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Free will "decision", Or God making Dead men come Alive?
Posted : 13 Apr, 2010 08:39 PM
Deuteronomy 30:6: And the Lord your God will CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEART
and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the lord your
god with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Ezekiel 36:26,27 A NEW HEART I will give you, and a NEW SPIRIT I
will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within
you, and CAUSE YOU to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe
my ordinances. (compare Ezekiel 11:19)
James asks:
Whom does God do this for? Everyone? or whom He chooses?
John 5:21: For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life,
so also the Son GIVES LIFE to whom he will.
James asks:
WHEN does God do this? AFTER you "make a decision" to believe?
Ephesians 2:1,5: and you HE MADE ALIVE, WHEN YOU WERE DEAD through
the trespasses and sins...even when we were dead through our
trespasses, [God] made us ALIVE together with Christ....
Colossians 2:13: And you, who were dead in trespasses and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, GOD MADE ALIVE together with him,
having forgiven us all our trespasses.
James replies:
Some Christians say, it is YOU hearing God's Word, and YOU making the decision is what is Crucial, and in Acts we have
the Gospel being preached to crowds for the first time, and GUESS WHO believed?
Acts 13:48: And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and
glorified the word of God; and as many as were ORDAINED to eternal
life BELIEVED.
Does it say, whoever made the decision? does it say they thought about it, and
reasoned it through?
How about Lydia? did she use her power of reasoning to decide whether or not to
believe in Jesus?
Acts 16:14: One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city
of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God.
THE LORD OPENED HER HEART TO GIVE HEED to what was said by Paul.
Many hear the call of the Gospel, but how come only a few believe?
Matthew 22:14: "For many are called, but few are CHOSEN."
James concludes:
Here is a very important verse:
Ephesians 2:8,9: For by grace you have been saved through faith;
and this is not your own doing, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD--not because of
works, lest any man should boast.
Why is it so important? Well, if you deny that God took you, a totally
spiritually dead man, with a will enslaved to sin, and you demand that The Fall
didn't really effect you, and you have a perfectly free will, then you CAN
boast!
I am a Christian in the classic, historic sense. I believe things that
Christians in the past believed, and so I believe that the ONLY reason I am
saved is because of God's mercy. I deserve Hell, but God showed me the most
incredible mercy by making me come alive spiritually, and AFTER He did that, my
new nature, naturally wanted to repent and trust in Jesus. So I can boast of
NOTHING.
Now, I ask YOU.....
WHY did YOU become a Christian and your neighbor did not?
Oh? you saw your need for Christ?
That's nice. Now WHY did YOU see your need for Christ, and your neighbor did
not?
I can keep going all day with these questions and in the end you only have TWO
options:
1. you are a better person than your neighbor, so you CAN boast about your
"decision"
2. You are smarter than your neighbor, so again you CAN boast about your smart
"decision.
So if you STILL think that you are a Christian because YOU heard the word of
God, and YOU made the decision and THEN, God rewarded you for your good
decision, here is another verse:
Romans 9:16: So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon
GOD'S MERCY.
I urge you to read the context of this verse also.
Maybe start at Romans 9:6 and read the whole chapter.
Then, go to John chapter 6 and read that whole chapter.
God has chosen His people, and Jesus died for them, and at some point in the
life of each one of His people, the Holy Spirit comes and makes them come alive,
and THEN, that person naturally says:
"I want to be a Christian".
In Christ,
James
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