Scott Warren, ETS National Conference, November 17, 2005
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have lost forever the opportunity to be truly righteous. There is no way to make up
for our guilt.
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In this, no natural human is free. We are not free to be right before
God. We lack the ability to make ourselves so. What is more, we are not free to
escape from God's terms and governance. We are inescapably accountable to him.
Understood in this light, the condition of natural, sinful human beings is
truly desperate. In order to be restored to righteousness and godly living for
eternity, both ability and inclination to do so are necessary. Sinful humans lack
both and each of these basic lacks must be addressed. The good news of the
Gospel is that we can return to the abundant life God intended at the cost of our
sin and self-rule. Sinners who hear the Gospel can be saved if they are willing.
Calvinists ought to be able to embrace this glorious truth as enthusiastically as
Arminians. This, however, does not alter the second critical problem: while
sinners can be saved, they are not willing, I believe the Scriptures teach, until and
unless God first does the work of regeneration. Repentance is a cost natural sinners
are unwilling to pay. The reason that sinners do not turn and submit to the Gospel
of Christ prior to regeneration is not because they are not free to do so. It is
precisely because they are free to follow their own wills.
Once made a new creature, there is a free and genuine human response to
the Gospel on the part of all who are saved in Christ. In this, God receives all the
glory, having provided the ability
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and the inclination
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for the salvation of his
redeemed. Nothing in this position requires us to say that natural, sinful humans are
unable to respond to grace in the Gospel, only that they are unwilling. As such, this
with a particular command. Even so, we still reserve the right to sit in judgment over it, and over all
his other commands as well.
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Everything we have (ourselves, our life, our abilities, etc.) is given to us by God, and we owe him
an accounting for what we do with it all. Like an employer who has given a cash advance for a
business trip who requires an accounting for the business use of all the funds given, so we owe God
an accounting for all he has given to us. The essence of sin is that we have not used everything as
God intended. We have, in many ways, squandered his gifts, and have nothing suitable to show for
it. We stand guilty before him. But our situation is worse yet. As prodigals, we have no way to
make up for our loss. Even setting aside any notion of punitive assessment, we have nothing with
which to make up even what we have squandered. Since everything we have comes from God, and
is given for good purposes (not for paying off prior obligations) we cannot use anything we have to
make up for our existing debt without incurring new debt.
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In the Gospel
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In regeneration, i.e., the new heart of Ezekiel 36:26; the new birth of John 3; the new creation in II
Corinthians 5:17.