Five Indisputable Facts                              

Romans 6:23

            All men everywhere are commanded of God to repent (Acts 17:30). That means that it is the responsibility of all to repent. God commands us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (1 John 3:23). That means that it is our responsibility to believe him. Some say, “If we teach that men are responsible to believe the gospel, we imply that they are able to do so.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The Word of God declares that sinners are responsible to perfectly obey God’s law and shall be judged as guilty before God for any lack of perfect obedience to it (Rom. 3:19; Gal. 3:10); but no man has the ability to meet that responsibility. Let us always be ready to juggle our theology to fit the Scriptures; but never be willing to juggle the Scriptures to fit our theology. Here are five statements which reflect the exact teaching of Holy Scripture regarding God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in the matters of eternal ruin and eternal life.

1. If anyone continues in sin, rebellion, and unbelief, continues to reject Christ as Lord and Savior, and dies in his sins, it is a condition he deserves. Death and hell will be his proper wages and his own responsibility. But if anyone is saved, taken to heaven, and lives for ever in God’s glory and holiness, it will be the result of God’s work alone.

2. Death, eternal separation from God, is the result of deliberate effort on man’s part. I do not read in the Bible of anyone going to hell for Adam’s sin. We are all guilty of original sin. We all sinned and died in Adam (Rom. 5:12). There is no question about the matter of man’s total depravity. However, the Word of God plainly asserts that every man will be judged for his own works (Ezek. 18:20; 2 Cor. 5:10). If anyone goes to hell it will be the result of deliberate effort on his part. But salvation and eternal life is the result of deliberate effort on God’s part (2 Tim. 1:9-10).

3. Eternal condemnation is the just wage of sin and guilt; but eternal life and salvation is the free gift of God’s grace in Christ. "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life.”

4. There is nothing that keeps a man out of heaven, but his own unwillingness to bow to Christ, and receive him as Lord and Savior (Matt. 23:37; John 5:40; 6:37-40; 7:37-38). Israel did not enter in because of unbelief; and if you and I miss heaven, it will be because of our own wilful unbelief. There is nothing that will keep a man out of heaven but his own will; but there is nothing that will keep a man out of hell but God’s will.

5. Anyone who is saved by the grace of God in Christ will justify God in his own condemnation (Psa. 51:1-5). Believers take sides with God against themselves, recognizing that sin is their work, that for which they alone are responsible, and that salvation is God’s work, that for which he alone must be praised.

Don Fortner