Can’t is not the same as won’t.
They have a fallen WILL and not a fallen capability.
The Democratic Congress CAN table the Pres’s health care push, but the WON’T.
Also, God KNOWS who the damned are. To command them to repent and believe means He must think they CAN do so.
“To command them to repent and believe means He must think they CAN do so.”
To command them is to give them the opportunity, and it is as real an opportunity as my orders not to drink and drive. When men refuse God or disobey him, they reveal what was in their hearts all along - like the ‘made manifest’ in 1 Cor 3.
Think of David and the census. God incited David, then punished him - but the inciting brought to the surface what both David and Israel already thought in their hearts - that they were great enough to make do on their own.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Sam%2024&version=ESV