I became reformed in my understanding by hearing a series called "the doctrines of Grace." However, I do not want to just believe these things just because they sound good. Therefore, I am requesting help from brothers and sisters who do not agree with Reformed Theology. Please help! How would you understand the following question:
1) How can the man natural man, who by the way is a slave to sin insomuch that all he does is sin (John 8:34, Rom 13:48),
2) who cannot understand spiritual truth like the gospel (1 Cor 2:14),
3)who cannot obey God's laws because he hates God (Romans 8:7), choose in an of his own will to come to God?
4) Also, how can he do this amazing thing when it is written of the natural man..."there is none that seeks for God" (Rom 3:11)?
First of all, in question one, you have presumed that all the natural man does is sin. You have forced your presuppositions on the texts.
Joh 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
This does not say what you have implied. That is that all the natural man does is sin. It says, "he
that committeth sin is the servant of sin. Sin is an action verb in the text. You have added "all he does is sin".
There is no Romans 13:48.
Question 2
The gospel is not mentioned in 1 Cor 2 and is not the subject of Paul's comments as they relate to what the natural man cannot know.
He is speaking about the wisdom of God contained in a mystery. It is contrasted with the wisdom of men.
Read this context:
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but
in the power of God.
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
7 But
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
The wisdom of the world can not ever through their own wisdom bring to light the hidden widsdom which God ordained before the creation of the world. This is the church, BTW. The mystery must be taught by the Holy Ghost. Men cannot teach it to you if you have not the Spirit. Read here.
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But
God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now
we have received, not the spirit of the world, but
the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but
which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
The point is here that one must have the Spirit to receive the understanding of the mysteries of this age. The natural man does not have the Spirit and therefore can never understand these truths that are most surely believed among us.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Paul did not reveal the mystery to these Corinthians when he wrote this letter in AD 54, but he did reveal the mystery of the church in Ephesians in AD 60. The Corinthians were not able to bear it because of their carnality and immaturity.
1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, [even] as unto babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
Question 3:
Ro 8:7 Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
He is speaking of the carnal mind here. If the Spirit gives the thoughts of God, then it stands to reason that a carnal mind is not subject to the laws of God, and cannot be, because he does not have the Spirit. One must look carefully at any text lest he err in even grasping the obvious things it says, much less the spiritual.
Question 4.
It says in that passage in Romans 3 that no one seeks God but there are more passages that instructs men to seek him , and men seek him than passages that say none seek him. God even says he divided the nations and set their boundaries so that men might seek him. Consider this:
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
And this:
Heb 11:6 But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
If there are passages that seem to contradict one another, then one must search diligently and resolve the seeming conflict with study, prayer, and right division and the magnificent word of God, which has no contradictions.