However, so often that is all that they know. They have no awareness of a spiritual life or a connection to God the Father through the Holy Spirit in the name of the Savior, Jesus Christ. No knowledge of righteousness or the sin debt they have acquired being descendants of Adam and Eve.
No understanding of the possibility of immortality or the certainty of the second death. Completely unaware of the depraved state in which they exist as they are unable to even avail themselves of the gift of eternal life purchased on their behalf by Christ Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross through the shedding of His sinless blood.
So, when they hear the gospel how is it that they find themselves convicted of their sins. Challenged to the point of repentance and finally confronted by the depth of their sins. How are they able to believe that Christ has paid their sin debt and that they can ask him to forgive those same sins and to come into their hearts, minds and lives. How are they able to decide that they have a need and then to get baptized, that their sins may be washed away and they might receive the Holy Spirit who writes God’s Law onto their hearts and puts it in their minds?
To the practical bible theologian there will be a pragmatic solution based around those who are the elect and those who are not. A small group of humanity that God has seen fit to draw to His Son, Jesus Christ. There has been considerable debate among Christians as to whether the Calvinist view is the correct one in this case or are those who have a more sympathetic view of the access of the lost to salvation through choice, the correct one here.
It seems to me that people hear the gospel, or some part of it, and have to make a decision. Many are challenged but don’t seem to be convicted. Their sin doesn’t confront them. Hence when the apostle Paul said in Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” It seems those who aren’t convicted of their sins know in their heart the truth of creation and sin but are not drawn to Christ Jesus and choose to walk away.
They can hear the gospel and reject it a number of times in their lives and yet at some point they may come under conviction and repent even after having rejected the gospel on a number of other occasions. Yet if we listen to those who believe we are elected by God then this decision should not be possible because the human soul is so depraved that God must force us to make that decision to choose salvation.
What if as John Wesley believed, the human soul is totally depraved, as the Calvinist believes, and man must be saved by Grace but that Grace is enacted by the Holy Spirit of God in the heart of the lost. What if in Grace the Holy Spirit enables the hearer of the gospel to make a decision. To accept or reject the redemptive work of Christ Jesus. So that the lost person hearing the gospel is either challenged, convicted and confronted by the gospel of their need for salvation and to have their sin debt paid by Jesus Christ. Else they feel nothing and reject the gospel walking away having make a decision against salvation enabled by God’s Grace.
Whatever the case, we as the faithful believers on Christ Jesus have a job to do. Being aware of the Great Commission of Matthew 28: 18 -19 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...”
We go into battle for the souls of the lost. With a heart filled with love we approach the unbeliever as gently as Jesus did the adulterous woman in John 8: 1-11 “...but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
How does God challenge, convict and confront the sinner of their sins. Simply through His Grace my friends. He does it through Grace.
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