One of my close friends called tonight. He said that he had been faking it for 31 years and that last night standing in the shower God saved Him. Those were his words. If you knew this man's upbringing you would think he was saved already. If you knew this man's recent life you would say, "Impossible, there is no way he could save himself." That's the beauty of the gospel. He can not and he did not. But God did. The holy spirit regenerated His heart and showed him his depravity and need for Jesus. Then last night he cried out to God in faith and was converted.
It reminded me of this paragraph from chapter 2 of Desiring God,
We will never fully appreciate what a deep and awesome thing conversion is until we own up to the fact that it is a miracle. It is a gift of God. Recall again the point that we not only sin, but we also are sinful. The Bible describes our heart as blind (2 Corinthians 4:4) and hard (Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26) and dead (Ephesians 2:1,5) and unable to submit to the law of God (Romans 8:7-8). By nature we are "children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3). And so when we hear the gospel we will never respond positively unless God performs the miracle of regeneration.
Interesting things to note:
1) This man grew up in and around church and never responded positively to the gospel until the age of 31
2) The seeds of the gospel still took root in his life and were made alive by the Holy Spirit standing in the shower
My friend told me that for weeks all he could think about was that God did not exist, he wasn't real, and that he had even grown to have a hatred towards Him. He told me he had been planning to talk to me about why God didn't exist (he had been reading Christopher Hitchens book God is not Great). And then standing in the shower last night he broke and God saved him. Now, all of the sudden he feels peace.
What a miracle!
To God be the glory.
Ephesians 2:4-9 ESV
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
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