, according to his own wise and holy will. He predestinated some to eternal life, but not all. Did he not say so? ‘Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you’ (John 15:16). ‘Few are chosen’ (Matt. 22:14). God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ ‘according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world’ (Eph. 1:4). In sovereign, eternal election God chose the people whom he would save.