More and more every day I become further convinced that my salvation was and is a complete gift from God. Even those aspects which at first I thought were my own doing I am learning to see as God’s doing.

Repentance and faith are not our own doing, but are a gift from God.

  • 2 Timothy 2:24-26 — And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
  • Acts 5:31 — God exalted him [Jesus] at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give [not offer] repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
  • Acts 11:8 — When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
  • Ephesians 2:8-9 — For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Note: this in the Greek refers to the entire preceding concept and connects it to gift so that grace, salvation and even faith itself are all gifts from God. Thus, the entirety of salvation is a gift from God; none of it is based upon our doing.)
  • 1 Corinthians 12:3b — …no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

A dead man cannot bring himself back to life — God must do it

  • John 11:43-44 — When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
  • Ephesians 2:1-2,4-5 — And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience… But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
  • Colossians 2:13 — And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.