Believers believe because God has changed their hearts and opened their eyes so that they can see and love the truth. The preaching recorded in the book of Acts was successful because of God s election. God changes the heart of man and makes him alive. You were dead in your transgressions and sins. Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, gave him the gift of life, and then Lazarus exercised his new energies in obedience to the voice of Christ.
Dead men don t obey.
Just as you did not have anything to do with your natural birth, so also, if you are a believer, you had nothing to do with your new birth. No one decides to be born or to be reborn. God decides that, and changes our heart so that we welcome his decision. The fifth point of Calvinism describes the new creation in Christ. Those whom God has chosen, and for whom Christ has died, and whom the Spirit has made alive, will persevere to the end and be saved.