James1979.
The passage in Romans 1:18-24 is just talking about how God has revealed to mankind that they're under the wrath of God and are without excuse and can't say that they didn't know that their was a God. Creation itself is a direct evidence towards them, not another method for salvation, as salvation comes only through the power of the gospel (Romans 1:16)
no man is under the wrath of God in the first place. If that were true, then Christ would never have come. He came to save sinners. He had mercy upon His entire creation. Where is the wrath?
The rest of what you say is exactly correct. Man will have no excuse that he did not or could not know God. He will be required to give an account of what he did with the measure of grace given to him.
What do you think the gospel is? It is not just the written scripture. It is the very word and Word of God. At the above text states were were born with the knowledge of God implanted within all of us.
Mankind to an extent can keep God's law, such as not stealing, commit murder, and so on and as other's who do indeed commit murder, steal, lie, and so forth. When it comes to salvation, man cannot respond to the gospel without God intervening for the spiritually dead sinner. A perfect an example of the historical account of Lazarus being dead and risen up by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ(John 11).
Whoever stated that man does not respond because God interacts with him. It is all about God which is why man does not have an excuse. But man is also required to use the gifts given to him. Lazerus has nothing to do with a spiritually dead sinner be raised.
That was a physical resurrection not a spiritual one. That was the specific work of the Christ, the Incarnated Christ as His own resurrection. It gave life to the world, to every man that cometh into the world. It is why all men can respond again because that response will have consequences. Mankind has been freed from the bondage to death and sin.
Same exact situation that has to happen in the life of a spiritually dead sinner, the Holy Spirit has to quicken the sinner's dead soul/spirit via gospel with a new soul/spirit and once that has happen then the now saved believer can actually obey God and began to do good works such as repentance, preaching the gospel, love thy neighbor, faith, and so on.
Christ quicked every soul by His resurrection. It was the recreation of the world. Christ gave life to the world. You are missing the whole reason of why Christ came into this world. He needed to reverse the fall so that man, every man could respond to His call of an eternal union with Him.
When that person believes, repents and is baptised He receives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which initiates the regeneration of that person.
It is indeed passive. That's how a sinner receives salvation, when they're not expecting it. Paul is the perfect example, he was out there persecuting the Lord's saints. It seems like he was pretty furious for those who had believed in Jesus as their savior and messiah. But look what happen onto the road to Damascus. Paul had no clue that Christ was gonna stop him in his tracks on the road to Damascus and turn his sinful life around and become a chosen vessel of the Lord to do God's will.
If it was passive we would not be held accountable. God would need to be the judge of himself. Saul could have rejected that message on the road to Damascus. Paul was not forced to do what he did. God did not coerce Paul's will so that he could do nothing but react in the affirmative. Same for Judas, same for Mary and a host of other NT examples.
I never made the statement that God will reconcile every men who ever lived on the face of this earth to God. Majority of mankind will receive death for their sins. And only a small remnant, a chosen people, the elect, will only be reconciled to God because their sins were paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ.
You didn't know you made it, but you stated "We are justified by Christ's death (his soul) and his perfect obedience to the law. " All men were so justified. That is precisely what Rom 5:18, I Cor 15:22, II Cor 5:18, and Col 1:15=20 are saying.
There are no exceptions in these verses. It is the reaons why all men can respond. All were given an eternal existance through the resurrection of Christ. That is what He accomplished for mankind, John 6:39.
Matthew 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Matthew 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. When it's all said and done at the very end of the world, only the elect, chosen, remnant people of God will be co-reigning with the Lord Jesus Christ forever more. The rest of the unsaved people will be death and no longer exist.
but what you are missing in your understanding is that man is already condemened through the fall of Adam. Every man was condemned to death. Unless that is corrected you can forget about heaven or hell. Unless Christ redeems the world, triumphs over death, you will never see heaven or hell. That is the whole point of Christ's reconciliation of the world.
Another gross error of your theology is that mankind, every human being will live forever, eternally. No man will be destroyed. That is why Christ came again, to restore His own created order back to life. The unsaved will have an eternal existance just like believers. The only difference between them is what is different in this life between believers and unbelievers. Belivers will exist with Christ, unbelievers will exist apart from Christ. That is a spiritual death, not a physical death. Being destroyed would sound like a good option, if one did not desire to be with God in this life. You have just eliminated hell from your theology.
John 17:2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
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John 17 is Christ's High Priestly prayer. It has nothing to do with the rest of mankind and the salvation of any individuals. It is applicable only to the disciples. It is the election of the disciples which I will commit on later.
These verses clearly show that salvation is of the Lord and it was prepared for those whom he loved before the world was. In those whom Christ has chosen, none of them are lost expect the lost, unsaved people. And you're saying that people can lose their salvation. You're simply calling Jesus a liar. You really don't trust the word of God.
Might work for a theology that needs isolated prooftexts, but John 17 is about the disciples in these verses.
Are you saying that saved sinner's can slip out of the hands of God, even though the Holy Spirit sealed you of the promise of eternal salvation? Even when God himself says that none of them are lost? You are probably side tracked by Hebrew 6:4-6 which is a stumbling block because you're not taking in consideration anything and everything elsewhere in scriptures that might say otherwise. You have to compare scripture with scripture to have sound doctrine.
A saved sinner only has possession of eternal life. He has not obtained the inheritance until death. One can always lose that inheritance for many reasons.
The Holy Spirit seal is about God's promise to man. I don't think we need to worry about God in our relationship, but I do worry about my obligations and commitment. in that relationship. Scripture does not give any promises that man can make that He will remain faithful to the end. There are to many examples of many to departed. We would not have the 200 plus warnings to remain faithful. To keep our faith, to not lose faith. How can you be saved by and through faith, when you can lose that faith. God cannot be taken for granted. He will not be mocked. If you deny Him, He will deny you. That is a God given promise that falls under that same seal.
I suggest that you do look seriously at scripture and see that you do not have any guarantees for man in the relationship between God and man. It is a mutual relationship, not a forced arrangement. It is not one sided. It takes two to complete. God cannot save you alone, and you cannot save yourself alone. It takes both to be saved.
Why would God only give an inheritance for some? Well why would God provide salvation for anyone for that matter. God should have let everybody died in their sins and not give anyone salvation at all. God simply gave salvation to some to demonstrate his love and also to demonstrate his wrath for those who deserve the wrath of God, just like those who will receive salvation, they deserve the wrath of God as well. Is God justice to condemn all? Yes. Could God have provided salvation for all and send no one to hell? Yes he could have done that. Is God still a just God if he only saved some and send the rest of the majority of the human race to hell?
Why God provided salvation was not necessarily for man. It was because God is Sovereign over His creation. If God permitted death to reign, to permit the condemnation of Adam to remain, God's created universe would be disolved through death. Satan would have been the ultimate authority over God's creation.
But God in His Great Mercy saved the world and mankind from the condemnation of death. He needed to save all things. If He failed to save all things, He would have failed in saving anything. It's really that simple.
Regarding your comments above. None of us would have died in our sins. That is why you do not understand about scripture and our salvation. Why would we die in our sins, when we were already condemned to death. All the sins in the world would not have done anything either way. Even if we could have lived perfect lives, it would not have saved us. That is what Pual keeps saying about the law. Only the creator, the Giver of life in the first place can restore His created order back to life. Back to an eternal existance for which He created it, including all human beings.
This is what I asked before, what did you mean by this "deserve the wrath of God". If Christ did not come, we would not recieve the wrath of God. We would have succumbed to the power of satan who ruled this world by death. Heb 2:14.
Yes he's still a just God because he can do what he pleases with his creation, God doesn't owe anybody salvation nor do they really have the privilege to be in heaven.
You have a complete misunderstanding of what Christ accomplished and why. God actually had mercy upon all because in His justice He did not think it just to permit death to reign over the world by virtue of one man's one sin. He rather thought it to be more just to give to each individual the right and privelge to condmen themselves or save themselves. We do that by faith. We enter into a saving spiritual relationship or we can reject God. Heaven and hell only exist because God defeated death, the power of satan. Now all men have an eternal existance but must choose where they desire to be for an eternity.
Adam and Eve and the rest of mankind cannot save themselves period. There is nothing good in them to do that.
It has nothing to do with being good. As I stated above, we could have lived a perfect life it still would not have saved us from the fall.
Can you explain just how a mortal human being would be able to restore life, an eternal physical existance for himself?
Also, just how could a sinner be able to atone for his own sins?
The primary problem of man is that He is dead, a mortal being.
I know that I have fallen and come short of the glory of God. Scriptures tell me that and I believe it. I also know that there is nothing of myself that I can do to regenerate myself and become a new creature in Christ. God the Holy Spirit has to begin that good work in me for that to happen. When someone is a child of God, they have been delivered out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God. Satan cannot possess you or anyone for that matter.
What is required of you is to believe. Repent, be baptised and recieve the Holy Spirit. All men are capable of doing that, and have been from the beginning. We are all consubstantial with each other, we are all the very same essence, a human being.
The Holy Spirit begins that work externally with all men. Man is obligated to give an active choice. It is not passive. But man can leave that commitment at any time. There is nothing holding man except man's own desires.
Satan can surely possess you if you permit him to do so. it is all within your power, your choice. If you doubt that, reread the story of Adam. Did God prevent him from leaving the relationship they had? God isn't going to prevent you either. That was the purpose of God creating man with a rational soul. To be in His Image, to be communal. That was to be a freely entered, mutual relatioship to be real. We are in the very same relationship as Adam had with God.
Also its not our choice to decide our destiny, that's up to God and that decision was made prior to our existence. Take a look at Romans 9 and read up on Jacob and Esau, that's a perfect example of God's election before time, not during time.
You are also confusing what election is for. There are only 5 elections in all of scripture. NOne of them was for salvation. Or none were for specifically granting salvation to anyone.
ONly two were individuals - they being Christ and Paul. The others were Israel, which is what you refered to in the Esau episode, the Disciples, and the Church (elect). Every single one was for a specific service, none for salvation of individuals or even salvation directly.