So, it finally comes to this... (In the face of death, ignore it? - Part II)

Berny, I must tell you brother that I have been blessed and edified by the wisdom that the Lord has given you. I also sense an affection for you due to the time that you have spent responding and being a part of this conversation. And please Freddy, do not feel left out. I take our friendship for granted in that I assume you already know my thoughts towards you.

Now, concerning this topic, I want to encourage you guys, and anyone else that jumps in: let's not grow weary in this discussion. I think we're beginning to hit that difficult argument between Calvinism and Arminianism. So far, I can testify that it has brought edification. So long as it doesn't cause division let's pursue it. And I have prayed that we see what God sees and not what we want to see and that it may be edifying.

So the question has been laid out: can unregenerate man not reject God?

The new testament contains roughly 16 phrases that have a similar pattern:
"those who believe shall...(be saved, have eternal life, have everlasting life, is not condemned, never die, etc.) Romans 10:9 states that ""if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved." So can an unregenerate man believe without God causing him to believe?

Let's study this "unregeneration." (I made up that word I think, lol.)
This is important because you start out your blog with this discussion; how pervasive is sin's influence? And I think this is also the right place to start. I believe as you do that sin has separated us from the Lord. In fact, we are so separated due to sin that we are considered "dead" to God. This is supported as you quoted in Ephesians 2:1, 4-5) "and you were dead in your trespasses and sins... But God...made us alive" (Eph. 2:1, 4-5) God states in Genesis 2:16-17 the effect that sin will have on us: "... Of every tree of the garden surely you may eat;but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil not you shall eat from it;in the day of your eating from it surely you shall die -[dying you shall die]" But Adam and Eve did not die a physical death, at least not then. So what kind of death did they die? Was it a spiritual death? Did their spirit actually die?

Let's consider the basics, if an unregenerate person has a literally dead spirit, how can that person be alive? It was when God breathed into Adam that he live. Prior to that spirit (breath) Adam was a corpse. (Genesis 2:7) Even when people die in the Bible it doesn't say that their spirit literally dies, but that it is 'given up,' (Gen 25:8, 17, 35:29, Job 3:11,) Can a spirit literally die? I hope you can shed some light on this.

In reference to the verse in Ephesians: God is the only one that can make us alive. But here we are speaking in the figurative sense. Does our spirit truly “die.” Our spirit cannot be truly “dead” otherwise we would cease to exist; we would simply be a body. Here the word “dead” is used figuratively, emphasizing that the chasm created between God and man because of sin is as unbridgeable as the chasm between the dead and the living. And how can the living get to the dead? Well, to die of course! Which is what Christ has done (not us) for us! But thankfully we are partakers of his resurrection and are made alive once again. (Romans 6:5.)

So our spirit is separated from God and that is the effect of sin, but it does not mean that we cannot respond to God. Sin could affect us to the point where we cannot "thwart its corrupting influence" yet still not be pervasive, the same way unbeliever’s feel guilt and know the difference from right and wrong (C.S. Lewis’ Moral Law) and still not be able to thwart temptation. Even our 'regenerated' man does not always thwart sin, but it does thwart the effect of sin which is spiritual death.

So, can an unbeliever separated from God believe unto righteousness? Yes! (Romans 10:10) Now, here is where some would say, well this means that salvation is credited to man because he believed.

No. Man could believe all he wants, but unless Christ did the work, belief means nothing.It is because Christ has done the work that our belief causes us to be saved. (John 3:16 - is preempted with God first giving His Son)

So does that mean that because I believe that now I am saved by my works in believing? Here a person is making the assumption that belief is a 'work.' Let's look at Ephesians 2:8-9 - "for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works, that no man should glory. " Now, let's look at the context. Paul's main issue with works throughout the New Testament is directed to the Jews that believed that Salvation was not due to Christ's redemptive work, but rather by their adherence to the law (Romans). In fact, all of the world's religion have this characteristic, man working their way into heaven or enlightenment. Instead, here we have Christianity that states just the opposite. Man cannot do anything to attain salvation. Salvation was attained for us by Christ, but it doesn't mean everyone is automatically saved. We most respond. This response is faith, believing, entrusting. This does not 'count' as work (especially in consideration of the sabbath day of rest rules in the Old Testament. None of which say that you cannot have faith on the Sabbath day because otherwise you would be working.)
When studying the Ephesians verse some may say, "look, we are depraved because that faith isn't even ours, it is a gift of God!" But this is a typical misunderstanding that is made due to a lack of understanding of Greek. Not that I'm a Greek expert, but I have my sources, :-)
The verse should read: for by Grace you are save through faith, and this salvation is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. The word "this" refers to being saved. Salvation is the gift of God. Faith is our response to the salvation that God has provided. You can look at the arguments for this understanding of the Greek in the Amplified Bible, and you can read this article http://www.faithalone.org/news/y1989/89july1.html

Our response is from ourselves. Salvation is from God. This is more consistent with the scriptures. This doesn't give any credit to man because we can respond all we want, but unless God died on the cross we have no salvation. To God be the Glory, but each man must face God in the day of Judgment and be judged for their belief or lack thereof.

The context is that our salvation is not of works. That we do not earn salvation. How could we? The work has been done in Christ. That is very true. But by grace we are saved through faith. And that salvation is not of our own doing. It is a gift of God. But we must respond through faith and man is not depraved enough to not be able to respond. God didn't create clay statues that neither speak, hear, nor see. He created man that He could interact with.