I was reading last night and this quote was in the book. It struck a chord in me so I am sharing it...
"I frankly confess that, for myself, even if it could be, I should not want free-will to be given me... But now that God has taken my salvation out of the control of my own will, and put it under the control of His, and promised to save me, not according to my working or running, but according to His own grace and mercy, I have the comfortable certainty that He is faithful and will not lie to me, and that He is also great and powerful, so that no devils or opposition can break Him or pluck me from Him." - Martin Luther
This is something I have been told before (not in the exact words, but very similar) but for some reason reading this last night had a deeper impact on me than hearing it before. Maybe because I had the chance to read it over and over and ponder it a little more... maybe because this time I was ready to hear the message behind it.
So then I was thinking that I actually DON'T have the free will I once thought I had and it is a very intimidating thought, to the point where I was almost angry AT the thought at first. I have been brought up to believe that I had control of my salvation and life through works; the better I was at it, the better chance I had to enter into heaven even though I had already 'received' Christ... If I failed at works I was going to hell. This revelation of sorts has created some huge inner turmoil as I crave desperately to believe it, yet it goes against what I have been taught, so my beliefs are warring with what I see as logic.
However upon thinking more about it, if it (my salvation) were in fact up to me through my works, I'd be dead...
Gal 2:16nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
