God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Our opponents say, 'Salvation belongs to the free will of man; if not to man's merit, yet at least to man's will;' but we hold and teach that salvation from first to last, in every iota of it, belongs to the Most High God. It is God that chooses His people. He calls them by His grace; He quickens them by His Spirit, and keeps them by His power.
When Jesus said, “take up your cross” to them, they thought of a cruel instrument of torture and death. They thought of dying in the most agonizing method known to man. They thought of poor, condemned criminals hanging on crosses by the roadside. Doubtless they had seen men executed in that fashion. They understood He was calling them to die for Him. They knew He was asking them to make the ultimate sacrifice, to surrender to Him as Lord in every sense.
