Can Jesus Completely Save?

He's the master of the sea, billows his will obey.
He your savior wants to be, be saved today.
"Love Lifted Me" -a hymn

What's wrong with this picture?

I know lots of songs (both secular and sacred) to which I don't know the words. That may just be me.

I have begun to be more aware of the words to hymns that we sing in worship. I have several hymnals on my bookshelf. "Love Lifted Me," is not in the Trinity Hymnal we use at GPC.

Lots of us weren't really raised to think deeply about the words of the songs we sing in church. I have been carried away by the beauty of the music in worship. To hear our congregation singing "It Is Well With My Soul," a capella, with the call and response of the chorus, is to be transported nearly to the gates of heaven.

But isn't our view of God expressed just as clearly in the words that come out of our mouths when we sing as the words that proceed from the pulpit during the sermon?

We know and understand that Jesus is the Master of the sea. He prepares the waves to rage against the ship carrying the wayward prophet. He speaks as they become perfectly still. He walks on the waters.

How is it then that Jesus wants to be your Savior but must wait on you to decide? Did He not make the sea and does it not obey His voice? Whosoever will, may come, you say. Ah, but Who has the power to change that will so that it desires Him, something it would never do if left to itself?

The point is that the One who made all things must be Lord over all things.

We do choose that which we desire. Every day we decide to do this, that, or the other thing. Our will is free.

How can this be, when God rules over all things? Is this not a contradiction?

No. It is a mystery. The Bible teaches both God's sovereign rule and our ability to choose and shows that under God's direction, both work together to accomplish His plan. They concur.

Arminius taught this: that Christ must wait on fallen man to choose salvation, and it naturally follows that He cannot stop that man from turning away from  that salvation at some later date, should the man so choose.

But Jesus said, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."

Who do you believe?

I believe that the love, mercy and grace alone of a sovereign LORD have lifted me and will keep me in His hand,