Total inability
Posted 9/02/2011 | By: R W Glenn
One of the more difficult concepts of Scripture is that being a sinner means that we do not have the ability to seek God:
John 6:44: [Jesus said,] No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
John 6:65: And [Jesus] said, No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.
Rom 8:7-8: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
1 Cor 2:14: The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
What verses like these conspire to teach us is that part of the consequences of Adam's sin in the Garden was that the entire human race was made totally unable to please the Lord, totally unable apart from divine enabling to turn to God in repentance and faith.
Now although this seems to be fairly straightforward, there has been throughout the centuries a common objection to this teaching; namely, that if man is totally unable to come to the Lord, why does the Lord command him to come? Jesus said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28). It just seems out of character for the Lord to command people to do something he knows they can't do and then punish them for it in the fires of hell.
What's the answer to this objection? Well, earlier this week I picked up a copy of the mid-seventeenth century work, The Marrow of Modern Divinity, and found this helpful illustration:
Adam and his offspring are no more discharged of their duties [to God], because they have no strength to do them, than a debtor is quitted of his bond, because he wants [= lacks] money to pay it.
In other words, simply because you have no power to obey God doesn't mean you don't have to. That's like saying a debtor doesn't have to pay his creditor because he has no money to pay him - his powerlessness doesn't release him of his obligation. The same is true for us. We owe God our allegiance. We refused to pay it to him in the Garden. He punished us by impoverishing us of our ability to come to him, a punishment we deserved. Our impoverished circumstances, come about by our own fault, do not release us from the debt we owe to God or make God unjust in requiring us to pay.
This is one of the many things that makes grace so amazing! God overcomes our inability by giving us eyes to see and ears to hear his call to come to him. He doesn't have to do this. After all, our inability is deserved. But because of his great love for us, he is willing to show us mercy by causing us to be born again.