God Saves His Chosen People Through The Hearing Of The Gospel
Now it must be demonstrated that God saves people through the hearing of His Word. First of all, God creates life by the power of His Word. We already saw in Ezekiel 37 how God gave life to a multitude of dry bones, and He did so by His Word through the preaching of Ezekiel. We read in Ezekiel 37:
And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live....So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone...So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came upon them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
In Genesis 1 it is seen that God created the world by speaking it into existence. Again and again Genesis 1 says, “and God said...and it was so” (Genesis 1:3, 9, 11, 14-15, 24, 29-30). This is the same way that salvation comes to individuals. God speaks new life into our souls through the Word of God, the Bible, so that we become a new creature, or a new creation. That is, God creates spiritual life in us by His Word as it is applied by the Holy Spirit just as He created physical life at the beginning of time by His Word. 2 Corinthians 4:6 ties the creation of the world to our salvation by the Word of God:
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
That is, just as God spoke (commanded) the light of the sun into existence, so He speaks salvation into our souls by the light of the Gospel (the Word). Thus we read in Romans 10:17:
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
So God grants us the faith to believe in Him through the hearing of His Word as He opens our ears to hear it. Again in I Peter 1:23 we read that we are:
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever.
We are born again (given new life) by the Word of God. 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 also says that we are called by the Gospel, which is the Word of God:
But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Likewise, James 1:18, 21 speak of the Word of God as the means through which we are saved, by God's own will:
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures....Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
A notable example of salvation coming to those who hear the Word of the Gospel is seen in Acts 10:44, where the apostle Peter preached to Cornelius and to those who were gathered together with him. There we read:
While Peter yet spoke these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
Later in Acts 11:15, as Peter rehearsed the matter before the brethren in Jerusalem, he said:
And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
Salvation came to Cornelius' household as Peter preached the Gospel to them. This is why the believers are called to send forth the Gospel into the world - that those whom God plans to save will become saved through the hearing of the Word. Jesus said,
My sheep hear my voice [God’s Word], and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. [John 10:5,27-28]
God Does Not Open The Spiritual Ears and Eyes Of Those Who Are Not To Become Saved
We see more of the nature of God’s salvation through Christ’s use of parables. Many believe that the reason Jesus spoke in parables was to make the Gospel easier to understand. But the opposite is actually true. The Bible says that Jesus spoke in parables so that those whom God does not plan to save will remain blinded in their sins while the elect are enabled to understand the Gospel. Mark 4:11-12 says:
And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are outside [the kingdom], all these things are done in parables: that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.
(See also Matthew 13:9-16). Then we find in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4:
But if our gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
The gospel is hidden from those who are not the elect of God because God does not open their spiritual eyes and ears to perceive the Truth. This agrees with what we read in John 8:47, which says:
He that is of God hears God’s words: you* therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
Matthew 11:25-27 also addresses this fact:
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
So, you see, the Holy Spirit must open our sin-deadened spiritual ears and spiritual eyes, He must reveal Himself and His Truth to us by illuminating our minds through His Word, the Bible, Christ having directly and specifically atoned for our sins, in order for us to become saved:
I Corithians 2
10 But God has revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost [Spirit] teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.
Salvation requires a total, complete spiritual resurrection, a complete spiritual rebirth, a complete spiritual healing of our sin-sick, sin-dead souls as God the Holy Spirit gives us new (eternal) life in Christ through the spiritual hearing of the Word of God by His Spirit. This is why the Word of God is called the Sword of the Spirit, it is what God uses to bring salvation to His people:
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (Ephesians 6:17)
A Will And An Inheritance
In still another place, God speaks of His covenant of salvation as a Will that He has written. Today, when a person writes a Last Will and Testament, he bequeaths his belongings (his property and estate) to others for the time of his death. When that person dies, those who are named in the will inherit what they have been designated in that will. This is a picture of God’s covenant of salvation. God has named His people in His Will to inherit salvation and eternal life. And upon the death of Christ, who is God, that Will takes effect and those named by God in it inherit eternal life. This is seen in Hebrews 9:15-17:
And for this reason he [Christ] is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives.
This is why the Gospel is called a Covenant, or a Testament. It's how we speak of a Last Will and Testament. And so the Bible says that the believers are the heirs, or inheritors, of salvation:
And if ye be Christ’s, then are you* Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. [Galatians 3:29]
This verse, like the passage above it, speaks about the believers as heirs of a promise. This is the promise of God’s covenant of grace in which He names His people to inherit salvation in His Will and Testament (see also Romans 8:17). We inherit eternal life because we have been adopted into God’s family as His children and are thus the rightful heirs of all that God has and is (namely, eternal life and God Himself):
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons....Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son: and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. [Galatians 4:4-5,7]
That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. [Titus 3:7]
What this means for the believer is that he can never lose his salvation. Because Christ has died (and risen again in making atonement, or payment, for their sins), He has secured the inheritance for the believers. They have been given eternal life as heirs of all that has been written in the Will of God. The terms of the Will must now be carried out. And it is altogether God's Will, not man's will. Do you see how man's will has nothing at all to do with salvation?
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. [James 1:18]
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