In the last BLOG we looked at how the biblical use of the word “faith” is really shorthand for Christ. This shows us that salvation is by Christ alone and those who focus on faith as if it moves God to save or allow for man to trust in himself to come up with faith are really misleading people as to the true nature of the Gospel. While there are several today who will at least agree that God is sovereign and that faith is His gift, they don’t think this is important enough to talk about in evangelism. It is almost as if they think this is a truth that needs to be seated in the corner while important doctrines take center stage.
Here, I see, you are taking the view that the truth and usefulness of Scripture should be measured and decided according to the feeling of men—to be precise, of the ungodliest of men; so that nothing henceforth will be true, Divine and wholesome but what these persons find pleasing and acceptable; and what is not so will at once become useless, untrue and harmful. What else do you here plead for, but that the words of God may thus depend on, and stand or fall by, the will and authority of men? (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will).
When men decide to hold back truths that are very vital to the Gospel of grace alone as the enslaved will is, they are being just like Erasmus. While they will not admit that they are like Erasmus, they are. They are afraid of offending ungodly men while they are not afraid of offending a thrice holy God. Scripture is quite clear that men are dead in sins and trespasses and cannot contribute one thing to salvation. Dead men have nothing to contribute. Scripture is quite clear that the will of man cannot contribute one thing in salvation.
John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Romans 9:15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
Scripture is explicit that man’s will cannot save, but only the will of God can. It goes to pains in these verses to show that it is not the man who wills that is saved. It is the will of God that saves man. It is the compassion and mercy of God that saves man. When we focus on the will of man we take our eyes off of the grace of God who will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. The conclusion Paul draws in Romans 9:16 is taken from Romans 9:15. He is quite unconcerned about offending the ungodly by these verses. Instead, He takes the passage from Exodus 33 and makes a startling conclusion. Because God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and will have compassion on whom He will have compassion, it does not depend on the man who wills. We must let Paul’s premises and conclusion settle into our minds and hearts and have our thinking developed by Scripture rather than the fear of offending ungodly men who have the breath of life in their nostrils rather than the power of life itself.
Because God will save by grace alone rather than any other way, salvation does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but instead on God who is the One who shows mercy. If the Gospel of grace alone depends on our teaching a salvation that is of grace alone and it is God who shows this grace to whom He pleases, then we must not teach a gospel that is dependent on the will of man in any way. If the apostle Paul teaches us with clarity and power that because God shows mercy to whom He will that the will of man (free-will) has nothing to do with his own salvation, then we must teach the same thing if we are going to preach the Gospel of grace alone as Paul did. If we are going to preach a Gospel that is truly all of grace alone, then we must preach a Gospel that is of Christ alone. Yet if we follow John and Paul on this matter, we can see that we cannot preach the Gospel of Christ alone and grace alone unless we teach that man’s will cannot contribute one thing to salvation. If we teach that, it will involve teaching the utter helplessness of man in sin so that the sovereign grace of God can be declared.
It is true that if we preach this way and evangelize this way we will offend the ungodly whether they claim to be Christians or not. But we cannot preach the true Gospel of grace alone as Paul did without offending the ungodly. So if our goal is not to offend the ungodly, we should realize that the real problem is that we are unwilling to suffer for the Gospel of grace alone. The real issue of offending others is that we want to be liked and honored. But as Jesus said, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” (John 5:44). If we are more concerned about running people off than seeking the presence of God, He is gone already and most likely we are not preaching the Gospel of grace alone in truth. What this teaches us is that there are many ministers who need to repent and believe the Gospel before they can preach it. This is not limited to Arminians and Pelagians, but to those who profess to be Reformed as well.
God Loves... Himself 
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