Natural Ability Of Man

Greg

The teachings of men concerning the new birth, regeneration, conversion, etc., can be confusing, to say the least.  From Calvinistic assertions (the claims of TULIP), to the Arminian doctrine of Prevenient Grace, I see tremendous perplexities.  I believe that man has the natural ability to respond to and obey God.  The following describes my theological affirmation of what it means to be born again. 

The Lord Jesus Christ has made provision for the salvation of mankind by his voluntary death on the cross for our sins.  A person receives forgiveness for his sins and acceptance with God when he admits to God that he is a sinner, and when in godly sorrow he turns from his sin-filled and self-ruled life to follow Jesus Christ as Lord (Luke 18:22; Romans 10:9-10; Hebrews 5:9; Romans 6:16). Christ’s death makes salvation possible for all, but his death makes salvation automatic for no one.  A person must repent and be converted (Acts 3:19).  To be converted is to be born again.  The new birth is not the imparting of new abilities or enabling capacities, as if we are not naturally able to respond to or obey God.  We are not held responsible for what we cannot do, but for what we can do, and should do, but are choosing otherwise.  Sinners are not unable to follow the Lord Jesus, they are unwilling.  Regeneration is of God because without the spirit influencing man to turn from the path of sin to the path of holiness (Hebrews 12:14), we would remain lost.  God does not do for us what he commands us to do, therefore regeneration is also the responsibility of the sinner.  We are saved by grace (God’s influence on the heart and his kind favor when we yield to him) through faith (submission to Christ). This is why God commands: “Make you a new heart and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 18:31), and why the salvation call is to deny self and to follow Christ (Mark 10:17,21). This means “being dead in trespasses and sins” is not an inability to follow Christ, it is being relationally and proleptically dead, for the sinner is separated from God and is under the sentence of eternal death.  To be born again is to repent, to turn to God, to submit to the rule of King Jesus, to choose obedience to him over self-rule and self-gratification. Therefore, regeneration is not a change in the abilities of a person, but the beginning of a person rightly using the abilities God created him with.