How can sinful man make his will say, ‘Accept Christ’, when his will and feelings have been so affected by the fall that he does not/cannot understand spiritual things, and does not seek after God?

This text is an extract from a transcript of a Q&A session given by David Gooding entitled ‘God is on the Throne and in Control’ (1998).

These are very perceptive questions, and they come from that understanding of the problem that is somewhat different from mine. This is admitting, in the first place, that God gave sinless Adam and Eve free will; the ability, therefore, to obey or not to obey God, and the ability to choose which they would do. Since the fall, all have been ruined.

You ask, 'Does it follow, therefore, that those born after the fall have the ability to worship and obey God in a way that is acceptable to him?' If you put the question just like that, sinful people do not have the ability to worship God in a way that is acceptable to him. They are called upon to worship God. The 'eternal gospel' mentioned in the Revelation 14 is an appeal to all the inhabitants of earth to 'worship him who made heaven and earth' (Revelation 14:6–7). Worship, in that sense, means to bow down and acknowledge the superiority and the deity of God. Many a man does that who is not yet born again. He is not yet saved, but he acknowledges that there is a creator.

John 4. But if you go further, and ask, 'Have they the ability to worship God in a way that is acceptable to him?' our Lord told the woman at Samaria that 'God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth' (John 4:24). In that sense, without the Holy Spirit men and women are not able to worship God as he should be worshipped.

But now what follows from that? Can a sinful man or woman, born of Adam, be brought to worship God acceptably? Yes: through the gospel. How does God bring people to worship him? By revealing his Son to them. When Peter realized that Jesus was the Son of God, our Lord replied, 'flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven' (Matthew 16:17). God revealed this to Peter.

John 6. The question arises: when God reveals himself to someone, does that someone have choice any longer? Can they shut their eyes to it? Yes! If you're in the dark physically and I bring in a light, you can choose whether you're going to look at it or shut your eyes. When God reveals his Son, do people still have the choice whether they will receive him, or whether they will shut their eyes? That's the point of issue.

When the Jews came to Christ he said, 'I've come down from heaven to do my Father's will, and if you wish to have eternal life you must eat my flesh and drink my blood.' The Jews said, 'That's absolute nonsense, we know his father and mother. How can he say, "I've come down from heaven"?' Our Lord's reply was, 'Yes, gentlemen, it is difficult; but then you can't come to me unless my Father draws you---you'll never understand it unless my Father explains it' (see John 6:41–44).

But now the question is: does the Father draw everybody or only some? The answer is given in the context. 'It is written in the Prophets, "And they will all be taught by God."' (John 6:45). Yes, of course God takes the initiative in the salvation of everybody that is saved. It's his idea; we didn't think up salvation. You didn't come to God one day and say, 'Look, we are all miserable sinners, God, but may I suggest that you should consider having mercy on us, and perhaps you would even consider sending your Son into the world to die for us?'

That wasn't your thought or suggestion. Of course not. God is sovereign and he takes the initiative. 'Who has known the mind of the Lord . . . Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?' (Romans 11:34–35). God initiates salvation: the Father sent the Son, and the Father draws people to the Son. But that doesn't mean they have no choice; they can refuse. That what it says at the end of Romans 10.

The question goes on to say, 'Man wills to do what his mind and/or feelings direct. How can sinful man make his will say, "Accept Christ", when both his will and feelings have been so affected by the fall that he does not/cannot understand spiritual things, and does not seek after God?'

That is a problem. It is the fact that we have all been ruined by the fall and are dead in trespasses and in sins. But let me start with that simple analogy that our Lord himself used in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32). According to the prodigal's father, when the prodigal was away in the far country, he was dead. The father said to the elder brother, 'for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found' (Luke 15:32). Does that mean that when the prodigal was down in the far country he couldn't think anything about his father at all? No, because he did think about him.

Then Ephesians 2:1: 'you were dead in the trespasses and sins . . .' Does that mean that we were literally dead and couldn't see the difference between right and wrong? No, it doesn't mean anything of the sort. '. . . in which you once walked'—we were in some sense alive, but dead to God.

John 7. Our Lord is talking to the Jews in the temple (see John 7:14–24). They are unregenerate, and they're about to stone him. 'Gentlemen, you want to know about my teaching and you say "how is it that this man has learning?"' Then he starts to argue with them. 'Use your critical judgment on my teaching. You're about to kill me because I healed a man on the Sabbath day, but think for a moment. Moses commanded that a boy should be circumcised when he is eight days old. If that eighth day was a Sabbath, the law of circumcision comes before the law of Sabbath, and he must be circumcised on the Sabbath. The law of circumcision takes precedence over the law of Sabbath. If that's what Moses said, I appeal to you to judge righteous judgment,' said Christ.

You say, 'Is he appealing to redeemed believers?'

No, he's talking to unregenerate Jews, calling on them to use their moral judgment and assess the quality of his teaching.

He says, 'For if Moses was right to permit circumcision on the Sabbath, will you accuse me of sinning because I have made a man's whole body well on the Sabbath?'

So here Christ is urging unregenerate men to use their moral judgment on his teaching.

John 8. And then our Lord does another thing. He shines the light, not on himself and his teaching, but on those men. Could they see that they were sinners? Could they see the light? They certainly could, but they turned from it and ran away (John 8:9). They could see it all right. It's quite false to think that unregenerate people cannot see the difference between right and wrong. A man knows that he's a sinner, and when he comes near to Christ he becomes conscious of his sin.

It's pushing the metaphor too far to say, 'Because people are dead in trespasses and sins, they can't come to any right moral judgment.' They can.

If you doubt that, the next time a man gets out of a Rolls-Royce at your local bank, steal his Rolls-Royce and see whether he's got any moral judgment.

Yes, men and women have moral judgment. Christ shines the light of his truth into their moral judgment and asks them to use it to see that he is the Son of God. For that they will need their eyes open. This is a spiritual thing, and Christ is willing to open their eyes (John 8:12).

John 9. How did he do it for the blind man? Did he say, 'Eyes, open,' and his eyes were opened at once? No. He made clay and put it on the man's eyes, but the man still couldn't see. Did the man have to do anything before he could see? Yes, he did. He had to go down to the pool of Siloam, and wash.

Can you imagine the man saying to himself, 'What? He's made clay and put it on my eyes, and now I've got to find my way through the city to the pool of Siloam? This sounds crazy to me. Shall I do it; is there any point in doing it?'

So he had to make up his mind about Christ even before he set out to the pool. Had he any evidence on which to make up his mind? Well, yes, he had. He could ask himself, 'Is this Jesus actually a charlatan? Is he a fool?' He'd heard of what Jesus could do for other people, so there was evidence galore upon which he could come to the tentative conclusion that it was worth making the experiment, doing what Jesus said and finding out whether it worked. He made the experiment, and was able to see.

It is not true that we have to sit here passively, and we can't do anything if we would be saved. It is the fact that we are ruined by the fall, but we can still use our moral judgment. We can allow Christ to shine into our hearts, and when he shines, instead of running away, we must make up our minds that we're going to stay in the light. If we do that, like the woman taken in adultery, he will show us the way of forgiveness and reconciliation.