|
Posts: 3,305
Joined: September 2003
|
|
|
|
Forums30
Topics7,741
Posts54,750
Members974
| |
Most Online732
Jan 15th, 2023
|
|
|
Exercise of Man's Liberty
chestnutmare
Mon Nov 20, 2023 8:31 PM
In much of present-day evangelism it is assumed that the one thing man can do in the exercise of his own liberty is to believe in Christ for salvation. It is supposed that this is the one contribution that man himself must make to set the forces of salvation in operation and that even God himself can do nothing towards this end until there is this crucial decision on man’s own part. In this assessment there is total failure to reckon with human depravity, with the nature of the contradiction that sin involves. Paul tells us that not only is the mind of the flesh not subject to the law of God but also that it cannot be (Rom. 8:7). This impossibility extends to the gospel as well. It is the implication of Paul’s other word that “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. 2:14). But to this truth we have the most pointed and express witness of our Lord himself. “No man can come unto me, except the Father who bath sent me draw him” (John 6:44); “no man can come unto me, except it were given to him of the Father” (John 6:65). Here is the witness of him who knows what is in man and who knows the Father as the Father knows him. And it is to the effect that it is a moral and spiritual impossibility for a man to come unto him except by the free gift from the Father in his secret and efficacious drawing.
The foregoing words of our Lord must be coordinated with another in the same context. “All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me, and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). The giving on the part of the Father in this text has been understood as the election in Christ before the foundation of the world (cf. Eph. 1:4, 5) or, at least, in terms of giving to the Son correlative with or flowing from the election. But this does not by any means appear to be the action of the Father referred to in the text. There are two reasons for this conclusion. First, in this Gospel elsewhere, when Jesus speaks of those given to him by the Father, they are identified as those given to him out of the world, as those who had kept his word, as those who had known that all things given to him were from the Father, as those who had received the words given him and had come to know the truth that he, Jesus, had come out from the Father (John 17:6-8). These characterizations require much more than election before the foundation of the world; they involve a relation of faith. Second, in the more immediate context Jesus is referring to the effectual drawing and giving on the Father’s part (John 6:44, 65). So we must conclude that the giving is the giving that occurs in the actual operations of grace, defined more specifically as drawing and giving in the realm of consciousness. The constraints of the Father’s grace in the hearts of men are concomitant with or, perhaps, may be construed as donation on the part of the Father to the Son. God the Father draws men, places holy constraints upon them, calls them into the fellowship of his Son, and presents them to Christ as trophies of the redemption Christ himself has accomplished.
This constraint has been called “efficacious.” No other inference could reasonably be drawn from John 6:44, 45 Jesus is speaking of coming unto him, that is, of the commitment of faith and of the impossibility apart from the Father’s drawing. In making the exception it is surely implied that when the Father draws the exception occurs— the person drawn does come. Furthermore, t would offend against all that may be conceived as to the nature and intent of the Father’s drawing and giving in terms of verses 44, 65 to think of these actions as ineffectual. But John 6:37 puts this beyond all question: “All that the Father giveth me will come to me.” Jesus does not say: all that the Father giveth me are brought to me. He uses the term that denotes motion on the part of the person—”will come to me.” Coming to Christ is the movement of commitment to Christ, coming that engages the whole-souled activity of the person coming. t is not that he may come, not that he has the opportunity to come, not that he will in all probability come, and not simply that he is empowered to come, but that he will come. There is absolute certainty. There is a divine necessity; the order of heaven insures the sequence.
https://www.the-highway.com/Irresistible_Murray.html
0
55
Read More
|
|
|
One's contribution to his salvation
chestnutmare
Mon Nov 20, 2023 8:29 PM
This modern gospel is presented with no hint that God is sovereign and active in drawing to Himself those whom He has chosen. In Scripture these truths are not hidden lest they should cause offence; they are declared and even emphasized, since God is glorified when man can boast of nothing in himself as the cause of salvation. ‘I contribute nothing to my salvation except the sin from which I need to be saved’ (Acts 13:48, Matt. 11:25–30, John 6:63–65; 15:16, Rom. 9:14–24).
https://www.the-highway.com/angospel_Cheeseman.html
0
47
Read More
|
|
|
Is Calvinism the good news about God’s salvation of men?
chestnutmare
Mon Nov 20, 2023 8:27 PM
Is Calvinism the good news about God’s salvation of men?
It should be obvious that “Calvinism” in this second sense is squarely focused on the issues of salvation. In a very real sense, the Five Points of Calvinism are the Gospel of our salvation, for they carefully define man’s need of God’s grace, and summarize the great acts performed by the Triune God to save men from their sins.
The Arminian “gospel” redefines the gospel doctrines of depravity, election, redemption, regeneration, and grace.
Under the Arminian system, man is not so depraved that he cannot savingly believe in Christ. Thus, man’s need of salvation is greatly compromised by Arminianism.
Under the Arminian system, God chose certain men only because He foresaw that they would believe. Thus, God’s plan of salvation is greatly compromised by Arminianism. Indeed, this is a great denial of God’s freedom to help needy sinners, for those who most need His help are those who would never have believed apart from God’s Irresistible Grace.
Redemption under the Arminian system cannot save anyone unless man contributes his own faith. Thus, the price of our salvation and the worth of Christ’s blood to save guilty sinners is greatly compromised by Arminianism.
Under the Arminian system God cannot regenerate a man until he responds in faith to the Gospel (whereas Calvinism teaches that faith is a fruit and evidence of regeneration). Thus, God’s power and freedom to bring about our salvation is greatly compromised by Arminianism.
And Arminianism views “grace” merely as a universal provision of salvation for all men, who may then receive it or reject it as they choose. On the other hand, the Calvinistic concept of grace is that God does everything necessary for our salvation: choosing us (when we would not choose Him), redeeming us (effectually, with no restraining conditions) and powerfully regenerating us (thereby giving us a new heart which erupts forth in genuine, loving faith), when we were still dead in our sins and unbelief.
To suppose that the Gospel could have any sensible meaning in a theological vacuum is ludicrous. The “gospel” of Arminianism is but a man-centered, man-glorifying counterfeit of the Biblical gospel. The doctrines represented by the TULIP are not mere window dressing. They are nothing less than a precise, Biblical definition of what salvation is all about. In this sense, the TULIP is very much the Gospel.
https://www.the-highway.com/calvinism-gospel_Cervinka.html
0
61
Read More
|
|
|
New extraordinary revelations
chestnutmare
Fri Nov 10, 2023 12:33 PM
Since the finishing of the canon of the Scripture, the church is not under that conduct as to stand in need of such new extraordinary revelations. It doth, indeed, live upon the internal gracious operations of the Spirit, enabling us to understand, believe, and obey the perfect, complete revelation of the will of God already made; but new revelations it hath neither need nor use of;—and to suppose them, or a necessity of them, not only overthrows the perfection of the Scripture, but also leaveth us uncertain whether we know all that is to be believed in order unto salvation, or our whole duty, or when we may do so; for it would be our duty to live all our days in expectation of new revelations, wherewith neither peace, assurance, nor consolation is consistent.
~ John Owen
0
83
Read More
|
|
|
The only good that we have
chestnutmare
Sun Oct 29, 2023 11:43 AM
We should, therefore, learn that the only good that we have is what the Lord has given us gratuitously; that the only good we do is what He does in us; that it is not that we do nothing ourselves, but that we act only when we have been acted upon, in other words under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit.
~ John Calvin
0
112
Read More
|
|
|
|
0 members (),
141
guests, and
7
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
S |
M |
T |
W |
T |
F |
S |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
2
|
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
|
17
|
18
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
|
24
|
25
|
26
|
27
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
|
31
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are no members with birthdays on this day. |
|
|
|
|
