DonP
Puritan Board Junior
Some were saying we needed some threads where we all can agree instead of debate minutia and support people newer to the Doctrines of Grace who may be struggling with these teachings and needing to learn how to see them in scripture or defend them from scripture.
Also how we understand the common objections. rational or scriptures.
So if you would like to share struggles you had or how yo came to understand the confusion or scriptures that cleared things up for you and you have helped others with, Please Post
I will start. For me I always thought I had to receive Jesus and ask for forgiveness and repent of my sin and ask Him to be Lord of my life then the Spirit would give me the new birth and apply the saving work of Christ to me.
When I 1st heard of total depravity in that sense Rom 3:10-12
"There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."
And understood that I would never have sought God unless the Spirit first moved me to, I couldn't do good. Seeking God or repenting and believing would have been good, I realized it was god who had to convert me and give me a new birth of a new nature that could understand spiritual things and believe and repent.
John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;
Acts 16:14The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
1 Cor 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. NKJV
Then the verse made sense John 3:'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
The Spirit first has to give me a new birth and faith to believe. so it is all of grace, not of my will.
Eph 2: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, NKJV
John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Spirit gave me this gift of a new nature that made me willing to believe and desire to do good, please God, so I could obey and understand spiritual things like His word.
So now I get it that it was all of grace, Amazing Grace, gifted to me 1st and received in me and began producing fruit. Or else I would never have really sought God or believed. I was a sinner and selfish. WOW what an eye opener.
Then I began to search the scriptures to understand all of the verses that seemed to be contrary until I got a new perspective on what they could mean.
Who else found a new meaning to verses they once understood differently
Also how we understand the common objections. rational or scriptures.
So if you would like to share struggles you had or how yo came to understand the confusion or scriptures that cleared things up for you and you have helped others with, Please Post
I will start. For me I always thought I had to receive Jesus and ask for forgiveness and repent of my sin and ask Him to be Lord of my life then the Spirit would give me the new birth and apply the saving work of Christ to me.
When I 1st heard of total depravity in that sense Rom 3:10-12
"There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."
And understood that I would never have sought God unless the Spirit first moved me to, I couldn't do good. Seeking God or repenting and believing would have been good, I realized it was god who had to convert me and give me a new birth of a new nature that could understand spiritual things and believe and repent.
John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;
Acts 16:14The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
1 Cor 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. NKJV
Then the verse made sense John 3:'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
The Spirit first has to give me a new birth and faith to believe. so it is all of grace, not of my will.
Eph 2: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, NKJV
John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Spirit gave me this gift of a new nature that made me willing to believe and desire to do good, please God, so I could obey and understand spiritual things like His word.
So now I get it that it was all of grace, Amazing Grace, gifted to me 1st and received in me and began producing fruit. Or else I would never have really sought God or believed. I was a sinner and selfish. WOW what an eye opener.
Then I began to search the scriptures to understand all of the verses that seemed to be contrary until I got a new perspective on what they could mean.
Who else found a new meaning to verses they once understood differently