Your statement is false, your misunderstanding of Romans 10:17 aside. Saving faith is based solely upon the free grace of God, which you deny. Woody, I don't have time right now to respond to your less than gracious comments. However, what is your understanding of Ro. 10:17? This is one of the most plain verses in the Bible.
Ro. 10:17 is very similar to what Christ stated in John 6:45, "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." Now, tell me that faith comes by any method other than hearing, and as Christ said, learning, in order to "come to" Christ.
Christ goes on in John 6:63 to state, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak to unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." How's this different than Ro. 10:17? And, if you got "life" and you got it from other than the Word of God, you got something other than what Christ was speaking about.
Apparently you believe God saved you without you responding to His Word. I suppose you think that's His grace because you've always been saved. How wrong that is since we're all born spiritually dead and need life. Christ, Himself, said that His words are "life." Furthermore if by grace God saved you from your birth, or possibly before, then His grace doesn't apply to all, which flies in the face of His statement through Paul that His will is for all men to be saved,1Tim. 2:4, not some, or only Calvinists, or Baptists, or Catholics or Jews or ... Compare this verse with Mt. 20:28 where Christ says He came to "give his life a ransom for many." I suppose you consider yourself one of the "many" not one of the "all." This is where you need to "rightly divide" the Word for understanding of the difference in these verses. Otherwise, which one do you believe?
But then, I believe it when God says His grace and salvation is freely available to all that believe the gospel (1Cor. 15:1-4) of God's grace. To believe implies that a decision was made to believe and that no decision is a decision not to believe the Word. Foolish me, I guess!
Apparently you believe God saved you without you responding to His Word. ~ "grace"believer
Nothing could be further from the truth. I said:
I did not "make a decision" for Christ in order to get "saved". I believe that Christ has already "saved" me. And that is a true gospel distinction.
Now, how can I make that gospel distinction between what you are preaching and what is found in the Word of God unless I am responding the word of God.
Furthermore, I said:
The Lord opened my blind eyes to see and I saw what was lacking in the afflictions of Christ.
The apostle Paul describes this path to knowledge of Jesus Christ in 2 Co. 4:4-6:
- The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.... For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Notice that Paul speaks of God's enlightening our hearts (as in the work of creation--now that sounds like regeneration) to apprehend "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." He is talking about people who have never seen the historical Jesus. What they "see" is the verbal (i.e. the Lord opened my blind eyes to see) portrayal of Jesus in the Gospel, that is, in the apostolic preaching of Christ.
There are 2 things that make this path possible.
- The reality of the glory of Christ shining through the portrayal in the Bible.
- The work of God to open the eyes of our blinded hearts in the work of creation for us.
This is very different from someone telling us that the Bible is true or us "making a decision" for Christ. If that were true, then this person who convinced us would have the final authority.
Sometimes this TRUE path is called the "testimony of the Holy Spirit." An old catechism says it this way: "The Spirit of God, bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very Word of God." God does not skirt the Scriptures. He simply removes the blindness of hostility and rebellion (are you reading ksen), and thus opens the eyes of our hearts to see the radiant brightnes of Christ.
BTW, have you figured out that I have already addressed all of your scripture cites with these above words? Probably not!
I suppose you think that's His grace because you've always been saved. How wrong that is since we're all born spiritually dead and need life. Christ, Himself, said that His words are "life." ~ "grace"believer
Let's look at a little bit of that "life".
- Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,...
The grace of God which saves all who will ever be saved was given to those who are being saved before time began. Wow! Talk about particular redemption. I don't see anywhere that making an "intelligent decision" is part of that equation.
Furthermore if by grace God saved you from your birth, or possibly before, then His grace doesn't apply to all, which flies in the face of His statement through Paul that His will is for all men to be saved,1Tim. 2:4, not some, or only Calvinists, or Baptists, or Catholics or Jews or ... Compare this verse with Mt. 20:28 where Christ says He came to "give his life a ransom for many." ~ "grace"believer
If it is truly God's will that everyone is saved and you prayed for the actual salvation of the entire human race without exception then will everyone in the entire human race be saved? For we know that of prayers concerning the will of God the Lord Jesus has promised: "That will I do."
Woody.
P.S. Just because the apostolic preaching of the gospel of the kingdom of God is the method by which faith comes to a sinner does not mean that faith is not a work of the grace of God.
We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Beholding is becoming. Seeing Christ saves and sanctifies. Therefore, the Lord opened my blind eyes to see and I saw what was
lacking in the afflictions of Christ.
BTW, I'm outta here! The south counties are overrun with horrible bloodthirsty creatures called deer and I am called to stem the tide of the menace.