No matter how much we try to resist His love, try to ignore it, run from it, or hide from it ... we can't. God's love will never exhaust in the pursuit of chasing you. The moment you embrace it God's love becomes irresistible. He proves to you it has no limits, no conditions nor does it account for how much we have failed or misrepresented Him.
This is a statement made by a local, technologically savvy church on a web page designated as their campaign to reach Northwest Arkansas with the truth and love of God. It is interesting to note above that “God’s love will never exhaust in the pursuit of chasing you…He [God] proves to you that it has no limits…” No limits save one. Did you catch it? Man is sovereign – “The moment you embrace it God’s love becomes irresistible.” Man must first embrace the love of God before this love becomes irresistible. Sounds like a limit to me.
And just in case you think am making a mountain out of a molehill, consider this statement made by this church’s “Beliefs” –
And just in case you think am making a mountain out of a molehill, consider this statement made by this church’s “Beliefs” –
Repentance is the commitment to turn away from sin in every area of our lives and to follow Christ, which allows us to receive His redemption and to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Thus, through repentance we receive forgiveness of sins and appropriate salvation (Acts 2:21, 3:19; I John 1:9).
Repentance “allows us to receive His redemption and to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit.” Again, salvation is about what man does with something God provided. God is now passive while man is active. In this view, repentance (clearly a necessary spiritual work of man) precedes regeneration (clearly the necessary work of God making us alive in Christ). The only problem with this is that it is not what Scripture teaches. The Scripture teaches that regeneration precedes faith.
Let me quote from Steve Lawson who wrote:
Let me quote from Steve Lawson who wrote:
One of the distinguishing features of the biblical view of the new birth is what theologians refer to as monergism. The prefix "mono" means “one.” The Greek word "erg" refers to “a unit of work”; it is from this root that we get the English word energy, which describes a powerful working. Monergism, then, refers to one agent doing a work, and monergistic regeneration communicates the truth that only one agent is active in the work of regeneration, that one being God.
John Owen (1616-1683), the great prince of the Puritan preachers and regarded as one of the eminent theologians of all times wrote:
To say that we are able by our own efforts to think good thoughts or give God spiritual obedience before we are spiritually regenerate is to overthrow the gospel and faith of the universal church in all ages.
As Alan Cairnes noted, “…regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit unaided by human effort or cooperation.”
Charles Hodge, the great Princeton theologian also taught:
The view offered by this local church I referred to above, is teaching a synergistic (meaning a working together) view, claiming that regeneration involves not one but two agents, God and man, placing each in a place of equal power. As Lawson noted, in this view, “man must cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit must cooperate with man. In the end, man has the power of veto. It is touted that lowly, impotent man can resist the work of the omnipotent, sovereign Holy Spirit in salvation.”
Such a view inverts the biblical teaching of regeneration which teaches that the new birth (regeneration) precedes faith. Only when God first acts upon the spiritually dead soul will it ever be enabled to respond to the love of God. Again, as Lawson noted, “Regeneration precedes faith because regeneration produces faith.” He goes on to say, “…man cannot cooperated with God in his spiritual birth any more than he does in his physical birth. In both cases, God is powerfully active and man is feeble…Telling a sinner to chose to be born again is like urging a corpse to choose resurrection.”
Is this the teaching of Scripture? Clearly so. Let me cite just a few examples, the first of which here emphasize the solitary work of God in causing this regeneration unto faith.
Jeremiah 31:33
I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it…
Ezekiel 11:19-20
19 And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them, and I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
Please do not think I am propping up just a few vague verses. Start with these, pray and ask the Lord to reveal the truth of this matter to your heart. In Ephesians 2 we have one of the clearest expressions of man being dead in sin, being regenerated by God, experiencing grace with the result of faith and salvation.
Ephesians 2:1
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
Ephesians 2:4-5
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ ( by grace you have been saved),
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
So, while I commend this local church’s enthusiasm to reach the lost with the love and truth of God, their theology is greatly deficient and their approach is to entice with slick advertising and clever slogans rather than preach the full counsel of God’s Word, and believe that “salvation is from the LORD” (Jonah 2:9). May the Lord give us all discernment in such matters to proclaim the glory of God in salvation.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Pastor Ed
Charles Hodge, the great Princeton theologian also taught:
No more soul-destroying doctrine could well be devised than the doctrine that sinners can regenerate themselves, and repent and believe just when they please…As it is a truth of both Scripture and of experience that the unrenewed man can do nothing of himself to secure his salvation, it is essential that he should be brought to practical conviction of that truth. When thus convinced, and not before, he seeks help from the only source whence it can be obtained.>
Such a view inverts the biblical teaching of regeneration which teaches that the new birth (regeneration) precedes faith. Only when God first acts upon the spiritually dead soul will it ever be enabled to respond to the love of God. Again, as Lawson noted, “Regeneration precedes faith because regeneration produces faith.” He goes on to say, “…man cannot cooperated with God in his spiritual birth any more than he does in his physical birth. In both cases, God is powerfully active and man is feeble…Telling a sinner to chose to be born again is like urging a corpse to choose resurrection.”
Is this the teaching of Scripture? Clearly so. Let me cite just a few examples, the first of which here emphasize the solitary work of God in causing this regeneration unto faith.
Jeremiah 31:33
I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it…
Ezekiel 11:19-20
19 And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them, and I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
Please do not think I am propping up just a few vague verses. Start with these, pray and ask the Lord to reveal the truth of this matter to your heart. In Ephesians 2 we have one of the clearest expressions of man being dead in sin, being regenerated by God, experiencing grace with the result of faith and salvation.
Ephesians 2:1
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
Ephesians 2:4-5
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ ( by grace you have been saved),
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
So, while I commend this local church’s enthusiasm to reach the lost with the love and truth of God, their theology is greatly deficient and their approach is to entice with slick advertising and clever slogans rather than preach the full counsel of God’s Word, and believe that “salvation is from the LORD” (Jonah 2:9). May the Lord give us all discernment in such matters to proclaim the glory of God in salvation.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Pastor Ed
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