God Wants All People to Be Saved

We are all familiar with these words from Holy Scripture. 
“…whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
(Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13)

 “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
(I Timothy 2:4) 

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
 (II Peter 3:9)

None of us really doubts that God wants all people to be saved, do we?  Yet, there are many who teach that God made some people to be lost while He made others to be saved and the people have no say in the matter.  That certainly does not sound like the God I wish to serve!

Sometimes, however, we ask how God’s desire for each one’s salvation becomes a reality in each person’s life without God’s direct intervention.  That is, how is a person made aware of and drawn to God in a way that is consistent with that desire and yet is clear to the individual?

I believe the key to this conundrum lies in the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

It is comforting to know that every single person who wants to know the Lord and seeks for Him will come in contact with the information they need to be what the Lord wants them to be.  I can rest in that thought for God has done His part and now it is left up to each individual.

However, what happens when the saved are then lost?  We must first ask if anyone will notice.  The shepherd knows his sheep so well that he knows when one is missing.  A woman knows her jewelry box so well that she will notice when something is no longer in it.  Sometimes, a Christian is gone and it takes a little while for someone to ask where they have gone.  Then, we must have an intention to go and find that one who is gone.  He needs to know that the saved still care.  He needs to know that the saved want him to come back.  He needs to that he is missed.

We need a plan.  We can’t just wait around to see if he returns on his own.  We can’t just hope that someone will do something.  We must take this as an opportunity for personal responsibility.  When the saved are lost, we are sad.  When the lost are saved, we are glad.  That is what the Church is all about.

-Mike Johnson