Dead Men Can’t Believe

Ephesians 2:1-2
Richard Spencer | Sunday, August 14, 2022
Copyright © 2022, Richard Spencer

My sermon this morning is entitled Dead Men Can’t Believe. My purpose is to expound the biblical doctrine called unconditional election. This is a very unpopular doctrine and is not believed even by most professing Christians today, but as I will endeavor to show, it is completely biblical and, in fact, the only doctrine that is logically consistent with facts that we can all agree are true. And, properly understood, this doctrine provides us with the only sure hope we can have that we are saved and will spend eternity in heaven with God. Let me begin with an illustration from the Bible.

In Chapter Eleven of the gospel of John, we are told about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha and we are told in John 11:5 that Jesus loved them. Now Lazarus became ill and died. But four days after his death, Jesus came to the cave in which he had been buried and commanded that the stone covering the entrance be rolled away, and then we read in John 11:43 that “Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’” And then, in Verse 44, we are told that “The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.”

This is an amazing story about a true, historical event. And it is an illustration of what God has done for each of his chosen people. And I want to ask you to consider one question about this event. Did Lazarus obey the command to come out before or after he was brought to life? The answer, of course, is completely obvious. Lazarus was first raised to life and he then heard and obeyed the command to come out of the cave. Dead men don’t hear or respond to any commands.

That fact relates directly to our passage this morning. We are told in Ephesians 2:1 that we were all at one time dead in our trespasses and sins. This is, of course, speaking about spiritual death, not physical death. And just as physically dead men can’t hear and obey commands, so spiritually dead men can’t believe. We can logically conclude therefore, that we were made spiritually alive before we believed in Christ.

I have broken my sermon this morning into three sections. The first is the biblical case for the doctrine of unconditional election. The second is a refutation of common arguments against this doctrine, and the third examines how each of us should respond in light of this doctrine.

I.       The Biblical Case for the Doctrine of Unconditional Election

Let’s begin by making the biblical case for the doctrine of unconditional election. While the apostle Paul was in Athens, he spoke the gospel to the people gathered for a meeting of the Areopagus and we read in Acts 17:30 that after condemning the worship of idols he said, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” And when Paul says that God commands us to repent, that is a figure of speech called a synecdoche, meaning to use a portion of something to refer to the whole. Biblical repentance never occurs alone. It is always accompanied by true saving faith.

Repentance is turning away from our sins and true faith is turning to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Repentance and faith go together inseparably, and so they are often listed individually. As another example, when a crowd asked Jesus “What must we do to do the works God requires?”, meaning, “What must we do to be saved?”, Jesus responded by saying, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28-29) And yet, Jesus began his public ministry by declaring, as we read in Matthew 4:17, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Repentance and faith are opposite sides of the same coin so to speak, therefore, even though it is often true that repentance or faith are mentioned alone, we see that God commands all people both to repent and believe.

And I now have a second, critically important question for you to consider. Is every single human being capable of obeying God’s command to repent and believe on Jesus Christ and be saved? And you must answer that question in light of what we are told in the verses we are considering this morning, Ephesians 2:1-2, in which the apostle Paul tells us, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”

When Paul says that we “were dead”, he obviously does not mean that our physical bodies had ceased to function. As I noted earlier, he is referring to spiritual death. He means that we were dead toward God. We were separated from any loving relationship with him because, as Paul tells us in Colossians 1:21, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.”

And so, coming back to my question, “Is every single human being capable of obeying God’s command to repent and believe on Jesus Christ and be saved?”, the answer must obviously be “No!” It cannot be possible for those who are dead in their transgressions and sins, who are by nature enemies of God, to willingly turn away from themselves and turn to God for salvation. The theological term for this condition is total depravity. Every single human being ever conceived and born by natural means is totally depraved. This does not mean that we are as bad as we can be, rather, it means that every aspect of our being is affected by sin; our mind, our hearts, our affections, everything about us is tainted by sin. We inherit our sinful nature from our parents.

And just as Lazarus had to be made alive before he could hear and obey Jesus’ command to come out of the grave, so we must be made spiritually alive before we can repent and believe and be saved. In other words, we must be born again or regenerated. Jesus said exactly this when he was speaking to Nicodemus’ about how a person can be saved. In John 3:3 we read that Jesus told him, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Then in Verse 5 we read that Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” And, finally, in Verse 7 he said, “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”

The reason Jesus used the metaphor of new birth, which confused Nicodemus, is that it is entirely and uniquely appropriate. We all begin life with a sinful nature. We are by nature enemies of God, separated from his favor, which is what Paul meant when he said we were dead in our transgressions and sins. And, just as physically dead men cannot cause themselves to come to life again, neither can one who is spiritually dead cause himself to become spiritually alive. He must be born again from above by the power of God. His fundamental nature must be changed. It is something that must be done to him before he is able to respond to God’s gospel offer with repentance and faith.

The great 20^th-century theologian John Murray explained the problem well. He wrote, “Enmity against God must express itself in opposition to every manifestation of his holy will. How then can we expect that man will answer with delight the call to enter into God’s kingdom of glory and virtue? How can a man dead in trespasses and sins, and at enmity with God, answer a call to the fellowship of the Father and the Son? How can a mind darkened and depraved have any understanding or appreciation of the treasures of divine grace? How can his will incline to the overtures of God’s grace in the gospel?”[1]

Now some of you may want to object to Murray’s description of man, thinking it is too negative. But if you do, you must object to what God says, because Murray’s statement is 100% biblical. We’ve already seen in Ephesians 2:1-2 that we are, as Murray says, dead in trespasses and sins, and in Romans 8:7 we read that “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” In the King James Version this verse says our mind is at enmity with God, so Murray is, again, quoting the Bible. Then, in Romans 1:21 & 28 Paul wrote that unregenerate people have hearts that are darkened and minds that are depraved, so Murray is again quoting scripture.

The bottom line is simple, although the natural man opposes this truth with all his might. The truth is that the natural man cannot accept the gospel offer of salvation. He is not able to repent and believe because it goes against his fundamental nature. And that is why no one would be saved unless God chose some people to be saved and then caused them to be born again, which is a fundamental change in our inner being. New birth, or regeneration, brings about a radical change. We are given a new heart, a new mind, a new set of affections and, as a result, a new will. The New Testament often describes one who has been born again as being in Christ. And Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Being regenerated makes us new creations.

And not only does the natural man oppose this truth, most modern Christians oppose it as well. Their objection is that it violates man’s free will. They will often say that God causes us to be born again because we have repented and believed in Christ, which gets the cause and effect backwards and steals glory from God in order to give it to man.

But free will is a very vague concept. What, exactly, is meant by saying that man has a free will? Those who object to the doctrine of unconditional election believe that man has what can be called libertarian free will. That is the ability to decide to choose virtually anything. Now, these people would obviously agree that we can’t choose to do something that is physically impossible, or at least they would agree that if we choose to do it, we can’t actually do it. So, for example, I can’t actually fly without the aid of some machine. But they nonetheless want to hold on to the idea that the natural man can choose to either accept or reject God’s offer of salvation in Jesus Christ even though, as we have seen, the natural man is at enmity with God and choosing to follow him would violate the unregenerate man’s core nature.

But I want to convince you this morning that man has no such free will, because such free will is illogical and unbiblical. When we speak about our will, we are speaking about our ability to make choices. And we must first ask the question, “Why do we choose to do anything?” The best answer I’ve ever seen was given by the great 18^th-century American theologian Jonathan Edwards.[2] He said, in essence, that we always do that which we most want to do when all factors are considered. And one of the factors that must be considered is our own nature.

So, to give a trivial example as an illustration, I will never freely choose to drink a cup of coffee because I despise the taste of coffee. It would be inconsistent with my nature to choose to drink it. In the same way, someone who is by nature an enemy of God, is simply not going to choose to love and obey God. I think that Jonathan Edwards has it completely right and, therefore, I would say that if we are going to be very careful, we should say that man has free moral agency, but not a free will. To say that we have free moral agency means that we freely make decisions for which we can be justly held accountable; we are free moral agents. But our decisions are always consistent with our abilities – both our physical abilities and our moral abilities, or nature. And, therefore, we do not have a completely free will; it is constrained by our moral nature just as surely as it is constrained by our physical capabilities. Now, of course, we might choose to do something we don’t like if someone threatens us in some way, but that just means that when all things are considered, we prefer the disagreeable action to what is threatened. This is coercion, not a free moral choice, so we aren’t considering that situation this morning.

And now let’s circle back to the main question; “Is every single human being capable of obeying God’s command to repent and believe on Jesus Christ and be saved?” The answer is “No!” We do have free moral agency, but we do not have a libertarian free will. It would be inconsistent with our nature to repent and believe unless and until that nature has been changed by new birth. A dead man, a totally depraved man, will not and cannot repent and believe.

And lest you think that I am somehow reducing man to less that he really is by saying we don’t have a libertarian free will, let me point out that God himself does not have a libertarian free will! We are told, for example, in Hebrews 6:18 that it is impossible for God to lie. There are no outside constraints on God, he is absolutely sovereign, but he is constrained by his own nature. He cannot be unjust, he cannot lie, he cannot fail to keep all of his promises and act on all of his threats, there is no shadow of turning in him. The idea of a libertarian free will is illogical. Choices are made because of prior preferences and there are no morally neutral beings.

And so, the real question here is about man’s will. Does man have a free will? Or in what sense is man’s will free? When the great humanist of the 15^th and 16^th centuries, Erasmus, attacked Martin Luther by writing a book called Discussion Concerning Free-Will, Luther answered with his greatest theological work, entitled The Bondage of the Will. In that work, Luther thanked Erasmus for dealing with the essential issue. And in responding, he wrote, “now that God has taken my salvation out of the control of my own will, and put it under the control of His, and promised to save me, not according to my working or running, but according to His own grace and mercy, I have the comfortable certainty that He is faithful and will not lie to me, and that He is also great and powerful, so that no devils or opposition can break Him or pluck me from Him. … whereas, by the power of ‘free-will’ none at all could be saved, but every one of us would perish.”[3]

I specifically want you to notice two things from this quote. First, that Luther correctly affirms that no one would be saved if it was up to man’s so-called ‘free will’ – he puts that phrase in quotes because I think he would agree with Jonathan Edwards about how the human will operates. And secondly, notice that Luther correctly sees that the fact that his salvation depends on God’s election is a great blessing! He has a “comfortable certainty” that God is faithful and is able to do what he has promised. Properly understood, the doctrine of unconditional election is a source of great comfort to a true Christian.

Paul wrote, in Ephesians 1:11, “In him”, meaning in Christ, “we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will”. It is God’s will that matters. He has predestined everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. And God will accomplish all that he has planned. Especially the saving of his chosen people. Praise God!

Friends, if our salvation depended on our own effort to any degree, we would all be lost. And so I praise God that what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9 is true, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” If my salvation depended on my own free will, then I would have something to boast about!

Most people who affirm man’s free will, of course, deny that they have anything to boast about. They will agree that they are saved by grace alone. And they will often try to explain how that can be reconciled with their belief in the power of human free will by saying that only those who absolutely refuse God’s offer of salvation will go to hell. But that is saying the same thing in a negative way and doesn’t affect the reality.

Consider, for example, two people who both go to the same church service and hear the same gospel message. One of them rejects it and goes to hell and the other accepts it and goes to heaven. What is the difference between them? They heard the same gospel. The only difference has to do with how they responded to it. If the notion of libertarian free will were true, then the one who went to heaven did so precisely because he personally did something the other person did not do. He would be responsible for his salvation, not God. God made it possible of course, but the man’s personal actions were the determining factor. He would have something to boast about.

But, praise God, my salvation does not depend on me. It depends on God’s free choice. His unconditional election. And because of that fact, I can join Luther in being confident in my salvation because God is mighty and unchangeable, he cannot lie, and no one can snatch me out of his hand. His promises are absolutely certain. The doctrine of unconditional election provides me with great comfort and joy.

And to say that election is unconditional, simply means that it is not based on anything in me, if it were, I would again have something to boast about. The unpleasant truth is that I don’t deserve to go to heaven. In fact, I deserve hell. And so do all of you. Paul affirms this in Romans 3:10-12, where we are told that “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” And then in Verses 21-24 he declares, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

This righteousness from God is the perfect, unimpeachable righteousness of Jesus Christ himself. He is the only perfectly obedient, sinless human being who has ever lived. And even more than being a sinless human being, Jesus was and is the eternal God. He is the unique God-man, the only mediator between God and man, the only Savior. And so Paul goes on in Romans 3, Verses 25-26, to say that “God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. …  he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

Jesus took the sins of all who believe in him and gave himself as a sacrifice of atonement, or it should more accurately say, as a propitiation. He paid the penalty we owed to propitiate, or placate, a justly angry God. That is why Jesus had to be God as well as man – a mere man could never pay the price as we are told in Psalm 49:7-8. And, as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice, our sins are paid for. In addition, we receive his perfect righteousness in exchange so that God can “be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” God is the perfectly just judge of the universe. He cannot allow sin to go unpunished. But he is also loving and has chosen to save some people, so Jesus paid the penalty we owed to satisfy divine justice.

This great double transaction, in which Christ takes our sins upon himself and gives us his perfect righteousness, is the result of our being united to Christ by faith. In Romans 6:3-5 Paul wrote, “don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.” And when Paul speaks of our being baptized into Christ, the assumption is that baptism is an outward sign of a true inward change. We have been born again and, as a result, we have repented and placed our trust in Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice. This is union with Christ, which John Murray called the apex of grace and privilege for a Christian.[4]

This double transaction is clearly stated by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:21, where we read that “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” What a glorious plan of salvation! Praise the Lord!

We all begin life spiritually dead, totally depraved, enemies of God. There is no objective reason in us for any of us to be saved and we are utterly and completely incapable of saving ourselves. Dead man can’t believe.

But, because God chose, from before creation, to save a people for himself, he made a way for us to be saved. He sent his eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, to be incarnate of the virgin Mary, to live a perfect, sinless life in fulfillment of the law, and to willingly give his life as an atoning sacrifice on the cross. And he then sends his Holy Spirit to apply this redemption to his chosen people by regenerating them. And because regeneration causes us to be new creations, with a new heart, mind and set of affections, in other words, with a new will, we do, as free moral agents, choose to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians 2:4-7 Paul wrote that “because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Did you get all of that? The reason for God’s choosing anyone is his love and mercy, not anything we have done or will do. And he made us alive when we were dead. We had to be raised to spiritual life first, then we believed. And we are seated even now in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Our union with Christ is real. We don’t experience that fact directly with our five physical senses, but it is true. And what is the purpose? It is so that “in the coming ages [God] might show the incomparable riches of his grace”. God’s purpose in creation is the manifestation of his glory.

His sovereign election redounds to the glory of his amazing love and mercy as well as to his great wisdom and power in conceiving how to remain just while saving guilty sinners. What a great God we serve!

But there are several objections that are always raised to this doctrine of election and I want to deal with them now. So, let’s move on to the second part of my sermon; a refutation of common arguments against this doctrine.

II.      A Refutation of Common Arguments Against this Doctrine

First, people will sometimes say that God commands us to repent and believe and that the command implies we must have the ability to obey. Second, people will often ask how it can be fair for God to punish those who don’t believe when they are incapable of believing. And, third, people will sometimes ask how we can be held accountable for our sinful nature since it is something we are born with. These three questions are really all the same question at their core. They are questioning the fairness of God.

The answer to this objection is impossible for sinful enemies of God to accept, but it is perfectly reasonable and logical and true. The answer is, fundamentally, that God does not treat anyone unjustly. Everyone is treated either with perfect justice or with mercy. And God is not obligated to show mercy to everyone. This is, in fact, exactly what God himself says. In Romans 9 the apostle Paul asked and answered the question we are dealing with. He refers back to Jacob and Esau, the twin sons born to Isaac and Rebekah and, in Verses 11-13 tells us that “before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” And then, after this clear statement of the doctrine of unconditional election, Paul asked and answered the objection we are considering in Verses 14-16. He wrote, “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” And, as we noted earlier, the fact that our salvation doesn’t depend on our desire or effort is a wonderful thing! If that weren’t true, we could never be saved!

And notice that Paul would not have had to answer this objection at all if every single human being without exception had the ability to accept or reject God’s offer of salvation. The objection only makes sense when you realize that the natural man is dead, and dead man can’t believe.

But let me say a little more about the third objection I noted. People may ask, “How is it fair for God to hold me accountable for my sinful nature, when that is the nature I was born with?” There are two answers to this question. The first answer, which unbelievers never find persuasive, but which is completely biblical, is that God chose Adam to be the representative for the entire human race. When Adam sinned, we all justly incurred guilt because he was our representative. And, as a result, we all inherit our sinful nature from him and can justly be held accountable for it. Paul wrote in Romans 5:12 that “sin entered the world through one man,” meaning Adam, “and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men”. We all became slaves to sin, children of the devil, because as Paul tells us in Romans 6:16, you are a slave to the one whom you obey. And, unless and until God makes us alive, we all obey our father the devil (John 8:44).

Now, as I said, unbelievers never like that answer and even many people who call themselves Christian don’t like it. But I would point out that if you don’t like being represented by Adam, then you should not like being represented by Jesus Christ either. And without Christ, you cannot be saved. I would also point out that we can be certain that Adam was the best possible representative for the human race. Neither you nor I, nor anyone else would have done any better. Also note that this answers the objection about ability as well; Adam did have the ability to obey God, but he didn’t.

The second answer to the objection about the fairness of our being held accountable for our sinful nature is that it is a moot point for anyone who can understand what I am saying. It is a moot point because everyone who can understand what I am saying has personally sinned. Even by their own standard! Not one person can stand up and truthfully tell me that they have done exactly what they knew to be the right thing to do for all of life without exception. And our own standard is a corrupted version of God’s standard, so ours is much easier to meet. God requires perfection. If there was even one sin allowed in heaven, it wouldn’t be heaven.

Now, there is another way to answer these objections as well, at least for those who claim to be Christian. Almost all who claim to be Christian will admit that not everyone will be saved. And Charles Hodge drew a proper, logical conclusion from this fact. He noted that “If it be right that God should permit an event to happen, it must be right that He should purpose to permit it, i.e., that He should decree its occurrence.”[5] In other words, God’s foreordaining that not everyone should be saved is no less troublesome than his permitting that to be the case. Hodge goes on to say that this really, “is nothing but the assumption that God intended in eternity what He actually does in time.”[6]

Hodge made one other point that I think is very persuasive. With regard to the objection that God would not sovereignly choose to save some but not others because that would be treating people differently, Hodge noted that when we look at creation it is blatantly obvious that God does treat people differently. We do not all have the same opportunities or abilities. [7] God distributes his blessings with absolute sovereignty, but in doing so, he does not treat anyone unfairly. God is not obligated to make us all equal.

Friends, at this point I have made, I think, a solid case that the biblical teaching, which is the truth, is that all men begin life totally depraved, spiritually dead. And that in order to repent, believe and be saved, they must first be born again. But no one can cause himself to be born again. Only those whom God has chosen from all eternity to save will be regenerated, and all of those whom God regenerates will repent, believe and be saved.

And that is precisely what Paul tells us in the famous passage in Romans 8:29-30, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” And notice that when this refers to those God “foreknew”, this is speaking about God fore-loving them. If it was speaking about fore-knowing in the sense of knowledge, it would not be a limiting statement because God knows every single human being who has ever lived or ever will live.

I have also stated that this is the only logically consistent position given things that we all know to be true. Let me defend that statement by pulling together some of the points I have made and adding a couple of other obviously true statements to them. First, we all sin. No one lives a perfect life even by his own standard, let alone by God’s. Second, we all die. This is obviously true except for those who are still alive when Christ returns and Enoch and Elijah, both of whom the Bible tells us God took directly to heaven.

These two incontestable facts, that we all sin and we all die, lead to some obvious questions. First, “Why do we all sin?” The only reasonable answer is that we all have a sinful nature. If that were not the case, there would surely be an outstanding individual now and then who did not sin. But there are no such individuals with the sole exception of Jesus Christ, whose conception was miraculous.

The second obvious question is, “What happens when we die?” Only God knows the answer to that question and he has spoken to us through his Word. In Hebrews 9:27 we are told that “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment”. And we learn in 2 Corinthians 5:10 that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” And in Matthew 25:46 Jesus himself tells us that the wicked, “will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” We are told elsewhere that eternal punishment is in hell and eternal life is with God in the new heaven and the new earth. There are only two possible eternal destinies. And the only rational response to that fact is to cry out with the Philippian Jailer, “what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30) And the answer is, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”.

And that question leads directly to my third and final point: how should we respond in light of the doctrine?

III.    How Should We Respond in Light of this Doctrine?

I have made the case that unless and until you have been born again, you do not have the power to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you do not have the power to cause yourself to be born again. So, what are you to do? Are you to just sit back and do nothing? To wallow in despair?

Absolutely not! God is sovereign, but we are all free moral agents and can be justly held accountable for our decisions. And you know that you have sinned. Examine yourself honestly. Do you meet God’s perfect standard? And if you see that you are a sinner, deserving of God’s wrath, cry out to God for mercy! He will save you. We are told in Romans 10:13 that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” This is God’s promise. Don’t worry about how to reconcile God’s sovereign election with your personal responsibility. Do what you can and should do! Cry out to God for salvation. The doctrine of unconditional election should not be used as an excuse for inactivity. It should humble us and cause us to seek God’s mercy.

And if you call yourself a Christian, but aren’t certain that you are saved, my counsel is the same. God is merciful and just. He delights in forgiving sins and saving his people. So call on him and be saved. Trust in God’s sure promises.

And finally, if you are confident in your salvation, then praise God! And trust in him alone. But be careful! If you are confident in anything other than God’s sovereign power and mercy, you need to repent. And we must all work out our salvation with fear and trembling. If we have been born again, then we are new creations. That will always lead to our repenting and trusting in Christ for our salvation, but it will also always show up in how we live our lives. If you are not walking in obedience to God’s commands, you are not born again. If you don’t love your brothers and sisters, you are not born again. If you don’t love God and his Word, you are not born again. But note that I am not saying you must be perfect, we all sin. Nevertheless, there must be serious evidence of new life. There must be continual repentance and continual change. We are to be transformed day by day to be conformed to the likeness of Christ.

If we are no longer dead men, let us do what the living can do and ought to do. In Isaiah 38:18-20 we read, “For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living—they praise you, as I am doing today; fathers tell their children about your faithfulness. The LORD will save me, and we will sing with stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the temple of the LORD.”

Let us praise God with our lives and walk in constant grateful obedience. God is a glorious, gracious and mighty Savior!

[1] John Murray, Collected Works, Vol. II, Banner of Truth Trust, 1977, pg. 169

[2]Jonathan Edwards, A Careful and Strict Inquiry into the Prevailing Notions of the Freedom of the Will, in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 1, Hendrickson Publishers, 2005

[3] M. Luther, The Bondage of the Will, Trans. By J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnson, Fleming H. Revell Comp., 1957, pg. 314

[4] John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1955, pg. 134

[5] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Eerdmans, 1997, Vol. II, pg. 336

[6] Ibid, pg. 337

[7] Ibid, pp 337-338