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What I believe about Total Inability

By Jeremy Myers
17 Comments

What I believe about Total Inability

what I believe about total inabilityPreviously we looked at what Calvinist’s believe regarding Total Inability. Here is what I believe.

I am in basic agreement with Calvinists that there is no good work by which a person may earn or merit eternal life from God. Though there is much good that unregenerate people do, none of it is meritorious before God. He recognizes their good work and can even praise them for it, but these works in no way help them earn eternal life.

Humans do not contribute the tiniest bit to the free gift of eternal life. The free gift of eternal life is given completely by God’s grace.

If eternal life is by grace alone, then there is nothing—absolutely nothing!—we can do to earn, keep, or prove God’s free gift of eternal life.

Eternal life is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

We are not able to save ourselves or reform ourselves or do anything to produce or secure eternal life for ourselves.

We are able to believe

But our complete inability to contribute to our eternal life is quite different from our inability to receive the free gift of eternal life by faith. Believing in Jesus for eternal life is the polar opposite of trying to gain, keep, or prove eternal life by our own good works. As such, there is no boasting in faith or merit to faith.

If someone freely offered $1 million to a homeless person—or even to another millionaire—it would be ludicrous to say that the recipient of that gift somehow earned the $1 million because they received it with gratitude and joy. Imagine if there was a reword ceremony for this generous gift, and as the giver wrote out the check for $1 million, the receiver said, “I deserve this $1 million because when it was offered to me, I said yes. I earned this money!” The idea is preposterous.

There is no merit or effort of any sort involved in receiving a free gift. 

It is not meritorious to receive a free gift

Some might say that there is merit or effort involved in understanding that a free gift is being offered. In the case of the offer of eternal life, some argue that unbelievers are unable to even understand their condition of being unregenerate sinners, or understand their need of eternal life as a free gift from God, and so while the reception of the free gift of eternal life by faith might not be meritorious, the “work” of understanding the need for that free gift is meritorious.

Returning once again to the analogy of the free gift of the $1 million, the Calvinist would say that when the person is offered the $1 million, they either cannot even understand what is being offered, or they deny that they even need it.

all are guilty - Psalm 143:2

In terms of eternal life, before a person can believe in Jesus, they first need to understand that there is a God, that God is righteous, that we are unrighteous, and that God offers His righteousness to those who will believe in Jesus for it. Many people must also understand that Jesus is God incarnate, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead. It is these sorts of truths that a Calvinist says an unregenerate person is unable to understand and believe on their own.

And I would agree.But thankfully, God has not left us on our own.

We cannot take the first step

He has sent Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).

He has sent the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). He has given us Scripture, by which we can learn more about God’s ways in history and the revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. He has given us other believers, who may share the truth of the Gospel with us. He has given us creation, which is a visual testimony of His character and power. He has given us a conscience, wisdom, reason, feelings, and desires, all of which may lead us to the truth. God may even use angels, visions, and dreams to impress upon someone the necessity and importance of believing in Jesus for eternal life.

Based on what the Scripture teaches, it seems that all of the things God has given to humanity are sufficient to persuade and convince a person to believe in Jesus for eternal life. While I may disagree that regeneration precedes faith, I wholeheartedly defend the truth that revelation precedes faith.

People are able to believe because God has revealed Himself to humanity in numerous ways. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom 10:17). And the Word of God comes, not just through the pages of Scripture, but through the self-revelation of God in all its forms.

God enables people to believe because He has reveals Himself to them. The following discussions of free will, sin, faith, and regeneration will explain this in more detail.

What are your thoughts about total inability? Are people able to believe in Jesus for eternal life? Or must God first regenerate people so that they can believe? 

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: believe, Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, faith, Theology of Salvation, Total Depravity, total inability, TULIP

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It’s possible to believe in Jesus but not be saved…

By Jeremy Myers
14 Comments

It’s possible to believe in Jesus but not be saved…

Like the word “gospel,” the word “salvation” means much more and much less than usually assumed.

Just like the word “gospel,” the way the word “salvation” is often used today is very different from the way the word is used in Scripture.

salvation and saved

When people talk about “salvation” today or “being saved,” what they most often have in mind is the idea of receiving the forgiveness of sins so we can escape hell and go to heaven when we die.

But in biblical usage, the noun “salvation” (Gk., sōteria) and the verb “save” (Gk., sōzō) very rarely have anything to do with receiving eternal life or going to heaven when we die. Instead, the words are most often used in connection with some sort of temporal or physical deliverance. We can be saved from enemies, saved from sickness, saved from drowning, saved from suffering, or even saved from a premature physical death. While “salvation” is sometimes used in connection with sin, this is only because sin often has devastating physical and temporal consequences in our life. To be saved from sin means to be delivered from the destruction and damage of sin in our lives.

One resource that shows this quite clearly is Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary. Under the entry for “Save, Saving,” the dictionary includes the following options:

(a)    Of material and temporal deliverance from danger, suffering, etc., e.g., Matt 8:25; Mark 13:20; Luke 23:35; John 12:27; 1 Tim 2:15; 2 Tim 4:18; Jude 5; from sickness, Matt 9:22; so Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Jas 5:15

(b)   Of the spiritual and eternal salvation granted immediately by God to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, e.g., Acts 2:47, 16:31; Rom 8:24; Eph 2:5, 8; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Tim 1:9; Titus 3:5; of human agency in this, Rom 11:4; 1 Cor 7:16; 9:22

(c)    Of the present experiences of God’s power to deliver from the bondage of sin, e.g., Matt 1:21; Rom 5:10; 1 Cor 15:2; Heb 7:25; Jas 1:21; 1 Pet 3:21; of human agency in this, 1 Tim 4:16

(d)   Of the future deliverance of believers at the second coming of Christ for his saints, being deliverance from the wrath of God to be executed upon the ungodly at the close of this age and from eternal doom, e.g., Rom 5:9

(e)    Of the deliverance of the nation of Israel at the second advent of Christ, e.g., Rom 11:26

(f)    Inclusively for all the blessings bestowed by God on men in Christ, e.g., Luke 19:10; John 10:9; 1 Cor 10:33; 1 Tim 1:15

(g)    Of those who endure to the end of the time of the Great Tribulation, Matt 10:22; Mark 13:13

(h)   Of the individual believer, who, though losing reward at the judgment seat of Christ hereafter, will not lose his salvation, 1 Cor 3:15; 5:5

(i)     Of the deliverance of the nations at the Millennium, Rev 21:24

Though I would not state this list of various definitions quite this same way, and would put many of the references from definition (b) into other categories, it nevertheless shows that the words “save” and “salvation” in the Bible have a wide variety of meanings.

save a lifeTo help the reader of Scripture know what sort of “salvation” is in view when they are studying it, I recommend that whenever you comes across the words “save” or “salvation” in Scripture, you stop, replace it mentally with the word “deliver” or “deliverance” and then ask yourself, “Deliverance from what?” If you look in the surrounding context, you will quickly discover that the deliverance in view has nothing to do with gaining eternal life or going to heaven when you die.

Doing this will drastically help your understanding of numerous difficult passages in the Bible that many have thought of as referring to receiving eternal life, but refer instead to some sort of temporal deliverance.

It is possible, as the title of this post says, to believe in Jesus for eternal life (and of course, receive eternal life as a result), but still not be “saved” from many of the temporal and physical consequences of sin, or from sickness, or from enemies, or from many of the other negative things that can happen in life.

Have you ever heard this taught before? Has it helped your understanding of some of the tough texts in the Bible?

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: believe, Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, eternal life, faith, gospel, salvation, save, Theology of Salvation

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Don’t Believe the Unexamined Faith

By Jeremy Myers
4 Comments

Don’t Believe the Unexamined Faith

It has been said that the unexamined life is not worth living. In a similar way, I believe that the unexamined faith is not worth believing.

Truth, in my opinion, can stand up to any and every question. I believe that if a person believes something, and is afraid or scared of questions which challenge that belief, and they refuse to consider such questions, they don’t really believe, but instead are brainwashed.

believing or brainwashing - know what you believeThere is a vast difference between believing something and being brainwashed, but on the outside, both look exactly the same. Both types of people hold to certain views tenaciously and use similar terminology to state their views. But someone who believes, does so because of the evidence. Someone who is brainwashed does so in spite of the evidence, and even shuts down (or should I say “shouts down”) anybody who raises questions that might challenge their convictions.

Believing vs. Brainwashing

How can you tell whether you believe something or are just brainwashed? You have to ask yourself why you believe what you do, and also how you respond when someone challenges your beliefs.

If you believe because “so-and-so said it” you are probably brianwashed. It doesn’t mean you are wrong, but what you have done is allowed someone else to do your thinking for you. In other words, you are allowing them to write their beliefs on your brain. This is brainwashing at the most basic level.

Also, if someone comes along and challenges your beliefs by raising questions or pointing out areas of weakness in your beliefs, and rather than admit that you don’t have answers to those questions, you ignore the questions, and scoff at the person asking them, and use ad hominem attacks and a variety of other logical fallacies to discredit what they are saying without actually dealing with what they are saying, you have an advanced case of brainwashing.

Know What You Believe and WHY

To really believe something, you not only have to know what you believe, but why you believe it. And if the “why” is “So-and-so said it” you better hope that person is completely trustworthy, reliable, and infallible.

But don’t take my word for it. Think it through on your own.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: believe, faith, Theology - General

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