Charles H. Spurgeon said, "There seems to be an inveterate prejudice in the human mind against this doctrine, and although most other doctrines will be received by professing Christians, some with caution, others with pleasure, yet this one seems to be most frequently disregarded and discarded.
Man's Condition
Romans 3:9-20 "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside: They have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit; The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Romans 8:5-8 "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Man's natural state is hostile toward God, it doesn't subject itself to the law of God. Man's natural state is not even able to do so. Those in the flesh cannot please God. Therefore our salvation doesn't depend on us accepting Christ, but rather God accepting us. Jesus spoke to the Pharisees in John 8:43-45 "Why do you not understand My speech? Because yor are not able to to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is not truth in him. When he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me." In Ephesians 2:1-3 we read "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." In our natural state, Satan is our father and we serve him. John 3:18-19 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Romans 6:23"For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Here we have 100% responsibility for our sins.
Man's Salvation
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" If you read further in John 3, you will see in verse four that Nicodemus realized that being born again was something he couldn't do. In verse eight Jesus says "the wind blows where it wishes and so everyone born of the Spirit." Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." We see here that we are saved through faith which is a gift of God and not as a result of works at all, there is not room for boasting but, we are His workmanship. Romans 9:6-29 shows us God's sovereignty in Salvation: vs11: before twins were born, neither did good or bad, but God's purpose according to His choice might stand. vs12: The older will serve the younger vs13: Jascob I loved, but Esau I hated vs14: There is no injustice with God vs15: God has mercy on whom He chooses vs16: Therefore it doesn't depend on the man who wills but God who has mercy vs21: Does not the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?" And so we have 100% sovereignty in the workings of salvation. This election ensures that people will be saved because no one will come to God of their own but no one comes to the Father lest the spirit draw him.(John 6:44) When this happens then scriptures such as Acts 2:21 can be fulfilled."And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved."
Reconciling The Two
We may ask "How can we reconcile 100% responsibility of man with 100% sovereignty of God?" Both are clearly taught in the bible even though they appear to contradict each other. The best answer I can find to that is Romans 9:18-29"Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills, He hardens. You will say to me then,'why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will' But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'Why have you made me like this?' Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessel of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As He says also in Hosea "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' There they shall be called sons of the living God. Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before: "Unless the Lord of the Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah."
Please continue on to the next page with me to see more on what is said concerning Election in the Bible.
