God did this:

Ephesians 1:4-5

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Jesus did this:

Matthew 1:21

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.

The Holy Spirit did this:

John 3:6-8

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

There are many kinds of salvation. Noah and his family were saved from the flood in the ark. This is not eternal salvation.

The Hebrews were saved from slavery in Egypt. This is not eternal salvation.

You save yourself from a life of misery, confusion and meaninglessness by believing the gospel and that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and by obeying his commandments. This is also not eternal salvation.

As you can see from the scriptures cited above, God the Father chose a people to be saved, God the Son died for those people to be saved, and God the Holy Ghost gave those same people spiritual life to be saved. This is eternal salvation. Romans 8:29-30 states this truth in a different way. Same truth.

This is the salvation from death. We will all die, but we will not die, eternally that is. In one of the greatest and most encouraging passages of scripture, Paul eloquently puts this in the context of the resurrection in 1 Cor. 15:50-57.

The resurrection is salvation from death. It IS eternal salvation. It is the exclamation point on the truths of election, predestination, redemption, atonement, substitution, propitiation, and regeneration. All of those $10 theological words are aspects of the eternal salvation that actually takes place at the resurrection.

As you can clearly see, eternal salvation and all of its facets is done by God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit alone. You do nothing! Nothing! (Apologies to Sgt. Schultz of Hogan’s Heroes.)

All the hubbub about Calvinism and reformed theology boils down to this. You have to do something to help this salvation along as the means of getting salvation (gospel regeneration) and to show yourself and others that you really are eternally saved after you are born again (saving faith and perseverance).

But, the Bible teaches immediate spirit regeneration (John 3). Regeneration means to be born again. The spirit goes where it pleases. It does not need the preaching of the gospel to help. Faith and persevering in righteous living are the fruit of the spirit and come after being born again. The presence of the spirit in you is not affected by this. The spirit doesn’t leave if you don’t exercise the proper faith and righteous living. No, there is no exit strategy for the Holy Spirit from your heart!

Besides Calvinism, there is another major set of beliefs (Arminianism, Fullerism, Campbellism) about eternal salvation that states you must do some good works as a condition before you can be born again. These good works may include: baptism (baptismal regeneration), joining the church, living a righteous life, and making a decision to believe in Jesus and accept Him as your savior (decisional regeneration). They say you must do these things before you can be born again. This teaches that the spirit is waiting around for you to do something good, to believe or accept, and then He will enter your heart. Nope! The spirit is NOT waiting around for you.

In contrast, the Bible teaches that eternal salvation is God’s idea, His plan, His work, His resurrection. No front-end or back-end work from you is needed. Nothing!

Now, all of these things that Calvinism and Arminianism say that we MUST do as conditions for eternal salvation – these are all good things to do and we SHOULD do them. Have faith, believe the gospel, live a righteous life, believe and accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior. We are born again, so that we CAN do these things.

Ephesians 2:10 — For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

So, let us be kind to our brothers and sisters who do not yet understand how eternal salvation works. When they rejoice that they have believed and accepted Jesus, let us rejoice with them that they are doing what the Lord would have them to do.

And, let us at the same time praise and glorify our God for his grace and his grace alone in their eternal salvation.

May God Bless You.