Part 2: Speaking Biblically

In his book, So Great Salvation, Dr. Charles Ryrie, the former Professor of Systematic Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary, includes a chapter entitled, "It's Not Easy To Believe." In the beginning of the chapter he writes, "When we ask someone to believe in the Lord Jesus, we are asking something very difficult." The difficulty Dr. Ryrie speaks of is the nature of the body of truth that must be believed. Factors such as our historical distance from the time of Christ, people having never personally seen Jesus, and the "almost unbelievable concept" that Christ can forgive sins, all combine to make believing in Christ "very difficult."¹

There is some truth in what Dr. Ryrie has written. Certain aspects of biblical doctrine are indeed challenging to the human mind. But in this chapter, Dr. Ryrie stops short of telling the whole truth. He explains the difficulties of believing in Christ only according to the nature of what must be believed, while bypassing what the Bible has to say about the greatest obstacle to conversion, the inherently depraved nature of the person who must do the believing. To ask a natural (unregenerate) person to believe in Christ is to ask him to do the impossible. The truths of the gospel are such that even young children possess the intellectual ability to understand, believe, and be saved. But unless God grants moral ability through regeneration, even the most brilliant theologian is unable to believe.

If you read part 1 of this article, you know what the Bible says about man's natural moral inability to understand the gospel, repent of sin, believe in Christ, or submit to God. The purpose of part 2 is to examine our evangelistic methods and philosophies in light of the natural man's inability. Understanding human depravity biblically, how should we speak to unconverted people? Is it biblical, or even logical, for us to urge them to repent and believe in Jesus while at the same time informing them that they cannot do so apart from God's prior work of regeneration? Won't such teaching cause skeptics to sit back with their arms folded and wait for God to act? Won't others despair or become hopelessly confused?

Preaching About Inability to the Unconverted

It is neither illogical nor counter-productive to urge people to repent and believe while telling them that they are naturally disinclined to do so. We should not wear out the terminology of inability or awkwardly insert it where Scripture does not. But remember that Jesus who said, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden" (Matthew 11:28, NASB) also said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (John 6:44).

There is a true sense in which a person's recognition of his own inability plays a necessary role in his salvation. Until a person understands that the sinfulness of his own nature effectively holds him in bondage to sin, he will not fully understand his need to be delivered from it. It was not until he came to the end of himself that the tax collector prayed, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner" (Luke 18:I3, emphasis added). This man was not merely confessing that he had sinned; he was confessing his own natural sinfulness. He had come to the realization that apart from God's mercy he had no hope. According to Paul, the beneficiaries of Christ's saving work are those who were "helpless" (lit. "without strength or ability;" cf. Romans 5:6). Should we not inform the unregenerate that they are helpless when it is this very understanding that will draw them to Christ? I agree when Iain Murray writes:

To tell men the worst about themselves is not to hinder conversion. On the contrary, the real impediment to conversion is the absence of conviction of sin. The preacher's first duty is to address that fact by awakening the conscience to the meaning of sin, and to sin understood not simply as wrong action requiring forgiveness, but as an evil principle governing man's very heart. A sinner's knowledge of his own inability is therefore part of the knowledge which leads him to recognize that what he needs is a new nature.²

In a number of places in the Bible, the doctrine of man's inability is specifically addressed to Christians (e.g. Romans 8:6-8; 11:7-8; 1 Corinthians 2:14; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; Ephesians 2:1-9; etc.). A growing understanding of this doctrine should make believers increasingly thankful for the spontaneous and unmerited grace of God that made them alive in Christ and enabled them to come to Him by faith. But even though the New Testament epistles were written to believers, their doctrinal content must not be purposefully withheld from unbelievers.

When unbelievers attend the main gatherings of the church, they should expect to hear deep, challenging, doctrinal teaching rather than simplistic messages designed only for immature Christians or lost people. The gatherings of the church are primarily meetings for believers. Therefore the teaching in this setting should be geared toward spiritual growth and increasing Christian maturity. The idea that these gatherings should be primarily focused on evangelism and numerical church growth is foreign to the New Testament. Most of the evangelism described in the New Testament occurred in other contexts (e.g., synagogues, market places, public discussion forums, etc.).

Aside from the times in the New Testament when unbelievers attended believers' meetings and heard the truth (for example, 1 Corinthians 14:24-25), the New Testament records a number of instances where individual unbelievers, or crowds composed primarily of unbelievers, were intentionally and clearly told about their natural inability to repent and believe. Examples are found in Matthew 11, as well as John 3, 6, 8, and 10.

Matthew 11

In Matthew 11:20-24, Jesus publicly rebuked the people who lived in the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, assuring them that because they rejected Him, they would receive a stricter judgment than the wicked ancient Gentile city of Sodom. In verse 28, Jesus extended His familiar invitation, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This statement, which closely followed His rebuke, assures us that He was still speaking to unconverted people. What is particularly noteworthy is the prayer Jesus offered to the Father in between His rebuke and His offer of salvation:

I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight (Matthew 11:25-26).

Then, directing His words back to the crowd of unbelievers, Jesus said:

All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him (Matthew 11:27).

In this instance Jesus did not use the words "cannot" or "unable" to describe inability, but He might as well have. If no one knows the Son or the Father apart from an act of divine revelation, and if only some are chosen to receive this divine revelation, the point is made clearly enough. Apart from God's activity in election and regeneration, no one is able to know the Father or the Son.

John 3

In John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus of his inability to understand and be saved when He said that unless he were "born again," he could not even see (i.e., perceive spiritually) the kingdom of God (v. 3). Jesus went on to say in verse 8 that the Holy Spirit works when and where He will, just as the wind blows when and where it will. Nicodemus surely understood from this that he could not direct the operation of God's Spirit any more than he could direct the wind. And the word picture of the new birth clearly speaks of human inability. It was obviously impossible for Nicodemus to re-enter his mother's womb and be born again physically. No baby has ever asked, or decided, to be born. So if Jesus were telling Nicodemus to exercise some ability of his own, He certainly could have chosen a more appropriate metaphor. But far from affirming any inherent ability in man, Jesus assured Nicodemus that the creation of spiritual life, just as with human life, is God's work, not man's.

John 6

John 6 depicts Jesus feeding five-thousand people with only five barley loaves and two small fish (vv. 4-14). The miracle is a notable demonstration of divine compassion. But it was not performed out of compassion alone. Jesus filled their stomachs with food, but He also intended to fill their minds with difficult teaching. After feeding them physically, He introduced spiritual food that the unregenerate among them would find not only hard, but impossible to swallow.

Jesus first spoke of Himself, saying ". . . the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. . . . I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and He who believes in Me shall never thirst" (vv. 33, 35). He went on to assure them that all who were given to Him by the Father would come to Him, and He promised that none who came would be rejected (v. 37). Nevertheless, most remained skeptical. In verse 41 we read:

The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, 'I have come down from heaven'"?

In response to their skepticism, Jesus plainly told them of their inability:

Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can [lit. "No one is able to"] come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day" (vv. 43-44, emphasis added).

It was as if Jesus were saying, "Don't imagine that you will upset Me by your skepticism. I am neither surprised nor concerned to find that many of you don't believe. The reality is, you cannot believe unless the Father has chosen to draw you to Himself." Some of His professed disciples complained about the difficulty of His teaching, ironically admitting their own inability in the process. They said, "This is a hard saying; who can [lit. "who is able to"] understand it?" (v. 60, emphasis added). Many eventually went away (cf. v. 66), still prideful in their opinion that He was teaching a false doctrine. Only those who had been granted true understanding remained (vv. 67-70). They understood that He was speaking to them "the words of life." They were the only ones who humbly admitted their natural inability and insufficiency apart from Him.

In the three instances above where I added brackets after the word "can," the Greek word is dunamai. It literally means "to be able, have power, by virtue of one's own ability and resources."³ It is the same word used in John 10:29 to describe the impossibility of snatching a true believer out of God's hand: ". . . no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." Just as it is impossible for a true believer to be snatched away from God, it is impossible for any natural (unregenerate) human being to repent and believe. Only those who are enabled by God's work of regeneration are "granted" the ability to repent and believe (6:65). As Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing" (6:63).

John 8

In John 8, Jesus was speaking to certain Jews who professed to believe in Him (v. 30). When He exposed the false nature of their faith, telling them that they still needed to be set free from sin (vv. 31-36), they were greatly offended. They were fully expecting the Messiah to come, but they had no true understanding of their need to be saved from their own sins. Therefore they exercised no true repentance and certainly no genuine faith in Christ. Jesus saw through their words into their unbelieving, unrepentant hearts, saying to them, "My word has no place in you" (v. 37). These were people who had studied the Old Testament Scriptures from childhood. They viewed their own level of religious understanding as being unsurpassed. But Jesus told them that they did not understand. He also told them that they could not understand:

Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God (vv. 43-47, emphasis added).

Their response was as might be expected. They said He was possessed by a demon (vv. 48, 52). By the end of the conversation, having been assured by Jesus that they were sons of Satan, natural liars, and unable to believe the truth, they were ready to stone Him (v. 59).

John 10

Speaking to some of the same unbelieving Jews, Jesus said:

I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

Three undeniable facts are related in this short passage:

1. Jesus has (i.e., He possesses or owns) a group of people whom He refers to as His sheep.
2. All of His sheep will hear His voice (that is, all will understand and believe).
3. Even when referring to sheep who have not yet believed, Jesus calls them His.

Given those facts, Jesus' next words are sobering, even frightening:

Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, "How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep" (emphasis added).

Remember that Jesus earlier said that He has a certain group of people (His sheep), all of whom will believe. But then He told these men that they did not believe because they were not of His sheep. Jesus did not say what we might have expected—that these men were not His sheep only because they refused to believe. In other words, He was not saying that a person becomes a sheep when he believes. He told these men that the reason for their unbelief was that they were not His sheep. Jesus not only informed these men of their inability to believe at that moment, He also assured them of the inevitability of their continuing unbelief. These men were doomed to destruction without hope (cf. 2 Peter 2:9). God grants repentance and faith to many through His merciful work of regeneration, yet according to Jesus, He had no intention of ever granting it to these men.

We should all seek to imitate Jesus in our Christian life, but we should never say to an unbeliever what Jesus said to these men. We cannot see the heart of man as God sees it (cf. 1 Samuel 16:7; John 2:23-25). We are not given perfect insight, either into the identity of those whom God has appointed to eternal life (cf. Acts 13:48; 1 Thessalonians 2:13), or of those who are appointed to doom (cf. Romans 9:22; 1 Peter 2:8). But this passage still assures us that every person is unable to help himself and totally in the hands of the God who will have mercy on whom He has mercy (cf. Romans 9:15). And when this doctrine is preached in biblical balance with the whole counsel of God, it will accomplish His purpose.

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