Jerry Shugart
Well-known member
Let us look at Paul's words here:
"What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy" (Ro.9:14-16).
I understand this to be saying that salvation is not based on the "will" of man. With that in mind Paul made it plain that salvation comes as a result of believing and nothing else:
From this we can understand that "believing" is not a function of a person's will. Instead, what a person believes is based on the evidence that person has about anything to be believed or not to be believed. And that matches what we read about Biblical faith:
The gospel of our salvation is absolutely true and it comes in power and in much assurance and in the Holy Spirit (1 Thess.1:5). Those things combine to give a person the "evidence" upon which a Christian's faith is based. It is only those who resist the Holy Spirit who do not believe the gospel when it is preached to them, as witnessed by the following words of Stephen spoken to the unbelievers:
"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye" (Acts 7:51).
Again, believing something is not a function of a person's "will." No matter how hard a person might try to will himself into believing that five plus five is nine he will find that it is impossible because the "evidence" he has tells him that five plus five equals ten and not nine.
"What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy" (Ro.9:14-16).
I understand this to be saying that salvation is not based on the "will" of man. With that in mind Paul made it plain that salvation comes as a result of believing and nothing else:
"And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:30-31).
From this we can understand that "believing" is not a function of a person's will. Instead, what a person believes is based on the evidence that person has about anything to be believed or not to be believed. And that matches what we read about Biblical faith:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb.11:1).
The gospel of our salvation is absolutely true and it comes in power and in much assurance and in the Holy Spirit (1 Thess.1:5). Those things combine to give a person the "evidence" upon which a Christian's faith is based. It is only those who resist the Holy Spirit who do not believe the gospel when it is preached to them, as witnessed by the following words of Stephen spoken to the unbelievers:
"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye" (Acts 7:51).
Again, believing something is not a function of a person's "will." No matter how hard a person might try to will himself into believing that five plus five is nine he will find that it is impossible because the "evidence" he has tells him that five plus five equals ten and not nine.