"It's tyrannical to the think of God just going around out of the blue and forcing certain people to be saved, with nothing they can do about it. That's why I believe that faith in God is about me making my decision for him. After that, I'm saved, and I can be baptized."
Upon close reflection, it's a little shocking how frequently this argument is made, considering how antithetical it is to the teaching of salvation by grace alone. The belief that God does not ask for our input before saving us absolutely infuriates many believers. I have ehard Christians talk loudly about have some sort of
inalienable right to deliberately walk into God's kingdom on their own two feet. They speak of God saving someone single-handedly as though it were ruel of him to do so without their permission and assent. This is like a drowning person being furious with a lifeguard for pulling him to safety and resuscitating him without getting a signed warrant. Thank God that he saves us without our precious input! I'm inclined to ask the person raising the objection: "Are we talking about the same thing here? You think it's mean and cruel of God to raise us from death to life, to give us forgiveness, eternal life and countless blessings as a free gift, to rescue us from death and hell, even while we were still undeserving sinners and enemies of God incapable of saying yes to him?" Yes, there is a fixed notion in our culture that we must earn everything we receive, or at least look over it and approve of it before calling it our own. We like to be the arbiters of what we get, even from God.
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