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NASB | Romans 1:16 ¶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 1:16 ¶ I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation [from His wrath and punishment] to everyone who believes [in Christ as Savior], to the Jew first and also to the Greek. |
Subject: Clarification from John Reformed...? |
Bible Note: Dear Brent, The human race in it's fallen condition wants nothing to do with God or His Son. They are in rebellion against Him and would crucify Jesus again if given the opportunity. I don't believe we truly understand the depth to which Adam and his decendents have fallen. I contend that unless a man be born again he cannot even see the Kingdom of God! Being dead in trespasses and sin, he has no desire for spiritual truth and in fact cannot even recieve it. His salvation is totaly dependent on the grace of God. Saving faith is a gift from God bestowed upon those He has chosen from before the foundation of the world. He chose them not on the basis of any work that He foresaw them performing in the future (that would make God dependent on something outside of Himself) but according to His good pleasure. This view of God "Almighty" is the view held by the fathers of the Protestant faith, and was based on the Scripture alone. The modern popular view that places salvation in the hands of fallen mankind is dead wrong. Consider Pauls description of the "deadness" of the unregenerated (Ro 1 and 2). Can a dead man raise himself to new life through an action of his own will? The unregenerate man is a child of the devil. John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father." Eph 2:1,2 "And you were dead in your trespasses and sin in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." 1 John 5:19 "We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." Rom 3:9-12 "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." Until one gains a true perception of the hopelessness of fallen mankind he can never appreciate the fullness of God,s grace to those of us who have been saved. John |