In
three posts, I will point out three crucial concepts that are prerequisite to
understanding God's grace. There are many others, but these three are most relevant
in the conflict between Reformed theology and free-will theology within the Appalachian
territories. They are in my experience
the most frequent sources of error in the prevalence of free will theology in
West Virginia.
·
Human depravity--Those
who do not understand that human beings are dead in their trespasses and sins,
utterly incapable of responding to the Gospel call apart from God's gracious
initiative, will not be able to understand grace as God intends it to be understood.
o
Ephesians 2 makes clear
that we were dead in sin, and then gives a powerful description of exactly what
that means: Follower of the ways of the world and Satan who works within
the disobedient. Gratifier and follower of fleshly cravings, desires, and
thoughts. Deserving of wrath in the very nature of the human being.
o
Romans 3 also gives an
unmistakable description:
§
Under the power of sin
§
None righteous, no not
one
§
No God-seekers
§
All have turned away and
become worthless
§
No one does good, not
even one
§
Throats that are open
graves
§
Deceitful tongues
§
Poisonous lips
§
Mouths full of cursing
and bitterness
§
Eager to murder
§
Ways marked by ruin and
misery
§
No knowledge of the Way
of Peace
§
No fear of God.
o
The indictment is
profound and severe. These descriptions give an
explanation for why Jesus says in John 6:44 that “no one can come to me unless
the father who sent me draws them.”
o
After describing the dead
state of human beings in Ephesians 2, Paul goes on to say that God has resurrected
those to whom he is writing. Because of
the severe condition of human sinfulness, no one possesses the ability to call
upon the name of the Lord unless God through the Holy Spirit resurrects them
from their dead state. Another way to
say this is that they must be born again, regenerated, or made new. Paul then draws an unmistakable conclusion from
this act of resurrection—“it is by grace you have been saved (v. 5).” This comment is meant to underline for the
reader that in order to understand grace, one must first understand the deadness
of the sinful human being. The meaning of
grace is made clear in the contrast between the once dead state and the now
resurrected state of the human soul.
o
Proponents of free-will theology
insist that God’s offer of salvation is not really a gift of grace until the sinner reaches out to take the gift. In other words, they
believe that sinners must have some ability to participate in the salvation
process, at the very least, by reaching out and taking advantage of the free
offer of salvation.
o
A
common illustration is this: Proponents
of free will theology believe that we are drowning in the deep end of a pool of
sinfulness and death. God throws a life
preserver out (salvation through Jesus Christ).
All that the drowning person must do is grab hold of the life-preserver
to be saved. Paul gives us a very
different picture, however. He says that
we were drowned and dead, laying like rotting corpses upon the bottom of the
pool. We possessed no life or ability to
participate in salvation by grabbing a life preserver. There was no hope until God, figuratively
speaking, dove into the pool, pulled the corpse to the surface, and the
resurrected the corpse. The first gasp of
life that corpse takes is the breath of faith in Christ. In this picture, there is no role for the
dead corpse to play in the salvation of his soul. God does all the work from start to
finish. This is why, in Ephesians 2,
Paul says talks about the grace of resurrection once again: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do
good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
o
Unless believers
understand that we are dead and unable to participate in salvation apart from
the grace of God in our resurrection and regeneration, then we will not
properly understand grace. We will, in
spite of all claims to the contrary, claim some role for ourselves, and
therefore lay for ourselves a foundation for boasting. “I am different from you because I reached
out for the life preserver. Did you?” This subtle difference makes a significant
impact as we build our theology upon it.
It keeps our knees from being bent as low as they should be in
worshipful gratitude. It puts an air of
arrogance into the way that we relate to unbelievers, an arrogance that is commonly
accepted and even integrated into our Christianity. It moves us to misunderstand sanctification,
increasing the likelihood of godless legalism and judgmentalism.
o In order to understand grace, we must understand
that we are totally depraved, dead in our trespasses and sins, without hope in
God, apart from his resurrecting mercy.
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