"Life Precedes Action" & Hardshell Logic

From chapter nine "Hardshell Logic On Regeneration" (here) I wrote this:

Life precedes action

Here is what Brother Gowens wrote:

"Birth is the necessary prerequisite of belief, in the same sense that life must come before activity."

Here Brother Gowens is upholding the "Bio-Genesis" argument. Sinners must be regenerated first, apart from means, before they can believe, repent, turn to Christ, etc. Why? Because there are Bible verses that say that? No, but because Hardshells are using human "logic" and applying it to the mysteries of God.

But, Hardshell views on regeneration say that life exists where there is absolutely no activity at all! That just won't wash either. Just as "faith without works (actions) is dead," so too "life without activity is dead." Remember that Sarrels said that regeneration "produces no internal sensations", or no activity! We cannot say, dogmatically, which came first, faith or life, faith or repentance, for the scriptures put them in reverse order. This, combined with the overall commentary of the apostles and New Testament writers, tells us that they occur simultaneously, or as I said earlier, you cannot have one without the other. You cannot have life without faith, nor can you have faith without life. So too we say that one cannot have faith without repentance nor repentance without faith.

Notice these words of Jesus to some who were clearly "dead in tresspassess and sins," and needed life.

"And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." (John 5:40)

If the Hardshell theory were true, Christ could not speak thusly but would have to say, "And you will not have life that you may come unto me." Coming to Christ precedes the obtaining of life. "Coming" is a verb, and denotes action. So too do we read in Isaiah 45:22: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." It is similar to Numbers 21:8.

"And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live."

Notice that salvation, the "shall live," is the result of the action of "looking." In the teaching of Christ, this "looking" corresponds to our believing in Christ and seeing him upon the cross, the anti-type of the pole set up by Moses in the wilderness. In the preaching of the gospel people see Christ "set forth" and "crucified." (Gal. 3:1) They see him, his sufferings and death, and they look in faith to that atonement, trusting in it, and are thereby changed and born of the Spirit. The Spirit works through the word in bringing men to Christ. I will have more to say later, in a separate chapter, on "Coming To Christ," wherein I examine Hardshell teaching about what it means to "come to Christ."

Now let me add a few thoughts to the above (the whole chapter is worth reading).

Ezekiel and the giving of life to the dry dead bones. Was there action before life? Yes.

Wrote the apostle John:

"but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." (John 20: 31)

Does life come from believing or does believing come from life? Can you have one without the other? Is believing "action" and does it occur before life? Likewise, as noted above, John wrote:

"And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." (John 5: 40)

Is coming an action? Does that action precede or follow obtaining life? 

What think ye?