Denying God

I've been pondering the Arminian (semi-Pelagian) and Pelagian belief that God can't play favorites; that is, everyone is equally enabled to come to saving faith and the choice is up to us. It matters little for my purposes here that the one affirms the necessity of grace while the heretical Pelagianism denies that grace is needed at all, although this of course in itself makes semi-Pelagianism vastly superior to full Pelagianism; in the end the semi-Pelagian view is, like their teaching of grace, insufficient.

In both cases, all men are equally enabled to come to saving faith, whether by universal prevenient divine grace or by nature.

And here is the Achilles' heel of this belief; all things being equal, all responses to the gospel should be the same, right? But of course they are not, so all things aren't equal. Something makes people differ. And according to both Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism (Arminianism), what makes people different cannot be God or grace, as all people are equally enabled. So let us now slide down this slope a ways:

Perhaps believing the gospel is due to intelligence (or even lack thereof)- well, we can't give God the credit for individual intelligence because that would make God play favorites. Perhaps unbelief is due to natural skepticism- we can't give God credit for any natural limitations or abilities if any of these things may be a deciding factor in belief or disbelief, because that would mean God would have to interfere with man's free-will choices. Maybe it is in the raising- maybe being brought up in a godly family stacks the deck in favor of belief- well, we can't allow God to be involved with our family upbringing, if it may bring us to the cross, because God can't interfere with our choice, because that would make things unequal.

God can't have anything to do with where we are born, when we are born, our upbringing, our natural abilities and limitations and dispositions, social factors such abuse or nurture or anything else that may be a factor in bringing us to saving faith, because if he did, that would be graciously providing for one person and denying another person. The only option for the Arminian or Pelagian is to deny all these factors as having anything to do with whether or not we believe the gospel or you wind up with Deism, with a god who is not involved with his creation at all.

I would agree that none of these factors can cause saving faith. In fact, God is intimately involved with all of these things, but given ideal circumstances concerning all of these things (and hundreds more), they would be insufficient to bring a person to believe the gospel. The Arminian and Pelagian must agree too or else deny that God relates to creation.

This is truly a conundrum- it would seem that saving faith is truly miraculous, if we have a sovereign God that is involved with internal and external influences on our lives, and that none of these influences can bring us to saving faith without having God choosing to help some people but not others.

So what is the difference? Why does one believe and another does not?

Is it that one loves sin more than the other? What causes one to love sin more than the other? It can't be natural disposition, intelligence, upbringing, or any external or internal factor that God has anything to do with. So we must either deny that God controls or influences any of these factors or deny any of these factors as having influence on whether or not we believe.

I'm tired of playing this game. God is what makes people differ. It is divine, effectual grace that enables saving faith in one person while withholding that grace leaves another person in unbelief. It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is no help at all- and neither are all these other factors. God saves through the preaching of the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit everyone whom he chooses for salvation, without being limited by upbringing, natural limitations, race, social oppression, or any other internal or external influence on our lives. Saving faith is a miracle of divine grace.

So now do we become fatalists? Do we just "let go and let God"? God is going to accomplish his will concerning salvation irregardless of what we do anyway.

No! God ordains the ends as well as the means. Our prayers, bringing our children up in the fear of the Lord, witnessing through sharing the gospel and through godly lives and nurturing and loving people are all influential factors that God can and does use to bring a person to the cross. But they are insufficient in of themselves- they cannot turn the point, they cannot cause a person to believe. It takes a miracle of divine and sovereign grace.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ?

Ask most people in America I dare say and they will reply "yes, I believe in Jesus".
The question is not enough; many believe in a false messiah that has been conjured up in the minds of evil men and given the name "Jesus".

But it may be that they believe in the right Jesus, that is to say, they have orthodox beliefs about Jesus. And this is indeed essential; you must believe that Jesus is God the Son who took a human nature, lived a sinless life, fulfilling the law of God, and died on the cross, bearing God's wrath for sins as a substitutionary sacrifice acceptable to God on behalf of unworthy sinners, that he rose on the third day in his glorified human body, the first fruits of the resurrection. You must believe that Jesus has ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of the father and will return again in judgement to consummate his kingdom. Is believing these facts about Jesus enough? It is essential to believe these facts, but it does not by itself constitute saving faith.

James 2:14-20 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

No man has more orthodox beliefs than Satan and his demons. He believes the facts about Jesus and knows them to be true. He is certainly not saved, because one thing he lacks.

"Aha!" You say, "I must have works to show that I believe." That's not exactly right. One may believe the facts about Jesus, and may be busy with works of charity and go to church religiously and still have a cold, hard heart. What is missing?

Love.

You must love God in Christ in order to be saved. Good works are the manifestation of, the overflow of love for Christ and love for fellow Christians is the overflow of our love for God:

Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

John 14:21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."

1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:20-5:3 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

We obey God because we love God; we do not do good works as a burdensome task, but as an overflow of the love that we have for God. And we love our brothers and sisters in Christ as an overflow of the love we have for God. We love God because he first loved us, and the love of God that we have is the gift of God enabled by the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Notice again,

1 John 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

The person who believes Jesus is the Christ is the true believer, and has been born of God (regeneration, born again), loves the father (manifested in obedience to his commandments) and loves other Christians. Love is essential, and is always present in the true believer.

But I said earlier that a person may believe the facts about Jesus and not be saved, but this is saying that anyone who believes Jesus is the Christ has been born again and loves God. Am I contradicting myself and the bible? I don't believe so, because I believe that one fact about Jesus Christ was missing from the list that I mentioned above:

The fact that Jesus Christ is the greatest treasure in the universe, infinitely surpassing the entire universe, infinitely surpassing all of our fleshly desires and certainly all the treasures of this world. This is a fact, and one must believe this, and the manifestation of believing this is the love of God.

You see, if we believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ is more to be desired than our sin and all the pleasures and treasures of the universe combined, we will love him and obey him because we love him. And we will love all those who love him, and we ill hate every evil way because evil is characterized by treasuring something else above Jesus Christ.

Don't rely on works of obedience and orthodox doctrine to get you to heaven. If you do not love Jesus as your treasure and delight; if you do not believe that Jesus Christ is infinitely more valuable than your money and your family and everything else in the universe and even your own life, than repent and believe the gospel, because the greatest gift of the gospel is not getting out of hell, but God in Jesus Christ himself. If you believe this fact, you love God and you truly believe in Jesus Christ.

Matthew 13:44-46 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.