Featured A Biblical Defense of Synergism #3

Not a child of the Father until saved in Christ!

 

Jesus called the {Pharisees and scribes who saw and heard Him and still did not believe children of Satan!

 

yes, as that was a wandering son who was still in a saving relationship with his father

 

Job is afflicted because God points him out to Satan and intentionally moves Satan to make claims that deny God's Sovereignty. God says, go ahead. Satan attempts. God proves Satan wrong. God is Sovereign.

 

There is nothing original. Sheep are chosen children of God. The sons are chosen children of God. Both receive their inheritance. Both use it differently. Both remain sons despite their actions.

 

No one has ever said there is no ability to obey God's commands according to the law.
What the Bible declares is that you and I have no ability to choose our adoption. God chooses who his children are and chooses the moment they are adopted.

 

As John stated to us, made children by the will of God!

 

Steve, is the son actually a son, or is he a stranger?
If he is a son, did the son choose his father or did the Father choose the son? With respect, it is you who is reading what is not there into the prodigal son story.

 

Steve, God does not say, "I want all humanity to be saved." If God said that then God would have to admit that He cannot get what He wants. God would therefore be less than all-powerful.

 

Steve, I don't know what those verses are so I cannot speak to them.
God always accomplishes everything He wills. There is no passage that tells us God fails to accomplish what He wills.
God is holy. Unholy actions displease God. When humans break God's law, they justly deserve God's judgment. All humans justly deserve God's wrath. Yet, God, chooses to redeem some through the propitiation of Christ Jesus for their sins. Jesus paid the price for those whom the Father has given him.

 

Steve, you have had these verses and accompanying passages explained to you, in their context. None of these verses make your point or support your assertions.

 

Let's start here as common ground of agreement.

I thought you already had the answer in just the above quote. If-Then moral choices have been always given to Israel to obey the Law of Moses and to later believe in the Gospel of Christ - why then are all under the curse of the law and why is Israel still in unbelief even today, if it was so possible?

Just taking the law, there's enough and more exhortations by God to obey it, right? Why the continuous requirement to keep it when God Himself reveals it cannot be kept?

Rom 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
Rom 3:20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

The purposes of God commanding for His law to be kept was not for its keeping per se - He knew it was impossible for man to keep. But in so commanding, man will see his continuous failures and hence its impossibility, will see his own rebellion and enmity against God, will trace the reasons for it and realize that there is an exceedingly deceptive nature of rebellion(sin) in him which he was not aware of until he was exhorted to obey the command. And having reached this point, he would then stop persisting in such dead works and instead put his trust wholly on only the One who can ever work these out in him. The impossibility of the law for us to keep is what shows us our initial hatred towards God and then drives us to Christ with our awareness of our total inability in the flesh.

If you accept the above which can be proven from Scriptures, then take it further and compare how the total inability of the flesh (due to sin in it) fares in obeying the commands of God in the law vs the commands of God in the Gospel, given the same initial rebellion and hatred towards God.

It assumes moral capacity*. God has endowed us with moral cognizance. Sin has corrupted it through its deceitfulness and rendered that capacity unable to be exercised as designed - much like us all being endowed with the capacity to walk or see but an accident or a genetic mutation rendering us unable to exercise that originally designed capacity. The bible does not assume moral ability to obey God in the flesh - it confirms the contrary in fact in Rom 8:7-8. One can ever obey God only in the Spirit.

 

The law served its purpose for Paul. as he was made aware that he coveted, and that his own righteousness meant nothing to Holy God !

 

No they don't. Let me return the bluntness. You quote only a verse, a couple sentences, while ignoring the context. Such hermeneutics is used by people who are antagonistic to the gospel and want a prooftext for their pet belief. I do not think you wish to follow their methods, but instead you wish to seek God. Therefore, I encourage you to read the whole passage around each verse so you can perceive context and thus see your error. I trust God will help you.