Objection 2 Creation - Whitby's refutation of Arguments in favor of irresistible grace
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Gabcast! Dan's blog #13
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Objection Two. When it is said that this work is compared to a creation, in which it is certain that which is created must be purely passive, as when by it we are said to become, a new creation Galatians 6:15, we being God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works. (Ephesians 2:10)
Answer One. That this metaphor affords no certain proof that wheresoever it is used, the person it respects must be purely passive, and have done nothing towards the act styled creation; is evident from many instances to the contrary. Thus God is said to have created Jacob, and formed Israel, when he constituted them to be his church and people, (Isaiah 43:1) whence the Septuagint says, Ti rns xriatus rdurns, (b) remember this creation; and yet they were not purely passive, but entered into covenant to have him for their God.
When God makes use of wicked men, or men of war, to punish others, he says, (c) I create the water to destroy; and yet it is certain that he is not purely passive in that work; and this is in the case before us certain from the nature of faith; for faith is man's and not God's; it is an assent, and so an action of the mind. Godly sorrow, though it arises from the motives which God and his Good Spirit, and which his ministers suggest, yet is it the sorrow of the convinced sinner, and it, says the apostle, works repentance unto life, which sure it could not do, if we were purely passive in that work.
As for the work of conversion, God's frequent calls upon the wicked to turn themselves from all their transgressions, God's commission to his apostles, to declare unto the (d) Gentiles that they should repent, and turn to the Lord, are certain indications that they are not wholly passive in that work.
Answer Two. But God is in scripture said to create that which he brings into a new and better state; thus David prays, (e) create in me a clean heart, Oh God, and renew in me a right Spirit. (Psalm 51:10) Thus he is said to create new heavens and new earth, by making such a change and alteration for the better in the face and state of things, that the frame of them, seems not to be the same as it was before, (Isaiah 65:17-18) And when he says, verse 18, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy, the note of Gataker is this, that " restitution and renovation for the better, is deemed as a creation." Seeing then the change wrought in us by that faith which purifies the heart, and makes us fruitful in good works, by a repentance from dead works to the service of the living God, and by a conversion from a life of sin to a life of righteousness, is such a renovation as changes the whole man and all his faculties for the better; seeing this renovation is begun, as creation is, by the power of God working upon the heart of man, we being made 'a willing people in the day of his power,' here is foundation sufficient for the metaphor of a new creature used in these texts. To this sense the scripture plainly leads us when it says, " If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; because old things are passed away, and all things are become new in us ;" and says in one place, ' we put on the new man which is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth;' (Ephesians 4:24) and in another, which is ' renewed after the image of him that created him;' and all the Greek Fathers confirm this exposition, by saying that " this new creation only means 'a change for the better'," as you may see in Suicernus.
Gabcast! Dan's blog #13
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Objection Two. When it is said that this work is compared to a creation, in which it is certain that which is created must be purely passive, as when by it we are said to become, a new creation Galatians 6:15, we being God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works. (Ephesians 2:10)
Answer One. That this metaphor affords no certain proof that wheresoever it is used, the person it respects must be purely passive, and have done nothing towards the act styled creation; is evident from many instances to the contrary. Thus God is said to have created Jacob, and formed Israel, when he constituted them to be his church and people, (Isaiah 43:1) whence the Septuagint says, Ti rns xriatus rdurns, (b) remember this creation; and yet they were not purely passive, but entered into covenant to have him for their God.
When God makes use of wicked men, or men of war, to punish others, he says, (c) I create the water to destroy; and yet it is certain that he is not purely passive in that work; and this is in the case before us certain from the nature of faith; for faith is man's and not God's; it is an assent, and so an action of the mind. Godly sorrow, though it arises from the motives which God and his Good Spirit, and which his ministers suggest, yet is it the sorrow of the convinced sinner, and it, says the apostle, works repentance unto life, which sure it could not do, if we were purely passive in that work.
As for the work of conversion, God's frequent calls upon the wicked to turn themselves from all their transgressions, God's commission to his apostles, to declare unto the (d) Gentiles that they should repent, and turn to the Lord, are certain indications that they are not wholly passive in that work.
Answer Two. But God is in scripture said to create that which he brings into a new and better state; thus David prays, (e) create in me a clean heart, Oh God, and renew in me a right Spirit. (Psalm 51:10) Thus he is said to create new heavens and new earth, by making such a change and alteration for the better in the face and state of things, that the frame of them, seems not to be the same as it was before, (Isaiah 65:17-18) And when he says, verse 18, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy, the note of Gataker is this, that " restitution and renovation for the better, is deemed as a creation." Seeing then the change wrought in us by that faith which purifies the heart, and makes us fruitful in good works, by a repentance from dead works to the service of the living God, and by a conversion from a life of sin to a life of righteousness, is such a renovation as changes the whole man and all his faculties for the better; seeing this renovation is begun, as creation is, by the power of God working upon the heart of man, we being made 'a willing people in the day of his power,' here is foundation sufficient for the metaphor of a new creature used in these texts. To this sense the scripture plainly leads us when it says, " If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; because old things are passed away, and all things are become new in us ;" and says in one place, ' we put on the new man which is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth;' (Ephesians 4:24) and in another, which is ' renewed after the image of him that created him;' and all the Greek Fathers confirm this exposition, by saying that " this new creation only means 'a change for the better'," as you may see in Suicernus.
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