Grasping and embracing the Calvinist doctrine should lead a sinner to constant repentance and humility. Through progressive sanctification, the sinner realizes that they are nothing and Christ is everything. Due to Adam breaking the Covenant of Works that God initiated with him in the Garden of Eden by eating the forbidden fruit, sin entered the world. Consequently, all mankind following Adam were tainted with sin’s curse from their initial formation in their mother’s womb (Psalm 51:5). Consequently, a sinner’s faculties, in totality have become corrupt by original sin leaving them in a position by this corrupt nature to turn from God, with no inclination to do good (Psalm 14:3).
Repentance then, comes through God’s mercy by which He replaces the sinner’s heart of stone with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Similarly, we see that Jesus stressed the need for the new birth by telling Nicodemus it was necessary to be born again to see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3). In experiencing this transformation as described in Ezekiel and in John, the sinner is convicted of their sin by the Holy Spirit and seeing the great extent to which they offended the almighty God they come to the realization that they deserve His eternal wrath.
However, by receiving God’s gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8), God’s unmerited Grace is bestowed upon them only because of Jesus’s death on the cross which secured redemption for many. Through trusting in Jesus’s redemptive work alone for their salvation, the redeemed sinner is justified thus having all their sins removed from their account then by God’s Grace, they receive the imputed righteousness of Christ. Now, with there being no sin on their account to condemn them, they are adopted for all eternity into God’s Kingdom where they are made joint heirs with Christ, provided they suffer with Him (Romans 8:17).
That’s the story of God’s redemptive plan for His children going back to original sin, dealing with their hardness of heart, bringing them to repentance, and finally restoring them, thus demonstrating His Sovereignty and the work of His Providential hand.
In His Image 