In my last post, commenting on God's work of salvation, I stated that all the work was His. Some might say that we have to "accept" it but I disagree. I think it is more like "we don't reject it". It sounds like semantics but let me explain myself.
Psalm 51:5, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." This verse tells us that we are born in sin, all have a sin nature. We are naturally sinners, all of us, from the time of conception.
1 Corinthians 2:14, "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned."
Romans 8:10-12, "As it is written: 'There is none righteous, no, not one; There is no one who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way; They have together become unprofitable;"
John 15:16, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit;"
Isaiah 64:6, "But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;"
There are many more verses but I will stop there. I will give you my opinion and you can let me know what you think.
Man in his sin has no free will. The "choice" was made at the garden. From that point on his only choice is disobedience.
God in His mercy has given man a gift, the gift of salvation, paid for by the blood of His Son Jesus. The gift is for all mankind.
When I buy a gift for someone, it already belongs to them. Even if I haven't physically handed it to them, it still belongs to them. When I do hand it to them, the only thing they can do is reject it. It is already theirs, they can only reject it.
I see the same thing with God's gift. Man (natural man) can only reject it. However through the work of the Holy Spirit (God) and His Word a change is made and the new man (Spiritual) is able to "not reject it" if you will. Just for the record I believe Christians have free will.
I believe that from start to finish the idea, plan, and work of salvation is God's. If man has a hand in it (he has to "accept it") then it is works righteousness. God bless y'all real good.
1 comment:
As Tigger says, “indubitably”. Salvation is a mysterious process. Moving from darkness to light, from death to life is pretty much unfathomable. Just like trying to describe the beauties of nature, the vastness of the universe, or simply any attribute of God.
That being said, on one level I’m not sure what difference it makes and it is probably semantics when we talk about how one becomes “saved”. Do we accept or only reject? These are semantics because the process, or action, even in its simplicity seems to be more complicated than either “accept” or “reject” implies. I think this is one area where being “wrong” won’t matter. If we assume we received something for one reason and it is actually for another it doesn’t change the fact that we now own it. Maybe both perspectives are “wrong”.
But on the other hand, how we understand God’s ways, how we define Him in a systematic way does impact what we believe and thus what we do and decisions we make on a daily basis.
Rather than letting scripture speak for itself we get hung up on whether someone has done some work in the process of accepting, so suddenly we have a work and it cannot be by grace. Or we focus on it being God’s will for all to come to Him. Since some don’t come it really must be Him doing it all and then after being freed from sin we now are free to truly make decisions. This all strikes me as playing games with the plain meaning of scripture.
Implicit in the OT or NT pleas to repent, or believe or obey is the moral responsibility for the hearers to accept or reject. Otherwise words have no meaning. I suspect that coupled with these pleas there may be an enlightening (for lack of a better word) that shines through the darkness of one’s mind or soul to see the truth and to make the offer a real one. But as I say implicit with the offer is the ability to reject it, or it is not an offer or a legitimate warning or command. Passages that depict people as morally responsible agents imply that they have the ability to choose life or death. As Gregory Boyd writes, “These texts suggest that it is ultimately up to people as morally responsible agents to choose to accept or reject God’s offer of salvation”
Maybe at issue is not whether God through His Holy Spirit draws us to Himself, but whether the drawing is irresistible. Again Boyd makes a good point, “It is one thing to claim that without the Holy Spirit we cannot believe and quite another to say that with the work of the Holy Spirit we must believe. Scripture affirms the former but not the latter.” Of course this is the issue if one subscribes to Calvin’s 5 points, especially the “I” of TULIP.
Scripture never portrays a choice to receive a gift from God as a “work”.
In my mind the last two paragraphs of your post are key. With them in mind I would say that rejection is a decision. If not, God made the decision for you then it has become a game. I wonder if there is some confusion here about cannot or must believe. I would submit that this concept of mankind having no part in the process of salvation, vis a vis cannot even accept God’s offer
1. is foreign to scripture
2. is a misunderstanding of God’s ways,
3. inserts concepts to the process that are really anthropomorphic and foreign to the plain reading of Scripture
4. is in an attempt to elevate God somehow but in reality cheapens Him and makes Him appear to be petty and whimsical
5. confuses Jesus’ call to the Jews of His day to keep the Law as a work. Or somehow wants to twist “not by works” to mean something else. “Not by works” means not by keeping the Law. The Jews of the day were warned to not work at the Law to earn salvation.
Romans 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."
Did Abraham have a choice? If not then this passage and much of the NT loses its power. If he did, then the implications are obvious and the plain reading of the scriptures make sense.
Passages to check out: Mark 4:20, Acts 22:17-18, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 John 5:10,
Matthew 19:16-17, John 14:22-25, Isaiah 63:10, Acts 7:51
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