Grace or Man’s Effort: Where does Salvation Start?

I recently came across the claim on a Christian forum, making a distinction between the “true gospel” believed by a particular Calvinist forum participant and the “false gospel” of other forum members:

“In one [gospel], Salvation starts and finishes with God and His Grace, in the other Salvation starts and finishes with man himself”

As is often the case, this Calvinist claim is a total distortion of the facts. Nothing could be further from the truth and it is merely the blind repetition of a clichéd lie.

If the Calvinist claim is a lie, what IS the real belief of the majority of bible believing non-Calvinists?

God and God alone made it possible for man to be saved. God and God alone provided the means for man to be saved. God and God alone can save man.

The salvation that God has made possible is obtained through means that God and God alone established according to conditions that God and God alone determined.
Those conditions are clearly set out in scripture and they require certain things of man.

The salvation God has ordained is not according to a unilateral decree made prior to creation, in which He determined which individuals would be saved.
Before creation God determined that salvation would be through His Son and His Son alone, and that whoever trusts in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life.

THIS is what salvation starting and finishing with God's grace is about. It is about His super-abundant grace extended to all of mankind, offering redemption to all of mankind.
It is not a limited grace extended to an elite few.

What could be a more glorious demonstration of God’s grace than the TRUE gospel of Jesus Christ, in which salvation has been opened up to all - not through any complicated and unattainable process of works, but through simple trust in Jesus.
Not through some unchangeable decree which excludes the majority of mankind, leaving them entirely devoid of hope, but through simple faith in Jesus.

What a joy it is to realise that that God isn't against any of us - but He wants everyone to come to knowledge of the truth and everyone to find salvation?

And salvation is obtained through?

- Simple trust in Jesus.

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This issue is closely related to one of my earlier blog entries, “Parrot is not a God ordained ministry function” in which I addressed the Calvinist claim that non-Calvinists believe they contribute to their own salvation.

“PARROT” is not a God ordained Ministry Function.

One of the most common (and most ridiculous) accusations levelled against non-Calvinists is that they believe they contribute to their own salvation.

Firstly I have NEVER heard any Christian (non-Calvinist or otherwise) suggesting that any action of their own has in any way made their salvation possible.
Secondly the ONLY people I have come across who make such accusations are those who are parroting what others have said – resorting to clichéd responses learned from other Calvinists rather than through referring to the truth of the situation.

It is an accusation I am fed up of refuting because it is so ridiculous it shouldn’t really need a response. I address the issue here merely as a forewarning that any further use of this accusation in any comment will not be allowed passed the moderation stage.

I can no more contribute to may own salvation through an act of my own will than I can become a millionaire by choosing to be one.
However, if a multi-billionaire made a million dollars available to whoever would receive it, then would receiving of the freely offered gift make the receiver a contributor to their newly affluent state? Of course not! They would only be receiving what another had freely given at HIS cost and not at the receiver’s cost.

Neither does receiving God’s free gift of salvation make anyone a contributor to their own salvation. Accepting the gift doesn’t mean someone has any better attributes than the one who rejects the gift. They are merely responding to the grace that God has extended to all of mankind through the giving of His Son.
Why should it be seen that accepting God’s gift requires someone to be better, smarter, and wiser than someone who rejects it? Why not see the rejecter as someone who prefers his/her own independence? As someone who chooses to remain in their rebellious state? Why suggest that having faith in God is more of a “work” than actively resisting Him?

Of course the claim that someone willing to receive salvation must, in some way, be “better” than those rejecting it (and would therefore be contributing to their own salvation) is yet another clichéd response passed on by Calvinist teacher to unwitting student.

Wake up to the truth. Wake up to the Gospel and abandon man’s corrupt theology. Stop basing beliefs on the parrot-like repetition of theological clichés and seek revelation from God through His word by His Spirit.