Chapter 4.14

The Insanity of Humanity II

The Suppression of the Message of Salvation

Table of Topics

A) The Gospel is Good News

B) Biblical Evidence of the Insanity of Humanity Towards the Gospel

B.1) The insanity of humanity in the OT

B.2) The insanity of humanity according to Christ

B.3) The insanity of humanity according to the Apostle

C) The Insanity of Humanity According to Teachers in the Church

Extras & Endnotes

Primary Points

• The fact that humans do not embrace the good news of the Gospel is a clear and sobering indication of psychological insanity.
• Those who think people have the ability to choose and believe the Gospel have no good explanation for why many, many more don’t, and why most even hate the good news.
• “The Lord” still sees “how great man’s wickedness [is] on the Earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart [is] only evil all the time” (Gen 6:5).
• Christ simply said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me drags him by His power.”
• The Apostle Paul said: “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” (1 Cor 2:14).
• Born again Christians are an entirely different species of human being than their unregenerated counterparts. Thus, the Apostle Paul refers to Christians as the “enlightened” ones (Eph 1:18).
• Justin Martyr (c. 150): “Being pressed down by our sins, we cannot move upward toward God; we are like birds with wings, but are unable to fly.”
• Jerome wrote (c. 400): “See how great is the help of God, and how frail the condition of man that we cannot by any means fulfill this, that we repent, unless the Lord first convert us.”
• John Calvin (1509-1564): “Men are blind until Christ enlightens them.”
• Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) wrote: “Natural men are represented in Scripture, as having no spiritual light, no spiritual life, and no spiritual being; and therefore conversion is often compared to opening the eyes of the blind, raising the dead, and a work of creation.”
• Spurgeon (1834-1892): We declare, upon Scriptural authority, that the human will is so depraved that without the irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will ever be constrained towards Christ.

A) The Gospel is Good News

The psychological difference between born again Christians and the rest of humanity is considerable, though often forgotten or ignored. George Whitefield’s (1714-1770) journal entry for January 29, 1739 illustrates his own recognition of the psychological gap between those with the Spirit and those without:

Sat up till near one in the morning, with my honoured brother and fellow-labourer, John Wesley, in conference with two clergymen of the Church of England, and some other strong opposers of the doctrine of the New Birth. God enabled me, with great simplicity, to declare what He had done for my soul, which made them look upon me as a madman . . .

I am fully convinced there is a fundamental difference between us and them. They believe only an outward Christ, we further believe that He must be inwardly formed in our hearts also. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. ^[1]

Imagine that meeting! Two of the most powerful Evangelists in all the history of humanity urging, pleading, and arguing with these men into the night. And yet it was evidently of no use.

Much of what has been demonstrated concerning the message of Creation and miracles is true of the message of the Gospel as well. It too is a very clear, simple message that even a young child can understand. In fact, many unbelievers can explain the Gospel quite well. But, of course, they do not believe, accept, or trust it, and their actions reveal this.

The question we wish to discuss here is the same one we asked concerning the message of Creation. Why don’t people trust, accept, and even welcome the Gospel? God refers to it as euangelion or “good news.” As Greek scholar William Mounce notes:

The word euangelion was not invented by the gospel writers but was already in use in the Roman world. It referred to an announcement of “glad tidings” regarding a birthday, rise to power, or decree of the emperor that was to herald the fulfillment of hopes for peace and wellbeing in all the world. Mark redefines this concept of “glad tidings” by introducing his gospel with the phrase, “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ” ^[2]

Wouldn’t we expect people to be attracted to such good news?

Imagine, for example, that you, and a trusted and respected friend, both have a debilitating and eventually fatal disease. You both are aware that you have the disease, and you wish to be rid of it, because you realize it has brought you so much pain. You recognize that the disease has cost you relationships, self-respect, and inner peace and will eventually one day kill you. You have both tried many cures, but none have worked.

Then one day your friend tells you, “I’ve found the cure!” and sure enough, the quality of his life dramatically improves. However, even though the cure is simple and immediate, with no side effects that even come close to comparing with its benefits, you refuse it. Would we not be baffled as to why? Wouldn’t the word “insanity” again come to mind?

And of course, many people have responded to the Gospel in the very same way. They know there is something wrong with them and they really would like to change, and be relieved of their guilt, fears, and sinful addictions. They’ve even tried several different religions, but the change and peace they seek has eluded them. They have people in their life that they would actually trust with their physical life, who have clearly demonstrated that Jesus Christ cured them, and who promise that this same Jesus Christ will bring them the transformation and peace they seek if they will truly believe in Him.

Not only that, but their good friend has promised them that if they will simply and truly believe them, they will receive entrance to an eternal paradise upon death, instead of eternal torment, which the friend warns them with tears that they are destined for if they do not believe them. So why won’t they believe? A promise of eternal life, escape from Hell, a friendship with God, a release of guilt, a power over sin, a new spiritual family . . . . The greatest gifts imaginable just for asking. Why won’t they believe?

From a purely human perspective, there is no explanation. Think about how gullible people are to often believe things much harder to accept than the Gospel. Think of the cost many people are willing to pay for other beliefs. People purchase vacuum cleaners from door to door salesmen that promise much less than receiving Christ as their Savior. The decision itself is an easy and obvious one. But most refuse. The fact that humans do not embrace the good news of the Gospel is a clear and sobering indication of psychological insanity and inability.

John Calvin (1509–1564) put it this way:

There is nothing, therefore that ought more powerfully to excite us to embrace the Gospel; for as it is an inestimable blessing that we are presented to God by the hand of Christ to be preserved from destruction, so we ought justly to love it, and to care for it above all things else.

In this respect the madness of the world is monstrous. All desire salvation; Christ instructs us in a way of obtaining it, from which if any one turn aside, there remains for him no good hope; and yet scarcely one person in a hundred deigns to receive what was so graciously offered. ^[3]

Those who think people have the ability to choose and believe the Gospel have no good explanation for why many, many more don’t, and why most even hate the good news. Clearly, in itself, the Gospel is one of the most persuasive, inviting messages known to mankind, and if its acceptance were simply a matter of persuasion and the exercise of freewill, many, many more people would choose the King, in the same way they believe a lot of things on a lot less evidence. There is no other explanation than mental/spiritual insanity for anyone refusing it and even being angry with those who communicate it. It is not because “the message of the cross” is unreasonable that unregenerate humans think it is “foolishness” (1 Cor 1:18), but rather, this is their response because their reason is broken.

Nevertheless, we must note that our knowledge of the insanity of humanity must not hinder us in preaching the Gospel. While God must regenerate people in order for them to believe the Gospel, so too must we preach it (cf. Rom 10:14-15). In fact, God uses the preaching of the Gospel as an opportune time to regenerate them as He did with Lydia. Accordingly, Luke writes:

One of those listening [to Paul communicate the Gospel] was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message” (Acts 16:14).

While the power of God described here encourages us to share the Gospel with spiritually dead humans, it is clear that Luke desires to show here that the saving belief was the work of God and not the “disciples.” A saving response would not have happened in any other way, and never will.

Again, the message of the Gospel is simple and very attractive, but neither the sinful nature, nor ultimately satan, allow a person who does not possess the liberating, enlightening Holy Spirit, to accept or trust it. This is because, like the message of Creation, the message of the Gospel demands a surrender of authority to the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to believe the Gospel, one must “confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’” (Rom. 10:9), something that the sin and satan controlled unregenerate mind will not, and cannot do (cf. Rom 8:5-9) because neither of its masters will allow such freedom for those enslaved to them. ^[4]

Accordingly, Bruce Demarest and Gordon Lewis, Professors of Systematic Theology at Denver Seminary have written:

Although necessary, the truths of the gospel are not sufficient because sinners need not only new light but also new sight. No one except the Holy Spirit can grant sight-the ability to receive redemptive doctrines. Hence the necessary condition of spiritual life is revealed truth, but truth can be “received” only by the enablement of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 2:14). ^[5]

Separately, Dr. Demarest has written:

Thus it seems right to conclude that natural man possesses the intellectual power (illumined by common grace) to know basic truths about God from His works, but he lacks the moral power to respond in a God-affirming way from the heart. Short of the enablement of special grace, man in his sinful condition does not possess the spiritual strength to choose God and to follow virtue. Guided by an antagonistic heart, man’s natural response to the light of God is to quench it and to dismiss it from his life. ^[6]

J. I. Packer illustrates the need for a person to be regenerated before the Gospel will be sufficiently believed when he writes:

[S]upposing that God grants a revelation [of the Gospel] (the Bible is one long proclamation that he does), fallen man still needs spiritual enlightenment before he can grasp it; otherwise he will pervert it, as he has perverted natural revelation [in Creation]. The Jews had a revelation of mercy in the OT, which pointed them to Christ, but on most of their hearts there was a veil which kept them from understanding it (2 Cor. 3:14ff.), and so they fell victim to a legalistic misconception of it (Rom. 9:31-10:4).

Even Paul, who calls attention to these facts, had himself known the Christian gospel before his conversion-and tried to stamp it out. Not until ‘it pleased God . . . to reveal his Son in me’-in, by inward enlightenment – did Paul recognize it as the word of God. ^[7]

B) Biblical Evidence of the Insanity of Humanity Towards the Gospel

B.1) The insanity of humanity in the OT

The Creator described the spiritual state of unregenerated humanity when we read: “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the Earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Gen 6:5). Notice both the extensiveness and intensiveness of sin in humans. ^[8] It is everyone on Earth, and in their very and every thought. Do we really believe God has ever seen it differently apart from those under His grace? And why would people think that such humans could exercise anything truly virtuous in God’s sight? ^[9]

Accordingly, Calvin commented:

For the language [Moses] employs is very emphatical: it seemed enough to have said, that their heart was corrupt: but not content with this word, he expressly asserts, “every imagination of the thoughts of the heart;” and adds the word “only,” as if he would deny that there was a drop of good mixed with it. . . .

[T]hough Moses here speaks of the wickedness which at that time prevailed in the world, the general doctrine is properly and consistently hence elicited. Nor do they rashly distort the passage who extend it to the whole human race. So when David says, ‘That all have revolted, that they are become unprofitable, that is, none who does good, no not one; their throat is an open sepulcher; there is no fear of God before their eyes,’ (Psalm 5:10;14:3) he deplores, truly, the impiety of his own age; yet Paul (Romans 3:12) does not scruple to extend it to all men of every age: and with justice; for it is not a mere complaint concerning a few men, but a description of the human mind when left to itself, destitute of the Spirit of God.

It is therefore very proper that the obstinacy of the men, who had greatly abused the goodness of God should be condemned in these words; yet, at the same time, the true nature of man, when deprived of the grace of the Spirit, is clearly exhibited. ^[10]

This description of humanity even applied later to the Israelites who had been given a great deal of special revelation from God. Nonetheless, Stephen’s commentary on this race was: “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised [i.e. unregenerated] hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!” (Acts 7:51).

Accordingly, Moses reflected the psychological/spiritual insanity of humanity, and, in part, the reason for it, when he told the unregenerated Israelites:

Your eyes have seen all that the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land.  With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders.  But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. (Deut 29:2-4)

Humans are no longer born, and naturally able to understand spiritual truth. Accordingly, they must be reborn with a new “mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.” Which is precisely what Jesus Christ said.

B.2) The insanity of humanity according to Christ

Jesus reflected the depraved and dysfunctional psychological/spiritual state of unregenerated humanity when he told the religious leader Nicodemus: “I tell you the truth, no one can see [idein: know, perceive, understand] the Kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). Accordingly, noted NT scholar Merrill C. Tenney writes, “The implication in John 3:3 is that without spiritual rebirth one cannot even perceive the reality of the kingdom of God.” ^[11] And we must not miss who Jesus said this to. Nicodemus appears in the NT as a very sincere, humble, God-fearing seeker of spiritual truth. But even for him, Christ said he would perceive nothing of the Kingdom of God around him ^[12] unless God fixed him.

And it is God Who promised the psychological rebirth that is necessary to have a relationship with Him when through the Prophet Jeremiah He said: “I will give them a heart to know Me” (Jer 24:7). Humans need a certain kind of “heart,” to know God, a different one than the one they are born with, and only God can give it to them.

Jesus described this state of all unregenerate people when He said:

“For everyone who does evil [the unregenerated] hates the Light [Jesus, the truth, the Gospel], and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (John 3:19–21).

That “hate” and “fear” of the very things that must be loved and trusted in order to be saved, make it impossible for unregenerated people to “come to the Light” unless God changes them. Spiritual life, power, and freedom must come before saving faith, because spiritually dead and demonically controlled people are not able to fulfill any requirement of salvation. And if they do “live by the truth” and “come into the light,” Jesus wanted it to be understood that this is only “done through God.” ^[13]

Jesus illustrates this very idea from John 3 in chapter 6:

No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. . . . The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing . . . . This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has enabled him. (John 6:44, 63, 65)

Several points can be made about these critical statements of Christ. First, we had better understand them rightly and take them seriously because, “If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing” (1 Tim 6:3). The correct meaning of the above verses is among “the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ” and to misteach it is to teach “false doctrines” and be one who “is conceited and understands nothing.” ^[14]

Secondly, the reference to God “drawing” someone to salvation means much more than merely inviting or coaxing. The Greek word is elkusē which the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature (BAGD) defines as:

To move an object from one area to another in a pulling motion, draw, with implication that the object being moved is incapable of propelling itself or in the case of ^[15]pers. is unwilling to do so voluntarily, in either case with implication of exertion on the part of the mover. ^[16]

Accordingly, the Apostle John uses the word elsewhere to describe dragging or hauling in a fishing net (21:6, 11). It is used twice in Acts to describe people grabbing a hold of the Apostle Paul and dragging him off, against his will, to court or to be beaten to death (Acts 16:19; 21:30). Lastly, the word that Christ used to describe how people get saved is used in James 2:6, where we read that the rich are having the local authorities “drag” (helkuo) the poor people into court, again, against their will. Are the poor going to court because of their “desire or effort” (Rom. 9:16)? No. This word describes a force that overpowers a person and makes them do what they otherwise would not do.

Therefore, the following insertions are warranted in this text:

No one can come to Me [for salvation] unless the Father Who sent Me drags him by His power, and I will raise him up at the last day. . . . The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing [regarding salvation]. . . This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has enabled him” (John 6:44, 63, 65).

To “come to” Christ certainly involves mentally and willingly moving toward Him to savingly believe in Him. And no one can make a step toward believing in Him unless God “drags” the person apart from their own natural power or will. For all the talk in Christian theology that claims God never does anything to coerce our will, Jesus says otherwise. He is clearly saying here that if He did not “drag” us to Him against our will we would never “come to” Him.

This is because the unregenerate do not have the power or desire to “come to” Christ for salvation. Everything in their “flesh counts for nothing” when it comes to salvation because it is spiritually dead. Only “the Spirit gives life” to dead people enabling them to come to Christ. In fact, when “the Spirit gives life” to regenerate us, we receive a New Nature which comes with a new will so that ultimately we do come to Christ willingly.

And notice that every person that the Father “drags” to Christ is saved. It is not that the Father “draws” or “enable[s]” people such that they come to Christ and then refuse Him. On the contrary, Jesus says that everyone “the Father . . . draws . . will [be] raise[d] up at the last day.”

Accordingly, Christ’s statement refutes the philosophy about some kind of prevenient grace. This is the theory that God enables people to come to Christ, including those who refuse to, by making them something between being spiritually dead and spiritually alive. Perhaps the only necessary argument against it is that it is nowhere mentioned or taught in Scripture. Secondly, proponents of prevenient grace still cannot answer the question as to why one person is saved and another is not without adding some sort of virtuous human work as the ultimate, deciding ingredient in their salvation which denies a salvation by God’s grace alone.

In addition, it can be added that Christ’s words here make any affect of a prevenient grace worthless. If such grace exists that gives a person the ability to be willing to come to Christ, why must they be dragged by God to do so? Accordingly, nothing that the prevenient grace could produce or enable in a person is sufficient to enable people to come to Christ because His “dragging” is still necessary.

And what could someone who possessed prevenient grace do to “trigger” or cause the “dragging” of God that inevitably leads to salvation? Whatever it would be, would necessarily come from “the flesh” because the spiritually dead do not have “the Spirit” (cf. Rom 8:5-7). But Christ rejects the idea that anything leading to salvation could come from someone who does not have “the Spirit” because “the flesh counts for nothing” when it comes to getting saved. The NLT makes this even more explicit when it translates: “It is the Spirit Who gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing” (John 6:63). This is in perfect accord with what the Apostle Paul wrote of the “flesh” in Romans 8:5-8 as described above. To be sure, the Spirit can convict the unregenerate of sin (cf. John 16:8-11; Heb 6:4-9), but unless He gives them spiritual life they cannot respond appropriately.

Luther denounced any merit to the idea of humans possessing something between the God-loving Spirit and a God-hating flesh when he wrote:

I too know of Origen’s fancy about the ‘threefold affection’, one called ‘flesh’, another ‘soul’, and the other ‘spirit, the soul [or human will under prevenient grace] being in the middle between the other two, and able to turn either flesh-wards or spirit-wards. But these are just his own dreams; he retails them, but does not prove them. Paul here [Romans 8:5-8] calls everything without the Spirit ‘flesh’, as I have shown. ^[17]

Accordingly, the Scriptures are clear that until God performs some supernatural acts to enable a human to respond to the Gospel, they are all spiritually dead, deaf, blind, retarded, and impotent. All of this is why God must initiate the process of anyone getting saved, and because our salvation is by unearned grace, it is unconditional, and not prompted by anything we do. In fact, we cannot do anything that would merit such grace.

The psychological/spiritual difference between regenerate and unregenerated people was a common theme of Christ’s teachings, including when He said:

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt 6:22-23).

The “eyes” here are metaphorical for a capacity to correctly discern spiritual and moral truth. Contrary to postmodern thinking, the King said the psychological “eyes” of some “are bad” resulting in a “darkness” of deception, while some “eyes are good” resulting in a fullness of psychological and spiritual “light.” Accordingly, Christ said elsewhere, “Whoever follows Me will never walk in [spiritual] darkness” (John 8:12). He went on to succinctly describe the spiritual capacity of unregenerate humans when He said they, “have no room for My word” and therefore do not have the capacity to recognize or receive His truth.

The spiritual blindness that occurs apart from God’s grace was likewise described by Christ when He explained why He spoke in parables. For those who think true knowledge of divine things is a matter of human choice, the King said:

The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven has been given to you [disciples, i.e. Christians], but not to them [“those on the outside” (Mark 4:11), the crowds, i.e. unbelievers].  Whoever has [i.e. the Christians] will be given more [spiritual insight and understanding], and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have [unbelievers], even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing [physically], they do not see [spiritually]; though hearing [physically], they do not hear or understand [spiritually].

In them [unbelievers] is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. Because this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see [spiritually] with their eyes, hear [spiritually] with their ears, understand [spiritually] with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes [Christians] because they see [spiritually], and your ears because they hear [spiritually]. (Matt 6:22-23; 13:11-16; cf. Jer 5:21; Ezek 12:2)

Here is another clear description of two groups of people with very different experiences and abilities regarding spiritual truth, and the difference lies in what God has done (cf. vs. 11, 16) and the “heart” condition of the people (cf. v. 15). ^[18] This is why Christ repeatedly prefaced His statements with “He who has [physical] ears, let him [spiritually] hear” (Matt 11:15; cf. 13:9, 43). Mere natural “ears” suppressed by an unregenerate “heart” are unable to receive, understand, and appreciate divine revelation. ^[19]

Therefore, those indwelled with the Holy Spirit are full of light and truth because their spiritual “eyes” and “ears” have been fixed. The unregenerate human has spiritually dead “eyes” and “ears” that cannot receive spiritual truth.

We are reminded here of Christ’s psychological description of the Pharisees when He told His disciples, “Leave them [as opposed to debating with them]; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (Matt 15:14). To suggest, as many do, that all of humanity suffers from similar theological blindness, is to completely disregard the spiritual and psychological rebirth that comes from the Holy Spirit to the believer in the King. There is a world of difference between the abilities of the Spirit-liberated reason of the Christian and the devil-darkened reason of the pagan.

B.3) The insanity of humanity according to the Apostle

Because the Apostle Paul knew that humans would be prone to exaggerate their spiritual condition and abilities he wrote:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

⁴ But because of His great love for us, God, Who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Eph 2:1-5)

First, we are taught that before salvation we were spiritually “dead in . . . sins” “but” then “God . . . made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions” (vs. 1, 4-5). ^[20] Notice that we had no spark of spiritual life, but it was “when we were” still spiritually “dead” that “God . . . made us [spiritually] alive.” All humans, without exception, are born into sin and are therefore born spiritually dead (cf. Rom 5:12) and have to be “made . . . alive with Christ” before they are able to respond to Christ in any way.

The best way to understand spiritual death is comparing it with physical death. And, no doubt, this is precisely what the Apostle intended. Just as a physically dead person has absolutely no physical abilities whatsoever, a spiritually dead person has absolutely no spiritual abilities as well.

Those who would question this analogy need to answer the question: Why did the Apostle use the word “dead [nekrous]” to describe the spiritual state of unregenerated people if he only meant their spiritual state was merely impaired or perverted? On the contrary, as NT scholar Francis Foulkes writes in his Tyndale Commentary concerning Ephesians 2:1: “This death is . . . the loss of the . . . capacity for spiritual activity,” including saving faith. ^[21]

Likewise, Albert Barnes commented:

A [physically dead] corpse is insensible. It sees not, and hears not, and feels not. . . . So with the sinner in regard to the spiritual and eternal world. He . . . hears not the call of God; he is unaffected by the dying love of the Saviour . . . [N]o human power can arouse him to act for God, anymore than human power can rouse the sleeping dead, or open the sightless eyeballs on the light of day. The same power is needed in the conversion of a sinner which is needed in raising the dead; and one and the other alike demonstrate the omnipotence of Him Who can do it [and the impotence of the humans who cannot]. ^[22]

Finally, John MacArthur, in his commentary on Ephesians, relates the story of a crying, desperate mother hopelessly trying to rouse her dead infant, and writes: “There was no life there to respond, not even to the powerful love of a mother.” ^[23] Dr. MacArthur continues:

That is the way of spiritual death as well. A person who is spiritually dead has no life by which he can respond to spiritual things, much less live a spiritual life. No amount of love, care, and words of affection from God can draw a response. . . .

When Paul counseled Timothy about widows in the church, he said of those who were profligate, “She who gives herself to wanton pleasure is dead even while she lives” (1 Tim. 5:6). [Spiritually] dead while they [physically] live is the sad state of every unredeemed human being. . . .

That all men apart from God are sinful does not mean that every person is equally corrupt and wicked. Twenty corpses on a battlefield might be in many different stages of decay, but they are uniformly dead. ^[24]

After saying that unregenerate humans are “dead in . . . sin” (v. 2), the Apostles says that, “the spirit” “of the ruler of the kingdom of the air” who is satan, “is now at work in” them (vs. 2-3). Elsewhere we have written regarding Ephesians 2:2-3:

Here, unbelievers are described as being led by the devil’s “spirit” which is “at work in” them. Before regeneration it was not merely a free human spirit at work in us, and certainly not the Holy Spirit, but the “spirit” of the devil. NT scholar F. F. Bruce (1910–1990) comments that this Greek verb (energeō) to describe how satan’s “spirit” works in unbelievers is the same word used in Ephesians 3:20 to refer to “His power that is at work within us” believers. ^[25]

In other words, the influence and power that the Holy Spirit exercises in the believer is the same kind of influence and power that the devil’s “spirit” exercises in the unbeliever. In addition, however, while the Christian has a choice whether or not to be influenced by the Holy Spirit, the unregenerate do not, because the devil’s “spirit” is the only “spirit” the unbeliever possesses. ^[26]

Accordingly, the Apostle describes this state of spiritual death as being in bondage to “the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts” (v. 3). Accordingly, the “sinful nature” is the only nature someone has before being indwelled with the Spirit, and its “cravings . . . desires and thoughts” are the only options for the source of their attitudes and actions.

Accordingly, Dr. MacArthur summarizes Ephesians 2:5-8:

In the state of spiritual death, the only walking, or living, a person can do is according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. . . .

Sinful men have many different ideas and standards, but they are in total agreement that the network of things in this world is more important than the divine perspective of God. In this most basic world outlook they are of one mind. They resolutely work to fulfill the goals and values of their system, though it defies God and always self-destructs. . . .

They are of one mind because they have a common leader and lord, the prince of the power of the air. . . . The power [or authority] of the air probably refers to Satan’s host of demons who exist in the heavenly sphere. Paul has this in mind in Ephesians 6:12, where he warns of “the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” During the present age he and his demon host dominate, pressure, and control every person who is unsaved. . . .

Not all unsaved people are necessarily indwelt at all times by Satan or are demon-possessed. But knowingly or unknowingly they are subject to Satan’s influence. Because they share his nature of sinfulness and exist in the same sphere of rebellion against God, they respond naturally to his leading and to the influence of his demons. They are on the same spiritual wavelength. . . . Men are not free and independent; they are totally dominated by the hosts of hell. . . .

Because fallen mankind and Satan’s hosts exist in the same spiritual realm, it is quite natural that his spirit is the same spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. The prince of disobedience works in . . . those . . . called the sons of disobedience of whom he is the spiritual father (John 8:38-44). Paul makes clear this identifying characteristic of disobedience to God when he states absolutely that “you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness” (Rom. 6:16). . . .

As with trespasses and sins, lusts and desires are . . . used synonymously to represent fallen man’s complete orientation to his own selfish way. By nature he is driven to fulfill the lusts and desires of his sinful flesh and . . . mind. ^[27]

Does this sound like people who are able to humble themselves before Christ to put their faith in Him? ^[28]

The Apostle Paul describes spiritually dead Gentiles with the same psychological inabilities and notes that it is clearly a spiritual problem, not an intellectual one, when he writes:

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.  They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. (Eph 4:17-18)

Commenting on this passage, Charles Hodge (1797-1878) wrote:

A man’s being enveloped in darkness is the cause of his not seeing . . . The apostle conceives of the heathen as men whose minds are impaired or darkened, and therefore they are ignorant. ^[29]

The unchallenged sinful nature in unregenerated humans will not allow their reason to accept the Gospel. Josh McDowell, a foremost Christian apologist, provides a personal example of how this works when he writes of his own journey to Christ:

I left the university and traveled throughout the United States and Europe to gather evidence to prove that Christianity is a sham. . . . I began to realize that I was being intellectually dishonest. My mind told me that the claims of Christ were indeed true, but my will was being pulled another direction. I had placed so much emphasis on finding the truth, but I wasn’t willing to follow it once I saw it. . . . . [B]ecoming a Christian seemed so ego-shattering to me. I couldn’t think of a faster way to ruin all my good times. ^[30]

Again, the Apostle Paul distinguished between believers and unbelievers in psychological terms when he wrote:

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; ⁷ the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ [living in them], he does not belong to Christ.” (Rom 8:5-9)

The first thing to notice in this passage is that the Apostle is contrasting believers with unbelievers, not sinful or “carnal” believers with “Spirit-filled” believers. This becomes clear when he emphatically tells the Roman Christians in verse 9 that, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ [living in them], he does not belong to Christ.” In other words, the Apostle is saying that if you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit, and if you have the Holy Spirit then you are controlled by Him, not the sinful nature. ^[31]

Let us notice then the spiritual/psychological state of unregenerated humans. They “live according to the sinful nature” and “have their minds set on what that nature desires” (v. 5). Their “sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature” can do nothing that would “please God.” Does this not describe a person who would need to be made something new before humbling themselves under the saving lordship of Jesus Christ and truly believing and accepting Him for Who He is?

Martin Luther (1483-1546) commented on Romans 8:5-8 as follows:

Let us see what Paul thinks about endeavor and the power of ‘free will’ in carnal [unregenerated] men. ‘They that are in the flesh cannot please God.’ Again: ‘The carnal mind is death.’ Again: ‘The carnal is enmity against God.’ Once more: ‘It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be’. (Rom. 8:5-8). Let the guardian of ‘free will’ [or prevenient grace] answer the following question: How can endeavors towards good be made by that which is death, and displeases God, and is enmity against God, and disobeys God, and cannot obey Him? . . .

Therefore the highest virtues of the best [spiritually dead] men are ‘in the flesh’; that is, they are dead, and at enmity with God, not subject to God’s law nor able to do so, and not pleasing God. . . . So also Christ says in Matt. 7: ‘An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit’ (v. 18) [or anything else that would trigger the grace of God]. ^[32]

The Apostle illustrates this same truth when he writes:

What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.” (Rom 11:7-8)

What the Israelites sought was the same thing that so many humans seek: an escape from the pain of guilt (cf. Rom 9:31). They, like many humans, sense, “The wrath of God [that] is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men” (Rom 1:18). They seek peace with their conscience, but they will not seek it God’s way because they have a “spirit of stupor” rather than wisdom, and their spiritual “eyes” and “ears” are dysfunctional, reflecting their devil-darkened reason. Their “spiritual senses” are so corrupt, in fact, that Christ smells like death to them (cf. 2 Cor 4:15-16).

Along the same lines, the Apostle simply says: “[T]he message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). Evidently, all of “Those who are perishing” think the very Gospel they must embrace to be saved, is “foolishness” and “a stumbling block” (1:23). But for others, the Gospel is the effective “power of God” that will save them. Why the difference? The Apostle explains a few verses later:

We have not received the [blinding demonic ^[33]] spirit of the world but the Spirit Who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing [things of the Spirit to people of the Spirit ^[34]]. 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. (1 Cor 2:12, 14)

Several points can be made here. First, to have “received [“lambanō: “to take into possession” ^[35]]. . . the Spirit Who is from God” describes spiritual regeneration, and to be “without the Spirit” [psychikos: “one who merely functions bodily, without being touched by the Spirit of God” ^[36]] clearly refers to unregenerated humans. Secondly, the acceptance and understanding of “what God has freely given us” and “the things that come from the Spirit of God” clearly include the saving Gospel that Paul has been speaking of throughout the passage (cf. 1:18-2:5).

Notice then what the Apostle is saying about unregenerated humanity: Not only will they not “accept” the Gospel, they cannot even “understand” the Gospel, and it will be mere unacceptable and unbelievable “foolishness” to them as if the Gospel says 1+1=5. This is because the Gospel must be “spiritually discerned,” not just mentally, and “the man without the Spirit” or the mere naturally born person, is not capable of doing this. They have only sinful reasoning and desires, which will not conclude anything else about “the message of the cross” other than it is “foolishness.” As NT scholar Leon Morris comments on 1 Corinthians 2:12-14: “Anyone whose equipment is only of this world, who has not received the Holy Spirit, has no ability to make an estimate of things spiritual. ^[37]

In other words, we see the same exasperating insanity of unregenerated humanity in relation to the Gospel as Creation. The Gospel is clear and promising, and we would suggest that if people’s minds really were free to choose it, they would. However, people “without the Spirit” do “not accept” and “cannot understand” anything that needs to be “spiritually discerned” and accordingly are absolutely incapable of making any kind of initial, meritorious, decisive step or action for their salvation.

Notice again that the Apostle’s words deny the idea of some sort of prevenient grace that is short of the indwelling and regeneration of the Holy Spirit and would enable humans to respond in a saving way to God. He makes it clear that we can understand such spiritual things because we have “received [take into possession”]. . . the Spirit Who is from God” (2:12), meaning much more than some prevenient grace. Likewise, Paul describes the unregenerate as psychikos (“without being touched by the Spirit of God).” Again, the Apostle’s contrast seems to exclude the idea of some kind of person who is something between with or without the Spirit, and it is only those who possess the Spirit who will understand spiritual things including the Gospel. ^[38]

John Calvin commented on 1 Corinthians 2:14:

Having concluded that all men are blind, and having deprived the human mind of the power to rise up to knowledge of God, Paul now shows how the faithful are delivered from this blindness, viz., by the Lord honouring them with a special enlightenment of the Spirit. ^[39]

Elsewhere, Calvin wrote: “men are blind, until Christ, the light of the world, enlightens them.” ^[40] The spiritual blindness, deafness, and foolishness of unregenerated humanity was ultimately demonstrated when “None of the rulers of this age understood [God’s wisdom], for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:8). There is nothing more insane than concluding that was a good and just thing to do.

Accordingly, the Apostle speaks of those who, “perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thess 2:10), and also of those who are, “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth” (2 Tim 3:7).

The state of unregenerated humanity in terms of spiritual things is described by Paul when he writes: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6). “Powerless” to do what? “Powerless” to humble ourselves, admitting our sin and our inability to overcome or make up for it. “Powerless” to do any of the spiritual things necessary to be saved. ^[41]

Accordingly, we wrote in an earlier chapter:

As a matter of fact, from God’s perspective, there are only two kinds of people in the world: those spiritually “dead in transgressions” and those He has “made [spiritually] alive” (Eph 2:5). The King put it this way: there are “the people of this world” and then there are “the people of the light” (Luke 16:8). He never even hinted at any other category of humanity.

To put it bluntly, and to repeat what we’ve said throughout the book, born again Christians are an entirely different species of human being than their unregenerated counterparts. So much so that God says our old self died (cf. Rom 6:1-11). Accordingly, all regenerated Christians can say: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). A human being with Christ living in them is a radically different kind of human being, resulting in differences far greater than merely skin color, gender, or culture. This is because the minds, hearts, natures, desires, perspective, and abilities of spiritually regenerated humans have all been radically re-created. Thus, the Apostle Paul refers to Christians as the “enlightened” ones (Eph 1:18). ^[42]

C) The Insanity of Humanity According to Teachers in the Church

On the very edge of the Apostolic era, Bishop Ignatius wrote around the year 110 A. D. concerning unbelievers:

They . . . cannot do the things that are spiritual. . . . Nor can the unbelievers do the things of belief. . . . Pray for them, if so be they may repent, which is very difficult; but Jesus Christ, our true life, has the power of this. ^[43]

Likewise, Justin Martyr wrote around 150 A. D.:

No good thing dwells in us. . . . For neither by nature, nor by human understanding is it possible for men to acquire the knowledge of things so great divine, but by the energy of the Divine Spirit. . . . Of ourselves it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God. . . . He has convicted us of the impossibility of our nature to obtain life. . . . Free will has destroyed us; we who were free are become slaves and for our sin are sold. . . . Being pressed down by our sins, we cannot move upward toward God; we are like birds who have wings, but are unable to fly. ^[44]

Bishop Theophilus of Antioch (c. 170) had written: “God is seen by those who are enabled to see Him when they have the eyes of their soul opened.” ^[45] About A. D. 200 the Church Father Tertullian, representing the view of the Western Church at the time, also wrote to unbelievers regarding saving faith, “It is not given to you by God because you do not ascribe it to God alone.” ^[46]

Although the Bible scholar Origen was too often not a faithful interpreter of Scripture, he did write around 220 A. D.: “Our free will . . . or human nature is not sufficient to seek God in any manner.” ^[47]

About the year 300 Bishop Arnobius wrote the heathen, “You place the salvation of your souls in yourselves, and trust you may be made gods by your inward endeavor, yet it is not in our own power to reach things above.” ^[48]

Eusebius, an early Church historian second only to Luke, wrote to unbelievers around A. D. 330: “The liberty of our will in choosing things that are good is destroyed.” ^[49]

Around the year 350 the renowned Church Father Athanasius wrote, “To believe [in Christ for salvation] is not ours, or in our power, but the Spirit’s who is in us, and abides in us.” ^[50]

Around 400, the Bible scholar Jerome, wrote:

See how great is the help of God, and how frail the condition of man that we cannot by any means fulfill this, that we repent, unless the Lord first convert us. . . . When He says, “No man can come to Me,” He breaks the proud liberty of free will; for man can desire nothing, and in vain he endeavors. ^{[51] [52]}

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the most influential theologian of the Middle Ages, wrote in his Summa Theologica that:

[W]e must assert [an] internal cause, which moves man inwardly to assent to matters of faith. The Pelagians held that this cause was nothing else than man’s freewill. . . . But this is false, for since man, by assenting to matters of faith, is raised above his nature, this must needs accrue to him from some supernatural principle moving him inwardly; and this is God. Therefore faith, as regards the assent which is the chief act of faith, is from God moving man inwardly by grace. ^[53]

Along these lines, Martin Luther wrote:

It is not sufficient to know God . . . as philosophers write of his nature. . . . This is a natural knowledge of the senses, harmful to those who do not understand it. . . . No one understands his commands rightly unless he first be illuminated from above. ^[54]

John Calvin wrote a great deal on this subject, succinctly summed up when he commented: “men’s minds must of necessity be in blindness until they are enlightened by the Spirit of God.” ^[55] In his Institutes of the Christian Religion he writes:

Augustine so recognizes this inability of the reason to understand the things of God that he deems the grace of illumination no less necessary for our minds than the light of the sun for our eyes. ^[56]

The highly respected Puritan theologian John Owen (1616-1683) contended that:

[There] is a natural impotence, through the depravity of the faculties of the mind, or understanding, whereby a natural man is absolutely unable, without a special renovation of the Holy Ghost, to discern spiritual things in a saving manner. ^[57]

Accordingly, the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), the authoritative summary of Protestant Reformation theology, in its section on “Free Will” asserted the virtual universal belief of Protestant Christianity:

Man, by his fall into a state of sin, has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation: so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto. ^[58]

Jonathan Edwards wrote a great deal about what he called the psychological “new sense” of the Christian and its resulting vast difference between the spiritual perception of those with the Spirit compared to mere natural men:

A natural man has no experience of any of those things that are spiritual; the apostle teaches us, that he is so far from it, that he knows nothing about them, he is a perfect stranger to them, the talk about such things is all foolishness and nonsense to him, he knows not what it means; 1 Cor. 2:14. . . . And to the like purpose Christ teaches us that the world is wholly unacquainted with the Spirit of God, John 14:17. . . .

[N]atural men are represented in Scripture, as having no spiritual light, no spiritual life, and no spiritual being; and therefore conversion is often compared to opening the eyes of the blind, raising the dead, and a work of creation. . . .

There is such a thing, if the Scriptures are of any use to teach us anything, as a spiritual, supernatural understanding of divine things, that is peculiar to the saints, and which those who are not saints have nothing of. It is certainly a kind of understanding, apprehending or discerning of divine things, that natural men have nothing of. . . .

[T]here [is] in the saints a kind of apprehension or perception, which is in its nature perfectly diverse from all that natural men have, or that it is possible they should have, until they have a new nature. . . . [There are] the sensations of a new spiritual sense, which the souls of natural men have not; [but] which the saints have given them in regeneration. ^[59]

Edwards’ most detailed writing on the epistemological/psychological/spiritual state of unregenerated humanity was entitled The Freedom of the Will, published in 1754, in which he desired to prove:

The Calvinist truth as clearly revealed in the holy scriptures . . . [T]he Calvinistic doctrine of the total depravity and corruption of man’s nature, whereby his heart is wholly under the power of sin, and he is utterly unable, without the interposition of sovereign grace, savingly to love God, believe in Christ, or do anything that is truly good and acceptable in God’s sight. ^[60]

Finally, we will quote Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) on the spiritually depraved nature of unregenerated humanity:

Without the Spirit of God, we are like a ship stranded on the beach when the tide has receded-there is no moving her until the flood shall once again lift her from the sands. Until the Spirit of God shall thaw the chilly coldness of our natural estate, and bid the life-floods of our heart flow forth, there we must be- …cold, cheerless, lifeless, and powerless.

A man is opposed to Christ, he hates his gospel, does not understand it and will not receive it– the Holy Spirit comes, puts light into his darkened understanding, takes the chain from his bondaged will, gives liberty to his conscience, gives life to his dead soul, … and the man becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus.

More specifically in relation to receiving the Gospel Spurgeon preached:

Coming to Christ is so obnoxious to human nature that, although, so far as physical and mental forces are concerned, men could come if they would; it is strictly correct to say that they cannot and will not unless the Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them. . . .

It is strange how people, when talking about free-will, talk of things which they do not at all understand. “Now,” says one, “I believe men can be saved if they will.” My dear sir, that is not the question at all. The question is, are men ever found naturally willing to submit to the humbling terms of the gospel of Christ? We declare, upon Scriptural authority, that the human will is so desperately set on mischief, so depraved, and so inclined to everything that is evil, and so disinclined to everything that is good, that without the powerful, supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will ever be constrained towards Christ.

Then I must ask one more question: if [we possessed] all that were needed to make a man willing, do you not at once degrade the Holy Spirit? Are we not in the habit of giving all the glory of salvation wrought in us to God the Spirit? But now, if all that God the Spirit does for me is to make me willing to do these things for myself, am I not in a great measure a sharer with the Holy Spirit in the glory? And may I not boldly stand up and say, “It is true the Spirit gave me the will to do it, but still I did it myself, and therein will I glory; for if I did these things myself without assistance from on high, I will not cast my crown at his feet; it is my own crown, I earned it, and I will keep it.” . . . . to come to Christ truly is not in your power, until you are renewed by the Holy Ghost.

You reply, that men sometimes are willing, without the help of the Holy Spirit. I answer—Did you ever meet with any person who was? Scores and hundreds, nay, thousands of Christians have I conversed with, of different opinions, young and old, but it has never been my lot to meet with one who could affirm that he came to Christ of himself, without being drawn. The universal confession of all true believers is this—”I know that unless Jesus Christ had sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, I would to this very hour have been wandering far from him, at a distance from him, and loving that distance well.” With common consent, all believers affirm the truth, that men will not come to Christ till the Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them. ^[61]

Pastoral Practices

• It is important, to the best of our ability, to discern whether or not a person we are counseling or ministering to is a true believer or not. If they are not, they will not be able to fully understand and apply whatever biblical advice you are giving them. One can enquire about their testimony, church background, spiritual journey, etc. Obviously, if it seems they may not know Christ, the most important thing they need is the Gospel and you can explain how that will help them with the problem they came to you with in the first place.

Extras & Endnotes

A Devotion to Dad

Our Father in Heaven, we praise You for giving us spiritual and real life when we spiritually and really dead. We are awed and horrified at what sin against You has done to the human race. Made in Your image, they have become demonic zombies fit for Hell and nothing else. Rebellion against You has such great consequences because You are so great. We humble ourselves before You knowing that the only reason we are not also fit of Hell is because of Your great grace.

Gauging Your Grasp

1) Why do we think it is so amazing that humans do not embrace the Gospel? Why do we feel this demonstrates a mental/spiritual insanity on their part? Do you agree or disagree and why?

2) What effect do we think the fact of humanity’s insanity should have on those who think people have the ability to choose and believe the Gospel?

3) What is an OT passage that describes the spiritual insanity of humanity?

4) What is a passage from Christ that describes the spiritual insanity of humanity?

5) What is a NT passage that describes the spiritual insanity of humanity?

6) What is a quote from an influential Teacher of the Church that describes the spiritual insanity of humanity?

7) We state that born again Christians are an entirely different species of human being than their unregenerated counterparts. In what ways does this difference manifest itself?

Recommended Reading

• See chapters 4.1-7 for further study on the psychological aspects of our relationship with God.
• Regarding the spiritual depravity of humanity see also chapter 2.2.
• Regarding the issue of salvation by regeneration and saving faith being a gift see chapters 6.2-5.
• For the classic treatise on this subject see Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will (Revel, 1957). And get the copy with J. I. Packer’s introduction. It alone is worth the price of the book.

Publications & Particulars

1. The Journals of George Whitefield reprint (Banner of Truth, 1960), pp. 203-4. For similar references see pp. 350, 414, 478, 526). ↑

2. William D. Mounce, Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (Zondervan, 2006), 303. ↑

3. John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, John 17:20; online at http://www.ccel.org. ↑

4. For further discussion of the affect of the Gospel on spiritually unregenerate people see sections 2.2.B-D. ↑

5. Bruce Demarest and Gordon R. Lewis, Integrative Theology, 3 vols. (Zondervan, 1987, 1990, 1994), I:123. ↑

6. Bruce Demarest, General Revelation: Historical Views and Contemporary Issues (Zondervan, 1982), 245. ↑

7. J. I. Packer, “Revelation,” in New Bible Dictionary (NDB), J. I. Packer, et al. eds., 3rd ed., (Intervarsity, 1996), 1015. ↑

8. Cf. Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis (Eerdmans, 1990), 273. ↑

9. Accordingly, we note the apparent irrationality of Dave Hunt who writes:

   [T]he fact that man’s thoughts are only evil continually, that his heart is desperately wicked and deceitful and that he neither seeks nor fears God, does not say that he is therefore unable, unless first of all regenerated by God, to believe the gospel even if convicted and convinced thereof by the Holy Spirit. (What Love is This? [Berean Call, 2006], 126-7)

   To the contrary, these biblical descriptions do clearly imply that unregenerated humans are unable to believe the Gospel. This is because, as discussed further elsewhere, Mr. Hunt ignores all the moral acts and attitudes that are involved in “confessing with your mouth Jesus is Lord” (Rom 10:9) in order to be saved. (see section 6.3.C).

   And neither Scripture nor reason would tell us that the mere conviction of the Holy Spirit that one is a sinner is sufficient to change the sinful nature of an unregenerated human such that they would exercise the humility, repentance, etc. necessary to believe in Christ in a saving way. ↑

10. Calvin, loc. cit. ↑

11. Expositors Bible Commentary, Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. CD-ROM (Zondervan, n.d.). Cf. D. A. Carson who comments: “Nicodemus claims he can ‘see’ something of who Jesus is in the miracles; Jesus insists no one can ‘see’ the saving reign of God at all, including the display of miraculous signs, unless born again.” (The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans, 1991], 188). See also discussion of K. Dahn regarding “See” in the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Colin Brown ed., 4 vols., (Zondervan, 1986), III.516-17. ↑

12. Some conjecture that Jesus was only speaking of seeing Heaven after this age or life when He spoke of seeing the Kingdom of God. But as Dr. Carson rightly points out, the Apostle John especially spoke of the Kingdom of God, and its “saving and transforming reign” as something present and inaugurated. (cf. Carson, 188). ↑

13. Dr. Carson comments on John 3:21:

    This strange expression makes it clear that the lover of light is not some intrinsically superior person. If he or she enjoys the light, it is because all has been performed . . . has been done ‘through God’—‘in union with Him, and therefore by His power” (Westcott, 1.124) (208). ↑

14. Such a rebuke regarding the seriousness of misrepresenting the words of Christ would seem to apply to Dave Hunt who ignores what Jesus is really saying here in John 6. He writes:

    The Westminster Confession says that the elect come to Christ “most freely, being made willing by his [God’s] grace.” No one, however, is made willing against his will, but must have been willing to be made willing.” (229)

    Christ does not say that everyone who is drawn will actually come to Him and be saved. . . . There is no question that the Calvinist interpretation of John 6:37-45 is contrary to the entire tenor of Scripture. . . . Christ does not say that the Father forcefully pulls or drags or irresistibly compels anyone to come to Him. . . . Christ’s words, “No man can come to me except the Father draw him,” are not the same as . . . “No man is able to come to me.” (419, 433, 435, 436)

    Contrary to Mr. Hunt, Christ did say that those who are dragged to Him “will be raised up on the last day.” And why would they need to be dragged if they were already “willing to be willing” as Mr. Hunt claims? And why would they need to be dragged if they were able to come to Him? “There is no question that” Mr. Hunt’s “interpretation of John 6:37-45 is contrary to the entire tenor of Scripture.”

    And it is contrary to his own writing. Like all fairists Mr. Hunt wants to say all the things that historic orthodox Christianity has said about the state of man, but in the process they contradict themselves. Accordingly, read Mr. Hunt’s book and decide for yourself if he can sincerely claim, “The natural man is indeed enslaved by sin and would not of his own initiative seek after God.” (153) Then, Mr. Hunt, he is not able to believe either. Which one is it? ↑

15. ↑

16. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature (BAGD), F. W. Danker, ed., 3^rd ed. (University Of Chicago Press, 200). ↑

17. Martin Luther, Bondage of the Will, trans. J. I. Packer and O. R. Johnston (Revell, 1957), 300. ↑

18. Accordingly, Leon Morris comments on Matthew 13:11:

    The doctrine of election lies behind these words. It is not merit in the disciples that they understand where others do not; their comprehension is due to the fact that God has chosen them and given them the gift of understanding. (The Gospel According to Matthew [Eerdmans, 1992], 339). ↑

19. Some modern commentators completely miss the meaning of Christ’s words regarding the people’s inability to hear Him. John Nolland writes that the need Christ is referring to is “to pay proper attention to what is being said” (The Gospel of Matthew [Eerdmans, 2005], 459). Likewise, Davies and Allison write: “What is required is inner attention, concentration, discernment” (The Gospel According to Saint Matthew [T & T Clark, 1988-1997], II:259). R. T. France comments that Christ’s words are “an invitation to explore the implications of what has been said” (The Gospel According to Matthew [Eerdmans, 1985, repr. 1999], 196). Finally, Leon Morris says, “The thought . . . is that the physical act of hearing is not sufficient. It is more important to take in what is heard, to comprehend it, and assimilate it” (284). Of course such things are true, but they do not come by merely greater intellectual effort, as these comments suggest. All of them seem to ignore the significance of Christ’s reference to something God must do, i.e. divine revelation and spiritual regeneration. ↑

20. Charles Hodge (1797–1878) illustrated the significance of Christ making us alive for salvation when he writes:

    There is an intimate connection between this clause [God . . . made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions”] and the preceding paragraph. In 1:19 . . . the apostle prays that the Ephesians might duly appreciate the greatness of that power which had been exercised in their conversion. It was to be known from its effects. It was that power which was exercised in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ, and which had wrought an analogous change in them. The same power which quickened Christ has quickened you. It serves to connect this clause with what precedes. ‘God raised Christ from the dead, and he has given life to you dead in trespasses and sins.’ Hodge; See also John MacArthur, MacArthur’s New Testament Commentary, Electronic Edition STEP Files CD-ROM [Parsons Technology, 1997], Eph 2:8-9. ↑

21. Francis Foulkes, The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians, TNTC (Eerdmans, 1989), 77. ↑

22. Barnes, Eph 2:8-9. ↑

23. MacArthur, Eph 2:8-9. ↑

24. Ibid. ↑

25. F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, NICNT (Eerdmans, 1984), 283. ↑

26. Excerpt from section 4.12.B.1 ↑

27. MacArthur, in loc. ↑

28. David Hunt is one who attempts to minimize what the Apostle is saying about the spiritual inability of unregenerated humans. Denying the affect of what it means to be “dead in sin” Mr. Hunt writes, “We are just as clearly told that Christians are “dead to sin” (Romans 6:2, 7, 11, etc.), and noting we are still able to “make the first move toward sin” (151).

    Mr. Hunt ignores the different prepositions in these statements and the spiritual nature of their objects. We would simply suggest that being a demonically possessed and devil-blinded unbeliever who is dead in sin is evidently different than being a Spirit-indwelled and spiritually alive believer who is dead to sin, and the Bible says so.

    How are we to interpret these two phrases? Use Scripture. We do not have the freedom of giving them whatever meaning we want, but must use Scripture to know what the Apostle Paul meant by them. Accordingly, Paul describes what it means for the regenerated Christian to be “dead to sin” in Romans 7:14-23. Indeed, we are capable of sinning even while being dead to sin.

    Likewise, Mr. Hunt teaches:

    As for sinners, the Bible unquestionably teaches that they are spiritually dead to God. But what does that mean? Adam was spiritually dead from the moment he sinned, but he heard when God spoke to him and told him the consequences of his sin. . . . Was Adam regenerated? Obviously not. (405)

    First, remember that it is most likely that God spoke audibly to Adam, and that he heard Him with his physical ears. No one is denying that if God or an Angel spoke to an unregenerated person like that, that the person would hear them. The Scriptures that Mr. Hunt is choosing to ignore or misinterpret tell us that spiritual death means the inability to understand or properly appreciate the Gospel. Accordingly, Mr. Hunt’s analogy is rather useless. ↑

29. Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians, Electronic Edition STEP Files CD-ROM (Findex.Com, 2003), Eph 4:18. ↑

30. Josh McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Josh McDowell, 1999), xxv. ↑

31. Most commentators agree on our interpretation here of Roman 8:1-9. For example, Douglas Moo writes concerning verse 9:

    So characteristic of these respective “ages” or “realms” are flesh and Spirit that the person belonging to one or the other can be said to be “in” them. In this sense, then, no Christian can be “in the flesh”; and all Christians are, by definition, “in the Spirit.” We miss Paul’s intention if we think of being “in the flesh” here as the condition of mortality that continues to characterize even believers (Nygren), or as the moral weakness and proneness to sin that, more lamentably, we still possess (Dunn). For the rest of the verse makes absolutely clear that (1) to be a Christian is to be indwelt by God’s Spirit; and (2) to be indwelt by God’s Spirit means to be “in the Spirit” and not “in the flesh.” (The Epistle to the Romans [Eerdmans, 1996], 489).

    Likewise, Thomas Schreiner writes regarding the whole passage:

    Rom. 8:5-7 constitutes not an exhortation but a description of the mind-set of those of the flesh and those of the Spirit. . . . An exhortation to live according to the Spirit is not present in Rom. 8:5-8. Paul describes the actual mind-set of those who are according to the flesh and Spirit. This is not to deny that believers battle against the flesh (cf. 8:13), but such a struggle should not be read into verses 5-8. . . . The intention of verses 5-11, then, is scarcely to say that believers are partly dominated by the flesh and partly by the Spirit. Instead, Paul argues that those who have the Spirit manifest the mind-set of the Spirit. (Romans [Baker, 1998], 411-12).

    Also, NT scholar F. F. Bruce (1910–1990) wrote regarding Romans 8, “To be ‘in the Spirit’ (en pneumatic) is the opposite of being ‘in the flesh’ (en sarki); and all believers are regarded as being ‘in the Spirit’ (8:9). In practice then, to be ‘in the Spirit’ is to be ‘in Christ’.” (The Letter of Paul to the Romans TNTC [Eerdmans, 1985, repr. 1999], 47.) ↑

32. Luther, Bondage, 300. ↑

33. See endnote 34 in chapter 4.12 regarding the meaning of “the spirit of the world” in 1 Corinthians 2:12. ↑

34. See NIV text note on 1 Corinthians 2:13. Likewise, Anthony Thiselton points out in The New International Greek Testament Commentary that the dative plural adjective pneumatikois here can be in either the neutral sense (i.e. “things”), or masculine sense (i.e. “people”). The context is the best determining factor. Therefore, considering the fact that the Apostle throughout the passage is comparing people of the Spirit with those without the Spirit, the masculine sense seems best. Accordingly, C. K. Barrett writes: “[I]n the context he speaks of the mature and of the spiritual, and there is thus reason for thinking that his meaning may be ‘interpreting spiritual truths to spiritual persons’” (The First Epistle to the Corinthians (BNTC) [Henddrickson, 2000], 76). For further discussion see Anthony Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Eerdmans, 2000), 224, 264-5. Also see R. F. Collins, First Corinthians, Sacra Pagina (Glazier/Liturgical Press, 1999), 135. ↑

35. BAGD, λαμβάνω, sec. 3. ↑

36. BAGD, ψυχικός. ↑

37. Morris, 1 Corinthians, 59. Likewise, NT scholar Gordon Fee comments:

    [Paul] now makes a turn in the argument in order to reassert that the gospel he preaches is in fact the wisdom of God. But it cannot be perceived as such by those who are pursuing sophia [worldly wisdom]; it is recognized only by those who have the Spirit. . . .

    The reason for this “not accepting/rejecting” is that the things of the Spirit “are foolishness to [them].” Because they have not received the Spirit, in the sense of v. 12 [like Christians], their view of everything is from the bottom up, twisted and distorted. This is another sure indication that Paul is still pursuing the argument of 1:18-2:5, where the preaching of Christ crucified, God’s wisdom, is rejected as foolishness by those who are perishing. (The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT [Eerdmans, 1987], 98, 116)

    Unfortunately, Dave Hunt writes of this verse: “Paul is here speaking of [understanding] more than the simple gospel; he is referring to the deeper understanding of spiritual truth that comes with maturity in Christ” (119). Is Mr. Hunt implying then that the saved but immature Corinthians did not have the Spirit? And while Paul may have in mind a spiritual understanding of more than the Gospel, he certainly does not have less in mind, and his thoughts do include the Gospel, the very topic that he has been discussing throughout the previous passage (cf. 1 Cor 1:18ff). Mr. Hunt’s attempt to exclude the Gospel from what those without the Spirit will not accept and cannot understand is a distortion of the Apostle’s intention. ↑

38. The Apostle said we must have “received . . . the Spirit from God [so] that we may understand what God has freely given us [i.e. the Gospel] (1 Cor 2:12). However, Mr. Hunt seems to claim that something less than the possession of the Spirit is necessary when he writes: “Of course, no one can understand the gospel except by the enlightening of the Holy Spirit.” (120). True, but more than enlightenment is needed for spiritually dead people- the Apostle says we must internally possess the Spirit, not just be externally enlightened.

    Those spoken of in Hebrews 6:4-6 were “enlightened” and “shared in the Holy Spirit” and were no doubt convicted of their sin by the Spirit as is one of His purposes in the world (cf. John 16:8-11). But, they had not experienced the “better things . . . that accompany salvation” (v. 9) which would include being regenerated by and possessing the Holy Spirit. ↑

39. Calvin, 1 Cor 2:1-11. ↑

40. Ibid., Hebrews 6:4. ↑

41. All of the above makes the modern critic of Protestant orthodoxy, Dave Hunt, sound fairly foolish when he writes:

    There is not a verse in the Bible that presents Calvinism’s radical idea that the sinner is incapable of believing the very gospel that offers him forgiveness and salvation . . . One would never derive from Scripture the idea that the unregenerate are unable to believe. ↑

42. Excerpt from section 4.12.A. Unfortunately, the NIV and many modern translations do not reflect the perfect tense of the Greek here and give the inaccurate impression that Paul is praying that the Ephesians would yet be enlightened. On the contrary, the literal Greek reads, “the eyes of your heart having been enlightened” which reflects the fact that Paul sees the Ephesians as already possessing this enlightenment. For further discussion see section 14.18.A.4. ↑

43. Ignatius, quoted by Michael Horton, Putting Amazing Back Into Grace (Baker, 1996), 282. ↑

44. Justin Martyr, Ibid. ↑

45. Theophilus, To Autolycus, I.2. Online at http://www.ccel.org ↑

46. Tertullian, Ibid, 297 ↑

47. Origen, Ibid., 282. ↑

48. Arnobius, Ibid., 297. ↑

49. Eusebius, Ibid, 282.” ↑

50. Athanasius, Ibid., 297. ↑

51. Jerome, Ibid., 298. ↑

52. All of these quotes from early Church Fathers serve to refute Dave Hunt who claims: “A study of early church history reveals that Calvinistic doctrines were unknown during the church’s first three centuries” (19). On the contrary, the inability of humans to seek or obtain salvation apart from regeneration was at the heart of Calvinism and obviously a common and firm belief “during the church’s first three centuries.” ↑

53. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-11, q. 6, art. i, resp.; online at http://www.newadvent.org/summa ↑

54. Martin Luther, Epistle to the Hebrews, on Heb 6:13, in Works, 29 (Concordia, 1974). ↑

55. Calvin, 1 Cor 2:15. ↑

56. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion; online at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.html, 2.2.25. ↑

57. John Owen, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power (Kregel, 1967), 159. ↑

58. Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter IX.3; online at http://www.opc.org/wcf.html. ↑

59. Jonathan Edwards, Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, II.2.; III.4.1.; online at http://www.ccel.org. ↑

60. Jonathan Edwards, Freedom of the Will, IV.3; online at http://www.reformedreader.org/rbb/edwards/fowindex.htm. ↑

61. Charles Spurgeon, Sermon 182; online at http://www.spurgeon.org/ sermons/0182.htm. For a fuller text of this sermon see chapter 6.5. ↑