Last week we looked at the agent in conversion and that agent is the Holy Spirit. Indeed Christ has purchased sinners, but He also purchased the Holy Spirit and the application of the Holy Spirit to the souls of sinners. It is not just that God does something to the soul using a secondary source, but in conversion it is God Himself by the Holy Spirit taking a human soul and converting it. There is no greater work in all of history than this conversion. God’s creating the world from nothing but Himself was an act that no human mind can understand. But even creation pales in contrast with the Holy Spirit taking sinners and making them into new creations in Christ Jesus.
It is certainly easy enough to state the biblical fact that the Holy Spirit is the agent of change in the transformation of the human soul, but it is so hard for the human soul to come to a deep distrust of self and a trust in God for that work. The natural soul is full of self and its own strength which leaves that soul in the deepest parts of its own self-sufficiency. The self-sufficient soul will always think of itself as being able to love God apart from grace. It may have a theology that is different than what it is really trusting in, but in the inner depths of that soul it is trusting in its own sufficiency or something of self. It must be broken from its own strength in order to love from the love of God put in the humbled soul. The self-sufficient soul will trust in its own interpretation of the world and of Scripture. In other words, it must be broken from its pride in its own wisdom to look to Christ and rest in His wisdom and in His sufficiency. The proud soul will look to something of self and trust in its own righteousness rather than to rest in the righteousness of Christ. The proud soul will trust in its own works and efforts in order to be holy and to do what it thinks is grow in sanctification.
The great battle in the human soul is not just to overcome a particular sin, but for the proud and self-centered heart which is sin itself to be overcome. That will only happen when the soul submits to the living God and the true King reigns in it. That only happens when the Spirit of the living God engages to do battle in the soul and overcomes that soul by the work of conviction and humiliation. But people says this: “We are justified by faith alone. All we have to do is believe.” Indeed, but apart from humility there is no faith. A soul trying to believe without true humility is like trying to love without any love at all. There can be no faith in Christ as long as the proud and self-centered heart trusts in self. There can be no living by faith as long as the soul trusts in its own sufficiency.
The agent for conversion is the Holy Spirit. But why does the Holy Spirit transform and change sinners? What purpose and reason does He have for doing what He does? The reason for conversion is grace and not the merit, worth, works, righteousness, nor any other thing that a sinner is or has done. The sinner always wants to look to self in order to provide God a reason to show him or her grace or to obtain some good. That is the worst thing that a person can do. God operates by grace and grace alone. The sinner, then, must not only come to an understanding that it is the Holy Spirit who must change him or her, but the sinner must also come to the understanding that there is nothing that he or she can do to move the Holy Spirit to the work of conversion. The Holy Spirit in conversion changes the sinner by grace and only by grace. There is no reason that a person is converted other than grace.
Romans 3:24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed, 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
Romans 4:16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
Romans 11:6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
Galatians 2:21 “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.
Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
These verses are sufficient to show the reason that a sinner is converted. In Romans 3 it tells us the very motive of God in saving sinners. That motive and reason is not found in the sinner, but is found in God Himself and in God alone. God justifies sinners on the basis of Christ and nothing in the sinner is found to move Him to do so. Christ alone is all that is needed. The sinner needs to have his sin taken away, but there is nothing the sinner can do to merit the slightest sin to be taken away. But God provides the propitiation in the person of Jesus Christ who bore His wrath for sinners. He did not do that because the sinner was worth it, but because the Father was worth it. He did this to demonstrate the righteousness of the Father and not for the slightest bit of good in the sinner. He did this so that the Father could be just and the justifier, not because the sinner had any reason in self for saving him or her. There is utterly no room for boasting at all in the sinner because the sinner did nothing to save himself and there was no reason to save him or her. The only reason was and is within the Godhead and salvation is all of grace.
Some still think that conversion and salvation is because of their faith, but Romans 4:16 should dispel that notion. Salvation is by faith in order that it would be by grace. The biblical teaching of faith has no idea that faith is a human work, but instead it is the way God saves so that it would be totally of grace. Faith is an instrument given by and used by God to save by grace. Whatever work a human being tries to bring into the situation simply makes salvation to be something other than by grace alone which spoils the whole thing. One work of the sinner makes grace to be no longer grace. One act of faith if it is a work of the human flesh spoils the whole teaching of justification by grace alone through faith alone. The Holy Spirit’s reason for His work in conversion is grace.
Galatians 2:21 shows us that the work of Christ is the source of the grace shown to sinners. It is not as some try to show in the modern day that God can show grace apart from Christ, but that in some way grace is connected to the death of Christ. If grace can come to us by works or by a work then there was no need for the death of Christ. The death of Christ on the cross was moved by grace and is His purchasing grace for sinners. Galatians 5:4 then shows us the result if we try to find a reason within ourselves if we look to our own efforts. To the degree we look to our works or the Law as a way of being justified, it is to that degree that we fall from grace as the way of salvation. This is why we must teach people to look to God alone and not to themselves. It is not until a person has been broken from his or her self-sufficiency that the person will look and trust totally in the sufficiency of Christ and to the Gospel of grace alone. If God’s reason for converting sinners is Himself, that is, grace and grace alone, then the sinner must be broken from any idea that he can do anything of himself for salvation.
Ephesians 1:6 shows us the motive God has in salvation: “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” God saves sinners to the glory of His grace. This is in Ephesians 2:5-8 as well. God takes dead sinners who have no good in them and no ability to please or give Him a reason to save them and makes them alive in order to display the surpassing riches of His grace. Whenever a sinner tries to find a reason in self for God to save him, that sinner is fighting grace which is the only reason God has for saving sinners. It is grace that displays the very beauty and glory of God in the Gospel. It is grace that shines forth the mercy and love of God. It is grace that shows the sovereignty of God. It is grace that is the only real hope for sinners. The sinner must be stripped of all hope in his own works and look to the Holy Spirit as the agent of salvation. The sinner must be stripped of all hope in finding any reason for salvation in self so that s/he could look to grace alone for salvation. In conversion the Spirit pours out the love of God in the soul and now the sinner loves God. When we love God in truth, we love Him more than ourselves. We should desire that we would be saved to the glory of His name rather than anything found in us or done by us. A soul that is saved by grace delights in the glory of that grace rather than self. God finds reasons within Himself to save us. That is grace and that is why salvation is by grace alone. Oh the glory of it all!
God Loves... Himself 
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