Not Mostly Dead but Completely Dead

Tom Shrader expounds Ephesians 2:1-6, arguing from Scripture that every person enters the world spiritually dead in trespasses and sin, not merely weakened or inclined toward wrongdoing. Drawing on Romans 3 and 1 Corinthians 2:14, he establishes that natural man has no ability to seek God, understand the gospel, or respond to it apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. The practical weight of this truth, he argues, is that salvation magnifies God entirely, since the very faith by which a person comes to Christ is itself the result of God's prior sovereign work in drawing and quickening the dead soul.

“It's not that we are sinners because we sin, but we sin because we're sinners — it's because we are by nature sinners, and that's who we are by nature, and we validate that as we live.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Grace for Life, Grace for Living

Recorded: 2008 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 48 min

Themes: salvation, grace, sin, spiritual death, faith, wrath of god, new life, human nature, new believer, questioning faith, feeling hopeless, struggling with sin, seeker, skeptic, young adult, doubting salvation

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10, Romans 5:12, Romans 6:23, Romans 3:10-12, 2 Chronicles 6:36, Ecclesiastes 7:20, 2 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 1 Corinthians 1:18, 1 Timothy 3, John 3, John 6:44, Revelation 3:20, Genesis 3, James 2:6, Acts 16:19

Theological Themes: total depravity, spiritual deadness, regeneration, monergism, sola gratia, original sin, effectual calling, sovereign grace

Full Transcript

Grace for Life

Grace is the instrument God uses, and faith is the evidence of it — together they move us from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive. Now we are, as verse 10 says, His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them. God is not saying that all He wanted to do was get us to heaven. If that were all He wanted, then at the moment of conversion He would have simply taken us there. Certainly our destination is now secure, and our designation is now saint, but God has left us here because there is something He has for us to do.

We need grace for life, and we need grace to sustain that life — grace for living. What we are doing in this series is unpacking that two-step process: how we move from what Scripture calls a child of wrath — an ominous title — to something altogether different. We want to examine very carefully the word in verse 8: "For by grace you have been saved." That is what we looked at last week. We have been saved, delivered, removed — but from what? From the wrath of God, from the fact that God has to and will judge sin.

Francis Schaeffer writes: "Why do I need salvation? Because you're under the wrath of God. And why are you under the wrath of God? Because you have sinned." That is exactly what we looked at last week. The Bible declares in Romans chapter 5, verse 12: "Just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all have sinned."

How the World Got This Way

Last week, to provide an introduction to this series, we looked at the world around us — the hardship, the pain, and the suffering. We looked at the lure that drugs and alcohol have over us, the lure of sex, our greed, our fear, and all the suffering and pain of every kind in the world. Part of us wants to ask: why would God create a place like this? And the answer, of course, is that He didn't. That is what we examined last week.

We looked at Genesis chapter 3, which gives us the account of how the world got the way it is. God created man and told him not to eat from the fruit of the tree in the center of the garden, warning that if he did, he would die. Genesis 3 then becomes the account of the temptation, and Adam eats — he rebels against God. His response was to begin covering himself up. He grabbed fig leaves. He hid from God. We see guilt and shame as the result of sin.

Then God intervenes and asks, "How did you get this way, Adam? What happened here?" God then pronounces a curse on the serpent, on the woman in childbirth, and on the man in labor. God takes away the fig leaf and replaces it with skins. Wrapped up in all of that is not only the explanation for how we got into this condition, but also our way out.

Our response to sin is fig leaves. Our response is religion. Our response to our sin is to try to come up with some way to cover ourselves up. But God says no — we cannot provide our own covering. Such coverings are insufficient and will not do what we want them to do. There must be a shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sin. So Genesis 3 contains a beautiful picture of the provision we receive in Christ.

Spiritual Death and the Condition of Man's Heart

God said, "The day you eat from the fruit of that tree, you will die." Adam ate. What happened? He began the process of dying physically — death, which was never designed to enter the world, now enters it. But also, immediately, his sin began a process of separation from God. He was spiritually dead as well. Genesis 3 gives us not only the explanation for why the world is the way it is, but also the explanation for the condition of man's heart — and that is what we are going to focus on today.

When Adam sinned and death came into the world through him, all of us sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wage of sin is death. But there is also provision declared in Romans 6:23: "The wage of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Ephesians 2: You Were Dead

Turn to the book of Ephesians and look at the very beginning of chapter 2, where we will spend the bulk of our time in these first five or six verses. Paul is writing to those he identifies in verse 1 of this book as the saints who were at Ephesus — he is writing to believers. He is reminding them of God's majesty and sovereignty and beauty, reminding them of their previous condition, and then of God's provision for that condition.

Verse 1: "You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked, 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." Paul is speaking in the past tense. This is what you were. This is how you used to live. "Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind."

He is saying plainly: you were sinners, and you acted like it. You pursued the desires of the flesh. You did what you wanted to do. You were concerned about yourself and nobody else. And here is the heart of the problem — we were by nature children of wrath.

The Core of Our Condition

Adam sinned, and he plunged us into ruin, so that our fundamental, basic problem is this. Let me read to you what one author writes: "Man's basic trouble is not being out of harmony with his heritage or his environment, but being out of harmony with his Creator. His principal problem is not that he cannot make meaningful relationships with other human beings, but that he is not in right relationship with God, from whom he is alienated by sin." So we are getting at the core of who we are.

The phrase in verse three is "by nature a child of wrath." The author continues: "His condition has nothing to do with the way he lives. It has to do with the fact that he is dead even while he is alive. He is spiritually dead while being physically alive, because he is dead to God. He is dead to spiritual life, to truth, to righteousness, to inner peace, to happiness, and ultimately to every other good thing." We sin, we are separated from God — that is who we are, and that is the result of our sin.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter five that we are new creatures in Christ, and that was accomplished as God reconciled us to Himself through Christ. That word *reconciliation* is a powerful picture. If I say that God and I are now reconciled, then what we know from that one singular sentence is that there must have been some pre-existing hostility that had broken the relationship. You cannot reconcile what was never divided. And what Paul is teaching us is that we are lost in our sin.

Helpless, But Not Hopeless

I want to jump ahead just briefly, because I do not want to leave you in something so dark — when we talk about how helpless you are — without quickly reminding you that you are not hopeless. So though it is not our main focus today, look at verse four, because there is the hope. That is who we were: children of wrath, separated from God, dead in our sins and trespasses. But look at what follows.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive with Christ. By grace you have been saved. He raised us up with Him, seated us with Him in heavenly places." We have been delivered. And then: "By grace you have been saved through faith." That is who we were — we were dead in our sins and trespasses. That is what the Word teaches us.

The Bible says that by nature we are dead, but Christ moved. What I want you to see today is that there is nothing you or I could do to take our situation — where we are dead — and make ourselves come to life. And yet it is the one thing we need desperately. We are indeed absolutely helpless in our human condition, but not hopeless. We cannot even begin to respond to the gospel, because we are dead. But in spite of us — not because of us, in spite of us — God saves us.

God Gets Bigger, We Get Smaller

The huge practical ramification of that is immediately God gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and I get smaller and smaller and smaller. Most of the time, even among Christians, when we talk about God and we talk about man, I think it is against the backdrop that we really are not that bad and He really is not that big. Tozer said it this way: our theology never ascends high enough to embrace God and who He is, or descends low enough to allow us to be who we really are.

The whole point of studying this theology — this understanding of what the Bible says, not what any human says, not what any theologian or contemporary author says — is not about some systematic theology developed by man. This is what the Bible says about man. And the Bible says we are dead in our sins and trespasses. But God, being rich in His grace and mercy, and because He loved His people with this incredible, passionate love, decides not to give us justice — that which we deserve — but to give us mercy. That mercy comes in the form of grace, and I know I am a recipient of that grace because I now have faith to believe.

The Natural Man

That really is what we will be talking about every week in this series. Today we focus on Ephesians chapter two, verse one, unpacking that condition. The Bible uses the term "natural man," and what we mean by that is all of us as we come into this world — this is our natural state. Our natural state is that we are alienated from God.

Let me again read from this author: we are spiritually dead, physically alive, dead to God, dead to spiritual life, dead to His truth, dead to inner peace and happiness, and ultimately dead to anything that is good. We are dead in our sins and trespasses. The effect of the fall has been devastating on us.

God's Assessment in Romans 3

Keep your place in Ephesians chapter two and turn to Romans chapter three. In Romans chapters one and two, leading up to this passage, Paul is writing an indictment against mankind — ultimately against all of us. He deals with people who would say they are not really into religion. He deals with people who would say they are into religion. He deals with Greeks, with Jews, with Gentiles. And then he provides a conclusion.

Here is God's assessment — not man's assessment, but God's assessment — of all of mankind. If you want to know what God's view is of every person who comes into this world, here it is. Romans chapter three, verse ten: "There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good, no, not one."

Now, some of you are pushing back right here, because you are thinking: wait a minute, that is not my experience.

God's Assessment Versus Our Own

What do you mean there's nobody who does any good? I know all sorts of people who don't give a rip about church or a rip about Jesus who do all sorts of good things. They'll go and feed hungry people, they'll go on trips, they'll dig wells in drought areas to provide humanitarian response for people in need. When I'm gone on vacation, they mow my grass. They're doing all sorts of stuff.

Here's the problem, and this is really important. What we're looking for is not our assessment of each other, but God's assessment of man. We can get deceived as we look at the action. God looks at the heart, and God's declaration is that the heart of every man is evil. Sin has permeated us so that we're dead in those sins and trespasses.

One of our staff guys says it this way: if sin were blue, we would be a Smurf. That's just a great description. It does not mean that we commit every possible evil crime that ever exists — even Hitler didn't kill his mother. But it means that our heart is set toward evil, inclined toward evil, and repulsed by good.

A Form of Godliness Without Power

I want to add quickly, though, that we will be spiritual at times. That's exactly what Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3. In the last days, people will be lovers of self, lovers of money — and then he goes on to list them — but he said they will hold to a form of godliness, though they'll deny its power. They'll become spiritual. They'll make gods in their own image, but they'll deny the power. The power, of course, is the gospel.

One author says this: man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory for idols. We're repulsed by the one true God. We're not attracted to anything truly spiritual that flows from the one true God. We are spiritual in the sense that we are prone to try to devise a god.

Haven't you had that experience where you're talking to somebody about the God of the Bible — the God as He is in the Bible — and they say something like, "My god would never"? That's exactly what they've just told you: they've created a god in their own image. They'll say, "I don't like the God of the Old Testament, I like the God of the New Testament. That God of the Old Testament was like a god on probation, still figuring it out, hateful and wrathful, and then He got it all figured out." But the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are the same God.

The focus right now, though, is not on Him — it's on us and our sinfulness. We need to come to grips with His assessment being accurate. No one does good. No one understands. No one seeks for the one true God. They seek for gods made in their own image, and we do that by redefining terms.

Nobody Did Well on the Test

I have two daughters, and this would happen more with Sarah than Haley. I'd come home and Sarah would be studying, and if she was studying, I knew one thing — there was a test. I'd say okay, let a day or two pass, and maybe the next day I'd ask how the test was. "It was really hard." Then I'd wait until the results came back and ask, "How did you do?" And every time, she would say, "Nobody did well."

So I would say, let's establish a baseline here. There are 23 kids in your class, and 22 of them I couldn't care less about. Let me rephrase the question — how did *you* do on the test? "It wasn't fair." Really? Why wasn't it fair? Did your teacher tell you there was going to be a test? Yes. Did he tell you the material that would be covered? Yes. Did the test cover that material? Yes. Did he teach the material in class? Yes. So how was it not fair? "Nobody did well on the test." And we went through that circle over and over again.

Here's what I love about that: this is exactly what we do with this passage of Scripture when God declares how we really are. We look at it and say, "Wait a minute, God, nobody's doing well on Your test. It's not fair." No — no one did well. That's the point.

Grading on a Curve

When I was in grade school, we were trained by the nuns, and here's how grading worked. Ninety-three to one hundred was an A. Eighty-five to ninety-two was a B. Seventy-eight to eighty-five was a C. And if you got anything under seventy-eight, they just dealt with you until you got to seventy-eight. That's how it worked.

When I got into college, I discovered this thing called grading on a curve. Essentially, they bought Sarah's argument — nobody did well — so they redefined what an A was. And that way of thinking permeates a lot of how we live. When I go to buy a car, a house, or jewelry, I begin to negotiate. I know what you want, but I'll give you this, and then you arrive at a meeting of the minds.

Here's the problem: we come to God and say, "Hey God, I know You've got that standard, but I'll only give You this." And He doesn't negotiate.

The Condition of Man

This is His assessment of you and me. We all fall short. We all miss the mark. The effect of Adam's sin is that our nature is hostile to God. Second Chronicles 6:36 says, "For there is no one who does not sin." Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, "For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin." All of us sin. Why? Because by nature we are sinners.

This is really important, and it may sound like double talk, so work through it until it does not. It is not that we are sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners. It is not because we have committed a sin and that makes us a sinner. It is because we are by nature sinners — that is who we are by nature, and we validate that as we live.

Why This Truth Changes Everything

This is crucial. In teaching there will be times when, if you grab a particular truth, it will really change you. When we said that if you can understand your life as that of a steward and not an owner, it is going to change the way you live — this truth today works the same way. If you grab this truth, it is going to change your view of salvation and your view of God. How you see yourself is going to determine how we see salvation itself, and it will even determine how you live.

Our view of man and the condition of man begins to affect the way we evangelize. Not that we do not evangelize, but it affects the manner in which we speak, the manner in which we live, and our understanding of the sovereignty of God. Some of you this week — and I will be among them — are going to get your statements from last month, and they are going to be ugly. However bad they are, here is my encouragement: they are going to be even worse next month. How do you handle all of this? It takes a sense of the sovereignty, control, and authority of God. And it all begins with understanding the condition of man.

Competing Views of Human Nature

What is the condition of man as he comes into the world? There are all sorts of theories. In philosophy there is one expressed by the Latin term *tabula rasa* — a blank slate — the idea that you and I come into the world as blank slates, and then the environment, the systems, and the people around us form what we are. There is another view that says man is essentially and basically good.

Then there is the view that man is sinful, and within that view there are two categories. Some say man is sinful, but that sin has only impeded him. Then there is another view — the one I believe Scripture teaches — that man is dead in his sin, that all he does is sin, and that his heart is desperately wicked. It is so important for us to get this, because as we understand how lost and helpless we are, we will be able to see how big and gracious God is and how deep His grace truly is.

Dead in Sins and Trespasses

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1: "You were dead in your sins and trespasses." You were dead and made alive in Christ through the great love that God has shed on us. We are at the heart of the debate. What is the condition of man?

What the Bible says is that we are like zombies — spiritually dead but physically alive. The question becomes, what does it mean to be dead? There is a gigantic difference between being dead and being mostly dead.

Mostly Dead vs. All Dead

As the clip from *The Princess Bride* illustrates, Miracle Max makes that very distinction: "Your friend here is only mostly dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead, he's slightly alive. All dead — well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do." And what is that? "Go through his clothes and look for loose change."

That is a really important distinction. There is a difference between dead and mostly dead. And much of the theology that you and I encounter today is based on the assumption that man is mostly dead. The question really is not what some teacher, current or past, teaches. The question is, what does the Bible say?

Man Is Not Mostly Dead — He Is Dead

The Bible says that man is dead in his sins and trespasses. Man is not mostly dead. He is dead to the gospel. He has no ability or desire to change that condition. He is enslaved and in bondage to sin, and he is repulsed by good. "No one does good, no, not one." It is not that he is sick and needs medicine. He is dead, and there is only one thing that can be done.

The Real Problem Is Death

The only thing a dead man needs is life. That is why Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly." Jesus declares to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, "Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again." You need life.

Even here today, maybe some of you did not take communion. You are here for whatever reason — somebody invited you, you are in town visiting, you got corralled into this — and you are thinking about your problem and therefore looking for a solution based on that problem. So here is my problem: my problem is booze, or drugs, or sex, or addiction, or temper, or anger, or a broken relationship, or I am lazy, I am worried, I am a glutton, I am greedy, I steal, I lie. No. Those are all symptoms of the problem. The problem is sin.

We live in a world that seems bent on trying to make everyone identical in their diagnosis. We have misdiagnosed the cause of our problem, and therefore we are endlessly throwing time, energy, effort, and money at solutions. We tell ourselves we just do not know enough — he needs education. We are busting this country trying to fulfill something called the American Dream, which is based on total materialism, thinking that if you have a house you will be happy. Ask the people right now who are upside down on their mortgages how happy they are in their houses.

The Story of the New Wife

We are constantly thinking, "If only I had her." I told this story earlier this week — it is an absolutely true story. A few years ago I was having lunch with a friend. I have lots of friends who do not share my faith. This guy was lost, as big as a goose. He was turning 50, and I asked what he was going to do for his birthday. He said, "I need a new wife." I said, "Really? You have a wife, don't you?" He said, "I need a new wife."

I said, "Let me give you a little practical advice here. I have seen the new models, and they are pretty expensive right now — and the old one is not going to go away." But his thinking makes complete sense if you are apart from Christ. What he was saying was: if I can get rid of her, I will be fulfilled and happy. My problem is I am unhappy with her.

And statistically, here is what we know: second marriages fail at a rate higher than first marriages, third marriages higher than second, fourth marriages higher than third. We know this. Our lives are filled with the pursuit of things we think will solve our problem, and the problem is we have misdiagnosed our issue. Our issue is sin. Our issue is that we are dead.

Spiritually Dead and Opposed to God

There is only one thing a dead man needs, and that is life. We are spiritually dead, and we must be born again. The Bible tells us that our problem is not circumstantial — it is relational. Our heart is dead. We are adverse to God. We are opposed to God. No one does good.

In spite of what you may look around and see, and whatever assessment you make of that, it is critically important for us to get God's view of this, not our own. I do not care what Harvard, Yale, and all the other studies say. Our fundamental problem is our sin, and at the root of that, by nature, we are dead. What a dead man needs is life.

A Twelve-Year-Old at the Funeral Home

Physical pictures are always helpful in the spiritual realm. For me, one of the earliest profound moments I can remember came when I was twelve years old and my grandfather died. We went to Sheraton, Iowa, to Beardsley Funeral Home. It was not an office building — it was a house that had been converted into a funeral home. There was a big porch, and inside there were individual rooms so they could simultaneously hold two, three, or four wakes at once.

My mom, her sister, and I went in and entered this little room with a casket at the front. Clearly Grandpa was in it, and it was a little spooky for me, so I was hanging toward the back. Even when my own dad died a couple of years ago, I did not need to linger over it — some people need closure, and I respect that, but that is just not me.

When we were all done and walking out, my mom and my aunt were talking, and my aunt said to my mom, "Didn't Dad look good?" I remember thinking, I had better go back in there. So I went back in. I was just a kid — it spooked me a little — but I went back in and looked at him. I can close my eyes and see him lying there.

When I walked out, I remember thinking: he actually does look pretty good. He had on a suit — he was a warehouse man his whole life, stocking shelves, and you did not see him in a suit very often. He had a slight smile, which we did not see a great deal. His glasses were straight. He really did look pretty good. But he had one overriding problem that I could plainly see: he was dead.

Now, let us play this out just a little. My grandpa never had any money. We could have come by and thrown 700 billion dollars into that casket, and it would not have done him any good. He probably had a beer from time to time — we could have brought all sorts of booze. The point is, nothing on that list would have addressed his problem, because his problem was not any of those things. His problem was that he was dead.

The Spiritual Void Only Life Can Fill

We could have brought Patty Page by, or the McGuire Sisters, or whoever it was. All things that might have had an effect on him a previous week would have had no impact on him at this point, because what he needed was life. Here is what the Bible says: you and I are dead spiritually, and we can try to fill that void with all sorts of stuff, but what we need desperately is life. There is nothing you can do, there is no decision you can make in and of yourself, nothing you can do to bring life to death.

Two Essential Passages on Natural Man

I want to give you two passages of Scripture that have to become staples for you. They become absolutely central in this discussion of understanding God, His salvation, and how we are saved. Turn to First Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 14. Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, which has all sorts of issues and problems. He is talking about relying on the Holy Spirit and all that goes with it.

He says in verse 14, "The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised." Look also at chapter 1, verse 18, because there is a real-life example of it: "The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." Natural man does not get spiritual things. They are foolish to him, and Paul says even more strongly that he cannot understand them.

Spiritual things require the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When we are talking about grace for salvation, grace for life, what we are saying is that natural man on his own will never understand these truths.

What Jesus Says in John 6

As wonderful as Paul's words are, what does Jesus say? There is a section in John chapter 6 where Jesus talks about this very issue. In verse 44, Jesus is speaking about salvation and man's relationship with God. He says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him."

The word "unless" gives us what we would call a necessary condition. It means something has to happen before something else can take place. No one will come to Christ, no one will respond to the gospel, no one will believe, unless the Father draws him. The word translated "draws" literally means to compel.

The Heresy in a Children's Song

This becomes a whole view of God, who He is, and how He works in our lives. When my girls were small, we were at another church and they were performing one of the Salty the Singing Songbook productions. They had a song called "The Holy Spirit Is a Gentleman — He Always Knocks Before He Comes In." The problem with that song is that it is heresy.

We faced a real question: do we let the kids participate in this show and propagate heresy to the entire church, or do we take them out and make a stand? We decided to let them participate in the Salty the Singing Songbook, because there are only so many hills worth dying on, and that was not one of them. But I want you to see how ingrained bad doctrine is in the church.

Some of you, especially those who are older, used to sing this song: "Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling you all — come home, come home." The idea was that He is wooing us, pleading with us, knocking at the door, but He is a gentleman and will never rush in. The problem is that is not what Scripture teaches.

Compelled, Not Merely Invited

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." Again, the word means to compel. It is helpful to see how that word is used elsewhere in Scripture. The word translated "draw" appears two other times in the New Testament. James chapter 2, verse 6 says, "Is it not the rich who oppose you and personally drag you into court?" Acts chapter 16, verse 19 says, "They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace." The word carries the idea of being compelled, not gently invited.

What happens in our lives is that we need a radical response, because natural man is spiritually dead and cannot receive spiritual things. So when you are sitting at Starbucks talking to someone about their need of a Savior, and you lay out that story or verse that always worked for you and nothing happens, you may wonder whether it was your presentation. It was not. The Spirit of God has not yet quickened that person's heart to allow them to see the truth.

There is great freedom in that. It does not mean we stop declaring the gospel — we declare it everywhere — but the only reason somebody responds is because God is working in their life.

The Difference Between Permission and Ability

Not long ago I was in a conversation about theology on this very topic, and we were stuck on this issue. I was trying to say: if you can find one verse — not two, not ten, just one — that says the natural man has the ability, not the responsibility. We have the responsibility, but ability is a different matter entirely. Don't confuse permission and ability. We learned that early on. Think of a teacher saying, "Can I sharpen my pencil?" — the question isn't whether you have the permission, it's whether you have the ability to stick that thing in the hole and crank it.

Consider John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." What does that verse say? It says whoever believes in Him has heaven. We applaud that. But it doesn't speak to ability, does it? It simply says if you believe you'll be saved.

That verse, John 6:44, coupled with 1 Corinthians 2:14, gives us exactly the picture of natural man. He does not have the ability. He has the responsibility. We can argue about what all this means, and we can argue about whether we like how it looks, but the reality is the Bible teaches these side by side — God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.

He says we don't have the ability. Something has to happen in us. It's like saying whoever can jump high enough can touch the moon — you have the permission, knock yourself out, but it isn't going to happen. We are dead in our sins and trespasses.

Why This Truth Is Practically Important

I want to give you encouragement in the middle of this. Why in the world are we slugging this out? Because this has huge theological ramifications, but even bigger for me, it has hugely practical ramifications.

When I understand that I'm dead in my sins and trespasses and there was nothing I could do — including making a decision for Christ — that the very act of me coming to Christ was a result of His work in my life, everything changes. He causes me to be born again. He is the one who brought me to life. I'm dead, just as my grandfather was physically dead — I am stone dead spiritually.

You can preach and preach and throw the four spiritual laws at me, throw books at me, throw all sorts of sections of Scripture at me, and it isn't going to make any difference, because I'm dead. Until the Spirit of God opens my eyes and softens my heart, nothing will change. Then there was that moment in time when all of a sudden what I wanted more than anything else was the very thing that had repulsed me the day before. Did I get smart overnight? No. The Spirit of God opened my eyes.

What that does is cause you to begin to appreciate the gospel — His death for you — even more. You begin to understand praise and worship even more. You begin to see the cross for what it really is: His sacrifice to do for you what you couldn't do for yourself.

Stop Arguing About Election and Preach the Gospel

I hear people all the time having conversations — and I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I think they are pointless conversations — arguing about election. Who is elected? Are you elect? Why are you wasting your time with this? I think it is arrogant and a waste of time to be having these arguments. I hear people from our own church having these arguments with their friends, and I have to tell you, it bothers me.

Look at it this way: are you a poor, wretched sinner and do you know it? If you are, you need a Savior — come. And I will tell you why you came: because God did that work. That is the really important truth. That is what I mean. That changes everything, doesn't it?

If you are opposed to this right now, I am not asking you to buy it. I am just saying that when you begin to see this, it changes the whole picture. When we talk about God getting bigger and bigger, nothing makes Him bigger faster than understanding this truth, because this is allowing God to be God — in all that He is and all that He does, including my salvation. Isn't that a wonderful truth?

What Comes Next

What is clear is this: man is dead, and something has to happen to him. What happens to him? God moves. That is what we will pick up with next. We will continue looking at grace for life, then we will get to salvation itself, and then we will move to grace for living — what difference does this make, and what is our responsibility?

Father, open our eyes to see this wonderful truth, would You please? God, allow us to be the men and women You have created us to be. For those who are here today and maybe even struggling with this, would You show them that their argument is not with me, or with some ancient author, but with You — with Your Word? Let us fight with Jesus. This is what the Bible says about our condition. God, I pray that those with hurts and needs would feel comfort to come and talk to the pastors at the front of the room and to pray with them, and that we would understand that You are a God who loves us, and You evidenced that when You sent Christ to die on the cross. Father, thank You for salvation. We find it in His name, in His name alone. We pray to You in that precious name of Jesus. Amen.