Until we see the depth of our sin, we’ll never understand our absolute need for a Savior. Today, R.C. Sproul examines Jesus’ teaching that salvation is the sovereign work of God alone. This week, we’re celebrating 30 years of Renewing Your Mind. With your donation of any amount, you can receive R.C. Sproul’s book Everyone’s a Theologian, plus lifetime digital access to 5 complete teaching series and digital study guides from Dr. Sproul: Chosen by God, Dust to Glory, The Holiness of God (original and expanded editions), Knowing Scripture, and What Is Reformed Theology?: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3619/resource-collection Never contacted Ligonier before? Request your free copy of R.C. Sproul’s booklet introducing the Bible’s message of salvation, The Great Rescue: https://renewingyourmind.org/rescue Meet Today’s Teacher: R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
We insist that the first step of our justification, that which quickens us from spiritual death and enables us to come to Jesus at all, is the gracious work of God the Holy Spirit and is never the fruit of the flesh.
The Apostle Paul reminded the church in Ephesus that before someone becomes a Christian, they are dead in trespasses and sins. Since unbelievers are spiritually dead, how can anyone come to Christ? This is the Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. And 30 years ago this month, this daily outreach was launched by R.C. Sproul.
Three decades later, we also have a global podcast audience and we've just launched a new YouTube channel. So be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications. All week we are giving thanks to God for 30 years of broadcasting truth. And if you have never contacted Renewing Your Mind or Ligonier Ministries before, we have a free gift for you.
Simply visit renewingyourmind.org slash rescue and we'll send you a new book from Dr. Sproul, The Great Rescue. And stay tuned after today's message to hear R.C. Sproul's reflections on what it means to renew your mind. Here's Dr. Sproul on the radical fallenness of man.
In this session, I want us to give some attention now to some very crucial statements that Jesus made regarding man's ability or the lack of it. Turn our attention first of all to the sixth chapter of John's gospel where Jesus says in verse 65, And he was saying, For this reason I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it is given to him by the Father. Now let's look at that verse.
No one can come to me unless it is given to him by the Father. The first two words in this statement, no one, or some translations read no man, no person, no one, that statement, if we apply the categories of logic to this and the laws of immediate inference and so on, we see that this statement is what we call a universal negative. That is to say, it is all-inclusive.
What Jesus is saying is, without exception, there is no human being who, whatever it is He's going to say about them, that is, can come to Him unless it is given to Him of the Father. So this is an absolute. It's a negative absolute. And we have to understand that. Now the next word is also crucial to our understanding. It is the word can. No one can.
Now the word can, or at least the word that is used here in the Greek text, is less ambiguous than the word can is in our language because in our language the word can is often mistaken for what other word? May. May. That's right, we've all been corrected. I remember when we were children and going to school, and we'd put our hands up and say, teacher, can I sharpen my pencil?
And she would always say, I'm sure you can, and you also may. And she would then take that opportunity to teach us that lesson that seemed so difficult for us to learn of the difference between the word may, which suggests permission, and the word can. The word can has to do with ability.
So what this verse is saying is that to say that no man can is to say that no one has the ability to do something. If I say no one can run 30 miles an hour, that means no one has the ability to run 30 miles an hour or 300 miles an hour. I don't know how fast people can run. All right, now what is it that no one has the ability to do that Jesus is talking about here?
No one has the ability to come to Me, He says. Now let me ask this question. Does man in and of himself according to Jesus, have the ability to come to Jesus? No. Do some men have the ability to come to Jesus in and of themselves? No. No man can come to Jesus, no man can come to me, unless
Now we see a clause that follows that we call an acceptive clause unless introduces an exception and unless points to what we call in philosophy a necessary condition. Now what is a necessary condition? a prerequisite, something that has to happen before something else can possibly happen. That's what a prerequisite is.
And so Jesus is saying that there is a necessary condition that must be met before anyone can come to Him. Now what does He identify in this verse as the necessary condition for anyone to be able to come to Him? unless the Father gives it to him. Or other translations, unless it is granted by the Father. Another translation reads, unless the Father enables him.
Now those words don't all mean the same thing. To grant means to give permission. To give means to give a gift. And to enable means to empower. All right? So there is a certain ambiguity here about what that necessary condition is. And there's another question that is still hanging out here, and that is, if a necessary condition is provided...
Now we're not talking about coming to Jesus in any situation. If a necessary condition is provided in a situation, does a necessary condition guarantee that the result you want will in fact take place? No, that's why we make a distinction between necessary conditions and sufficient conditions. A sufficient condition is a condition that if it is met, guarantees the result. It suffices.
So all of this verse is teaching is that in terms of man's natural ability, none of us has the ability in and of ourselves to come to Christ unless God does something. We're still not sure exactly what it is that God does. And we're still not sure that if God does it, it will guarantee that people will come. All we know is that whatever it is that God does is a necessary condition, a prerequisite.
Okay? Now the classical Arminian approach to this or semi-Pelagian approach to this is that nobody can come to Jesus unless the Father entices him or woos him. Again, that's usually tied into some notion of prevenient grace. or the influence of the Holy Spirit to woo and to entice. And the word draw here is interpreted to mean to woo or to attract, just as honey draws bees and lights draw moths.
But the idea is that the drawing that God does is still resistible. and those who respond to the enticement, those who respond to being wooed, are then redeemed according to Arminianism, and those who do not respond to being drawn are subsequently lost. The Augustinian interpretation of the verse is that the word to draw means more than simply to entice or to woo.
Now, let's see how this Greek word is used elsewhere in the New Testament. If we would turn our Bibles here to James chapter 2, verse 6, we will find this same Greek word used in the New Testament. I shall read the verse. But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?
I'm going to ask you to guess which word is used in this verse that is exactly the same Greek word that is translated by the word draw in John 6. Does anybody have a guess? Drag. Now let's supply the semi-Pelagian interpretation. Okay? Let's look at another one. Let's look at Acts chapter 16, verse 19, which I will read.
When her master saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. Can you guess again which word in this text is the same Greek word? Again, it's the word dragged. Again, substitute entice or woo. They seized Paul and Silas and wooed them into the marketplace before the authorities.
This text clearly indicates an act of force in dragging Paul and Silas into the marketplace. Now it would make you wonder why it is that the translators use the word draw rather than the word drag. And I can only guess, and I'll try to guess in a moment, but first let me just go further.
Whenever we have doubt as to the precise meaning of a word in the Scriptures, the first thing we do is that we go to the Greek, but then after we go to the Greek, we're still dependent upon the science of linguistics and lexicography in order to have an understanding of the meaning of that term at the time it was used in the writing of the documents.
I think it's safe to say that in the academic world, the most highly respected linguistic and lexicographical source that the church has ever had for the meaning of Greek words is Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. In Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, the word that is being translated draw here in this text is defined by Kittel as meaning to compel
by irresistible superiority. I might add that the framers of the dictionary were anything but Calvinistic, but they recognize that the classical, that is the meaning in the Greek language of this verb, is to compel. The force of this verb is the force of divine compulsion. And if that is true,
then I would say that verse and that verse alone is sufficient to end the debate forever with respect to man's ability or lack of it to incline himself to choose Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Himself says that no man can do it unless the Father compels him to do it. And that is pure Augustinianism only stated much earlier than Saint Augustine.
But if that isn't sufficient with respect to man's ability, let's look earlier in chapter 3 of John's Gospel. where John describes the encounter that Jesus has with the Pharisee, the theologian, Nicodemus, in which he says in verse 3, Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless... What does that word indicate? What's coming? A necessary condition. Unless...
One is born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Now what has to happen, according to Jesus, before a person can see the kingdom of God? He has to be born again. So regeneration precedes seeing the kingdom of God. Is that a legitimate interpretation of this passage? In fact, nobody can see it at all Unless they are first, what? Born again, regenerate. All right.
Now he goes on to say, Nicodemus' puzzle, how can a man be born when he is old? He can't enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. So regeneration is a prerequisite for entering and seeing the kingdom of God.
Semipelagians have people choosing Christ before they are regenerate. Semi-Pelagians have people in their human nature cooperating with prevenient grace, responding to this wooing and enticing and attracting of God the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit is not yet in them having regenerated them.
So the bottom line is the Arminian position has people who are not yet born again seeing and choosing the king of the kingdom of God. Boggles the mind, doesn't it? That's why the axiom of Augustinian theology is this, regeneration of precedes faith.
Regeneration is seen as a necessary condition for faith, even as Paul elsewhere teaches in Ephesians 2 when he says that while we were dead in sin and trespasses, God has quickened us, that is made us alive in Christ, okay, when we were dead in And then tells us that therefore it is by grace you are saved through faith and that is not of yourselves but is the gift of God.
And so we see faith is the gift of God that is the result of the Spirit's work of regeneration within us. That God Himself supplies the necessary condition. to come to Jesus. That's why it is sola gratia, by grace alone, that we are saved. Now, Jesus says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you,
that you must be born again. Jesus is saying, why should this surprise you? You're a theologian, Nicodemus. Don't you understand the fundamental point of man's fallen nature that that which is born of the flesh is flesh? And elsewhere he tells us that the flesh profits what? Nothing.
But if we believe that God entices us to Christ and all we have to do in the flesh prior to our regeneration is cooperate or assent to that, if we can in fact cooperate and assent to prevenient grace, to the end that we enter into the kingdom of God and are redeemed forever, and we're doing that while we're still in the flesh, then I ask you, what would the flesh profit?
Not just something, everything. Your eternal salvation. Oh, Paul speaks about this himself in chapter 8, verse 7 of the book of Romans. Let's start at verse 5. For those who are according to the flesh... set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do it." Now here the apostle tells us something about man's moral inability in the flesh. He says that man in his fallen state, in the flesh, is hostile to the law of God.
And he does not obey the law of God. He is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed what? Can he be? So that fallen man, the apostle is saying here, is he not, cannot obey the law of God. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. I might add to you that if God only wooed us to Christ and left it to us to make the final decision, I can't think of anything better.
that would please God more than that we would respond positively to that enticement and to that willing. But the apostle here tells us that in the flesh there's nothing that man can do to please God. But now here is the crushing point. Verse 9, however, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit How do we know if somebody's in the flesh or in the spirit?
You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. The next word is crucial.
If.
What does if indicate? A necessary condition. That's right. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now, how many regenerate people have the Spirit of God dwelling in them? All of them. Okay? So if you are regenerate, then you are no longer in the flesh. If you are in the flesh, you are not regenerate. Is that clear?
So when he speaks about those in the flesh, he is speaking of unregenerate people. And it's unregenerate people who cannot please God, who cannot obey God, who cannot do or be subject to God, who experience this dreadful situation of moral inability about which we have been speaking. But
if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. He goes on to say, however, if anyone does have the Spirit of Christ, then he does belong to Christ. And so that the crucial prerequisite for salvation is is a work of the Holy Spirit that is the necessary condition, the prerequisite for faith to be present.
That's why we insist that the first step of our justification, that which quickens us from spiritual death and makes us and enables us to come to Jesus at all, is the gracious work of God the Holy Spirit and is never the fruit of the flesh.
You're listening to Renewing Your Mind as we celebrate 30 years of broadcasting truth. That was R.C. Sproul from his classic series, Chosen by God.
This series, along with Dust to Glory, Knowing Scripture, both editions of The Holiness of God, and What is Reformed Theology, along with their study guides, can be yours when you give a 30th anniversary donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343.
In addition to lifetime digital access to those resources, we'll send you Dr. Sproul's book, Everyone's a Theologian. Thank you for helping fuel the next 30 years of Renewing Your Mind. So what does it mean to renew your mind? Here's R.C. Sproul's answer when he was interviewed on the 10th anniversary of Renewing Your Mind.
Well, this is the point. Before we're converted, you know, when you walk like a duck and you quack like a duck, chances are you're a duck. And when you're unconverted, you think like an unconverted person and you act like an unconverted person.
The Old Testament tells us that as a man thinks in his heart, that is at the core of his being, not just the superficial thoughts that may go across his brain waves for a second, but that which he thinks about deeply, that which takes a hold of him and grabs him at the core of his being, as a man thinketh there in his heart, so is he.
And so, if we want to be transformed, and that's what Paul is talking about at the end of his great letter on redemption in the book of Romans. You know, he says, ìTherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye transformed, right? Present yourselves as living sacrifices unto God, which is your acceptable worship, and so on.î Then he says, ìBe ye transformed, not conformed to this world.î
An unconverted person is conformed to the patterns and the way of thinking of a fallen world. But a Christian who is converted is called not to conformity, but to transformation, to be transformed people, changed lives. And the question is, how does that happen? And what Paul teaches us there is the way you're transformed is in your life is to be, first of all, transformed in your mind.
It's by gaining the mind of Christ to begin to understand things the way Christ looks at them, to love the things that Christ loves, to hate the things that Christ hates. You're not going to act like a Christian until you think like a Christian. I mean, there are plenty of people who think like Christians but don't really act like Christians because the thought never gets down into the bloodstream.
But if we really want to be different, if we want to be conformed to the image of Christ, we have to be trained by the Word of God. The Word of God has to take a hold of us and grab us in the heart. That's what this is about. This isn't just about education or tickling our intellectual interests and fascinations. This is about redemption.
This is about redemption. So if you've never contacted us before, we would love to send you R.C. Sproul's new title, The Great Rescue, for you to read or share with someone who needs to know the good news. Visit renewingyourmind.org slash rescue and we'll send it to you for free. Join us tomorrow as you'll hear another classic message from R.C.
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