Grace, Grace, Grace

Consider this account from Charles Spurgeon:

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. “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 as 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 it my constant confession. "I ascribe my change wholly to God."

I know, my new Christian brother, it seems like you did something in order to come to Christ. It seems like you are the one who took the initiative by choosing to trust in Christ. However, my friend, please understand that this was not something which you previously had the ability to do. It was a work of God. Before coming to Christ, you were spiritually dead and enslaved to sin. The Scriptures teach that there is none who seeks God (Rom 3:11). However, you were born-again. When you were spiritually dead, God gave you new spiritual life which then created in you the desire to turn to Christ. While you were spiritually dead and desired only sin, God gave you the disposition and frame of mind to see the beauty of Christ and the truth of the gospel so that as you heard God calling you through the proclamation of the gospel, you came to faith in Christ. Ultimately, then, your salvation is not the result of your choice, rather your choice is the result of the fact that God elected you to be saved. This is why Paul can say, “it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).