Matthew 12:34,35 (NLT) 

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.

What is salvation?

The desperate plight of man is his evil heart. We all need God’s forgiveness and we need to be rescued (saved) from the bondage of our evil heart. The only hope of true and complete change is for our evil heart to be removed and replaced with a good heart. But this is purely a spiritual thing. Who can change wicked people? Who can save us? 

Only Jesus! There is no other person but Jesus because he paid our debt by dying on the cross.

What is the gospel?

God promised through the prophet Ezekiel that He would one day alter people’s lives by literally removing their evil heart and replacing it with a new good heart. This began to be fulfilled through Jesus when he died in our place on the Roman cross of capital punishment, was buried, and resurrected three days later. Justice was served and we were forgiven. Then God fulfilled His promise to Christians on Pentecost which you can read about in Acts chapter two. He gives all believers a new heart and new spirit.

God is spirit and that means He is invisible to our eyes. His true divine nature is like the sun and we would die in His presence. But He created us with a spirit so that man can connect with Him. As our graphic shows, since we cannot see Him we can only see the results of His presence. His righteous character and supernatural presence are revealed in “everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

So what is grace and how does God use supernatural grace to bring people to salvation?

We find in Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, Greece, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.” Ephesians 2:8 (NLT)

Most skim past these words. But we need to stop and understand what grace is. We find in Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary the definition of grace.

GRACE: graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (abstract or concrete; literal, figurative or spiritual; especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life;

This may not be what you thought. According to this grace is God’s hand influencing our hearts like the wind leaving His mark in our lives. No one can decide to follow Jesus. No one can save themselves. No one can change their heart. And that is because Jesus is clear, “…no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up.” John 6:44 (NLT)

The phrase “draws them to me” comes from a Greek word that is described by Vine’s Words: Drag, Draw (away; back; nigh; on; out; up). Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary. How does God drag a blinded, sin-filled person to Jesus?

God uses grace, the divine influence upon the evil heart to draw or DRAG the sinner to Jesus. Here is how He does it. The Holy Spirit brings conviction to the evil heart of man. He works to open the spiritual eyes of the spiritually dead spirit and stabs the conscience to influence a person to admit their sin.

This unmerited grace of conviction is a free gift of God. With the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) a Christian shares the gospel with someone and God thrusts the Law past their mind, will, and emotions and stabs the Word into the conscience, exposing “the very thoughts and motives of a man’s heart.” 

Why does God do this? The reason is simple, God is working to bring that person to repentance. Man must respond to the gospel, but because of their evil heart, they cannot repent without the free gift of God’s grace to drag them along.

1/ First, God must break our pride for us to see and understand our wickedness and sin

Here is what I mean. Jesus taught His followers in Matthew 5:3 (NLT2) that “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

So according to the Lord Jesus, the people who see they have no good inside them and realize their horrible sin are the only people promised heaven. (Matthew 5:3)

The type of “poor” He speaks of are those who know their evil hearts have absolutely no good in them at all. Zero righteousness and goodness! But the problem is, to gain this realization people must be miraculously convinced by the Holy Spirit to see how sinful they really are. 

Let’s look at the first sermon the apostle Peter gave in Acts 2 to understand this. You need to see what God does to draw sinners to Jesus, and how the Law of God probes the guilty conscience.

Acts 2:22-24 (NLT)

22  “People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know.

23  But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. 24  But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip.

As Peter shares the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, he also uses the sixth commandment and points out they are murderers. You see, the Jews rejected their Messiah and murdered him. Peter is not trying to convince them to accept Jesus, he is aiming at their conscience to bring them to repentance.

And it is important to remember the words of Jeremiah the prophet while he spoke for the LORD, “Is not my Word like a fire?…and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” God cracked open many of the Jews stubborn hearts and they saw themselves as horrible sinners.

Acts 2:29-31(NLT)

29  “Dear brothers, think about this! You can be sure that the patriarch David wasn’t referring to himself, for he died and was buried, and his tomb is still here among us.

30  But he was a prophet, and he knew God had promised with an oath that one of David’s own descendants would sit on his throne.

31  David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah’s resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave.

2/ God must also break our hearts to lead us to truly be sorrow for our sins

Matthew 5:4 (NLT) “God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

Next, Peter repeats his words and also stabs them again by saying, “whom you crucified.” 

Acts 2:36-37(NLT)

36  “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!” 37  Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

As the book of Hebrews stated the Word of God, “exposes the thoughts and motives of a man’s heart”. Yes, the free gift of grace greatly influences the conscience. The power of the Holy Spirit uses the Law of God like a two edged sword and powerfully pierces the conscience. So we see here Peter preached and suddenly 3000 people realized just how sinful they really were, and were struck with grief for their sin.

We need to examine the words “pierced their hearts”.

Acts 2:37 (NCV) “When the people heard this, they felt guilty and asked Peter and the other apostles, ‘What shall we do?’”

You see the Holy Spirit was not finished with just making these sinners realize in their minds that they were evil. In Matthew 5:4 Jesus tells us the people who are grieved and sorrowful for seeing their sin are the ones God blesses with His eternal comfort. So He pressed them hard with their guilt. God knows our evil hearts and only this grace will move us to actually be deeply grieved for our sin.

If we look back deeply into the Greek word translated “pierced” we find “it properly denotes to pierce or penetrate with a needle, lancet, or sharp instrument; and then to pierce with grief, or acute pain of any kind.” – Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament.

So the next Bible translation of this statement helps us further understand why grief, sorrow or mourning is important and taught by Jesus. “Now, having heard this, they were stung to the heart with poignant sorrow.” Acts 2:37 (WuestNT) God blesses the people who deeply grieve over their evil hearts.

For the Holy Spirit to enter our spirit and give us a new heart the conscience must be pierced until we see our true sinful nature. We all must realize and confess our specific spiritual crimes like they did under Peter’s sermon. The Holy Spirit presses God’s Law upon the conscience until it produces guilt. To receive salvation our hard heart must be broken.

As Paul explains, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that [the murmurs and excuses of] every mouth may be hushed and all the world may be held accountable to God. For no person will be justified (made righteous, acquitted, and judged acceptable) in His sight by observing the works prescribed by the Law. For [the real function of] the Law is to make men recognize and be conscious of sin [not mere perception, but an acquaintance with sin which works toward repentance, faith, and holy character].“ Romans 3:19-20 (AMP)

And as God’s grace presses the guilty conscience it produces godly sorrow. Deep grief is the normal response when a sinner actually sees their guilt.

3/ Then God must break our will to make us willing to say “what should we do?” and repent to receive a new spirit and eternal life

Next, as God’s Word says, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.” (2 Corinthians 7:10) This grace also affects the soul and frees the person to respond to God in humility instead of reacting to God from their proud and evil heart. As the Word says, “But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it).” James 4:6 (AMP)

The only way a person can be humbled to the place that allows the Holy Spirit to enter them and give them a new spirit and new heart is by this grace process. You see, the sinner screams “I am a good person!” But the convicted sinner shuts their mouth, grieved over their horrible sin before their Creator, and in absolute meekness surrenders to His control. As Jesus taught in Matthew 5:5 (NKJV) “Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.”

God’s process is to use the LAW of God to produce GUILT… GRIEF… REPENTANCE. This is why Jesus taught from the start only the people who see they are spiritually poverty-stricken get heaven, only the grief-stricken who mourn over their sin will God truly comfort, and only the meek will receive God’s eternal blessing of a new heart and spirit.

So when Jesus says God blesses the meek he is describing repentance. God only blesses the broken sinner who fully surrenders to Him, only they will receive His forgiveness. This means no more resistance to the will of God. No more excuses for doing things their own way. Instead, they now humbly FOLLOW THEIR LORD JESUS! And the blessings begin immediately on this earth, not later when they get to heaven after death. 

Finally, as Jesus revealed, now with a new and good heart they “…understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” Matthew 13:23 (NLT) The whole earth benefits from the harvest!

HERE IS HOW TO REPENT AND BE BORN AGAIN

Acts 2:38-40 (NLT2)

38  Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins, turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to show that you have received forgiveness for your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39  This promise is to you, and to your children, and even to the Gentiles—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” 40  Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!” 

1/ THE LAW OF GOD MUST BE EXAMINED AND FACED JUST LIKE YOU WOULD IN A COURTROOM [Exodus 20, Matthew 5-7, Galatians 5, Ephesians 2]

Why? because the law of God produces guilt

“Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.” Romans 3:19 (NLT)

“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT)

2/ RESPOND TO THE GUILTY VERDICT WITH FULL ADMISSION OF YOUR SPECIFIC CRIMES, FOLLOWED WITH DEEP SADNESS

Why? because guilt produces deep godly grief

“Come close to God and he will come close to you. Realize that you have sinned and get your hands clean again. Realize that you have been disloyal and get your hearts made true once more. As you come close to God you should be deeply sorry, you should be grieved, you should even be in tears. Your laughter will have to become mourning, your high spirits will have to become heartfelt dejection. You will have to feel very small in the sight of God before he will set you on your feet once more.” James 4:8 (Phillips NT)

3/ FULLY REPENT AND SURRENDER TO YOUR NEW LORD

Why? because only deep godly sorrow produces true repentance

“For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death].“ 2 Corinthians 7:10 (AMP)

“Let the thief steal no more, but rather let him be industrious, making an honest living with his own hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need.” Ephesians 4:28 (AMP)

True repentance means first to stop your crime and in our example of a thief that is only the first step because this is only partial repentance. Next, the thief must get a job and earn his money. But this is still partial repentance because it does not deal with the heart of the sin, GREED. A greedy person steals and cheats, but a fearful or careful greedy person just works hard to stuff his own pockets. Here the Bible explains that true and full repentance is only proven when the ex-thief makes a 180 and joyfully gives some of his hard earned money to needy people. He is no longer a taker but turns around and is now a giver.

AN EXAMPLE PRAYER WOULD BE LIKE THIS

Dear God,

I realize you are the Creator of all things, the Almighty God, who knows all things and the only one who is fully good and just. Because of this you have the power to establish the laws of the world, and the authority to tell me what is right and what is wrong. So I now bow to your authority and justice. I admit I have broken your law _____________ [fill in the blank], and I am so grieved in how I have acted.

Please, please forgive me! I now understand your love and mercy so I accept your offer of forgiveness through Jesus dying in the place of my judgment. I turn from all the crimes I am practicing, I have no excuses, And I now am grateful for your mercy. Father in heaven, I choose to please You and follow my Lord Jesus by obedience to His commands all my days.

THE NARROW ROAD OF OBEDIENCE – YOU ARE EXPECTED TO LEAVE THE LIFE OF CRIME AND OBEY FROM THIS DAY FORWARD – THIS IS THE NARROW ROAD

Your new lifestyle begins with Christ’s words, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12 (NLT)

So be careful, Jesus warns many will try to make the way to heaven easier than the narrow way of repentance. “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” Matthew 7:21-27 (NLT)

Also, Jesus explained the narrow way of life his followers take, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40 (NLT)

BUT WHAT IF I FAIL? YOU WILL AT FIRST, BUT YOU WILL EXPERIENCE GOD’S MIGHTY GRACE THAT GIVES YOU NEW DESIRES AND STRENGTH TO OBEY YOUR NEW LORD

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.” 1 John 2:1-7 (NLT)

Give yourself a break at first and remember you are a new baby in the faith. When babies learn to walk it takes time and even when you are older you may fall down, but it is less and less of an issue over time. Don’t be discouraged, you will find God’s strength because He gives His Holy Spirit to you and you gain the power (grace) to obey consistently. Give God time to work inside you, trust Him. He transforms us from the inside out!