6 And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
7 What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened,
8 as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.”
Hmmmm... This sounds very similar to John 12:37-41 that I wrote about a few days ago. The Elect, those God chose, they DID obtain grace (v7) because God in His mercy gave it, through no system man devised which is called WORKS. Anything, A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G man has to do to get grace is WORKS - and that includes “accepting” Jesus if it is something man must DO BEFORE God will save. If a man has to do anything to receive Grace, it’s “works.”
But the point of this message is verse 8! God gave them a spirit of stupor - which is eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear. Why would God give anyone a Spirit of Stupor? Believers who are Arminian in their soteriology will say just like Pharaoh, God hardened his heart because Pharaoh hardened it first. I’m sorry but that is wrong. Man is BORN with a hardened heart, he is conceived with a hardened heart. Every man is born a sinner, his spirit is dead, he won’t come into the Light, because he hates the Light (John 3:20), he is an enemy of God (Romans 8:7), he can’t please God (Romans 8:8), he can’t understand (John 8:43, 1 Corinthians 2:14), and every imagination of his heart is ONLY evil CONTINUALLY (Genesis 6:5). We may disagree with the reason but the fact remains - whatever the reason, God DID it. God gave a spirit of stupor. So I ask again, why would God give anyone a spirit of stupor?
As unbelievable as it may seem, yes, God gave them a spirit of stupor because they aren’t chosen. From our perspective even lost men will sometimes do something good, but that God says is sin (Romans 14:23). The spirit of stupor was given so that they could not see or hear... For the record, in verse 8 Paul was quoting Isaiah 29:10 and Deuteronomy 29:4.
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