The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Gods Character??

Joe,

You are certainly correct that regenerate individuals do not always choose what is right and they do sin, unless of course one holds to some form of Perfectionism. However, I must disagree just as surely with your statement that "Sinners also do choose good according to man's understanding". Yes, according to the eyes of the unregenerate, others do appear to do "good", but more so, they preen themselves that they do even more "good". Now, there is no argument that the unregenerate's acts toward other men do result in some benefit, relatively speaking. Helping an elderly person across the street, donating to the poor, etc., etc.. are indeed acts of beneficence. But whether they are "good" is another question and even more so WHY the unregenerate do such acts is more salient to this issue. Let me provide a relevant passage which I believe answers such questions:

Genesis 20:1-6 (ASV) "And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the land of the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur. And he sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister. And Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, because of the woman whom thou hast taken. For she is a man's wife. Now Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou slay even a righteous nation? Said he not himself unto me, She is my sister? And she, even she herself said, He is my brother. In the integrity of my heart and the innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in the dream, Yea, I know that in the integrity of thy heart thou has done this, and I also withheld thee from sinning against me. Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her."

What should be most apparent here is that Abimelek's appearance of "righteousness" was not attributable to himself but to God, Who in His divine providence withheld his hand from doing what he really and naturally would have otherwise done. So, yes.. in the eyes of men what appears to be "good" are actually the result of the hand of God restraining acts of evil. (cf. 2Thess 2:6, 7) Since an unregenerate individual is totally incapable of doing any actual/real good, since the heart of a sinner is predisposed only to evil (cf. Gen 6:5; 8:21; Jer 17:7, etc.), the least thing the unregenerate desire is to do good.

We must guard ourselves from swinging the pendulum too far the other way when we find an error.

In His grace,