Henry;<br><br>I'm glad you made this post because it does bring out the important issue of human responsibility. No true believer, or proponent of the doctrines of grace, denies the reality or importance of human responsibility. What true calvinists contend though, is that the FIRST CAUSE of a man's move toward God, and the continuance in that move and perserverance therein, is always God. Thus, God, not man gets the glory, always and forever.<br><br>In his sermon: "The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners" one of 5 sermons that Edwards credited with being most used in, and honored of God in, the initiation of the great awakening of 1735, Edwards made the following statement:<br><br>"2. There is certainly a great deal of difference between a forced compliance<br>and a free willingness. Force and freedom cannot consist together. Now<br>that willingness, whereby you think you are willing to have Christ for a<br>Saviour, is merely a forced thing. Your heart does not go out after Christ of<br>itself, but you are forced and driven to seek an interest in him. Christ has<br>no share at all in your heart; there is no manner of closing of the heart with<br>him. This forced compliance is not what Christ seeks of you; he seeks a<br>free and willing acceptance, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.”(Psalm 110:3.)<br><br>He seeks not that you should receive him against your will, but with a free<br>will. He seeks entertainment in your heart and choice. And if you refuse<br>thus to receive Christ, how just is it that Christ should refuse to receive<br>you! How reasonable are Christ’s terms, who offers to save all those that<br>willingly, or with a good will, accept of him for their Saviour! Who can<br>rationally expect that Christ should force himself upon any man to be his<br>Saviour? Or what can be looked for more reasonable, than that all who<br>would be saved by Christ, should heartily and freely entertain him? And<br>surely it would be very dishonourable for Christ to offer himself upon<br>lower terms. — But I would now proceed:<br><br>2ndly, To show that you are not willing to have Christ for a Saviour. To<br>convince you of it, consider:<br><br>1. How is it possible that you should be willing to accept of Christ as a<br>Saviour from the desert of a punishment that you are not sensible you<br>have deserved? If you are truly willing to accept of Christ as a Saviour, it<br>must be as a sacrifice to make atonement for your guilt. Christ came into<br>the world on this errand, to offer himself as an atonement, to answer for<br>our desert of punishment. But how can you be willing to have Christ for a<br>Saviour from a desert of hell, if you be not sensible that you have a desert<br>of hell? If you have not really deserved everlasting burnings in hell, then<br>the very offer of an atonement for such a desert is an imposition upon<br>you. If you have no such guilt upon you, then the very offer of a<br>satisfaction for that guilt is an injury, because it implies in it a charge of<br>guilt that you are free from. Now therefore it is impossible that a man who<br>is not convinced of his guilt can be willing to accept of such an offer;"<br><br>I think it's important to notice that Edwards says that Christ wants man's free, willing, acceptance of him, and that he focuses on the games we play with ourselves and God, when we don't really believe that we deserve hell, nor can we, until He shows us by eyes made alive spiritually in the new birth, the utter sinfulness of sin, and the unspeakable beauty of the Saviour. To use another scriptural analogy, Christ seeks a bride that is all aflame with love and desire for Him, not some reluctant woman who walks the isle to escape a prison or one who only wants his material riches, no, the true bride relishes Him, loves Him, and is never satisfied when He is absent, she desires the one true object of her love, her perfect saviour and redemer and friend and prophet, priest and king.<br><br>Yes, man indeed has a will but it is bound up in death, darkness, blindness until God, by His sovereign choice, opens the eyes of the blind that they might see.<br><br>In Him,<br><br>Gerry <br>

Last edited by acts2027; Mon Oct 27, 2003 10:00 PM.