I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. Repentance isn’t what saves me; repentance is merely the sign that I realize what God has done in Jesus Christ.
The danger, when it comes to thinking about salvation, lies in identifying the wrong cause. I imagine that the cause of my being right with God is my own obedience. Never! I am put right with God because prior to everything—prior to all my beliefs, actions, and experiences—Christ died.
When I turn to God and, by belief, accept his revelation, the amazing atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me instantly into a right relationship with God. By the supernatural miracle of his grace, I stand justified—not because I’m sorry for my sins, not because I’ve repented, but because of what Jesus Christ has done. The Spirit of God brings this to my awareness with a dawning, allover light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.
The fact that I don’t understand logically how I’m saved is beside the point. Salvation doesn’t follow human logic. Salvation is based on the sacrificial death of Jesus. Only through his atonement can we be born again; only through the marvelous work of God in Jesus Christ can sinful men and women be changed into new creatures.
Praise God that the total, impregnable safety of salvation and sanctification lies not in us but in God himself. There’s nothing we have to do to bring it about, nothing we can do. Our salvation and sanctification have been worked out by the atonement, the miracle by which the supernatural becomes natural. They have been worked out long ago and for all time: “It is finished” (John 19:30).
