Respectfully, I disagree with HOW
@brightfame52 presents many things (but far less with the TRUTH behind what he said), however in this case, you have it backwards. God is 100% culpable for the saved! EVERYONE is capable of damning themselves and (if scripture like Romans 3:10-12 is true) everyone does!
"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." - Romans 3:10-12 [ESV]
Given the above,
@brightfame52 was just stating a fact:
However, God DOES change our nature and give us a new one!
(A whole lot about what GOD did to and for us to change us ...)
Ephesians 1:3-23 [ESV]
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 2:1-10 [ESV]
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
God gave man the way to be saved, that being, the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is up to man to take this gospel God gave and obey it to be saved. Those that choose to obey it will be saved (Rom 6:16-18) and those that do not will be in flaming fire (2 Thess 1:8). Therefore Calvinsim is WRONG falsely claiming salvation is monergistic where God does everything while man has nothing to do at all. Yet the Bible shows there is a synergism where BOTH God and man have a role in man's salvation. In Acts 2 God gave those lost Jews what they needed to be saved (repent & be baptized for remission 0f sins) yet it was up to those Jews to take what God has given and obey it to recieve salvation.
Rom 3 does not reach total depravity,
people take verses 10-18 OUT of context and read total depravity into it.
Context Matters:
Paul proves that Gentiles are sinners in Rom 1 and Jews are sinners in Rom 2 and declares all (Gentile & Jew) are under sin. People under sin are in need of justification.
In the context of Rom 3, Paul begins talking about the OT law of Moses that was given to the Jew and how it gave the Jew an advantage over the Gentile. Though the Jew had an advantage of being given their own law, that OT law could not justifiy therefore leaving the Jew unjustified as the Gentile, Rom 3:9. Hence man cannot find justification by the OT law for that law required the Jew to do the work of perfect, flawless law keeping to be justified. Yet the Jew as not able to keep it flawlessly perfect. How do we know the Jew sinned and did not keep that law perfectly sinless? Paul in Rom 3:10-18 Paul goes back to that OT law taking verses out of that law and applying those verse to the Jews to prove they did not keep that OT law sinless perfect. In v19 Paul then tells the Jew:
"
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law:"
Paul is essentially telling the Jew here in v19 that your own law given to you says you are sinners. Paul says
the law speaks to them them who are under law. The OT law was
only given to the Jew and no one else, hence v19 is not applicable to all people of all time but specifically applied to the Jew proving the Jews to be sinners thereby leaving them unjustified by that OT law.
Rom 3:10
"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:"
The term "righteous" is used in different senses in the BIble. When the BIble says God is righteous then righteous means perfectly siness. When the Bible says men are righteous, as Abel in Heb 11:4, it does NOT mean Abel was perfectly sinless but he had an OBEDIENT faith in doing as God instructed. Righteous is also used in the sense in how you deal with your fellow man, do you treat your fellow man in a righteous good way or in an unrighteous bad way.
Since the OT law required the Jew to keep it perfectly flawlessly sinless to be justified by that law then Paul is using the term "righteous" in a perfect sinless sense. Since none of the Jews kept the OT law perfectly sinless then none were righteous in the perfect sense therefore left unjustified by that OT law (Rom 3:9).
Rom 3:11
"There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God."
Paul here is NOT speaking about Jew inability to understand or inability to seek God but is speaking to their sinful refusal in understanding and refusal in seeking God.
Isa 55:6
"
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:" They were commanded to seek the Lord...it would be senseless and useless to give them a command they could not possibly follow if they were totally depraved. The fact the command was given therefore logically implies ability. If man is born with the inability to seek God, then he has
no responsibility to seek God. Yet the verse does not speak to inability to seek God but to guilt and sin is not using ability to seek God.
Some of the verse Paul quotes in Rom 3:10-18 Camden from David, a man who did seek after the Lord. Psa 34:4; 77:2.
The Jews did not seek God because they did not set their heart to seek God, not because of a innate birth defect that prevented them from seeking God:
1 Chron 22:19
Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God;
2 Chron 11:16
such as set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel
2 Chron 12:14
he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD.
2 Chron 20:3
Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD,
Ezra 7:10
Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD,
Paul is attacking the Jews for they were very pious and religious. Though they read, studied the law everyday and memorized and quoted the law they did not understand it for in reality they were more interested in establishing and seeking their OWN righteousness rather than submit to God's righteousness. (Rom 10:3)
Rom 3:12
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Paul does NOT say they were BORN out of the way or BORN unprofitable but Paul speaks to what they became through personal culpability not by a birth defect. "GONE out of the way" implies a time when they were not out of the way yet total inability implies ALWAYS out of the way. "Become unprofitable" implies a time they were profitable yet total inability implies ALWAYS unprofitable.
Rom 3:13ff
Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Their feet are swift to shed blood:
Destruction and misery are in their ways:
And the way of peace have they not known:
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Paul here is not describing the action of an infant for an infant is incapable of committing such things but Paul refers to people who are culpable for their willful, sinful choices as those Jews.
