How Can Someone Dead in Trespasses and Sins Have Any Ability To Do Anything? My Response To John MacArthur

Reconciled by the Response of Obedience by John MacArthur

“The means of our reconciliation to God – the sacrificial death of Christ, the perfect forgiveness God applies to our sin – are divine works. But there is a human component that goes along with it. We bear some responsibility, too, if we are to be reconciled and redeemed. Paul hints at it in 2 Corinthians 5:20: ‘We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.’

In God’s divine design, He has given each of us the responsibility to respond to the gospel in the obedience of faith. He doesn’t pluck us out of this wicked world against our will – we’re not robots that He merely has to reprogram. God is the initiator; He’s the Savior. But it does not happen without a response.

The two little parables in Matthew 13 perfectly illustrate the point. Jesus said:

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-46)

Christ’s point in those two parables is that if you want salvation, it will cost you everything.”

(The Hidden Treasure via wikimedia. PD-US)