Can anyone be saved who wants to be saved?

Question:

Would you say that anyone who wants to be saved, or chooses to repent, will be saved?  Is there a Bible passage, or multiple passages you can point me to about that?

Answer:

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9). Combine this with what we are also told in Romans 2:11, "For there is no partiality with God." God treats everyone exactly alike. We are all held to the same standards, we are all judged in the same way. This is why God is called just.

The chapter in Ezekiel 18 explains this topic at length, but look at these verses:

"The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord GOD, and not that he should turn from his ways and live? But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die. Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair? When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies. Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he committed, and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive. Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, says the Lord GOD. Therefore turn and live!" (Ezekiel 18:20-32).

There are some who basically hope that God has given up on them because they have given up on themselves. They seek comfort in the idea that it is impossible to be saved personally, so they excuse themselves for not even trying. In reality, they seeking an excuse to be spiritually lazy. They can do whatever they want and justify it by saying to themselves, "What does it matter, I'm lost anyway." But it does matter, everything matters, you can be saved.

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