03.08 - Chapter 19 - Total Inability
Chapter 19
TOTAL INABILITY
“Our First parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.” (The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, Chapter 6, Section 2; study Romans 8:23; Romans 5:12 ff; Titus 1:15; Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10-19).
Various Views
♦ The Pelagian View. Man has no inability but has full ability to do all that God requires. There is no need of regeneration, or any divine grace in sanctification or spiritual growth.
♦ The Semi-Pelagian View. Man was weakened by the fall, but not all ability was lost. He needs divine grace to assist his personal efforts.
♦ The Augustinian (Reformed) View teaches that man, in Adam, was totally disabled by the fall, and so became wholly dependent on the Spirit of God for the inception and development of spiritual life. “They [Adam and Eve] being the root, and by God’s appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was imputed, and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation, being now conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, the servants of sin, the subjects of death, and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus set them free” (The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, Chapter 6, Section 3; study Romans 5:12-19 b; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 1 Corinthians 15:22, 1 Corinthians 15:45, 1 Corinthians 15:49; Psalms 51:5; Job 14:4; Ephesians 2:3; Romans 6:20; Romans 5:12; Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 Thessalonians 1:10).
Summary The Pelagian says man is well; the Semi-Pelagian says that man is sick; the Reformed view says that man is spiritually dead before God. “From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.” (The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, Chapter 6, Section 4; study Romans 8:7; Colossians 1:21; James 1:14-15; Matthew 15:19).
What inability is not • Inability is not the loss of any faculty of the soul: intellect, feeling, will or conscience.
• Inability is not the loss of free agency.
• Inability does not mean that fallen man possesses no virtues. Fallen and unregenerate men often display many qualities that are admirable.
• Inability does not mean lack of capacity to know God and to receive grace.118 The Meaning of the Doctrine of inability • Inability does mean that fallen man is unable to keep God’s law and merit life by good works.
• Inability means that man is unable to reinstate himself in God’s favor.
• Inability means that man is unable to change his nature, regenerate himself or become holy.
• Inability means that man is unable to exercise right affection or inclination toward God.
"By the fall man contracted an unwillingness to that which is good. All motions of the will in its fallen estate; through defect of a right principle from whence they flow and a right end to which they tend, are only evil and sinful. Leave man to himself, remove from him all the restraints which law and order impose, and he will swiftly degenerate to a lower level than the beasts, as almost any missionary will testify. And is human nature any better in civilized lands? Not a whit. Wash off the artificial veneer and it will be that "the carnal mind is enmity with God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). Christ will prefer the same charge in a coming day when He was here on earth: "Men love darkness rather than light" (John 3:19). Men will not come to Him that they might have life. By the fall man contracted an inability to that which is good. He is not only unfitted and unwilling, but unable to do that which is good. Where is the man that can truthfully say he has measured up to his own ideals? All have to acknowledge there is a strange force within dragging them downward, inclining them to evil, which, notwithstanding their utmost endeavors against it, in some form or other, more or less, conquers them. Despite the kindly exhortations of friends, the faithful warnings of God’s servants, the solemn examples of suffering and sorrow, disease and death on every side, and the vote of their own conscience, yet they yield. ’They that are in the flesh [in their natural condition] cannot please God.’" (Romans 8:18) (A. W. Pink) Scriptural Evidence of inability
♦ John 3:3. "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
♦ John 3:6. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
♦ John 6:44. "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."
♦ John 15:4. "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me."119
♦ John 15:5. "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."
♦ Romans 8:7. "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
♦ 1 Corinthians 15:10. "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
♦ 2 Corinthians 3:5. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."
♦ 1 Corinthians 4:7 "For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?"
♦ Ephesians 2:8. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”
What Can a Person Do in the Process of Salvation?
• A person can prepare the heart to receive the King of glory. The people of Israel were told by John, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." (Mark 1:3) One way to prepare the heart is by considering the content of the gospel message.
• A person can listen to the gospel, learn of the sinfulness of sin and the soul’s inability to save itself, and remember that confessing sins is no substitute for forsaking them.
• A person can examine the perfection of God’s Law and discover how far he falls short of it. "You see the Law in the hands of the Holy Spirit shows a man the sinfulness of his nature. Sin is not merely a matter of actions and deeds; it is something within the heart that leads to the action. Our Lord said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." He does not say, "as long as you do not do the act, all is well." No! He said, "that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.’" (L.R. Shelton, Jr)
• A person can try to obey that Law, which will serve to convince the soul of how impossible it is to keep the Law and earn salvation. "Hear it again! The Law was never given to save us, but to show us the exceeding sinfulness of sin and our far distance from a thrice Holy God. Romans 3:23 tells us the truth: "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." We have come short of God’s glory as revealed in Christ, short of His holiness, short of all that He is in His perfection and therefore abide beneath the curse of His Law. For we read in Galatians 3:10: "Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." And what says the whole Law of God? "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and with all thy strength and to love thy neighbor as thyself.’" (Mark 12:30-31) (L. R. Shelton, Jr) • A person can learn that there is no hope for without divine grace.
• A person can call on God to do the work that cannot be done oneself. The soul can plead with David: “Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalms 51:10) • A person can receive the love of God by grace through faith and say in the day of salvation:
Loved, when a wretch defiled with sin, At war with heaven, in league with hell, A slave to every lust obscene, Who, living, lived but to rebel.
Objections answered against the Doctrine of innate inability
♦ Argument. “If man does not have a free will, then he is not under any moral obligation to keep God’s Law.”
" Answer. That depends on how the inability arose. If it is a created inability then there can be no obligation. But if the inability is acquired, the obligation remains. The Bible teaches in Genesis 2:1-25 that man acquired the inability to please God through the sinful act of deliberate disobedience. Therefore, man is still responsible despite the fact that his will is no longer free. The will became enslaved to sin and needs to be set free from the power and pollution of sin’s bondage..
♦ Argument. “If man is unable to obey the divine law then he is not free.”
" Answer. This objection grows out of a confused idea of freedom. A man is a slave to sin, but acts out of his own inherent proclivities and so is free.
If the question is asked, “Can a sinner repent if he will?” the response is, “That depends on the meaning of ’will.’ If by “will” it is meant that thee is an inclination or being willing on the whole, then the answer is, “Yes.” But that is itself repentance and so all that is meant is, ”Can a sinner repent if he repents?” Pharaoh seemed willing to repent each time the hand of Divine discipline fell on him. However, he could not change his nature and close with the Lord in genuine conversion. If by “will” volition is meant, the answer is, “No!,” for a man cannot change his nature by a mere volition.
♦ Argument. “If there is no ability, then there is nothing for man to do.”
" Answer. While a person cannot heal himself, he can apply to the physician. Man can go to the Savior and ask for salvation.
♦ Argument. “If man has ability to repent in and of himself, then God will wait upon him.”
" Answer. God’s time is now. If man feels his own ability is the issue, then man will take his own time.
♦ Argument. “Why would God command a man to do what he cannot do?”
" Answer. Because God bids us to do so. And further God supplies the needed grace, “My grace is sufficient.”