RESPONSIBILITY-HUMAN
From the Word
of God I gather that damnation is all of man, from top to bottom, and salvation
is all of grace, from first to last. He
that perishes chooses to perish; but he that is saved is saved because God has
chosen to save him.
If then, you
will be damned, let me have this one thing as a consolation for your misery,
that you are not damned for the lack of calling after; you are not lost for the
lack of weeping after, and not lost for the lack of praying after.
C.H. Spurgeon
The use of
means ought not to lessen our faith in God, and our faith in God ought not to
hinder our using whatever means He has given us for the accomplishment of His
own purposes.
Hudson Taylor
We do not sin
simply because of Satan or because of social deprivation, stressful situations,
bad influences, or any other external cause. Those things may tempt us to sin
and make sinning easier, but when we commit sin – or even intend to commit sin
– it is because we decide to sin. Sin is an act of the will.
John MacArthur
Matthew 1-7, Moody, 1985, p. 290.
Before
we had no choice; now we have one. When we sin as Christians, we do not sin as
slaves, but as individuals with the freedom of choice. We sin because we choose
to sin.
Jerry Bridges
Copied
from The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges, © 1996, p. 57. Used by
permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights
reserved.
It
might be well if we stopped using the terms “victory” and “defeat” to describe
our progress in holiness. Rather we should use the terms “obedience” and
“disobedience.” When I say I am defeated by some sin, I am unconsciously
slipping out from under my responsibility. I am saying something outside of me
has defeated me. But when I say I am disobedient, that places the
responsibility for my sin squarely on me. We may, in fact, be defeated, but the
reason we are defeated is because we have chosen to disobey.
Jerry Bridges
Copied
from The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges, © 1996, p. 81. Used by
permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights
reserved.