“Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Acts 2:21
Salvation is supernatural, it is totally the work of God. Do you remember the day you were saved or born again? It happens in many different ways but has very similar effects in all of us. It usually starts with a conviction of sin in your life. The world loves to gloss over sinful behavior, even church people have fallen down that rabbit hole. But at the end of the day Christ died to save sinners. In order for you to qualify you have to come to the often difficult conclusion; I am a sinner andI need a Savior. Next, the Spirit of the Lord will begin to attract us to Jesus. My conversion was like that, I began to have the strangest desire to know about the Lord. For several months all I wanted to do was read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus was drawing me in. Finally the strangest thing of all happened; God granted me repentance. How did it happen? All I can say is that spiritual things and interests took over, I had lost my taste for the things of this world. Here are some thoughts from Watchman Née on the miracle of salvation.
“Because the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon all mankind, the merest cry from the sinner to God is enough. No preacher of the gospel is of much use unless he believes this. The Holy Spirit’s proximity to the sinner is vital to our preaching. God in the heavens is too far beyond man’s reach. But “Say not in thy heart, who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down: . . . The word is nigh thee.” I always believe the Holy Spirit is upon a man when I preach Christ to him, just as He was upon the waters at the creation. He is waiting to bring Christ into his life. His ministry is like the daylight. Open the window shutters even a little, and it floods in and illumines the whole interior. Let there be but a cry from the heart to God, and in that instant the Spirit enters and begins His transforming work of conviction, repentance and faith—the miracle of new birth.”
The Holy Spirit does the work of salvation; He convicts us of sin, draws us to Jesus, and then changes our heart. One of the great promises that the Lord gave about the last days comes from today’s verse, all that call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.