Text 161, 196 rader
Skriven 2005-01-22 09:43:40 av Bob Hoffman (8:8/2)
Ärende: Christian Liberality
============================
From: "Bob Hoffman" <bhoffman@fmlynet.org>

      Faith's Checkbook - Powered by InJesus

      Saturday 01-22 / Christian Liberality
      Robert Prodoehl
      Jan 21, 2005


Christian Liberality

"Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of
trouble" (Psalm 41:1).

To think about the poor and let them lie on our hearts is a Christian man's
duty; for Jesus put them with us and near us when He said, "The poor ye have
always with you." Many give their money to the poor in a hurry, without
thought; and many more give nothing at all. This precious promise belongs to
those who "consider" the poor, look into their case, devise plans for their
benefit, and considerately carry them out. We can do more by care than by cash,
and most with two together. To those who consider the poor, the LORD promises
His own consideration in times of distress. He will bring us out of trouble if
we help others when they are in trouble. We shall receive very singular
providential help if the LORD sees that we try to provide for others. We shall
have a time of trouble, however generous we may be; but if we are charitable,
we may put in a claim for peculiar deliverance, and the LORD will not deny His
own word and bond. Miserly curmudgeons may help themselves, but considerate and
generous believers the LORD will help. As you have done unto others, so will
the LORD do unto you. Empty your pockets.

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http://www.soundofgrace.com/aug97/godsp1.htm

God's Part and Man's Part in Salvation

John G. Reisinger

God and man must both do something before a man can be saved. Hyper-Calvinism
denies the necessity of human action, and Arminianism denies the true nature of
the Divine action. The Bible clearly sets forth both the divine and human
essential in God's plan of salvation. This is not to say, as Arminianism does,
"God's part is to freely provide salvation for all men, and man's part is to
become willing to accept it." This is not what we said above, nor is it what
the Bible teaches. In order to understand what God's Word really says, and to
try to answer some straw dummy objections, we will establish the subject one
point at a time.

ONE: A man must repent and believe the gospel in order to be saved. No one was
ever forgiven and made a child of God who did not willingly turn from sin to
Christ. Nowhere does the Bible even hint that men can be saved without
repentance and faith, but to the contrary, the Word always states these things
are essential before a person can be saved. The one and only Bible answer to
the question, "What must I do to be saved?" is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved."

TWO: Every one who repents and believes the gospel will be saved. Every soul,
without any exception, who answers the gospel command to come to Christ will be
received and forgiven by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Philip
Bliss put the truth to music when he said, "Who-so-ever will, forever must
endure..." If we can be absolutely certain about anything, we can be sure that
Christ will never void His promise to receive "all who come to Him." As old
John Bunyan said, "Come and welcome" is the Savior's eternal word to all
sinners.

THREE: Repentance and faith are the free acts of men. Men, with their own mind,
heart, and will must renounce sin and receive Christ. God never repented and
believed for anyone - and He never will. Turning from sin and reaching out in
faith to Christ are the acts of man, and every man who so responds to the
gospel call does so because he honestly desires to do so. He wants to be
forgiven and he can only be forgiven by repenting and believing. No one,
including God, can turn from sin for us, we must do it. No one can trust Christ
in our place, but we must personally, knowingly, and willingly trust Him in
order to be saved.

Now someone may be thinking, "But isn't that what the Arminian teaches?" My
friend, that is what the Bible teaches–and teaches it clearly and dogmatically.
"But don't Calvinists deny all three of those points?" I am not talking about
or trying to defend Calvinists since they come in a hundred varieties. If you
know anyone that denies the above facts, then that person, regardless of what
he labels himself, is denying the clear message of the Bible. I can only speak
for myself, and I will not deny what God's Word so plainly teaches!

"But haven't you established the doctrine of free-will and disposed of election
if you assent man must repent and believe and it is his own act?" No, we have
neither proven free-will nor disproved election since it is impossible to do
either. We have merely stated exactly what the Bible says a man must do in
order to be saved. Let us now look at what the Scripture says a sinner is able
to do and what he is not able to do.

FOUR: The same Bible that states man must repent and believe in order to be
saved also emphatically states that man, because of his sinful nature, is
totally unable to repent and believe. All of man's three faculties of mind,
heart, and will, which must be receptive to gospel truth, have neither the
ability to receive such truth nor even the desire to have such ability. In fact
the exact opposite is true. Man's total being is not only unable to either
come, or want to come, to Christ, but every part of his nature is actively
opposed to Christ and truth. Rejecting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is not a
passive non-action, but a deliberate volitional choice. It is deliberately
choosing to say "No" to Christ and "Yes" to self and sin. No one is neutral in
respect to God and His authority. Unbelief is just as much a deliberate act of
mind, heart, and will as is faith. This is what Jesus meant in John 5:40 when
He said, "You will (you are deliberately making a choice) not to come to me."
Yes, unbelief is an act of the will. In fact unbelief is active faith, but
unfortunately it is faith in myself.

To believe and preach points one, two, and three, without also preaching number
four is to grossly misrepresent the gospel of God's grace. It is to give a
totally false picture of the sinner and his true need. It shows only half of
the man's sin. It misses the most crucial point of a lost man's need, namely,
his lack of power or ability to overcome his sinful nature and its effects. The
gospel which is concocted out of this view is only a half gospel. It is at this
point that modern evangelism so miserably fails. It confuses man's
responsibility with his ability, and falsely assumes that a sinner has the
moral ability to perform all that God has commanded. The cannot texts of
scripture are either totally ignored or badly twisted by this perversion of the
true gospel of God's saving grace.

Please note a few texts of Scripture that dogmatically state some things that a
lost man cannot do:

Man cannot see - until he first be born again. John 3:3.

Man cannot understand - until he first be given a new nature. I Cor. 2:14.

Man cannot come - until he first be effectually called by the Holy Spirit. John
6:44,45.

We do not have space to go into all the cannots, but these three are sufficient
to show that a sinner absolutely cannot (notice it is not will not) come to
Christ until God first does something in that sinner's nature. That something
is what the Bible calls regeneration, or the new birth, and it is the exclusive
work of God the Holy Spirit. Man has no part whatever in regeneration.

FIVE: The new birth, or regeneration, is God giving us the spiritual life that
enables us to do what we must do (repent and believe), but CANNOT DO because of
our bondage to sin. When the Bible says man is dead in sin, it means that man's
mind, heart, and will are all spiritually dead in sin. When the Bible speaks of
our being in bondage to sin, it means that our entire being, including our
will, is under the bondage and power of sin.

We indeed need Christ to die and pay the penalty of our sin, but we just as
desperately need the Holy Spirit to give us a new nature in regeneration. The
Son of God frees us legally from the penalty of sin, but only the Holy Spirit
can free us from the power and death of our depravity in sin. We need
forgiveness in order to be saved, and Christ provides complete forgiveness and
righteousness for us in His death. However, we also need spiritual life and
ability, and the Holy Spirit provides it for us in regeneration. It is the Holy
Spirit's work of regeneration that enables us to savingly receive the atoning
work of Christ in true faith.

God is a triune God, and no person can understand "so great salvation" until he
sees each blessed Person of the Godhead playing a distinct and necessary part
in that salvation. No man can declare the "glorious gospel of grace" and leave
out the Father's sovereign electing love and the Holy Spirit's regenerating
power as essential parts of God's work in saving sinners. To speak of God's
part in salvation as only being one of providing forgiveness and man's part as
being willing to accept it is to ignore both the Father's work of election and
the Spirit's work of regeneration. This not only makes man a full partner with
God in the work of salvation, it credits man with playing the decisive roll in
the deal.

How dreadful, and ridiculous, to give Christ the glory for His work on the
cross, and then give sinners the credit for the Father's work in eternity
(election) and the Spirit's work in our hearts (regeneration). It does great
dishonor to the Sovereign Spirit to say, "The Holy Spirit will perform His
miraculous work of quickening you unto life as soon as you give Him your
permission." That's like standing in a graveyard saying to the dead people, "I
will give you life and raise you up from the grave if you will only take the
first step of faith and ask me to do it." What a denial of the sinner's total
spiritual inability. Amazing!

The root error of the Arminian's gospel of freewill is its failure to see that
man's part, repentance and faith, are the fruits and effects of God's work and
not the essential ingredient's supplied by the sinner as man's part of the
deal. Every man who turns to Christ does so willingly, but that willingness is
a direct result of the Father's election and the Holy Spirit's effectual
calling. To say, "If you will believe, God will answer your faith with the New
Birth," is to misunderstand man's true need and misrepresent God's essential
work.

...to be continued .......



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