For redemption of fallen man, Jesus says one must be born again. ( John 3:3) Why use the term born again? Because the Bible explains that fallen man is dead to sin. If we are already spiritually dead we will need to be reborn. Here are four verses to reference as we read this excerpt from Spurgeon's sermon titles, Salvation is of the Lord.
“The mind of sinful man is death; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so." (Romans 8:6-8)
“You were dead in your transgressions and sins. But because of his
great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ
even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been
saved” (Eph. 2:1-5)
“All who were appointed for eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48)
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is [has been] born of God” (1 John 5:1)
C.H. Spurgeon
So far we are all agreed: but now we shall have to separate a bit. "Salvation is of the Lord" in the application of it.
"No," says the Arminian, "it is not; salvation is of the Lord, inasmuch
as he does all for man that he can do; but there is something that man
must do, which if he does not do, he must perish." That is the Arminian
way of salvation. Now last week I thought of this very theory of
salvation, when I stood by the side of that window of Carisbrooke
castle, out of which King Charles of unhappy and unrighteous memory,
attempted to escape. I read in the guide book that every thing was
provided for his escape; his followers had means at the bottom of the
wall to enable him to fly across the country, and on the coast they had
their boats lying ready to take him to another land; in fact every thing
was ready for his escape. But here was the important circumstance: his
friends had done all they could; he was to do the rest; but that doing
the rest was just the point and brunt of the battle. It was to get out
of the window, out of which he was not able to escape by any means, so
that all his friends did for him went for nothing, so far as he was
concerned. So with the sinner. If God had provided every means of
escape, and only required him to get out of his dungeon, he would have
remained there to all eternity. Why, is not the sinner by nature dead in
sin? And if God requires him to make himself alive, and then afterward
he will do the rest for him, then verily, my friends, we are not so much
obliged to God as we had thought for; for if he require so much as that
of us, and we can do it, we can do the rest without his assistance. The
Romanists have an extraordinary miracle of their own about St. Dennis,
of whom they tell the lying legend that after his head was off be took
it up in his hands and walked with it two thousand miles; whereupon,
said a wit, "So far as the two thousand miles go, it is nothing at all;
it is only the first step in which there is any difficulty." So I
believe, if that is taken, all the rest can be easily accomplished. And
if God does require of the sinner—dead in sin—that he should take the
first step, then he requireth just that which renders salvation as
impossible under the gospel as ever it was under the law, seeing man is
as unable to believe as he is to obey, and is just as much without power
to come to Christ as he is without power to go to heaven without
Christ. The power must be given to him of the Spirit. He lieth dead in
sin; the Spirit must quicken him. He is bound hand and foot and fettered
by transgression; the Spirit must cut his bonds, and then he will leap
to liberty. God must come and dash the iron bars out of their sockets,
and then he can escape from the window, and make good his escape
afterward; but unless the first thing be done for him, he must perish as
surely under the gospel as he would have done under the law. I would
cease to preach, if I believed that God, in the matter of salvation,
required any thing whatever of man which be himself had not also engaged
to furnish. For how many have I frequently hanging upon my lips of the
worst of characters—men whose lives have become so horribly bad, that
the lip of morality would refuse to give a description of their
character? When I enter my pulpit am I to believe that these men are to
do something before God's Spirit will operate upon them? If so, I should
go there with a faint heart, feeling that I never could induce them to
do the first part. But now I come to my pulpit with a sure
confidence—God the Holy Spirit will meet with these men this morning.
They are as bad as they can be; he will put a new thought into their
hearts; he will give them new wishes; he will give them new wills, and
those who hated Christ will desire to love him; those who once loved sin
will, by God's divine Spirit, be made to hate it; and here is my
confidence, that what they can not do, in that they are weak through the
flesh, God sending his Spirit into their hearts will do for them, and
in them, and so they shall be saved.
