DHK wrote:
Ergo, faith is the sinners’ gift to God, ultimately proving all men have the wherewithal to believe on Christ, their faith independent of God’s omnipotent Spirit working in them…..proving Calvinists/Monergists have it all wrong.
This unscriptural view is more common than I had originally thought.
Upon researching the Internet I discovered several sites which ‘proved’ this errant interpretation by utilizing the rules of Greek grammar as their ‘authority.’
In short, they all agreed that ‘salvation’ was the gift of God referenced in Ephesians 2:8-9.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that [salvation] not of yourselves: it [salvation] is the gift of God:
Due to an irreconcilable Greek gender issue ‘faith’ was discounted as being the gift of God referenced.
In fact, in all cases the authors stated unequivocally that faith was not a gift of God to man.
Arminians, non-Cals and Synergists all concur that man first believes through the power of his free will and then, and only then, God regenerates and saves him.
Man must first believe before God’s saving graces can be actuated.
It is in chapter 2, verse 5 of Ephesians that Paul first introduces the phrase, ‘by grace are ye saved.’
Even when we were dead in sins, [God] hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)
Paul equates regeneration (being ‘born again’) with salvation, and that salvation by grace.
Thus, Paul equates regeneration with grace.
If regeneration is of grace, which it is, then it is contingent on nothing preceding.
For if it was contingent on anything preceding then regeneration would be a reward. If a reward, then it would be grounded in justice……giving man what he rightly deserves, i.e., his faith deserves regeneration.
But grace is not a reward man can earn or deserve.
Faith, as well as regeneration, must be included in the many gracious gifts God gives to man unto salvation.
Ephesians Chapter 1 teaches just that: all the gifts necessary unto salvation are the free gracious gifts of God the Father, faith included.
1. God the Father has blessed us (Christians) with all heavenly spiritual blessings (unto salvation) in Christ. (Verse 3).
2. If ‘all’ actually means ‘all’ than it cannot mean ‘most’, faith excepted, as Arminians teach. Faith must be included as a heavenly spiritual blessing because saving faith must be spiritual, otherwise it is carnal.
Carnal faith does not save. Neither is it a blessing.
If the origin of all heavenly spiritual blessings is of God the Father, which they are, then their origin cannot, in any sense, be of man……including saving faith.
3. To further solidify the truth that our faith is of divine origin Paul explains that our faith is the result of the same mighty power of God working in us that resurrected Christ from the dead. (Verses 18-20).
In summation, Ephesians 1 – 2 teaches salvation is all of grace.
All spiritual blessings are of grace.
Election is of grace.
Predestination unto adoption is of grace.
Redemption and forgiveness of sins is of grace.
The revelation of His will to save us is of grace.
We are the recipients of a heavenly inheritance because of grace.
Faith is the result of God’s omnipotent resurrection power effectually working in us.
Therefore, our faith is of grace.
Ergo, Faith is God’s gift to sinners.
Protestant, do you believe regeneration precedes faith.
Regeneration Precedes Faith
by R. C. Sproul
One of the most dramatic moments in my life for the shaping of my theology took place in a seminary classroom. One of my professors went to the blackboard and wrote these words in bold letters: "Regeneration Precedes Faith."
These words were a shock to my system. I had entered seminary believing that the key work of man to effect rebirth was faith. I thought that we first had to believe in Christ in order to be born again. I use the words in order here for a reason. I was thinking in terms of steps that must be taken in a certain sequence. I had put faith at the beginning. The order looked something like this:
"Faith - rebirth -justification."
I hadn’t thought that matter through very carefully. Nor had I listened carefully to Jesus’ words to Nicodemus. I assumed that even though I was a sinner, a person born of the flesh and living in the flesh, I still had a little island of righteousness, a tiny deposit of spiritual power left within my soul to enable me to respond to the Gospel on my own. Perhaps I had been confused by the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. Rome, and many other branches of Christendom, had taught that regeneration is gracious; it cannot happen apart from the help of God.
No man has the power to raise himself from spiritual death. Divine assistance is necessary. This grace, according to Rome, comes in the form of what is called prevenient grace. "Prevenient" means that which comes from something else. Rome adds to this prevenient grace the requirement that we must "cooperate with it and assent to it" before it can take hold in our hearts.
This concept of cooperation is at best a half-truth. Yes, the faith we exercise is our faith. God does not do the believing for us. When I respond to Christ, it is my response, my faith, my trust that is being exercised. The issue, however, goes deeper. The question still remains: "Do I cooperate with God's grace before I am born again, or does the cooperation occur after?" Another way of asking this question is to ask if regeneration is monergistic or synergistic. Is it operative or cooperative? Is it effectual or dependent? Some of these words are theological terms that require further explanation.
A monergistic work is a work produced singly, by one person. The prefix mono means one. The word erg refers to a unit of work. Words like energy are built upon this root. A synergistic work is one that involves cooperation between two or more persons or things. The prefix syn -
means "together with." I labor this distinction for a reason. The debate between Rome and Luther hung on this single point. At issue was this: Is regeneration a monergistic work of God or a synergistic work that requires cooperation between man and God? When my professor wrote "Regeneration precedes faith" on the blackboard, he was clearly siding with the monergistic answer. After a person is regenerated, that person cooperates by exercising faith and trust. But the first step is the work of God and of God alone.
The reason we do not cooperate with regenerating grace before it acts upon us and in us is because we can- not. We cannot because we are spiritually dead. We can no more assist the Holy Spirit in the quickening of our souls to spiritual life than Lazarus could help Jesus raise him for the dead.
When I began to wrestle with the Professor's argument, I was surprised to learn that his strange-sounding teaching was not novel. Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield - even the great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas taught this doctrine. Thomas Aquinas is the Doctor Angelicus of the Roman Catholic Church. For centuries his theological teaching was accepted as official dogma by most Catholics. So he was the last person I expected to hold such a view of regeneration. Yet Aquinas insisted that regenerating grace is operative grace, not cooperative grace. Aquinas spoke of prevenient grace, but he spoke of a grace that comes before faith, which is regeneration.
These giants of Christian history derived their view from Holy Scripture. The key phrase in Paul's Letter to the Ephesians is this: "...even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have you been saved)" (Eph. 2:5). Here Paul locates the time when regeneration occurs. It takes place 'when we were dead.' With one thunderbolt of apostolic revelation all attempts to give the initiative in regeneration to man are smashed. Again, dead men do not cooperate with grace. Unless regeneration takes place first, there is no possibility of faith.
This says nothing different from what Jesus said to Nicodemus. Unless a man is born again first, he cannot possibly see or enter the kingdom of God. If we believe that faith precedes regeneration, then we set our thinking and therefore ourselves in direct opposition not only to giants of Christian history but also to the teaching of Paul and of our Lord Himself.
