God Brings Newness of Life

J.A. Matteson
09.06.10

"...for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction...." 1 Thessalonians 1:5

ὅτι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἡμῶν οὐκ ἐγενήθη εἰς ὑμᾶς ἐν λόγῳ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν δυνάμει καὶ ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ καὶ [ἐν] πληροφορίᾳ πολλῇ, καθὼς

Unwavering in his assurance that his readers in Thessalonica are beloved of God—as evidenced by their positive response to the Gospel—the Apostle's implied message is also that not all in the world who hear the gospel respond to it in faith, this being both their doing as a result of sin and God's grace by means of His choice, irrespective of works. And this we affirm to be true by Scripture, history, and personal experience. The general call of the Gospel to salvation is broadcast to the inhabitants of the earth, elect and reprobate. However, it comes to and remains in word only to the reprobate, which is to say that the hearer physically registers the message in his mind, but it is not understood nor indeed can it be, for the things of the Spirit of God are spiritually discerned; it does not penetrate the soul so as to bring full conviction of sin, of righteousness, and judgment. Therefore, it is not accepted but rejected, and ricochets off the reprobate conscience as a bullet off a smooth rock. To the reprobate the natural assessment of the content of the Gospel is regarded as foolishness, laughable, mere babble from ignorant men, unenlightened ramblings by mental weaklings.

With regard to the reprobate the seed of the general call of the gospel rests in the infertile soil of their hearts where conviction of sin and belief in the Savior remain absent, resulting in a response of casual dismissal, or perhaps inward disdain or at times expressed verbal scoffing. In their natural unregenerate state all sinners—reprobate and elect alike—do not seek after God, “God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is anyone who understands, who seeks after God. Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Ps. 53:2-3). Further amplifying the dire state of the natural unregenerate sinner the Apostle declares, “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God” (Rom. 8:6-8). If any man is to seek after God in faith it first requires a supernatural act by God upon the one dead in trespasses and sins, for the Scripture is explicitly clear that none will ever seek after God without divine initiative, and such an initiative does not fail, being extended to the elect according to the good pleasure of God the Father in accordance to His will and choice, so that none may boast, but let him who boasts boast in the Lord, for salvation is of the Lord.

But you may protest, “Yes; however, this passage is in reference to Christian's specifically and the exercise of their free will with regard to their thought life, whether they will serve the Spirit or the flesh. Be careful at your conclusion, let me now ask you a question: do you not recognize the Scriptural inconsistencies with your premise? Certainly you are in agreement with the Psalmist that the sinful mind prior to conversion is hostile toward God? If so, thus far you believe the Scripture. Yet you you now demonstrate unbelief in the same inspired Word in what follows, for it does not line up with your faulty system of what is supposedly called the natural mans “free will” to come to the Savior in the flesh apart from the agency of the Spirit. For what does the Scripture say with regard to the sinful natural mind?, “It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.” And how do all men come into the world?, do they not arrive as unregenerate sinners at enmity towards God, by nature children of wrath and darkness, disinclined to come into the light because their deeds are evil? Is this not what king David confessed while under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51:5).

Nowhere in holy writ is the unregenerate will of the natural man described as “free.” Your thesis is faulty in this regard, you have assumed that a moral imperative implies moral ability. And is not the moral imperative belief in the Gospel and repentance? Yes, certainly it is! Was not Israel under a moral imperative to believe and obey the Mosaic Law? Most certainly! Were they able to do so perfectly as the Law required? Absolutely not, and the resultant daily sacrificial system underscored that reality. So we see that a moral imperative was given while the moral ability to perform it was withheld. What was needed and what God promised and supplied was a better covenant, a new covenant, whereby the Lord would inscribe His Law upon human hearts, instilling within them a new nature, one inclined to seek after God and obey Him in faith, “Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jer. 31:31-33). Cast aside, beloved, the element of pride and conceit, those things which exalt the fallen nature in exchange for the dethronement of God in bringing man sons and daughters to glory. Irrespective of human reasoning and perspective He performs the secret council of His will perfectly and righteously, for as He stated to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion" (Rom. 9:15), and who are you, beloved, to contend with the Almighty?

Having put aside the foolishness of what is called by some “free will” let us continue in assessing the power of God in the salvation of sinners. Once again, far from being free the will of fallen sinners is painfully characterized in Scripture as being in bondage to sin, and at enmity towards God, and this from the earliest passages of Scripture, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart” (Gen. 6:5-6). Does this mean the natural unregenerate mans choices are not real, but rather determined? No, for while Judas was raised up according to the predetermined plan and purposes of God to betray the Son of God for thirty pieces of silver, he was morally responsible for his actions.

What it does mean is that fallen men freely makes choices with real consequences, but their choices are necessarily always in accordance to their fallen evil nature. A bird flies because it is its nature to do so. A whale swims because it is its nature to do so. A man considers his own mortality because it is his nature to do so. Sinners sin because it is their nature to do so. Men are not sinners because they sin; rather, they sin because it is their nature to do so. The Lord does not block sinful men from coming to the Savior; rather they reject Him out of their own resources of wickedness because the sinful mind does not desire Him, it is their nature to reject Him. Whereas vessels of honor destined for life respond positively to the gospel—not in their own resources—but as a result of grace, that being the effect of the Holy Spirit regenerating them to spiritual life, circumcising their hearts of stone with a heart of flesh, cutting away the former nature, establishing within them a new nature, one inclined toward the Gospel, Jesus Christ. The Apostle rightly gives thanks to God for the Church recognizing that her individual members are in Christ as a result of His initiative and not their own, “We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you....” (1 Thess. 1:2-4), for had their faith originated within themselves apart from the divine initiative this statement would be nonsensical and it would be instead fitting to extend thanks and commend the church for its wise choice of believing the Gospel and coming to the Savior, independent of God. But the Apostle makes no hint of such a blasphemous assertion; rather, he rightly boasts in the power of the Lord in bringing them to faith and keeping them in the faith, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ....” (1 Thess. 5:9) and “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass” (1 Thess. 5:29).

What, then, can be said regarding this gracious power of God toward His elect? Is it not the theme of the Gospel repeated from Genesis through Revelation? Absolutely! Did not the Lord Jesus speak of this power mercifully directed toward the elect?, for He said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15). Once dead in trespasses and sins the initiating power of God brings newness of life to sinners, “Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power” (1 Cor. 6:14), for the elect are the passive recipients of two resurrections according to His gracious choice, the first being spiritual so that they might walk in newness of life, the second being physical unto glory at the coming of the Lord, “For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you” (2 Cor. 13:4), and the same power that generates faith keeps the elect in a state of grace, “who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:5).

Even the Apostle Peter who denied the Lord on the night of His arrest confessed that the same power which called him, later restored and kept him unto glory, “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Pet. 1:3). Peter describes the genuine faith given by God as a result of the Spirits regenerating power toward the elect, against a counterfeit faith that can be expressed for a season by the reprobate—these being tares amidst the field of Gods wheat, “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1). And he is not merely speaking of the content of their faith, but he attributes their faith to God as His gift to them, its origin being His power working in them. This, beloved, is what the Apostle Paul is expounding in this passage when he joyfully exhorts the church, “...for our gospel did not come to you in word only,but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” Soli De Gloria!

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