This difference of response may be stated in terms of co-operation with, or improvement of, the grace of God. But in any case the explanation of the difference lies exclusively in the free will of man. God does not make men to differ. He operates no more savingly and efficaciously in the man who believes than He does in the man who does not believe. In the ultimate, then, the issue of salvation rests with the sovereign determination of the human will.
Men make themselves to differ.
Now it is easy to see that , if man is thus able to co-operate with or improve the grace that is common to all, there must remain in man some vestige of good. Indeed, so decisive an element of ability to good survives that it determines the exercise of the most important event or series of events in the history of the individual. In magnificent contrast with this denial of the sovereignty and efficacy of the saving grace of God is the teaching of our Confession. In these sections the faith that embraces Jesus Christ to the saving of the soul is referred to the sovereign predestination of God as its source, and to the regenerative operation of God in the heart as its cause. God is sovereignly pleased to impart His efficacious grace, and it is the enablement that comes from this sovereign bestowal of the grace of the Holy Spirit that leads to faith.