Greetings Pilgrim,
Thanks for your biblically contextual exposition. It was most kind of you, and I appreciated it.
I don't have any additional insight to add really, since I agree with everything you've said. Truly, what "
boggles my mind" the most here is the thought of the impossibility of obtaining salvation for my soul in any way by any means of my own personal autonomy, or merit, or free will. Or even better, as you assert:
"He [Paul] then shows the chasm which exists between the 'natural' man, i.e., the unregenerate/unconverted man, who not only does not receive the gospel but indeed he cannot comprehend it, i.e., in its absolute sense, to embrace it with his mind and heart wholly. This is due to the fact that the natural man is spiritually dead (Eph 2:1,5; Col 2:13) AND totally void of the indwelling Spirit who is the one who gives spiritual life."
I agree with this, for it is in line with the Bible...And...Wow. J. Gresham Machen was so right in asserting that, "Christianity is a supernatural thing." For how can the natural unregenerate man/woman understand the working of God's Holy Spirit in a convicted soul? Only if God so pleases to draw them.
Running along with you on the same track I hope, I appreciated reading what Mathew Henry once wrote on this matter:
"The great truths of the gospel are things lying out of the sphere of human discovery:
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard them, nor have they entered into the heart of man. were they objects of sense, could they be discovered by an eye of reason, and communicated by the ear to the mind, as matters of common human knowledge may, there had been no need of a revelation. But, lying out of the sphere of nature, we cannot discover them but by the light of revelation. And therefore we must take them as they lie in the Scriptures, and as God has been pleased to reveal them."
He also has some additional excellent contextual commentary of his own that I could queue in, but it would only be in tune with your "cannon".
To conclude my not-so-contextual reply, as I read your words, "...to embrace it with his mind and heart wholly." I couldn't help but insert this wonderful quote by B. B. Warfield,
"Authority, intellect and the heart are the three sides of the triangle of truth. How they interact is observable in any concrete instance of their operation. Authority in the Scriptures: for instance the matter which is received in the intellect and operates on the heart. The revelation of the Scriptures do not terminate upon the intellect; they were not given merely to enlighten the mind. They were given, through the intellect, to beautify the life. They terminate on the heart. Again, they do not, in affecting the heart, leave the intellect untouched. They cannot be fully understood by the intellect acting alone. The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God; they must first convert the soul before they are fully comprehended by the intellect. Only as they are lived, are they understood. Hence the phrase, 'Believe that you may understand' has its fullest validity. No man can intellectually grasp the full meaning of the revelation of authority, save as the result of an experience of their power in life. Hence, that the truths concerning divine things may be so comprehended that they may unite with the true system of divine truth, they must be first revealed in an authoritative Word; second, experienced in a holy heart; and third, formulated by a sanctified intellect. Only as these three unite then can we have a true theology. And equally, that these same truths may be so received that they beget in us a living religion, they must be first revealed in an authoritative Word; second, apprehended by a sound intellect; and third, experienced in an instructed heart. Only as these three unite then can we have a vital religion."
Finally, thanks for your conclusion:
Colossians 1:12-13 (ASV) "giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love;"
I'll strive harder to make it my chief end to "give thanks unto the Father," for that gift of salvation He has so granted me, repenting of my sins, and hopefully "looking unto to Jesus, the Author and finisher of our faith."
The LORD bless you!
-Fay
