Featured Can An Unregenerate Man Repent?

What were they to believe in?

1 Corinthians 15:3-4
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures

Romans 3 tells you that no one is able to believe. Thus, God must make one alive before they can believe (hence my quoting Ephesians 2 for you to see).

John 3:16 says nothing about all human beings having the capacity to believe by their own will.

Who will believe?
Those whom the Father has given to Jesus.

Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
~ John 10:25-29

 

Indeed, I am not a legalist who adds weights to salvation and human works in requirement for God to save.
The gospel is simple.

 

Lol

Blessings

 

Romans 3 says no such thing, nor does Ephesians 2.

Whosoever is not limited by any adjective in John 3.

Scripture says no such thing. It's the other way around.

Excellent passage. Those who respond to the shepherd's voice are Christ's sheep and they follow Him, and they will never perish; they are given to Jesus by His Father. Those who do not accept Christ by faith are not His sheep, and do not heed His voice. Glad to see we agree on this score.

I have a Bible, what's your point?

 

Tsalagi, it is disingenuousness of you to say "Scripture says no such thing" when I provided scripture that says such a thing.

You have a Bible. Good. Read it. Read what I provided to you from the Bible. Perhaps in reading, God will change your mind.

 

I invite you to cite the passage in Romans 3 or Ephesians 2 that says "No one is able to believe. Thus, God must make one alive before they can believe." Maybe your Bible is different than mine, since mine says no such thing.

 

The bible

It would make the bible a farce to say a unregenerated man cannot change his mind and respond positively to the gospel.

 

Jesus tells us why people do not believe in Him in verse 26
Obviously if a person does not believe, they wont repent either.
John 10:25-27
New King James Version
25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me.
26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

Isaiah also tells us why people don't believe in Christ

John 12:37-41
New King James Version
37 But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, 38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke:
“Lord, who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,
Lest they should see with their eyes,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.”
41 These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.

The above is verified here, Romans 10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”

Some are hardened, Romans 9:18 says, whom He wills, He hardens

Acts 19:8-10
New King James Version
8 And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God.
9 But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. 10 And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

People who are in active resistance to God, will also never repent unless God grants them repentance, such people can not choose to repent as they are uncircumcised in heart and ear, Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.

2 Timothy 2:24-26
New King James Version
24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

Jesus also says none can come to Him unless granted by God

John 6
64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.
65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”

so if He does not grant for you to come to Christ, you can not believe, repent, or have any ability to be saved . God wont save anyone that He has not granted to come to Christ.

 

See John 8:43-47.
There is a reason why, according to the details of Scripture, that a person believes ( Philippians 1:29 ) or does not believe ( John 10:26 ).

May God bless you greatly in your studies.

 

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To me, it's understood out of Romans 3:10-18 and Acts of the Apostles 16:14....
No man seeks God or understands Him, and God had to open Lydia's heart so that she listened to Paul's words.


The passage in Romans 3:10-18, like Psalms 10 and Psalms 14, describes the default condition of our heart and attitude as stated in Romans 1:18-32.
You don't see that when you read it?

Mine doesn't state it all in one "verse", either.

But when I put specific statements together, like,
" No man can come to me except the Father draw him...",
"No man can come to me except it were given to him of my Father..."
" There is none that seeketh, there is none that understandeth…",
" Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep....",
" It is given to you in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him..."
"...as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.",

Then I come to the conclusion that no one can ( as the words literally state ) come to Christ unless God does something first...
Exactly as the Lord Jesus lays out in John 6, for example.

As for Ephesians 2, Paul lays out in Ephesians 1 why the Ephesians believed...
Because they were chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world and predestinated to their adoption as sons ( Ephesians 1:4-5 ).

Granted, it took a while for me, but those details eventually started to catch my attention.
Do they catch yours?

 

So snippy do you need to changed?

 

Man has to repent to be saved. It's simple the road to hell does not lead any where else. Man has to turn and follow a different direction. To repent means to turn.
MB

 

Romans 1 does not means they know Christ is God and then rejected Christ...they simply rejected the evidence of God in creation, that they were made by God their Creator God, and so then worship created things.
Arguing that because of Romans 1, all men are enabled to know Christ is foolishness, and the idea simply is against what many other scriptures say.

19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God (as the Creator of all things) , they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.


Romans 10
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

18 But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed:

“Their sound has gone out to all the earth,
And their words to the ends of the world.”

19 But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says:

“I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation,
I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.”

20 But Isaiah is very bold and says:

“I was found by those who did not seek Me;
I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”

21 But to Israel he says:

“All day long I have stretched out My hands
To a disobedient and contrary people.”

 

Thank God again, generating more heat than light

 

All Wrong


Blessings

 

Right is never wrong. Neither is scripture. (snip ---- unnecessary comment)

 

I appreciate your detailed response. I don't have time to address each passage at the moment, but I'm glad you mentioned Lydia in Acts 16:14 because (in my view) it contains the key to understanding Jesus' words about His sheep.

Lydia is a habitual visitor to a place of prayer by the river. She listens when Paul speaks to the women gathered there. She is already one who worships God. If she had died the day before the apostle's visit, it is not hard to believe she would have been saved under the Old Testament faith criteria. So there is a prior basis of personal faith which God recognizes as He opens her heart to Paul's words. The same can be said of Jesus' disciples who left their fishing business to go to the Jordan and hear the witness of John the Baptist, and who then followed Jesus when John identifies the Lamb of God. It was "given to them" to understand the mystery of the kingdom (Matthew 13:11-12) because they had already expressed interest and faith ("to him who has more will be given").

This is, of course, not the entirety of the foundation for my understanding, but representative. In a nutshell, the sheep Jesus referred to as hearing His voice were those in Israel who had already inclined their hearts toward God, and on that basis were given more truth and the ability to understand it.

 

I respect his right to be wrong. For the record


Blessings

 

I cited the passage. You can read it. Romans 3: No one seeks God. It is very clear.
Ephesians 2: All were dead. But God makes people alive.

Do humans make themselves spiritually alive so that they can repent, which then moves God to graciously save them?

The text of scripture has been shared. It is incumbent upon you to grasp what it says.