It starts with understanding the state of the lost is being born in sin. When Adam sinned, all his progeny (us) sinned in Adam. This is where most error begins, the thinking that we are all "innocent" from birth, that the sin of Adam was not imputed to those that came after him. We need to remember
we sin because we are sinners, and not that we are sinners because we sin.
Dry bones, indeed:
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Given that state of affairs...
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Sadly, this is the sort of spiritual CPR commonly believed:
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Why is this so? Well, the difference lies in how one views the man who is not yet born again from above:
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Taking the wrong approach leads to this sort of thinking:
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The biblical picture, however, is of a man at the bottom of the ocean in the Marianas trench, more than thirty-five thousand feet deep. The weight of the water on top of him is six tons for every square inch. He has been there for a thousand years and the sharks have eaten his heart. In other words, the man is dead and is totally unable to ask any lifeguard to save him. If he is to be saved, then a miracle must occur. He must be brought back to life and to the surface, and then he will not fail to ask the guard to rescue him.
And that is the picture of the sinner. He is dead in his sins and trespasses (Eph. 2:1, 5). He does not want to be made whole, let alone even know that he should be made whole. He is dead.
When Christ called to Lazarus to come out of the grave, Lazarus had no life in him so that he could hear, sit up, and emerge. There was not a flicker of life in him. If he was to be able to hear Jesus calling him and to go to Him, then Jesus would have to make him alive. Jesus did resurrect him and then Lazarus could respond.
These illustrations reveal the most central issue between the Arminian and the Calvinist, what Martin Luther even said was the hinge on which the whole Reformation turned. The Arminian—and I write kindly of him even though we find him outside the teachings of Scripture at this point—believes that Christ died for sin and that no man can make even the smallest contribution to the payment for his sins. So far, so good. “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.”
But the real nub of the matter is that the Arminian then goes on to say that the unsaved is able in his own strength, with an assist of the Holy Spirit, to ask Jesus to save him. And once he has asked, then he will be born again.
Generally, these folks have this sort of view about salvation:
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The biblical Calvinist, however, says no. The Arminian has the cart before the horse. Man is dead in sins and trespasses, not just sick or injured but nevertheless alive. No, the unsaved, the unregenerate, is spiritually dead (Ephesians 2). Then, once he is born again, he can for the first time turn to Jesus, in manifest sorrow for his sins, asking Jesus to save him.
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So the question is:
- Is God the author of redemption alone or also of faith?
- Does God contribute the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ, and man contribute his faith?
- Or is faith also a gifted instrument of God (Eph. 2:8)?
- Does salvation depend partly on God (the giving of Christ on the cross) or wholly on God (the giving of Christ to die for us plus the giving of our faith)?
- Does man keep just a little bit of glory for himself—claiming the ability to believe? Or does all the glory go to God?
The answer relates to God's glory, something He is very jealous to retain:
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AMR
