So why would God be willing to save anybody? It is certainly not for anything we can do now or in the future. God saves people because He loves them and does not want to see any perish. God saves people for His own glory.
Psa 79:9 Help us,O God of our salvation,for the glory of thy name:and deliver us,and purge away our sins,for thy name’s sake.
Psa 106:7-8 Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt;they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies;but provoked him at the sea,even at the Red sea. (8) Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake,that he might make his mighty power to be known.
Only God is to receive glory,not mankind. Why? Because nobody else is worthy of glory. Paul understood this and recognized what God’s mercy had done for him.
2 Cor. 4:2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,not walking in craftiness,nor handling the word of God deceitfully;but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
People are saved by the grace of God and when they have been saved,then they should show the Gospel of Jesus Christ is alive within them. Saying one thing and living another way is dishonesty and Paul is telling us to renounce the hidden things of dishonesty. The born again believer should then trust in God and live in faith and holiness. Our behavior should reflect what we are saying. When we say one thing and live another way,then we are being deceitful and dishonest. If we believe in God,then we need to show it in our lives and be willing to tell others about Jesus Christ!
2 Cor. 4:3,4 But if our gospel be hid,it is hid to them that are lost:(4) In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,who is the image of God,should shine unto them.
For Paul,if the Gospel of Jesus Christ was hid to the lost,it was not because Paul had not preached the Gospel to them. Paul was diligent to deliver the Gospel,are we? Charles Spurgeon wrote:“If men do not understand the gospel,we must take care that the fault does not lie in our language;but wholly with their blinded carnal hearts.” Sadly,the devil has blinded the eyes of men and women so that they will not accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. People may have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ hundreds of times,but it does not catch fire in them and bring them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. There is another reason why the lost will not allow the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ shine upon them:it is because they love the darkness within them more than the light.
A man approached Sir Isaac Newton and said,“Sir Isaac,I do not understand. You seem to be able to believe the Bible like a little child. I have tried but I cannot. So many of its statements mean nothing to me. I cannot believe;I cannot understand.” This was the reply of Sir Isaac Newton:“Sometimes I come into my study and in my absentmindedness I attempt to light my candle when the extinguisher is over it,and I fumble about trying to light it and cannot;but when I remove the extinguisher then I am able to light the candle. I am afraid the extinguisher in your case is the love of your sins;it is deliberate unbelief that is in you. Turn to God in repentance;be prepared to let the Spirit of God reveal His truth to you,and it will be His joy to show the glory of the grace of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ.” Our sins blind us to what God wants from us and for us. How does that happen? Because we have taken our eyes off Him – it does not matter where we have put our eyes after that,for if we are not focused on Him,then we are not right with God.