Featured Faith vs Faith and Repentance

Try this quote on for size and your question might be answered;

1Co 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

No one who has not broken the moral law of God and sensed his guilt will repent and come to God through faith in Christ. Why would they? They would not be guilty and condemned and therefore would not need his salvation.

 

Thanks @KenH . That reminds me of Philippians chapter 3. "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus". There seems to be an acknowledgement of being "apprehended" by Christ, yet no shyness about claiming that he has "suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith".

I just don't see any conflict with the idea that salvation is all of God while at the same time to say "I believe or I follow after or I have suffered the loss of all things" should not be worthy of rebuke.

 

The issue is about the reason why one believes and repents. Either man does it or God does it. There is no God does 99% and man does 1%. God does 100% of the saving or a man is not saved at all. Is the sinner looking to God to have imputed his sins to Christ and to have imputed Christ's perfect righteousness to him and has his eyes opened to see Christ as The Lord his Righteousness; or is the sinner look to something in himself or done by him for salvation - "I repented" or "I believed" or "I was baptized" or "I was sincere" or "I tried to be a good person", etc.? The former is God saving a sinner without any merit in the sinner. The latter is a sinner attempting to save himself through some merit of his own.

 

That REALLY IS a WINNER!

 

ANND Another WINNER!

 

Do you ever think for and speak using your own words instead of posting long diatribes from others? Doesn't seem like it. So, these are your beliefs following others thoughts....Okay...I see.

 

Every word of this is mine,
except the scriptures,
and they are from the Bible.

 

This is where I think there is confusion. As a strict Calvinist, if you are saying that man does 0% to merit his salvation I agree. And if you are saying that it is God through the work of the Holy Spirit that is 100% initiating the work in a persons heart that leads to repentance and faith I agree.

And when you list "I was baptized, I was sincere, or tried to be good" as a sinner attempting to save himself I agree. But you also listed "I repented " and "I believed" in that same category. Even though they came through the work of the Holy Spirit on the person do you really want to say that that is trying to add works to salvation? And even in light of the fact that I just quoted Paul in Philippians chapter 3 as saying exactly the same thing.

There is a difference between contributing to your salvation and being active in your salvation. YOU have to believe and repent, not God. At it's most precise basic level, saving faith is by it's own definition a ceasing from working, a reaching out for a gift from God, and a taking God at his word - which is the exact opposite of works. But yes indeed, you have to do it.

 

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

Acts of the Apostles 11:18 Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

Philippians 1:29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.

(emphasis mine)

 

@KenH . Amen to those verses above. I am just saying that there are Calvinist preachers like Spencer above and Horatious Bonar, who urge men to "repent now, immediately, and believe the gospel". That doesn't take anything away from God's glory. I don't even think that left as we are in our natural state anyone will do that without the direct involvement of the Holy Spirit. But I am saying that faith is what the person does and someone who says "I believed the gospel" should not be corrected for saying that, unless they are viewing it as a virtuous contribution to their salvation.

 

Agreed. I am not familiar with Spencer but I definitely have great regard for Horatius Bonar.

But one must also be careful as there are lots of false gospels which condition salvation in some form or fashion on the sinner and not the finished work of Christ alone. There is no salvation in a false gospel.

 

The main difference between us Ken is that you can't spell Spencer and I can't spell Horatius.

 

But I still had time to edit my mistake. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

Goes to show you don't know much about the free will position. UGH

 

Yes, it is, "flesh".

 

That's your position and belief...too bad it's not fact.