Quote:
Originally Posted by Originalist
So the fact that God requires repentance somehow means salvation is not a free gift?
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God brings one to repentance.
Romans 2:4
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
No man can be saved as they please. The Father must first draw them,
John 6:44
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:
Without this drawing... one can go through all the motions and still be damned where they stand. Why do so many come to the altars and never receive the Holy Ghost in spite of their "repenting" and "pleading"? It's because either God has not chosen them... or it is not their time. The Father draws whom He has chosen as He so desires.
God leads those whom He has chosen as part of His elect children to repentance. Ask Saul of Tarsus. Saul was well on his way to Damascus to persecute the church when Jesus knocked him off his horse, rebuked him, and blinded him. Leaving Saul helpless, Jesus told Saul to seek out Ananias in order to know what he must do next. To make a long story short, Saul became Paul, he who was called to preach the gospel from his mother's womb. Had God not brought Saul to repentance and left him to his own free will... Saul would have continued on to Damascus to persecute Christians.
God knows exactly when and how to bring an elect child to repentance. And the elect are chosen before the foundation of the world, simply by God's grace, in accordance to His own sovereign will and purpose. And in this... God alone is glorified. His unmerited mercy and grace is fully demonstrated in His elect. Because while they were yet sinners, He loved them and chose them. Not on account of anything in them or anything they would do. For if God had not elected them and moved upon them, they'd never have turned to God of their own accord.
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