Man's Inability to Save Himself

          This is part two in a series on "free will."

          The following passage of scripture demonstrates man's inability
     to do anything to save himself.
          Man is unable to do so without God's sovereign action causing it.


                                              *****************


                                        10"He was in the world,
                                         and the world was made through Him,
                                         yet the world did not know Him.

                                        11 He came to His own,
                                         and His own people did not receive Him.
                     
                                         12 But to all who did receive Him,
                                         who believed in His name,
                                         He gave the right to become children of God,
                                         13 who were born, not of blood,
                                         nor of the will of the flesh
                                         nor of the will of man,
                                         but of God."
                                                                         John 1:10-13


          Verse 13 is used by many to say that man must DO something to be saved,
     that we must "receive" Jesus by faith.

          Yes, we must receive Jesus by repenting and trusting in Him, but repentance
     and faith are both gifts from God. They do not come from within man.


          REPENTANCE

                                           "Godly sorrow brings repentance
                                             that leads to salvation ..."
                                                                 2 Corinthians 7:10a

          Our repentance is not our own, but comes from God. 
     We would never repent unless God granted repentance to us.


          FAITH

                                           "This (standing firm in the faith) is a sign
                                             to them (those who oppose you) that they
                                             will be destroyed, but that YOU WILL BE SAVED -
                                             AND THAT BY GOD.

                                             For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ
                                             NOT ONLY TO BELIEVE ON HIM,
                                             but also to suffer for Him ..."
                                                                       Philippians 1:28b-29


          Faith is a gift from God.  We would never believe without this gift.

                                                    
                                                   *****************


           Now, let's go back to John 1:12-13.


          VERSE 12

          So, to be saved, we must receive Jesus through God's grace.
    
          When we receive Him we become "children of God" (v.12).

          "Fallen human beings are not children of God by nature; this is the privilege
     only of those who have faith, a faith generated in them by the sovereign action
     of God."           (Reformation Study Bible Commentary)

    

          VERSE 13
   
          We DO NOT become His children by being "born of blood" (v13).
    
          "Blood" may refer either to lineal descent (that is, blood from one's father
     and mother), or to the Old Testament sacrificial system (that is, the various
     blood sacrifices).  Neither is the basis for birth into the family of God."
                               (Holman Christian Standard Bible Commentary)
    
   

          We become His children born "not of the will of the flesh (v13). 
    "Flesh" refers to man here.  WE ARE NOT BORN INTO GOD'S FAMILY BY
     OUR OWN FREE WILL.


          We become His children "not of the will of man (v13).
    
          " 'Will of man' means not of human lineage, or of human capacity, or of
     human volition."      (HCSB Commentary)


                                                       *************
    

          We do not become a child of God through our heritage or free will,
     but only by being "born of God" (v13).

          This is regeneration, or the new birth, which is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit
     (John 3:3-8). 

          Regeneration is God's giving spiritual life to a dead sinner, who is unable to do anything
     to bring spiritual life to himself.

          This regeneration leads to repentance and faith, resulting in salvation,

          AND SALVATION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MAN'S FREE WILL!
     



    



         


         
                                      

                                        

By Him and Through HIm

         
          This is the first in a series about man's "free will" in salvation. 
     Does man have to give God permission to save him, or allow God to save him;
     or does God's sovereign grace save without any cooperation from man?

          I believe the Bible teaches that God saves totally, on His own, without our help.
     I'll be giving biblical answers to the questions above, along with some others over the next
     few days.


          Today, we'll look at Saul's/Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus.
     See if you can find any sign of free will here, or if God "chose" Paul to be His own, and to
     bring the gospel to the Gentiles.


                                                          **********

                                       
                           "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus,
                            who became to us wisdom from God,
                            and righteousness and sanctification,
                            and redemption, so that, it is written,

                                  'Let him who boasts,
                                  boast in the LORD.'"
                                                            1 Corinthians 1:30-31


                           
                           "Through Him you believe in God,
                             who raised Him from the dead
                             and glorified Him,
                             and so your faith and hope
                             are in God."
                                                           1 Peter 1:21

                                       

          Christians are "in Christ Jesus" by God's doing, and "we believe
     in God" through Jesus.


                                                        **********


                              From The Potter's Freedom, by James R. White:


          "Is it by my free will, or God's act of free will, that I am in Christ Jesus?
     Every believer must ask this question. It is not enough to limit God's free
     will too making a plan available.

          The question is not 'Is God ultimately the source of the plan of salvation?'
     The question is, Who, ultimately, is responsible for my union with Jesus Christ?

          God is both the one who is the origin and source of salvation in general,
     and the one who powerfully, purposefully, and perfectly draws His elect people
     into blessed union with Jesus Christ.

          The Scripture knows no other doctrine.  Paul knew this truth doctrinally
     and experientially:

                                             
                                                'But when God, who had set me apart
                                                 from my mother's womb and called me
                                                 through His grace, was pleased to reveal
                                                 His Son in me so that I might preach Him
                                                 among the Gentiles, I did not immediately
                                                 consult with flesh and blood.'
                                                                               Galatians 1:15-16


          If anybody knew that the idea of 'free will' was a myth, it was Paul.

     * It was not free will that knocked Paul to the ground on the road to Damascus.

     * It was not free will that blinded him.

     * Paul was not 'seeking after God' nor the Savior, Jesus Christ on that day when
     God chose to reveal His Son to him.

          No, God determined the day and the hour, and Paul was only happy to oblige.
     He preached a powerful grace, a grace that stops the elect in their tracks and
     changes them.

          Paul knew nothing of a grace that tries and tries, and fails and fails.
     It is powerful grace, purposeful grace, sovereign grace that lies at the base of
     his words to Titus:


                                                 'He saved us, not on the basis of deeds
                                                  which we have done in righteousness,
                                                  but according to His mercy,
                                                  by the washing of regeneration and
                                                  renewing by the Holy Spirit,
                                                  whom He poured upon us richly
                                                  through Jesus Christ, our Savior.'
                                                                                Titus 3:5-6


          Saving grace that brings the gift of faith.  A mighty God who saves His elect.

          This is the biblical presentation."
                        
    

From Death to Life

                                         "Jesus didn't come to make bad people good,
                                           but to make dead people live."
                                                                                      Ravi Zacharias



                                                                 *****
         
          NO ONE DOES GOOD

          No one is good without God's grace.


                                           "As it is written:

                                                      'There is no one righteous,
                                                       not even one;
                                                       there is no one who understands,
                                                       no one who seeks God.

                                                       All have turned away,
                                                       they have together become worthless;
                                                       there is no one who does good,
                                                       not even one."
                                                                                 Romans 3:10-12


          Some may say that they can do good deeds without having God's Holy Spirit,
     but when a person is not reconciled to God, then nothing he does is good in God's
     eyes.  Compared to God's holy standard, deeds that we think are good are like
     filthy rags.  They pale in comparison to what a holy and righteous God can do.


                                                     "All of us have become like one who is unclean,
                                                       and all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags."
                                                                                  Isaiah 64:6a


          A Christian is righteous only because Jesus has mercifully saved him, and taken
     the Christian's sin upon Himself, and imputed His righteousness to him.


                                                    "God made Him who had no sin
                                                      to be sin for us, so that in Him
                                                      we might become the righteousness of God."
                                                                                  2 Corinthians 5:21



                                                        *****


          WE WERE DEAD IN SIN


          Before conversion, the Christian was dead in sin, separated from God, and following
     Satan.  We were under God's wrath because of our disobedience.


                                                   "As for you, you were dead in your
                                                     transgressions and sins, in which
                                                     you used to live when you followed
                                                     the ways of this world and of the
                                                     ruler of the kingdom of the air,
                                                     the spirit who is now at work in
                                                     those who are disobedient.

                                                     All of us also lived among them
                                                     at onetime, gratifying the cravings
                                                     of our sinful nature and following
                                                     its desires and thoughts. 
                                                     Like the rest, we were by nature
                                                     objects of wrath."
                                                                              Ephesians 2:1-3


          GOD MAKES US ALIVE WITH CHRIST


          Though we were objects of God's wrath, because of His love for His people,
     He miraculously saved us by His grace.


                                                     "But because of His great love for us,
                                                      God, who is rich in mercy,
                                                      made us alive with Christ even when
                                                      we were dead in transgressions - it is
                                                      by grace you have been saved."
                                                                               Ephesians 2:4-5


                                                        *****


          LIVING BY FAITH

          Now that we belong to God, we want to live for the One who died for us.


                                                     "I have been crucified with Christ
                                                      and I no longer live, but Christ lives
                                                      in me.  The life I live in the body,
                                                      I live by faith in the Son of God,
                                                      who loved me and gave Himself
                                                      for me."
                                                                               Galatians 2:20

          (Only a Christian can say this).


          We live because Christ, even though He died for His people, arose and lives.


          This is how we should live.


                                                    " ... we have not stopped praying for you
                                                      and asking God to fill you with the
                                                      knowledge and wisdom and understanding.

                                                      And we pray this in order that you may live
                                                     a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him
                                                     in every way:  bearing fruit in every good work,
                                                     growing in the knowledge of God, being
                                                     strengthened with all power according to His
                                                     glorious might so that you may have great
                                                     endurance and patience, and joyfully giving
                                                     thanks to the Father, who has qualified you
                                                     to share in the inheritance of the saints in
                                                     the kingdom of light."
                                                                                              Colossians 1:9b-12

 

          




                                                    
                                                     

                                                   


          
                                             


         


                                                                     

                                                    




         



         
     

                                                     

God's Sovereignty in The Christmas Story

          In the midst of the holidays, with all the hustle and bustle,
     and the shopping, decorating, and partying, we sometimes not
     only overlook "the reason for the season," Jesus, but also that
     God sovereignly determined every single detail of "The Christmas
     Story."

                                                              *****


          The story doesn't begin with Mary and Joseph, but actually its
     genesis is from before the creation of the world.  God, the Father,
     and Jesus the Son (yes, Jesus didn't come to be at His birth, but was
     there with the Father from the beginning), knew that Adam would fall,
     causing everyone afterward to be born in sin, and requiring a Savior
     who must be a perfect sacrifice to satisfy God's wrath for disobeying Him.


          Jesus knew only He could meet the Father's requirements, and He
     voluntarily agreed to sacrifice Himself, to be the Savior of everyone who
     believed in Him.

                                                             *****


          The Old Testament sacrificial system was not a failure, requiring God
     to revert to "Plan B," Jesus' dying for the sins of His people.  No, those
     sacrifices of animals foreshadowed the cross, leading the way to Jesus for
     salvation.  The sacrifices served their purpose as God intended from the
     beginning.


          God's plan was seamless, and could not be thwarted by any human action.
     His sovereign plan was for Mary and Joseph to be the earthly parents of
     the Messiah.  He chose them for His sovereign purpose, and only they could
     serve God in this unique way. 

          Mary and Joseph were both descendants of David's, just as the Messiah was
     prophesied to be.
                                                           *****


         * God's sovereignty is evident as the angel, Gabriel, delivers the news to
     Mary, that, even though a virgin, she would deliver the "Son of the Most High"
     through the power of the Holy Spirit.

         * We see God's sovereignty as the angel told Joseph that Mary's baby was
     conceived through the Holy Spirit, and that the baby would be called Jesus,
     because "He will save His people from their sins."

         * An angel appeared also to the shepherds, telling them about Jesus' birth,
     a star led the wise men on a long journey to find the messiah, and an angel
     told Joseph in a dream that Mary and he could safely return with Jesus to
     Israel, because Herod, who wanted to kill Jesus, had died.

                                                       *****

         * Finally, God's sovereignty and foreknowledge are seen in Jesus' death
     (the reason He came - "to save His people"), and His resurrection.


          Peter told the crowd:

                              "This man (Jesus) was handed over to you by
                                God's set purpose and foreknowledge;
                                and you, with the help of wicked men,
                                put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

                                But God raised him from the dead,
                                freeing him from the agony of death,
                                because it was impossible for death to keep
                                its hold on him."
                                                                      Acts 2:23-24



          Peter and John prayed before fellow believers:

                             "Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together
                              with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in
                              this city to conspire against your holy servant
                              Jesus, whom you anointed.

                              They did what your power and will had decided
                              beforehand should happen."
                                                                      Acts 4:27-28


          All of these people did what God had decided beforehand should happen.
     These particular people, Herod, Pilate, and Jewish leaders, were destined to
     conspire against Jesus, by God's will.

          God used wicked people to accomplish His purpose to sacrifice Jesus,
     and then raise Him from the dead.  All of this, the birth, life, death, and
     resurrection of Jesus, are evidence of God's sovereignty.

          God, the Father, and Jesus, the Son, worked together, as they always do,
     using ordinary people, to save God's chosen ones, through Jesus' birth, life,
     death, and resurrection.


          

                             


         


    

God's Omniscience in Salvation

          Put your thinking cap on because I'm going deep today.
     Not really.  Every conclusion I reach is logical.

          God is sovereign (all powerful) and omniscient (all knowing),
     and He does as He pleases (Psalm 135:6).

          God knows everything and He knows everything that will happen.
     Nothing takes Him by surprise.

          If God knows something will happen, then it will definitely happen.
     Nothing will happen that God does not know about.  If something happens
     that God did not know would happen, then He is not omniscient or sovereign;
     and that would mean He is not God.

          However, God IS God, and He is all powerful and knows everything.


                                                       ***************


          With these facts in evidence, let's look at some logical conclusions about God
     and His omniscience in salvation.  You may have to read some of these statements
     more than once, but logically they make sense.

          God knows everything His created will do.
     According to His sovereign election, He knows who will believe and won't believe
     in Him.

          He chose His people "according to His pleasure and will - to the praise of His
     glorious grace ..."  (Ephesians 1:4-6).

          If God knows you will believe in Him, then you will believe.  If He does not
     know you will believe, then you will never believe.  All this is according to His
     purpose in election - to the praise of His glory.


                                                     *****************


          Jesus knows His sheep and His sheep know Him (John 10:14-15).

          Jesus' sheep listen to His voice and follow Him in salvation.  Those who are not
     His sheep do not believe in Him.

                                        "...you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
                                         My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they
                                         follow me."
                                                                                     John 10:26-27

        
          God knows how many people will be saved, and that number will not be one
     more or one fewer than the number God knows will be saved.


                                       "When the Gentiles heard this (that they could also be saved),
                                         they were glad  and honored the word of the Lord;
                                         AND ALL WHO WERE APPOINTED TO ETERNAL
                                         LIFE BELIEVED."
                                                                                  Acts 13:48


          God knows who His people are.


                                      "Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm,
                                        sealed with this inscription:

                                               'The Lord knows those who are His ..."
                                                                                 2 Timothy 2:19a
                                        
                                      
    

The Arminian - Reformed Controversy

                       From In My Place He Stood:  Celebrating the Glory
                       of Atonement, by J.I. Packer


          "Grace proves irresistible just because it destroys the disposition to resist.
     Where the Arminian, therefore, will be content to say, 'I decided for Christ,'
      'I made up my mind to be a Christian,' the Calvinist (Reformed) will wish to
     speak of his conversion in more theological fashion, to make plain whose work
     it really was:

                                     'Long my imprisoned spirit lay
                                     Fast bound in sin and nature's night:

                                     Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
                                     I woke; the dungeon flamed with light;

                                     My chains fell off:  my heart was free:
                                     I rose, went forth, and followed thee.'
                                                                      Charles Wesley

                       Footnote by Packer:

                                    'Granted it was Charles Wesley who wrote this,
                                     but it is one of the many passages in his hymns
                                     which make one ask ... 'Where's your Armininanism
                                     now, friend?'



            Clearly, these two notions of internal grace are sharply opposed to each other.


                                                            ***********

            Now, the Calvinist contends that the Arminian idea of election, redemption,
     and calling as acts of God which do not save cuts at the very heart of their biblical
     meaning; that to say in the Arminian sense that God elects believers, and Christ died for
     all men, and the Spirit quickens those who receive the Word, is really to say that in
     the biblical sense God elects nobody, and Christ died for nobody, and the Spirit
     quickens nobody.

           The matter at issue in this controversy, therefore, is the meaning to be given to
     those terms, and to some others that are soteriologically significant, such as the love
     of God, the covenant of grace, and the verb save itself, with its synonyms.

            Arminians gloss them all in terms of the principle that salvation does not
     directly depend on any decree or act of God, but on man's independent activity in
     believing.

            Calvinists maintain that this principle is itself is unscriptural and irreligious,
     that such glossing demonstrably perverts the sense of Scripture and undermines
     the gospel at every point it is practiced.

            This, and nothing less than this, is what the Arminian controversy is about."


                                                  ****************

            Calvinist/Reformed theology maintains that the Bible teaches:

                        1. God, the Father, unconditionally elects those whom He chooses.

                        2. Jesus, the Son died for and redeemed His people.

                        3. The Holy Spirit regenerates and sanctifies His people. 

          
    
    
                                             

What Must I Do to be Born Again?

         Americans, for the most part, are a "can do" people.  If something needs to be done,
     we like to be able to do it ourselves, if possible.  Finishing a task or project gives us
     a feeling of accomplishment.

         Maybe that's why sometimes we want to help God perform spiritual deeds that only
     He can do; for instance, the new birth. 


             "DO SOMETHING"

          An article in a Christian publication stated correctly, that we must be born again to
     see the kingdom of heaven; but then the writer wrote, "you can be born again and
     experience new life in Christ.  Here's how:  1. Admit you're a sinner (Rom 3:23).
     2. Repent of your sins (Acts 3:19)."

         Unfortunately, while explaining what repentance means, there was a typographical
     error and the article ended in mid sentence, but the clear implication was that if a person
     does A, B, and C etc. , then he can be born again.  In other words he should DO SOMETHING
     to receive the new birth (also known as being born again, born of God, born from above,
     and regeneration).


           REGENERATION - A WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

         Billy Graham wrote a book years ago entitled "How to be Born Again," suggesting that
     there is something that a person does to receive the new birth.

          However, the Bible plainly tells us that the new birth is totally a work of God,
     not something we do ourselves.  Jesus explained in John 3:7-8, that the new birth is a
     mystery accomplished by the Holy Spirit.

                                            (Jesus said),

                                                    "Flesh gives birth to flesh,
                                                     but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

                                                     You should not be surprised at my saying,
                                                      'You must be born again.'

                                                      The wind blows wherever it pleases.
                                                      You hear its sound, but you cannot tell
                                                      where it  comes from or where it is going.

                                                      So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."


          "The Holy Spirit is sovereign.  He works as he pleases in his renewal of the
     human heart."
                                NIV Commentary


               THE NEW BIRTH PRODUCES AND PRECEDES FAITH


          From The World-Tilting Gospel by Dan Phillips:

                         "There is supernatural mystery to it (the new birth) not reducible to a
     tidy formula.

                         Though I realize this knocks heads with a lot of evangelicals' notions
     (including the view I myself cherished for many years), I do not know any other
     honest way of handling John 1:12-13:

                                               'But to all who receive him, who believed in
                                               his name, he gave the right to become children
                                               of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the
                                               will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.'

                          "There we have the certain fact that all who are born again believe in
     Jesus Christ, but their new birth is expressly traced -- not to anything they had in-
     herited from their parents, nor to any exercise of their own will or any decision they
     made, nor to any decision any other mortal had made, but to the kingly grace and work
     of God.  They believed savingly in Jesus because God had given them new birth before
     their embrace of Christ.  They received Christ because God had regenerated them.

                          Phillips continues:

                          "Read 1 John 5:1 very closely:

                                                 'Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ
                                                  has been born of God.'

                           Did you see it?  Everyone who in the present believes, has in the past
    been regenerated by God.  Present faith indicates past regeneration.  Faith does not
    produce regeneration to John's mind.  Regeneration produces faith.

                            Our Lord's half-brother James sounded the same note when he wrote,

     'Of his  own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind
     of firstfruits of his creatures' (James 1:18).

                             God gave us new life as an exercise of His will, not in response to an
     exercise of our wills ... our faith [is] prompted by God's initiative.  God moves first,
     then we move in response.

                             
                              Add Peter for a third witness:

                                'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
                                 According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be
                                 born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
                                 Jesus Christ from the dead.'
                                                            1 Peter 1:3

                               It was the Father who caused  us to be born again according to His
     own mercy, rather than in response to a request from us - a request that never would
     nor could have come from spiritually dead lips (the reason we need the new birth,
     because we are dead in our sins and unable to do God's will) and a heart that hates
     God and His will (Ephesians 2:1; Romans 5:10).

                               The man does not do it to himself; he doesn't born-again himself.
     He is the recipient of the life-giving action.  And so Jesus later says,

                                          'You do not believe because you are not
                                           part of my flock.'
                                                                    John 10:26

                                Being in His flock precedes belief, but is in inseparable from it.


               AN EXAMPLE

                                I wonder whether the analogy of our great grampa's birth might be
     helpful.  When did Adam become physically alive?  When he drew his first breath.
     But what was that breath?

                                   [When] 'the LORD  God ... breathed into his nostrils the breath
     of life, and the man became a living creature' (Gen. 2:7).  So Adam was alive when he
     drew his first breath ... but that very breath was God, breathing 'into his nostrils the
     breath of life.'  Adam began doing what made him alive, when God made him alive.

                                And so do we, in the spiritual realm.  We are alive through faith.
     But our very exercise of faith is a grace-gift from God, breathed into us through
     regeneration."


               HOW GOD GIVES US THE NEW BIRTH

                                So how are we born again?  Phillips continues:

                               "By a miraculous work of grace, God the Father takes pity
     on our dead, lost, God-hating selves.  He breathes His life into us, bringing
     sight to blind eyes, life to dead spirits, and the submission of repentant faith
     to hard, rebellious hearts.
                                He causes us to be born again, and as surely as a newborn
     babe breaks out in a cry, so our newborn hearts embrace Jesus as Lord, and His
     gospel as our hope. 
                               In Christ we receive new life (and the new birth automatically
     leads to the salvation of the sinner).

                              
                               And so, because of Him (and his dying for us), we are declared
     perfectly righteous the moment we embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in repentant
     faith, accepting Him and all He says as true, and relying on Him alone for our
     salvation."


                                                      ****************

                      I haven't been born again because I've repented and believed in Jesus,
     but I've repented and believed in Jesus because I've been born again.
         

                      What must I do to be born again?

                      There is absolutely nothing I can do to be born again.

                      The new birth is totally the work of the Holy Spirit!