Thanks Be to God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He “hardens hearts” – that are already bent against Him<\/em> (as are all<\/em> “natural” hearts since the fall in Adam).\u00a0 He did not pervert that which was already<\/em> perverted by Adam’s rebellion!\u00a0\u00a0 And neither did He make hard that which was “soft” – and receptive and obedient and holy and righteous!\u00a0 That which was already corrupted did He further harden as one who commends another on the course he has chosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So it is well stated and illustrated by Moses as recorded way back in Deuteronomy (1:45-2:37). There it is, plain as day; the reason given for the king’s unwillingness to allow Moses and the sons of Israel to pass through the land was that “the Lord hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate.” We are talking about the king – that Pharaoh – who would not let the people go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is God who softens the hearts of persons among wicked humanity – all of which are fallen<\/em> and corrupt<\/em> and unresponsive<\/em> to His Word. Yes, God is dealing with damned humanity, a people well worthy of rejection and punishment. There is not a damned one worth His attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, it is God who has mercy upon whom He<\/em> will have mercy. And it is in this merciful God that we trust and in whom we hope when we think of those little ones who die in the womb or at birth or as infants. Our righteous, holy, good and merciful God may save, according to His sovereign grace, any<\/em> of those who die without hearing the Gospel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But what, again, about this “hardening of the heart”?\u00a0 It is thrown bluntly in our faces by Paul in the ninth chapter of Romans.\u00a0 He hardens the (already corrupt) hearts (yet further) as He chooses!\u00a0 (And may He not do with his damned vessels as He pleases?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is really not all about human choice when it comes to salvation of men from the damnation which they earn and embrace. It is about His sovereign, unspeakable, fabulous, wonderful grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14 Oct., 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thanks Be to God! He “hardens hearts” – that are already bent against Him (as are all “natural” hearts since the fall in Adam).\u00a0 He did not pervert that which was already perverted by Adam’s rebellion!\u00a0\u00a0 And neither did He make hard that which was “soft” – and receptive and obedient and holy and righteous!\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48,50,12,53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3753,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions\/3753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}