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| His Workmanship 2
Becoming a Christian is the work of God on the heart and in the life of an individual. Has it happened to you? Have you understood that His work is what you need? Have you asked Him to change you and change your life? Has He made you and your life pleasing to Himself?
Ephesian 2:10: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Romans 6:4: Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
We cannot change ourselves sufficiently to please God. Neither can we keep ourselves.
Jeremiah 13:23: Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Job 14:4: Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
1 Peter 1:2: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
This article was written by Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Jonah 2:9: Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is the work of God. It is He alone who quickens the soul *dead in trespasses and sins,* and it is He also who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is both *Alpha and Omega.* *Salvation is of the Lord.* If I am prayerful, God makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God*s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because He upholds me with His hand. I do nothing whatever towards my own preservation, except what God Himself first does in me. Whatever I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is my own; but wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord*s strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God*s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God*s chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I find in myself nothing but sin and misery. *He only is my rock and my salvation.* Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate? . . . Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven*s hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in Him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet: *Salvation is of the Lord.*
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