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 .

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God of my Fathers

Science is doing grand things today. Her beneficent step is heard almost everywhere. But physical science is comparatively young. And you know the characteristic defects of youth. It is headstrong and impatient, and often irreverent.It is sometimes not over reticent, even on matters concerning which it cannot form reliable judgments I now speak on "the claims of the religion of our fathers." 1. It was "our fathers'." That the sires trusted in God is a very sufficient reason why the sons should hesitate, and hesitate long, before they reach the grave conclusion that there is no God, or that if there be He cannot be trusted because He cannot be known. One of the healthiest facts of human nature and of human life has ever been that spirit of reverence for the past which links generation to generation, and practically makes the race one. We Englishmen are by no means destitute of this fine sentiment. 2. Our fathers proved it. What is the testimony borne by honest ...
Read more

The Word of the Lord is tried. The Bible tested and triumphant B. B. Loomis, Ph. D. Look at some of the severe tests to which the Bible has been subjected, and by successfully meeting which it has vindicated its claims to a Divine origin, and to universal human acceptance. I. THE BIBLE HAS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME. Since the Sacred Canon closed, how many and how vast are the changes which have gone on among men. Hardly one of the ancient powers is today extant. How great have been the strides of human progress! Yet the science of salvation, as taught in the Bible, has needed no remodeling. The race does not outgrow the religion of the Bible. Compare the case of the Bible with the poems of Homer. The two works are, in a certain sense, contemporaneous; critics have denied to the Bible any higher inspiration than that of human genius; and Greek poetry held among that ancient people very much the same place as did the sacred Scriptures among the Jews. Three thousand years ago the two works stood before the world on a comparative equality. How stands the case today? Homer is read as a model of epic verse and specimen of old Ionic Greek. The Bible is read everywhere as a transcript of the Eternal. II. THE TEST OF CRITICISM. Criticism, the most searching and severe to which any work has ever been subjected. A criticism often hostile. But the old Book has come out of it only purified. III. THE TEST OF PRACTICAL TRIAL. In the patent office are models of many beautiful machines that could not be worked. The Book will stand every practical test. It gives the solution of the great enigmas of the human soul, and provides the consolation for life's dark hours, those hours of disappointment, adversity, sorrow, and bereavement which come so surely to us all. (B. B. Loomis, Ph. D.)

The Word of the Lord is tried. The Bible tested and triumphant B. B. Loomis, Ph. D. Look at some of the severe tests to which the Bible has been subjected, and by successfully meeting which it has vindicated its claims to a Divine origin, and to universal human acceptance. I. THE BIBLE HAS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME. Since the Sacred Canon closed, how many and how vast are the changes which have gone on among men. Hardly one of the ancient powers is today extant. How great have been the strides of human progress! Yet the science of salvation, as taught in the Bible, has needed no remodeling. The race does not outgrow the religion of the Bible. Compare the case of the Bible with the poems of Homer. The two works are, in a certain sense, contemporaneous; critics have denied to the Bible any higher inspiration than that of human genius; and Greek poetry held among that ancient people very much the same place as did the sacred Scriptures among the Jews. Three thousand years ago the two works s...
Read more