My past as a semi-Pelagian: I was converted by the preaching and the witnessing of some very, earnest, young believers who urged me to “receive Christ as your Savior” by placing my faith and transferring my trust to Him alone for salvation. They explained the substitutionary work of Christ to me and my need to repent of my sins. They did an excellent job of showing me the Scriptures relating to the Law of God and to my need for forgiveness, and to Christ and His work on the cross. God used their faithful and Scriptural witness to faith. There was however a decisional emphasis in their approach. They emphasized my decision. And so I began my Christian life with the definite impression that I had exercised my will and free choice. I even boasted once in a testimony,” I’m so glad I chose Christ to be my Savior.” I had little sense of the amazing nature of God’s free grace. Salvation seemed to me more of a transaction. My previous lostness appeared in my mind to have to do with the just penalty of my sins. I didn’t understand my previous blindness and hardness of heart and the power of my flesh. I didn’t know about Satan’s activity holding me captive. Ephesians 1 and Romans 9 were passages that I longed to understand. My stubborn assumptions about free choice interfered with my ability to understand those Scriptures. Could it be that God took the initiative and that I had been more lost than I had ever assumed? No. It couldn’t be. Romans 9 bothered me because I didn’t have a good explanation for its language. "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. . . . Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.” Then one day the thought crossed my mind, “Why not accept the full force of this language? Why is it necessary to hem and haw and explain it away?” Ephesians 1:4-6 then came to mind and suddenly clarity, joy and admiration for the immense grace of God in redemption began to fill my mind. God had had mercy on me and it was His free choice, not mine. My years as a semi-Pelagian came to an abrupt end. Grace became most wonderful and truly amazing.