Rom. 1: 16 (Proof Text #10)
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." (Rom. 1: 16)
"And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16: 30-31)
"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. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Eph. 2: 8-10)
We cannot exclude being quickened from the salvation promised to the believer. Those who exclude regeneration from the salvation that is by faith do so because they have a proposition which they take to the bible and make all texts to agree with it. That proposition says that the salvation that results from faith must necessarily exclude regeneration. Is this proposition positively stated in scripture or was it a logical deduction that is made based upon a faulty understanding of spiritual death and inability?
The power to believe is not within the sinner who believes. If it was, then it would take no power outside of himself to believe. But, the regenerated before faith view affirms that power to believe is given to the sinner and present in him before he believes. This power to believe is given in being regenerated or made alive, it is affirmed. But, the bible and our old Baptist and Calvinistic forefathers taught that the sinner had no power in himself to believe prior to believing. They also taught that the power to believe came from outside of the sinner, from the power of the word and Spirit of God. (See Eph. 1:18-19; Rom. 1: 16)
They also taught that man had natural ability to believe but had no moral or spiritual ability. When God commands dead sinners to hear, believe, and to repent, they have a natural or physical ability to do so. They have no moral or spiritual ability, however. Their cannot is their will not. They cannot because they will not. The will must be changed to change the sinner. The sinner has no "will power." But, the power of God is that which overcomes the impotence of the depraved will. In regeneration and conversion the Lord conquers, or subdues, the will.
The sinner's inability is not physical. I have heard Calvinists so teach, however. They will say that a man can no more believe, repent, obey, etc., than a fish can fly. Thus, they depict the inability as physical. But, God is not, in calling men to faith and repentance, calling them to do what they are physically unable to do. God forbid that we would believe such a thing. Commands the fish to fly and then kills the fish for not flying! No, man's inability is a moral or spiritual inability. It is not because he lacks a physical faculty, such as hearing, seeing, thinking, etc. He has ears, but he closes them. It is not correct to say that the sinner does not have ears. If that were true, then to command such to hear would be wrong. It would be further wrong to condemn such for not hearing. But, sinners do have ears but they have closed them. They have eyes, but they too they have closed. Thus, their inability is due to the enslavement of their wills and not from any lack of faculties.
So many texts in the bible, like the ones at the heading of this article, say that salvation comes by faith. Are we to say that all of these texts are talking about a salvation that excludes regeneration? Where did that proposition come from? Do the scriptures give us this proposition? A proposition that governs us in how we interpret the salvation that comes by faith? Is it not another false proposition that such Hyper Calvinists bring to the text and make the text to square with it? Surely it is.
The Hardshells and Hyper Calvinists, when they see the word save, saved, deliver, salvation, etc., in the scriptures, they have a man made proposition that guides them in how they interpret those texts. If faith, repentance, confession, obedience, etc., are stated as conditions, then it must be a salvation that follows regeneration. If however the texts mention no such conditions, but simply mention being saved by the blood of Christ, the Spirit of God, etc., then it will not exclude regeneration.
If such a proposition be the thing that guides interpretation of salvation texts, then it ought to be stated in scripture. But the fact is that many texts, like those cited above, show that the proposition is false. Many of the texts that speak of salvation that results from faith and repentance cannot be made to exclude regeneration. It certainly cannot exclude regeneration when the spiritually dead sinner is admonished and exhorted to believe for salvation. Paul spoke of "them that perish" and says that they perish "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (II Thess. 2: 10) This salvation must include regeneration or being born again. How can you admonish the unregenerate to be saved with a salvation that does not include regeneration?
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