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HOW DID YOU COME TO CHRIST?

Many people claim to be saved. Of course we hope that all who make such a

claim were indeed truly born again and thus enabled to come to Christ. But the

question remains: How is it that a person is motivated or moved upon to come to

Christ? Is it because he or she is smarter than others who reject Christ? Is itbecause those who come are bigger sinners than others? Or is just the opposite

true: Do people come to Christ because they are better than other people who do

not? Is there something that exists in some people that does not exist in others that

makes them come to Christ? The following paragraph is the testimony of Charles

Haddon Spurgeon as to how he learned what it was that moved him to come to

Christ.

When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and

though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking

me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can

recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in myown soul when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as

with a hot iron; and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a

sudden from a babe into a man that I had made progress in Scriptural

knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of

God. One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not

thinking much about the preacher's sermon, for I did not believe it.

The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought

the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed

across my mind in a moment I should not have sought Him unless

there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek

Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to

pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to

read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then,

in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He

was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened

up to me, and from that doctrine, I have not departed to this day, and I

desire to make this my constant confession, I ascribe my change

wholly to God. (C. H. Spurgeon, from his autobiography).

If there has been a real spiritual change in you, to whom do you

ascribe your change: To yourself or to a sovereign God who is able to savewhomever He pleases? The Bible says: There is one lawgiver, who is

able to save and to destroy (James 4:12). Romans 9:15-18 says: For

he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I

will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is

not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that

sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this

same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in

thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he

will he hardeneth. God does according to His will whether He saves a

person or whether He leaves that person alone to continue in their sins and

unbelief. If you have experienced the new birth it is not because of your will

or any other of your actions. It is of God that sheweth mercy it is all of

grace. Realize that salvation is of the Lord as Jonah wrote, and ascribe all

your change to God. Do not take any glory for yourself by thinking that you

were born again by choosing Christ or making a decision, praying a prayer,

opening your hearts door, being baptized, exercising your personal faith, or

any other action on your part. John 1:13 makes it clear that those who

experienced the new birth were born, not of blood, nor of the will of

the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Although you were a

participant in your natural birth, you were not causative. Your mother went

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into labor to bring you forth. You did not birth yourself naturally and you

cannot birth yourself spiritually. Nothing human is the cause of the new birth.

Do not believe the lie that your will is what causes the new birth! You were

not the cause of your new birth, if you have had that spiritual birth. That

which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit

is spirit (John 3:6). Give all the praise and glory to God if you have beenborn from above!