Saving Faith
Although Christ is offered in the Gospel, the sinner cannot believe in Him . Saving faith is the faith of God's elect , the special gift of God to them , wrought in them by His Spirit . Salvation is offered to them that will believe in Christ , but how can you believe ? John 5:44. It is offered to those that will come to Christ ; but "no man can come to unto Him , except the father draw him ." It is to those that will look to Him , as lifted on the pole of the Gospel ; but the natural man is spiritually blind ; and as to the things of the Spirit of God , he cannot know them , for they are spiritually discerned . Nay, whosoever will ,he is welcome ; let him come ; but there is a day of power on the sinner , before he can be willing .Man naturally has nothing wherewithal to improve , for his recovery , the help brought in by the Gospel . He is cast away in a state of wrath , and is bound hand and foot , so that he cannot lay hold on the cords of love thrown out to him in the gospel . How can anyone believe , or repent , whose understanding is darkness , whose heart is a stony heart , inflexible , insensible , whose affections are wholly disordered and distempered , who is averse to good , and bent to evil ? The arms of natural abilities are too short to reach supernatural help ; hence those who most excel in them are often most estranged from spiritual things . "Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent ."
Man cannot work a saving change on himself ; but so changed he must be , else he can neither believe or repent , nor ever see heaven . No action can be without a suitable principle . Believing , repenting , and the like , are the product of a new nature that can never be produced by the old corrupt nature . Now , what can the natural man do in this matter ? He must be regenerate , begotten again unto a lively hope , but as the child cannot be active in his own generation , so a man cannot be active , but passive only , in his own regeneration . The heart is shut against Christ ; man cannot open it , only God can do so by His grace . He is dead in sin ; he must be quickened , raised out of his grave ; who can do this but God himself . Nay , he must be created in Christ Jesus , unto good works . These are works of omnipotence , and can be done by no less a power .
Man cannot work a saving change on himself ; but so changed he must be , else he can neither believe or repent , nor ever see heaven . No action can be without a suitable principle . Believing , repenting , and the like , are the product of a new nature that can never be produced by the old corrupt nature . Now , what can the natural man do in this matter ? He must be regenerate , begotten again unto a lively hope , but as the child cannot be active in his own generation , so a man cannot be active , but passive only , in his own regeneration . The heart is shut against Christ ; man cannot open it , only God can do so by His grace . He is dead in sin ; he must be quickened , raised out of his grave ; who can do this but God himself . Nay , he must be created in Christ Jesus , unto good works . These are works of omnipotence , and can be done by no less a power .
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