The Impossible Made Certain

We have previously seen that total depravity necessarily leads us to total inability. You CANNOT - i.e., you have no ability within yourself to save yourself or even to contribute to your own salvation. You cannot receive the things of the Spirit. You cannot submit to the Law of God. You cannot repent in your own strength. You cannot believe. You who are spiritually dead cannot regenerate yourselves or give yourselves new life. You cannot come to Christ or in any way contribute to your own salvation. Salvation is all of God alone and all of grace alone. When Jesus' disciples understood that self-salvation was not only difficult but impossible, they cried out, "Who then can be saved?" These biblical teachings may seem hard but they are needed to shut down every avenue of escape and force us to look to the only One who can save. With man salvation is impossible, but that does not mean it is hopeless. God makes the impossible certain! What has God done to save us? God has provided a righteousness for us apart from the Law; he has provided his Son as a sacrifice of atonement or propitiation to resolve the issue of wrath because of sin; and he has accomplished a salvation that is consistent and compatible with his own holiness and justice...