Those in Bondage to Sin are Still Duty Bound to Obey God

Those in Bondage to Sin are Still Duty Bound to Obey God

John Owen

All men are born spiritually dead, never having had that life of God which Adam had. In Adam they had it, and in Adam they lost it.

The will of God is the standard of all the obedience God requires of men. [Unregenerate] man, though sinful, is still duty bound to obey God, and God still has the right to demand perfect obedience from sinful man. It is man's fault that he cannot obey God, not God's. If God commands me to do a certain duty which I do not want to do and in order not to do it I deliberately cripple myself, he would be absolutely just and right to punish me for not doing that duty, even though by my own deliberate act I have made myself unable to do it. So it is with sin.

Exhortations, promises and threatening in Scripture do not tell us what we can do, but what we ought to do. They show us our state of spiritual death and our inability to do any spiritual good. God is pleased to make these exhortations and promises the means by which we can receive spiritual life (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23)

When the Holy Spirit intends to regenerate a person, he removes all obstacles, overcomes all resistance and opposition, and infallibly produces the result he intended.

Before the work of grace the heart is 'stony'. It can do no more than a stone to please God. A stony heart is obstinate and stubborn. But God says he will take away this stony heart (Ezek 11:19). He does not say he will try and take it away, or give us some power so that we can take it away ourselves, but that he will take it away. When God says he will take it away, he means that he will infallibly take it away and that nothing can stop him taking it away. He promises to give us a new heart and a new spirit. 'I will give you a new heart (Ezek 36:26). He does this in order that we may fear him and walk in his ways. He has promised to write his law on our hearts. This simply means he will put within us an ability and power to walk in obedience to him (e.g., Acts 16:14).

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Source: The Holy Spirit, by John Owen

Also available as a free eBook under the title, The Work of the Holy Spirit in Regeneration.  

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"And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God." Ezek 11:19-20

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." Ezek 36;26-27

"And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." Deut 30:6[John 6:63, 65, 37, 17:2; Matthew 16:17; Eph 2:1, 5, 8-9]

 

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Vistor Question: How can there be responsibility if and when there's no ability?How can a legless man walk? If he was born without legs and you tell him to walk but was not able, should he be punished for not walking? In the first place, he has no legs, how can he obey you? How can he walk?

Response:Our inability is moral, not physical.. As an every day example, if you were starting a company and borrowed $10 million from the bank but instead took the money to squander it in a week of wild living in Las Vegas, your inability to repay the loan does not alleviate your responsibility to do so. The bank has every right to demand you to repay it. Likewise our sin debt is one we cannot repay, but God still has the authority to demand you pay it all. But thanks be to God, Jesus has repaid our debt in full.

We all have solidarity with Adam. He was our federal resprentative. We fell in him. "by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man. (Rom 5:17) and "through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners" (Rom 5:19). If you think it is not fair that Adam's sin is imputed to us, then likewise you would have to reason that it is not fair that Jesus' righteousness is freely imputed to us. Every time you sin, you demonstrate your "yes and Amen" to Adam representing you. But even without Adam's sin your current sin would bring upon you spiritual death and a debt you cannot repay. In light of God's law, you yourself have done enough to squander God's favor, so there is still no excuse. Your own sin has made you spiritually bankrupt and in need of God's sovereign mercy. 

"...through the law comes knowledge of sin." Romans 3:20