Only after one comes to faith in Christ do they truly possess a free will, that is, only then do their "works" become pleasing to God.

JOH 5:21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.

ROM 5:12-17 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-- for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many (defined above as "all") died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many (defined below as "those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift...")! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

So in summary this means that in order for us to CHOOSE Jesus our wills, which are as Luther said in "bondage," must be regenerated by the Holy Spirit so that we might have the ability to respond to the Gospel. If that miracle of regeneration does not happen, NO ONE would EVER be saved. This is why we say that salvation is ALL of grace.

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In His Grip,
PB

Therefore, the nature must be changed supernaturally, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit called regeneration.

JER 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

The Ethiopian is by NATURE black. No matter how much he is commanded to be white he cannot become white. The leopard is by nature spotted. IT cannot become a tiger. So we who are by nature evil cannot become holy. But, just as God can make a black man white or a leopard a tiger if He chose to do so, He can also take what is evil (my heart) and bring it to life.

JOH 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

This is precisely what Jesus meant when He said to Nicodemous (John 3:3) "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Sadly, for generations of Arminian dominance the American church has missed the meaning of these words. We have been taught that being born again is something WE DO. But it is not. This is an aorist tense, passive voice, imperative mood verb. Aorist means that it is a point action, a one-time event, once and for all, and never to be repeated again. It is passive meaning it is something that happens TO us and not BECAUSE of us. That is, there is an eternal force that MAKES us born again. It is imperative meaning we are commanded to become born again. To be "born again" means that the Holy Spirit (the external force) enters the human heart (the dry bones) and changes its nature so that it CAN respond to the Gospel. This is the miracle of regeneration. God brings a dead body (a deprave human heart) to life.

Tomorrow: Only after one comes to faith in Christ do they truly possess a free will, that is, only then do their "works" become pleasing to God.

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In His Grip,
PB

Thus, man's will is in bondage, that is, free only in one direction, to do works that are insufficient for salvation.

ISA 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Notice it is all of us who are unclean, filthy, and sriveled up.

ROM 3:10-12 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

Notice how Paul emphasizes his point by saying over and over that there is no one who is righteous.

1CO 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The man without the Spirit is another way of saying the unsaved. Notice it does not say that the unsaved WILL not respond. It says that he CANNOT respond.

2CO 1:9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. In Adam we have been sentenced to death. And if we rely on ourselves, that is, our so called free will, we would remain dead.

Tomorrow: Therefore, the nature must be changed supernaturally, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit called regeneration.

Click here for Reformed Faith Resources...

In His Grip,
PB

When Adam fell, like the fallen angels, he lost the ability to choose salvation since he died in his trespasses.

There is no greater picture of this than the vision God gave to the prophet Ezekiel in the valley of the dry bones.

EZE 37:1-14 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'" So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet--a vast army. Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'"

You will notice that the prophet was commanded to preach to dead bones. By nature these bones could not respond to that preaching. They were scattered and dead. There was no INNATE ability to respond. A dead corpse cannot respond unless the nature is changed, unless a miracle is worked from an external force to change the nature of death into one of life. It was only when the "breath entered them" (that is, the Holy Spirit) that the ability of the bones to respond and come together was given.

Tomorrow: Thus, man's will is in bondage, that is, free only in one direction, to do works that are insufficient for salvation.

Click here for Reformed Faith Resources...

In His Grip,
PB