Understanding the Sovereignty
of God
and the Responsibility of Man
compiled by Michelle Stace
There
is so much confusion about these topics and it is vital to the foundation
of our faith to have a proper
understanding of who God is, else we are not believing in the one true
God - rather a figment of our imagination.
The following contains paraphrased
quotes from “The Sovereignty of God,” by A.W. Pink.
The sovereignty of God means the supremacy of
God, the kingship of God, the God-hood of God. He is the Most High, the
Almighty, the Creator. The God of the popular mind is the creation of sick
sentimentality. The God of many present-day pulpits is an object of pity
rather than of awe-inspiring reverence. Some say that the One died with
the express intention of saving the whole human race, and that God the Holy
Spirit is now seeking to win the world to Christ; but, as a matter of common
observation, it is apparent that the great majority of men are dying in sin.
This is to say that God the Father is disappointed, that God the Son is dissatisfied,
and that God the Holy Spirit is defeated. To argue that God is “trying His
best” to save all mankind, but that the majority of men will not let Him
save them, is to insist that the will of the Creator is impotent (powerless),
and that the will of the creature is omnipotent (all-powerful). To throw
the blame, as many do, upon the Devil, does not remove the difficulty, for
if Satan is defeating the purpose of God, then, Satan is Almighty and God
is no longer the Supreme Being. To argue that man is a free moral agent and
the determiner of his own destiny, and that therefore he has the power to
checkmate his Maker, is to strip God of His Omnipotence.
The Sovereignty of the God of Scripture is absolute,
irresistible, infinite. When we say that God is Sovereign, we affirm His
right to govern the universe which He has made for His own glory, just as
He pleases. We affirm that His right is the right of the Potter over the
clay - that He may mold that clay into whatsoever form He chooses, fashioning
out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another into dishonor (Rom.
9:21-23). We affirm that He is under no rule or law outside of His own will
and nature, that God is a law unto Himself, and that He is under no obligation
to give an account of His matters to any.
God is Sovereign in the use of His grace.
Grace has been defined as the “unmerited favor” of God; and if unmerited,
then none can claim it as their inalienable right. If grace is unearned
and undeserved, then none are entitled to it. If grace is a gift, then none
can demand it. Therefore, as salvation is by grace, the free gift of God,
then He bestows it on whom He pleases. Because salvation is by grace, the
very chief of sinners is not beyond the reach of Divine mercy. Because salvation
is by grace, boasting is excluded and God gets all the glory (Rom. 3:27).
One has said that grace is something more than “unmerited favor.” To feed
a tramp who calls on me is “unmerited favor,” but it is scarcely grace.
But suppose that after robbing me I should feed this starving tramp - that
would be “grace.” Grace, then, is favor shown where there is positive demerit
in the one receiving it.
Was there not a time when you walked in the counsel
of the ungodly, stood in the way of sinners, sat in the seat of the scorners,
and with them said, “We will not have this Man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14)?
Was there not a time when you “would not come to Christ that you might have
life” (Jn. 5:40)? Was there not a time when you mingled your voice with
those who said unto God, “Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge
of Thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? and what profit
should we have, if we pray unto Him?” (Job 21:14,15)? With shamed face you
have to acknowledge there was. But how is it that all is now changed? What
was it that brought you from haughty self-sufficiency to a humble petitioner;
from one that was at enmity with God to one that is at peace with Him; from
lawlessness to subjection; from hate to love? And as one ‘born of the Spirit’
you will readily reply, “By the grace of God I am what I am” ( I Cor.15:10).
Then do you not see that it is due to no lack of power in God, nor to His
refusal to coerce man? If God was able to subdue your will and win your heart,
and that without interfering with your moral responsibility, then is He not
able to do the same for others? ( See I Cor. 4:7, I Jn. 5:20, 2 Thess. 3:2,
Acts 13:48, Tit. 1:1, Matt. 20:15)
“Hath not the potter the power over the clay of
the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured
with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and
that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy,
which He had afore prepared unto glory?” (Rom. 9:21-23) These verses
represent fallen mankind as inert and as impotent as a lump of lifeless clay.
This passage evidences that there is “no difference,” in themselves, between
the elect and the non-elect; they are clay of the same lump, which agrees
with Eph. 2:3. This teaches us that the ultimate destiny of every individual
is decided by the will of God, and blessed it is that such be the case; if
it were left to our wills, the ultimate destination of us all would be the
Lake of Fire.
A quote by Charles
Spurgeon: “Attempts have been made to prove that these words do not teach
predestination, but these attempts so clearly do violence to the language.
I read: ‘As many as were ordained to eternal life believed,’ and I shall
not twist the text but shall glorify the grace of God by ascribing to that
grace the faith of every man. Is it not God who gives the inclination to
believe? If men are inclined to have eternal life, does not He - in every
case - incline them? Is it wrong for God to give grace? If it be right for
Him to give it, is it wrong for Him to purpose to give it? Would you have
Him to give it by accident? If it is right for Him to purpose to give grace
today, it was right for Him to purpose it before today - and, since He changes
not - from eternity.”
God’s ways as well as His
thoughts are utterly at variance with man’s. The carnal mind would have
supposed that a selection had been made from the ranks of the opulent and
influential, the amiable and cultured, so that Christianity might have won
the approval and applause of the world by its pageantry and fleshly glory.
But that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight
of God.
“But we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of
the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13). There are three things here which deserve special
attention. First, the fact that we are expressly told that God’s elect are
“chosen to salvation.” Language could not be more explicit. This is
not referring to external privileges or rank in service, as some would have
us believe. It is to “salvation.” Second, we are warned here that election
unto salvation does not ignore the use of appropriate means: salvation is
reached through “sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” It
is not true that because God has chosen a certain one to salvation that he
will be saved hap-hazard. The same God who “chose unto salvation” decreed
that His purpose should be realized through the work of the Spirit and belief
of the truth. Third, that God has chosen us unto salvation is a profound cause
for fervent praise - “we are bound to give thanks always.”
What was there in the elect themselves which attracted
God’s heart to them? Was it because of certain virtues, because they were
good? No; for our Lord said, “There is none good but one, that is
God” (Matt. 19:17). Was it because of any good works performed? No; for
it is written, “There is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:12).
Was it because they evidenced an earnestness and zeal in inquiring after
God? No; for it is written, “There is none that seeketh after God” (Rom.
3:11). Was it because God foresaw they would believe? No; for how can those
who are “dead in trespasses and sins” believe in Christ? Scripture declares
that we “believe through grace” (Acts 18:27). Faith is God’s gift, and apart
from this gift none would believe. The cause of His choice lies within Himself
and not in those of His choice.
For whom did Christ die? Surely the Lord Jesus
had some absolute determination before Him when He went to the Cross. If He
had, then it necessarily would mean that the extent of that purpose was limited,
because an absolute determination of purpose must be in place. If the absolute
determination of Christ included all mankind, then all mankind would be saved.
To escape this conclusion, many have affirmed that there was no such absolute
determination before Christ, that in His death a merely conditional provision
of salvation has been made for all mankind. The disproof of this assertion
is found in the promises made by the Father to His Son before He went to
the Cross. The Old Testament Scriptures represent the Father as promising
the Son a certain reward for His sufferings on behalf of sinners. “When Thou
shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed,” “He
shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied,” and that God’s
righteous Servant “should justify many” (Isa. 53:10,11). Now ask, How could
it be certain that Christ should “see His seed,” and “see of the travail
of His soul and be satisfied,” unless the salvation of certain members of
the human race had been Divinely decreed, and therefore was sure? How could
it be certain that Christ should “justify many,” if no provision was made
that any should receive Him as their Lord and Savior? On the other hand,
to insist that the Lord Jesus did purpose the salvation of all mankind is
to charge Him with that which no intelligent being should be guilty of, namely,
to design that which by virtue of His omniscience He knew would never come
to pass. The only alternative left us is that, so far as the pre-determined
purpose of His death is concerned, Christ died for the elect only. He died
not merely to make possible the salvation of all mankind, but to make certain
the salvation of all that the Father had given to Him.
Christ did not bear the sins of all mankind, for
some there are who “die in their sins” (Jn. 8:21), and whose “sin remaineth”
(Jn. 9:41). To say that Christ died for all alike, to say that He became
the Substitute and Surety of the whole human race, to say that He suffered
on behalf of and in the stead of all mankind, is to say that He “bore the
curse for many who are now bearing the curse for themselves; that He suffered
punishment for many who are now lifting up their own eyes in Hell, being
in torments; that He paid the redemption price for many who shall yet pay
in their own eternal anguish the wages of sin, which is death. But, on the
other hand, to say as Scripture says, that Christ was stricken for the transgressions
of God’s people, to say that He gave His life “for the sheep,” to say He
gave His life a ransom “for many,” is to say that He made an atonement which
fully atones, He paid a price which actually ransoms; He is a Savior who
truly saves.
The salvation of any sinner is a matter of Divine
power. By nature the sinner is at enmity with God, and nothing but Divine
power operating within him can overcome this enmity; hence it is written,
“No man can come unto Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him”
(Jn 6:44). It is the Divine power overcoming the sinner’s innate enmity which
makes him willing to come to Christ that he might have life, for by nature
all are unwilling. But Christ has put forth His power and made willing those
who have come to Him, and if He did this without destroying their responsibility,
why “cannot” He do so with others? If He is able to win the heart of one
sinner to Himself why not that of another? To say, as is usually said, the
other will not let Him is to impeach His sufficiency. It is a question of
His will. If the Lord Jesus has decreed, desired, purposed the salvation
of all mankind, then the entire human race will be saved, or He lacks the
power to make good His intentions. “He gave His life a ransom for many,”
but why say “for many” if all without exception were included? It was for
“the sheep,” and not the “goats,” that the Good Shepherd gave His life (Jn
10:11). It was the “church of God” which He purchased with His own blood”
(Acts 20:28).
Now we will look at some verses that seem to contradict.
II Cor. 5:15 “And He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth
live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again.”
Those who belonged to this “all” for whom Christ died, are here exhorted
to manifest, by use, in their daily lives what is true of them judicially:
they are to “live unto Christ who died for them.” Thus the “One died
for all” (v.14) is defined for us. The “all” for which Christ died are they
which “live,” and which are here told to live “unto Him.” We will
next comment on I Tim. 2:5,6 “. . . who gave Himself a ransom for all.”
In Scripture the word “all” (as applied to humankind) is used in two senses.
In some passages it means all without exception; in others it signifies
all without distinction (no favoritism). The meaning must be determined
by the context and by comparison of parallel passages, such as Mk. 1:5,
Lk. 3:21,7:30, Jn. 8:2 and Acts 22:15. These verses do not mean ALL
the people without exception, but rather all without distinction - from
every tongue, people or nation, from every class of people. And then there
is everyone’s favorite verse, Jn 3:16. The word “believeth” in this verse
is key. It is only those who believe that will be given eternal life.
And it is the quickening Spirit who prepares the sin-blinded mind to believe.This
verse does not imply that the whole world will be saved as can be seen if
one reads further into the chapter, vs.18-21. “World” here refers
to the world of God’s people. The use of “world” is often used in
a relative sense.
Each of the three Persons in the Trinity is involved
with our salvation: with the Father it is predestination; with the Son propitiation;
with the Spirit regeneration. The Father chose us; the Son died for us;
the Spirit quickens us. The new birth is the work of God the Spirit (Jn.
3:6) and man has no part in it. Birth altogether excludes the idea of any
effort or work on the part of the one who is born. Of ourselves we have
no more to do with our spiritual birth than we had with our natural birth.
“It is the Spirit that quickens,” but the Spirit does not “quicken” everybody
- why? The usual answer is because everybody does not trust in Christ. It
is supposed that the Holy Spirit quickens only those who believe. But this
is to put the cart before the horse. Faith is not the cause of the new birth,
but the consequence of it. Faith in God is something that is not native to
the human heart. If faith were a natural product of the heart, it would never
have been written, “All men have not faith” (II Thess. 3:2). The work of
the Holy Spirit precedes our believing as seen in II Thess. 2:13 - “God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth.” Sanctification of the Spirit comes before
and makes possible belief of the truth. Sanctification of the Spirit is the
new birth. In this verse we see first, God’s eternal choice; second, the
sanctification of the Spirit; third, belief of the truth. This same
order is seen in I Pet.1:2.
There are three things the presence of the Holy
Spirit on earth demonstrates to the world: first, its sin, because the world
refused to believe on Christ; second, God’s righteousness in exalting to
His own right hand the One cast out, and now no more seen by the world; third,
judgment, because Satan, the world’s prince, is already judged, though execution
of his judgment is yet future (Jn.16:8-11). So in order for any sinner to
see his need of a Savior and be willing to receive the Savior he needs the
work of the Holy Spirit upon and within him as required. Had God done nothing
more than given Christ to die for sinners and then sent forth His servants
to proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ, thus leaving sinners entirely
to themselves to accept or reject as they pleased, then every sinner would
have rejected, because at heart every man hates God and is at enmity with
Him.
God had a definite reason why He created men,
and He purposed either that this one should spend eternity in Heaven or
that this one should spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. If He foresaw that
in creating a certain person that that person would despise and reject the
Savior, He nevertheless brought that person into existence, then it is clear
He designed and ordained that that person should be eternally lost. Faith
is God’s gift, and the purpose to give it only to some, involves the purpose
not to give it to others. There is no escape from these conclusions and
history confirms them. For many long centuries Israel was the only nation
to whom God had shown Himself. All other nations were deprived of the preaching
of God’s Word. The Old Testament is full of examples of other peoples that
were left to themselves and met with God’s judgment Read Rom. 9:13-23.
In v.19, two questions are asked, “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He
yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will?” In v.20 the Apostle denies
the creature the right to sit in judgment upon the ways of the Creator -
whatever God does must be right. In v.21, he declares that the Creator has
the right to dispose of His creatures as He sees fit. Two reasons are given
why God makes some “vessels unto dishonor”; first, to “shew His wrath,” and
secondly “to make His power known.” (Related passages: Josh.11:18-22,
Rom.16:4, Matt. 7:23, Amos 3:2, Jn. 10:14, I Thess. 5:9, II Pet. 2:12, Jude
4).
God does not compel the wicked to sin. He only
says in effect that awful word, “Let them alone” (Matt. 15:14). He needs only
to slacken the reins of providential restraint, and withhold the influence
of saving grace, and apostate man will only too soon and too surely, of
his own accord, fall by his iniquities. So the decree of reprobation neither
interferes with the bent of man’s own fallen nature, nor serves to render
him the less inexcusable.
It is utterly impossible for any of us, during
this life to know who are among the reprobate. The vilest sinner may be included
in the election of grace and be one day quickened by the Spirit of grace.
Our marching orders are plain, and woe unto us if we disregard them - “Preach
the Gospel to every creature.” That is why we are to love our enemies and
do good to those who persecute us. We do not know which of those “enemies”
will be saved. And it is the love of Christ shining out of us that God uses
in part to draw a particular person to Himself.
There are a few passages that some will use to
argue against one being ordained to condemnation. Acts 17:30 says that God
“now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” This is enforcing His righteous
claim as the moral Governor of the world and shows the responsibility of
the person, but it does not declare that it is God’s pleasure to “give repentance”
(Acts 5:31). It is clear from II Tim. 2:25 that God does not give repentance
to everyone: “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God
peradventure (perhaps, possibly) will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth.”
In I Tim. 2:4 it says, “will have all men to be
saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” The words “all” and “all
men,” like the term “world,” are often used in a general and relative sense.
Examine the following passages: Mk. 1:5, Jn 6:45, 8:2, Acts 21:28, 22:15,
II Cor. 3:2 and you will find full proof of this assertion. I Tim. 2:4 cannot
teach that God wills the salvation of all mankind or otherwise all mankind
would be saved - “What His soul desireth even that He doeth” (Job 23:13).
In the new birth we are made partakers of the
Divine nature: a principle, a seed, a life, is communicated to us which
is born of the Holy Spirit and therefore is spirit and is holy. Apart from
this Divine and holy nature which is imparted to us at the new birth, it
is utterly impossible for any man to generate a spiritual impulse, or a
spiritual concept, think a spiritual thought, understand spiritual things.
“Without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” but the natural man has no
desire for holiness, and the provision that God has made, he does not want.
Will then a man pray for, seek for, strive after, that which he dislikes?
If a man does follow after that which by nature he dislikes, it is because
a miraculous change has taken place with him; a power outside of himself
has operated upon him, a nature entirely different from his old one has been
imparted to him - “therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation:
old things are passed away; behold all things are become new” (II Cor. 5:17).
The new birth is very much more than simply shedding
a few tears due to a temporary remorse over sin. It is far more than changing
our course of life, the leaving off of bad habits and the substituting of
good ones. It is something different from the mere cherishing and practicing
of noble ideals. It goes infinitely deeper than coming forward to take some
popular evangelist by the hand, signing a pledge card or joining the church.
The new birth is the inception and reception of a new life. It is not reformation,
but a complete transformation.
As we have seen Scripture clearly teaches God’s
soveriegnty. It also teaches man’s responsibility, which we will be looking
at. Admittedly it is very difficult for the human mind to comprehend how
these 2 truths work together, since they seem to contradict. But that does
not mean we throw out the one we don’t like and believe the other. We don’t
have to completely understand these truths, but as believers, we do have
to accept them, teach them both, and understand them with the light God has
given us in these matters.
The popular idea now prevailing, and which is
taught from the great majority of pulpits, is that man has a “free will,”
and that salvation comes to the sinner through his will co-operating with
the Holy Spirit. So what is the will? It is the faculty of choice, the immediate
cause of action. Choice implies the refusal of a thing and the acceptance
of another. In every act of the will there is a preference - the desiring
one thing rather than another. But there is something which influences
the choice; something which determines the decision. The will cannot be
the controlling factor because it is the servant of that something. The will
cannot be both cause and effect. The will is not causative, because something
causes it to choose, therefore that something must be the causative agent.
Choice is determined by various influences brought to bear upon the person
himself. So these influences are what controls the will - the will is servant
to whatever influences it.
The Word of God teaches that it is the heart which
is the dominating center of our being. “Keep thy heart with all diligence;
for out of it are the issues of life’ (Prov. 4:23; see Mk. 7:21, Matt. 15:8).
It is the heart, not the will which governs man. A person will choose that
which is most agreeable to himself, i.e.. his “heart” - the innermost core
of his being. Before the sinner is set a life of virtue and piety, and a
life of sinful indulgence; which will he follow? The latter, because he prefers
it, though he does not enjoy the effects of such a course. He prefers it
because his heart is sinful. In like manner, the Christian will choose a
life of piety and virtue because God has given him a new heart or nature.
It is not the will which makes the sinner incapable of being influenced by
all appeals to forsake his way, but his corrupt and evil heart. He will not
come to Christ because he does not want to, because his heart hates Him and
loves sin: see Jer.17:9.
We will look at the wills of 3 different men:
unfallen Adam, the sinner, and the Lord Jesus. In unfallen Adam the will
was free, free in both directions - toward good and evil. Adam was created
in a state of innocency but not in a state of holiness. In Adam there was
no constraining bias toward good or evil. But with the sinner it is far
different. The sinner is born with a will that is not in a condition of
moral balance, because in him there is a heart that is “deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked,” and this gives him a bias toward evil. The
Lord Jesus could not sin because He was the “Holy One of God.” He was not
born in a condition of moral balance like Adam. He was born with a will which
was biased toward good only.
When we say that man is totally depraved it means
that the entrance of sin into the human constitution has affected every
part and faculty of man’s being. Total depravity means that man is in spirit
and soul and body, the slave of sin. Man is unable to realize his own aspirations
and materialize his own ideals. He cannot do the things that he would. There
is a moral inability which paralyzes him. This is proof that he is no free
man, but the slave of sin (Jn. 8:44). Sin has permeated the whole of man’s
make-up. It has blinded the understanding, corrupted the heart, and alienated
the mind from God. And the will is under the dominion of this sinful heart.
Even the “good” things we see unbelievers do are not as they seem. They
are tainted with a heart that seeks it’s own glory and not only the glory
of God.
So the will is not free because it is the servant
of an evil heart. Our Lord implied this by these words: “If the Son shall
therefore make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (Jn. 8:36). Man is a rational
being and as such responsible and accountable to God, but to affirm that
he is a free moral agent is to deny that he is totally depraved. Because
man’s will is governed by his mind and heart, and because these have been
corrupted by sin, then it follows that if ever man is to turn or move in
a Godward direction, God Himself must work in him “both to will and to do
of His good pleasure.” Someone has said, “Man’s boasted freedom is
in truth “the bondage of corruption; ” he “serves divers lusts and pleasures”
Man has no will favorable to God. I believe in free will; but then it is
a will only free to act according to nature. A dove has no will to eat carrion;
a raven no will to eat the clean food of the dove. Put the nature of the
dove into the raven and it will eat the food of the dove.”
The superficial work of many of the professional
evangelists of the last fifty years (now 100 years) is largely responsible
for the erroneous views now current upon the bondage of the natural man,
encouraged by the laziness of those in the pew in their failure to “prove
all thing.” The average evangelical pulpit conveys the impression that
it lies wholly in the power of the sinner whether or not he shall be saved.
It is said that “God has done His part, now man must do his.” Alas,
what can a lifeless man do, a man who by nature is “dead in trespasses and
sins?” If the fact that we are dead in sins, were really believed,
there would be more dependence upon the Holy Spirit to come in with His miracle-working
power and less confidence in our attempt to “win men for Christ.”
Christ came here not to help those who were willing
to help themselves, but to do for His people what they were incapable of
doing for themselves: “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners
from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”
(Is. 42:7). We do not preach the Gospel because we believe that men are free
moral agents and therefore capable of receiving Christ, but we preach it
because we are commanded to do so; and though to them that perish it is foolishness
yet, “unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” It pleases
God “by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” We
preach the Gospel, not because we believe that sinners have within themselves
the power to receive the Savior it proclaims, but because the Gospel itself
is the power of God unto salvation.
A right conception of the sinner’s will - its
servitude - is essential to a just estimate of his depravity and ruin. The
utter corruption and degradation of human nature is something which man
hates to acknowledge, and which he will hotly and insistently deny until
he is “taught of God.” ‘Free moral agency’ is an expression of human
invention and to talk of the freedom of the natural man is flatly to repudiate
his spiritual ruin.
But how is it possible for God to “withhold”
men from sinning and yet not to interfere with their liberty and responsibility?
We ask in response, In what does real moral freedom consist? It is the being
delivered from the BONDAGE of sin. The more a soul is emancipated from sin
the more does he enter into a state of freedom. The nearer a soul approaches
to sinlessness, the nearer does he approach to God’s holiness. Scripture
says God cannot sin. Is He not free then because He cannot do evil? Surely
not. By God’s example, the more one is withheld from sin, the greater is
his real freedom. The world counts none miserable but the afflicted, and
none happy but the prosperous, because they judge by the present ease of
the flesh. The world counts liberty to live according to their heart’s desire.
But this is bondage of the worst kind. True liberty is not the power to live
as we please, but to live as we ought!
The sinner does not realize the danger of his
situation, and is not in real earnest for his escape (from eternal damnation);
instead men are for the most part at ease, and apart from the work of the
Holy Spirit, whenever they are disturbed by the alarm of conscience, they
flee to any other refuge but Christ. They will not acknowledge that all their
righteouness are as filthy rags but, like the Pharisee, will thank God they
are not as the Publican. They are not willing to receive Christ as their
Lord and Savior for they are unwilling to part with their idols; therefore
the natural man is so depraved at heart that he cannot come to Christ.
Some sinner may object, I cannot help being born
into this world with a depraved heart and therefore I am not responsible
for my spiritual inability which results from it. The answer? God does not
force any to sin. If a man gives vent to a fiery temper and then tries to
explain it away on the ground of having inherited that temper from his parents,
common sense would say that he is responsible to restrain his temper. If
a man says, I cannot help being a thief, that is my nature, then we would
say that prison is the place for him. If a man owed me $100 and had plenty
of money for his pleasures, yet pleaded that he was unable to pay me, I would
say that the only ability that was lacking was an honest heart. What if someone
then said, that an honest heart was the needed ability to pay the debt? I
would reply: the ability of my debtor lies in the power of his hand to write
me a check , and this he has. What is lacking is an honest principle. It
is in his power to write me a check, which makes him responsible to do so.
The fact that he lacks an honest heart does not destroy his accountability.
Another example of man’s responsibility. Two men
guilty of theft: the first is an idiot, the second perfectly sane but the
offspring of criminal parents. No just judge would sentence the former;
but every right-minded judge would sentence the latter. Even though the
second thief had a corrupt moral nature, that would not excuse him, providing
he was a normal rational being. This is the ground for human accountability
- the possession of rationality plus the gift of conscience. It is because
the sinner is endowed with these natural faculties that he is a responsible
creature. Because he does not use his natural powers for God’s glory, constitutes
his guilt.
It is a fact that of himself, a sinner cannot
come to Christ. But we are dealing with the responsibility of the sinner.
From the human side the inability of the sinner to come to Christ is his
own moral inability. And this is a voluntary inability. The sinner must
be regarded not only as impotent to do good, but as delighting in evil.
From the human side, then, the “cannot” is a will not; it is a voluntary
impotence.
Why has God demanded of man that which he is incapable
of performing? Because God refuses to lower His standard to the level of
our sinful infirmities. Being perfect, God must set a perfect standard before
us. If man is incapable of measuring up to God’s standard, wherein lies
his responsibility? Man is responsible to acknowledge before God his inability
and to cry unto Him for enabling grace. Surely this will be admitted by
every Christian reader. It is my duty to own before God my ignorance, my
weakness, my sinfulness, my impotence to comply with His holy and just requirements.
It is also my duty, as well as blessed privilege to earnestly beseech God
to give me the wisdom, strength, grace, which will enable me to do that
which is pleasing in His sight; to ask Him to work in me.
The Sovereignty of God is designed as a motive
for godly fear, it is made known to us for the promotion of righteous living,
it is revealed in order to bring into subjection our rebellious hearts.
A true recognition of God’s Sovereignty humbles as nothing else does or
can humble, and brings the heart into lowly submission before God, causing
us to relinquish our own self-will and making us delight in the Divine will.
There is no real rest for your poor heart until you learn to see the hand
of God in everthing.
Happy the soul that has been awed by a view of
God’s majesty, that has had a vision of God’s awful greatness, His ineffable
holiness, His perfect righteousness, His irresistible power, His sovereign
grace. A sight of God leads to a realization of our littleness and nothingness
and issues in a sense of dependency and of casting ourselves upon God. It
promotes the spirit of godly fear and this in turn, begets an obedient walk.
So much more could be said about this topic. I
highly recommend the reading of “The Sovereigty of God” by A.W. Pink. It is
available for free through: Chapel Library, 2603 W. Wright St., Pensacola,
FL 32505