NO ONE GIVES HIS LIFE TO CHRIST

By Akin Ojumu

When born-again Christians talk about their salvation, you often hear them say, “I gave my life to Christ.” In a similar fashion, when they invite sinners to come to the faith, the common refrain is, “You need to give your life to Christ” or “You must give your life to Christ.

What these folks seem to forget is the fact that it’s virtually impossible for man, of his own volition, to give his life to Christ. When it comes to salvation, no man has ever given his life to Christ. Instead, what happens is that it is God who draws man to Himself.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44).

Man cannot initiate the step towards reconciliation with God. It is God who always moves first and not man. Without the intervention of God, man will remain perpetually enslaved to the flesh and his will.

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you...” (John 15:16).

When it comes to choosing between righteousness and sinfulness, the soul of man is so rotten that he is preternaturally incapable of making the right choice. No matter how hard he tries, the soul of man is so corrupted with evil that he is not inclined or willing to do the things that please God. 

Here is why.

“Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will...” (Ephesians 1:4-5).

Even though he has the free will to choose, the will of man is in bondage to sin. Because his natural compass points him ever in the direction of evil, man is compelled to sin. Every voluntary moral act and every volitional action man takes is always towards his strongest inclination. Man always navigates in the direction his enslaved will pushes him. All of his intentions, good or bad, are corrupted by his sinful nature.

“The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5).

The inclination of man is contrary to what God desires. By virtue of his human nature and fallenness, he has no disposition to doing the things that please God. Man’s true self, his Adamic nature, is obstinately predisposed to loving what God hates.

In his natural state, man is “dead in trespasses and sins” until he is “quickened” or “made alive” (i.e., regenerated) by Christ.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1).

Unless and until the Holy Spirit reaches down and revives the spiritually dead heart of man, man is unable to break free from the stranglehold of sin. It’s when the heart of man is revived that he then finds the strength to defile his own will and embrace God’s will.

“For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30).

Salvation is by Scripture alone, through Faith alone, by Grace alone, in Christ alone, and to the glory of God alone. Our redemption is the sole work of God. None of us contributed anything to it. The idea that a man can give his life to Christ is to attribute the grace gift of salvation to human effort.

“He has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time…” (2 Timothy 2:9).