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Core Christianity: Tough Questions Answered

How Do We Reconcile God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Responsibility in Salvation?

aired March 24, 2020

Episode 407 Show Notes 

From the Show

We have to realize the condition in which we come into the world. We're born, according to Ephesians 2:1–5, born dead in trespasses and sins. So we're born dead spiritually. So that eliminates any activity on our part until God makes us alive and that's what Paul says in verse 5 of Ephesians 2, "while you were dead he made you alive—by grace are you have been saved."

—Michael Horton

Questions in this Episode

1. I confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and asked him to come into my heart and try to believe the gospel and tried to live out the life with his grace but then I fell away. I have been slowly and slowly hardening my heart and living in sin to the point of I would rather live in sin rather than—I guess, to make a long story short, if hell was paradise without God, I guess I would rather go there. So, how do I address my heart condition? I suppose I was never saved to begin with or maybe I was and lost my salvation or I guess I don’t know what’s going on. But I know what I’m doing is not right and I seem to be in a slimy pit.

2. I occasionally listen to your radio program and had a couple of related questions that I was hoping you could address. God explicitly and authoritatively designates the seventh day of creation as a holy day and reminds Abraham’s seed about its holiness in the heart of the Ten Commandments. A change to the Sabbath day as stated in the 4th Commandment would be monumental. Wouldn’t a change to His holy day necessitate an explicit “thus saith the LORD” to set everybody straight as to which day is holy and sanctified by God? Where in the Bible is a change of this magnitude explicitly announced?  

3. How do you reconcile God's sovereignty and man's responsibility in salvation?

 Resources

Putting Amazing Back into Grace: Embracing The Heart Of The Gospel by Michael Horton

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