Anthony Pritchard
Active Member
Sin and the Command: The Witness of Scripture
The testimony of Scripture presents God as a Savior whose desire is to redeem, not to destroy. The heart of God is revealed in His own words. He does not take pleasure in condemnation, nor does He delight in the death of the wicked. His posture toward mankind is one of mercy and invitation. When men perish, they perish by their own refusal of the grace that is extended to them.
The Lord Jesus declared in John 3:17 to 18, “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved...” Condemnation is not the result of a divine desire to destroy. It is the consequence of unbelief. God’s intention in sending His Son was salvation. The unbeliever stands condemned because he refuses the life offered to him.
Peter affirms the same truth when he writes in 2 Peter 3:9, “...not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” God’s will is that men turn and live. His patience is extended for that very purpose. Ezekiel 33:11 records the Lord’s own declaration, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” These verses reveal the heart of God. He does not send men to hell in the sense of desiring their destruction. His desire is that they repent and live.
If a man goes to hell, he goes by his own free choice. Scripture places responsibility squarely upon the human will. Jesus said in John 5:40, “And ye will not come to me that ye might have life.” The barrier is not divine unwillingness but human refusal. In Matthew 23:37 the Lord laments, “How often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not.” The refusal is theirs. Paul writes in Romans 2:5, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath.” Condemnation is the result of a chosen impenitence. Proverbs 1:29 declares, “For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.” The Scripture consistently presents man as a responsible chooser whose decisions carry eternal consequences.
Hell itself was not created for man. Christ Jesus states plainly in Matthew 25:41, “Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The original design of hell was for rebellious angels. Men enter it only by aligning themselves with that rebellion through unbelief and refusal of grace. If everlasting fire was not prepared for man, then man was not prepared for everlasting fire. If man was not prepared for everlasting fire, then man was not predestined to everlasting fire. The very words of Christ make it impossible to claim that God created men for damnation when He Himself declares that damnation was prepared for another order of beings entirely.
God created man as a free moral agent with the power of choice. From the beginning God has addressed man as a responsible being capable of choosing obedience or disobedience. In Deuteronomy 30:19 the Lord says, “I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life.” Joshua declares in Joshua 24:15, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” Isaiah 1:19 to 20 presents the same truth, “If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land but if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the sword.” Paul writes in Galatians 5:13, “For brethren ye have been called unto liberty.” Liberty implies moral agency. These passages show that God endowed man with genuine freedom and responsibility.
Man also has the ability to resist God and disobey Him. Stephen says in Acts 7:51, “Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.” Luke records in Luke 7:30, “But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves.” Hosea 4:16 describes Israel’s stubbornness with the words, “For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer.” The Scripture never portrays man as a passive object. He is a moral agent who can resist, reject, and turn away from the voice of God.
Because man is responsible, God commands all men to repent and receive His salvation. Paul declares in Acts 17:30, “God now commandeth all men every where to repent.” Jesus proclaims in Mark 1:15, “Repent ye and believe the gospel.” Peter says in Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “We pray you in Christ’s stead be ye reconciled to God.” Romans 10:9 to 13 sets forth the promise of salvation in clear terms. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The Scripture presents a God who desires life for all men. Hell was not made for humanity. Condemnation is the result of man’s own refusal of grace. God created man with the ability to choose, to resist, and to repent. The gospel commands all men everywhere to turn and live. These convictions rest not on sentiment but on the plain testimony of the Word of God.
Conclusion
The entire witness of Scripture presents man as responsible, answerable, and commanded to repent. God calls, invites, urges, pleads, warns, and commands. He sets life and death before men and tells them to choose life. He stretches out His hands all the day to a gainsaying people. He commands all men everywhere to repent. He says that whosoever will may come. He declares that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He promises that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
These commands and invitations are not illusions. They are not shadows cast over a fixed decree. They are not outward forms covering an inward impossibility. They are real. They assume the reality of human choice. They assume the ability to respond. They assume the responsibility to obey. They assume the freedom to repent or refuse.
If salvation were predetermined in such a way that no man could choose, no man could repent, no man could believe, and no man could resist, then the commands of God would be meaningless. The warnings would be empty. The invitations would be deceptive. The pleadings of God would be without purpose. The entire moral structure of Scripture would collapse. The Bible would speak as if man could respond while teaching that he cannot. It would command what it forbids. It would urge what it prevents. It would call men to life while withholding the very ability to come.
Such a contradiction cannot stand. It is not merely incongruent. It is impossible. The volume of Scripture speaks with one voice. God commands men to repent because men can repent. God urges men to believe because men can believe. God warns men not to harden their hearts because men can harden their hearts. God calls men to choose life because men can choose life. The responsibility of man and the sincerity of God’s call rise and fall together.
Predestination, when defined as the fixed determination of who will believe and who will not, cannot exist as truth in the face of the entire testimony of Scripture. The Bible presents a God who desires all men to be saved and a humanity capable of responding to that desire. The commands of God assume the freedom of man. The invitations of God assume the possibility of obedience. The warnings of God assume the danger of refusal. The gospel itself assumes the reality of choice.
The Scripture stands. God calls. Man answers. Salvation is offered to all. Condemnation is the result of refusal. The Word of God leaves no room for a system that denies the very responsibility it commands.
Final Note
This study has been placed in Baptist Theology and Bible Study because it addresses the full biblical doctrine of sin, responsibility, and the divine command to repent. It is more than a rebuttal of Calvinism. It is an examination of the entire Scriptural witness concerning the sincerity of God’s call and the reality of human choice. The subject reaches beyond any single system and belongs within the broader field of Baptist doctrine and biblical truth.
~Tony
© A.K. Pritchard 2020 -
Free to use with proper attribution.
The testimony of Scripture presents God as a Savior whose desire is to redeem, not to destroy. The heart of God is revealed in His own words. He does not take pleasure in condemnation, nor does He delight in the death of the wicked. His posture toward mankind is one of mercy and invitation. When men perish, they perish by their own refusal of the grace that is extended to them.
The Lord Jesus declared in John 3:17 to 18, “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved...” Condemnation is not the result of a divine desire to destroy. It is the consequence of unbelief. God’s intention in sending His Son was salvation. The unbeliever stands condemned because he refuses the life offered to him.
Peter affirms the same truth when he writes in 2 Peter 3:9, “...not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” God’s will is that men turn and live. His patience is extended for that very purpose. Ezekiel 33:11 records the Lord’s own declaration, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” These verses reveal the heart of God. He does not send men to hell in the sense of desiring their destruction. His desire is that they repent and live.
If a man goes to hell, he goes by his own free choice. Scripture places responsibility squarely upon the human will. Jesus said in John 5:40, “And ye will not come to me that ye might have life.” The barrier is not divine unwillingness but human refusal. In Matthew 23:37 the Lord laments, “How often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not.” The refusal is theirs. Paul writes in Romans 2:5, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath.” Condemnation is the result of a chosen impenitence. Proverbs 1:29 declares, “For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.” The Scripture consistently presents man as a responsible chooser whose decisions carry eternal consequences.
Hell itself was not created for man. Christ Jesus states plainly in Matthew 25:41, “Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The original design of hell was for rebellious angels. Men enter it only by aligning themselves with that rebellion through unbelief and refusal of grace. If everlasting fire was not prepared for man, then man was not prepared for everlasting fire. If man was not prepared for everlasting fire, then man was not predestined to everlasting fire. The very words of Christ make it impossible to claim that God created men for damnation when He Himself declares that damnation was prepared for another order of beings entirely.
God created man as a free moral agent with the power of choice. From the beginning God has addressed man as a responsible being capable of choosing obedience or disobedience. In Deuteronomy 30:19 the Lord says, “I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life.” Joshua declares in Joshua 24:15, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” Isaiah 1:19 to 20 presents the same truth, “If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land but if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the sword.” Paul writes in Galatians 5:13, “For brethren ye have been called unto liberty.” Liberty implies moral agency. These passages show that God endowed man with genuine freedom and responsibility.
Man also has the ability to resist God and disobey Him. Stephen says in Acts 7:51, “Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost.” Luke records in Luke 7:30, “But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves.” Hosea 4:16 describes Israel’s stubbornness with the words, “For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer.” The Scripture never portrays man as a passive object. He is a moral agent who can resist, reject, and turn away from the voice of God.
Because man is responsible, God commands all men to repent and receive His salvation. Paul declares in Acts 17:30, “God now commandeth all men every where to repent.” Jesus proclaims in Mark 1:15, “Repent ye and believe the gospel.” Peter says in Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “We pray you in Christ’s stead be ye reconciled to God.” Romans 10:9 to 13 sets forth the promise of salvation in clear terms. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The Scripture presents a God who desires life for all men. Hell was not made for humanity. Condemnation is the result of man’s own refusal of grace. God created man with the ability to choose, to resist, and to repent. The gospel commands all men everywhere to turn and live. These convictions rest not on sentiment but on the plain testimony of the Word of God.
Conclusion
The entire witness of Scripture presents man as responsible, answerable, and commanded to repent. God calls, invites, urges, pleads, warns, and commands. He sets life and death before men and tells them to choose life. He stretches out His hands all the day to a gainsaying people. He commands all men everywhere to repent. He says that whosoever will may come. He declares that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He promises that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
These commands and invitations are not illusions. They are not shadows cast over a fixed decree. They are not outward forms covering an inward impossibility. They are real. They assume the reality of human choice. They assume the ability to respond. They assume the responsibility to obey. They assume the freedom to repent or refuse.
If salvation were predetermined in such a way that no man could choose, no man could repent, no man could believe, and no man could resist, then the commands of God would be meaningless. The warnings would be empty. The invitations would be deceptive. The pleadings of God would be without purpose. The entire moral structure of Scripture would collapse. The Bible would speak as if man could respond while teaching that he cannot. It would command what it forbids. It would urge what it prevents. It would call men to life while withholding the very ability to come.
Such a contradiction cannot stand. It is not merely incongruent. It is impossible. The volume of Scripture speaks with one voice. God commands men to repent because men can repent. God urges men to believe because men can believe. God warns men not to harden their hearts because men can harden their hearts. God calls men to choose life because men can choose life. The responsibility of man and the sincerity of God’s call rise and fall together.
Predestination, when defined as the fixed determination of who will believe and who will not, cannot exist as truth in the face of the entire testimony of Scripture. The Bible presents a God who desires all men to be saved and a humanity capable of responding to that desire. The commands of God assume the freedom of man. The invitations of God assume the possibility of obedience. The warnings of God assume the danger of refusal. The gospel itself assumes the reality of choice.
The Scripture stands. God calls. Man answers. Salvation is offered to all. Condemnation is the result of refusal. The Word of God leaves no room for a system that denies the very responsibility it commands.
Final Note
This study has been placed in Baptist Theology and Bible Study because it addresses the full biblical doctrine of sin, responsibility, and the divine command to repent. It is more than a rebuttal of Calvinism. It is an examination of the entire Scriptural witness concerning the sincerity of God’s call and the reality of human choice. The subject reaches beyond any single system and belongs within the broader field of Baptist doctrine and biblical truth.
~Tony
© A.K. Pritchard 2020 -
Free to use with proper attribution.
