THE MORAL BASIS OF FAITH, by Tom Wells

A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance

by Steve West

 

Summary

 

Section 1

“If we did not know better we might suppose that every man who saw Jesus felt drawn to him.” When we think of Jesus’s holiness and moral purity, his authority in teaching, his miraculous signs, and his absolute sinlessness, it would be natural to think that everyone would love him and come to him. We know, however, that the scriptural record is filled with cases of people who were initially attracted to Jesus but ended up rejecting him. This is not because of a lack in Jesus, it is because of the sinful depravity of man. This depravity is a moral barrier to accepting Christ that somehow must be overcome.

Many Christians suggest that people have the ability to exercise their free will and simply choose to receive the salvation and healing that is offered by Christ. The problem with this view is that Jesus taught that the act of believing or exercising faith can never be done in isolation; unless someone experiences a prior heart change, they will not believe. In order to be able to act in faith, several changes need to occur which the natural man is incapable of bringing about. We must not overestimate the spiritual abilities of a fallen, unregenerate sinner.

 

Section 2

In order to come to Christ, the sinner’s ignorance must be overcome. Ignorance is not always a moral issue, but sometimes it is. However, Jesus himself taught that some types of ignorance are culpable and rooted in sinful dispositions. There are times when people should know the truth but do not. When Jesus confronted the religious leaders, they were guilty in their ignorance. Sometimes people are in a state of ignorance not because of their lack of awareness of information but rather because of the moral condition of their heart. Jesus always spoke the truth, but some people closed their ears and hardened their hearts so that they willingly remained ignorant of the truth. People may seek their own glory rather than the glory of God, or love lies rather than truth, or refuse to recognize that their desires are sinful. There are many ways that a person can be lost in culpable ignorance, and where this is the case people are incapable of changing themselves to make a positive decision for the Lord. . . .

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