Defining spiritual death
Just as the Arminian idea of Free Will is an exaggeration, the Calvinist definition of spiritual death is, too. Here’s what I derive about it from Scripture:
- The lost are dead to God, as when the prodigal’s father declared his wandering son dead [to himself]. (Luke 15:24) Technically, “dead” is a metaphor. It uses a physical condition to describe a relationship.
- The lost are incapable of receiving spiritual truth (1 Corinthians 2:14) because Satan has blinded them. (2 Corinthians 4:4). This speaks to loss of ability, not cessation of function.
- We might say that dead men do not see, but we do not say that they are blind. Only the living can be blind. (ibid.) Again, “blindness” describes disability without cessation of animation.
- If a person’s spirit is enslaved by sin, it cannot be non-functional. (ibid.) A spirit must be functional in order to lust and then obey that lust.
- The spirits of the dead are conscious in hell, so “the spiritually dead” must not mean “non-functioning spirits.” Non-functioning spirits could not attempt to justify themselves, weep, gnash teeth in rage, or be tormented. (Luke 16:23, and any passage that describes the judgment where the “[spiritually] dead” stand before God)
- The Second Death does not mean a cessation of function. (Revelation 14:11)
This leads one to conclude that “spiritual death” describes the condition of an animated spirit that is addicted to sin, disabled with respect to spiritual truth and righteousness, estranged from God, and under sentence to the Second Death. This places me between Arminian unqualified free will and the Calvinist idea that regeneration precedes faith, because it implies that the Spirit can temporarily or partially reverse bondage and blindness without having regenerated the person.
Defeating spiritual death
The Spirit uses three ingredients to bring about the action of placing faith:
- convicting of sin
- enlightening the understanding
- bestowing faith
These are initial gifts that free a person from spiritual blindness sufficiently to consent to what the Spirit is doing. This is not regeneration, but it leads to it. Regeneration is the bestowal of permanent gifts including a new heart, freedom from sin’s enslavement, reconciliation with God, and many polysyllabic blessings.
This is not God “forcing” conversion. The Spirit convicts the conscience of sin through enlightening the mind so that the preaching of the Law brings guilt and fear of condemnation. This frees one to turn away from various forms of false belief — false religion, self-righteousness, rationalization of sins — which we call repentance. (Note: “Fruits worthy of repentance” are distinct from repentance itself.) The Spirit also bestows understanding of and belief in the gospel. This frees one to trust Christ.
Rather than God “forcing” us to convert, the Spirit, in three areas, frees us to respond to the irresistible beauty of God’s offer. Being freed (*), we respond in repentance and faith, like a moth drawn to a flame or a baby drawn to the mother’s breast. And when we consent, God regenerates us, completing the process.
Consenting (which might take the form of asking through prayer) is not a work. Rather, it is a cessation from work. Many people fold the putting away of sin into repentance, that that turns repentance into working for the gift of salvation -- which is a contradiction in terms! Repentance is a change of mind that, together with regeneration, results in putting away sin.
Part of the idea here is that a dead man cannot put away sin. He is, after all, enslaved by it. Earning salvation through either good works or through giving up sinful actions might be the very things he needs to repent from! The actions that give proof of the change of mind can only come after regeneration.
(* Perhaps the Arminian would be more comfortable if I said, “having had our free will further freed.”)
Copyright 2019, Richard Wheeler: Permission granted for personal use, but please give credit where credit is due.
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