Brought forth by the word of truth

“Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” James 1:18

How did you become a Christian? Becoming a Christian involved hearing the truth of the gospel, turning from sin, trusting in Jesus for salvation, and choosing to follow him by faith.

That is a glorious fact!

There’s one small problem, though. The way we often understand being saved is that we are the ones making the decision to follow Jesus. It would seem that way: we hear the word, we repent, we choose, and we follow.

But our verse today illustrates that before all that happened, God was at work. It says, “of his own will.” It was God’s will that enabled us to come to him. In other words, we didn’t bring ourselves to God; he brought himself to us.

This is very important because it humbles us to know that God would reach out to us first before we ever reach out to him. The word of God’s gospel is the best gift we could ever get. He gets all the glory for drawing us to himself!

Read

“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

John 1:11–13

• How did we become born again? Who first decided we should be saved?
• According to this verse, if God is the one who causes our salvation, do we still have a part to play? What are we responsible for?

Pray

Father, thank you that you’ve inclined our hearts to know you. Apart from you loving us first, we would not love you. Apart from you drawing us to yourself, we would not be drawn to you. Apart from you awakening us to your truth, we would still be fast asleep in our sin. Apart from you, we can do nothing. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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