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Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Bryan McInnis is doing a 5-part series of blog posts on Calvinism. So far, it's worth a read!
I am fully convinced of my own total depravity (i.e. that apart from God’s own initiation and empowering grace I am unable to do anything other than sin).
...
Not only are our actions fallen and fickle, but our motives are as well. We are thoroughly wretched. Paul had a sense of this in Romans 7 when he proclaimed, “wretched man I am!” This, of course, isn’t to say that humanity (apart from Christ) is unable to do helpful things (I’ll deal with this in the “L” portion); however, I believe it is that case that we cannot do (apart from Christ) holy things. A woman donates the money necessary to construct a new wing for a hospital; that’s helpful. But what’s driving her donation? Paul states in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” In other words, any motive for doing anything (no matter how helpful) other than “for the glory of God” is selfish and sinful. How can one ascribe glory to a God he/she refuses to glorify as God? The intended trust of this proclamation and theological reality is not despair and depression; rather, this truth is to send sinners headlong into the unfailing love of Christ, who bore the penalty for our depravity.

The logical conclusion of Total Depravity is that not only are we unable to choose good, but we are equally unable to choose God. Our depravity is so horribly fallen that we cannot (or will not) seek the cross. We are too in love with sin, too in love with ourselves. This reality causes me to worship. I cannot (or will not) seek God, but He has sought me. This is why the incarnation is such a potent reality. Christ has come to us, claimed us and changed our hearts so that in Him, by His power, we can choose good, truth and beauty.

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Darius' book montage

The Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel The Main Thing
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
Overcoming Sin and Temptation
According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible
Disciplines of a Godly Man
Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem
When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Ourselves
The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
Respectable Sins
The Kite Runner
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/calvinist, ... anabaptist/anglican, metho
Show Them No Mercy
The Lord of the Rings
Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming
The Chronicles of Narnia
Les Misérables


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