16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, " BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
You may wonder what this passage has to do with God’s sovereignty in Election. The answer is because I have had Romans 1:20 thrown at me a number of times when I asked a question of those who believe in decisional salvation. The question? How were people saved before Christ came with the Gospel? I’m usually told there is enough evidence of God in nature to save a man.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
The Arminian theory of salvation does not stand up to simple layman scrutiny. Does seeing evidence of God in nature and gaining the knowledge and understanding of His eternal power and divine nature save a man? I must admit that God’s Creation is majestic, awesome, and when you really consider everything - from the complexities of the human body to simply what we know about space - it is mind-boggling. Here’s the problem: a man looking around and believing that God created everything does not save him. God uses the Gospel of Jesus Christ to save men.
Please tell me where Jesus can be found in nature that a lost man can see and believe? Where is His virgin birth? Where is His sinless life? Where are the miracles He performed? Where is His shed blood, His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead? Where is His ascension into Heaven and His promise to return again? THAT is the Gospel and where can the Gospel be seen in nature?
The Gospel is not in nature, nor can the Gospel be seen in creation. God made His eternal power and divine nature obvious so that men could acknowledge God the Creator, not God the Savior. God may have many reasons to make His invisible attributes undeniable, but none of the reasons are to save people.
Another problem is that Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:8-9 that from the beginning of the world God has hid in Himself the mystery of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now if God has anything hid in Himself there is NO WAY any man will perceive it, understand it, or accept it - especially a lost man who has not the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14). So how were people saved before Christ came?
For thousands of years before Christ came, people were saved the same way people have been saved for the 2,000 years since Christ. Those God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) He will call. It is a specific call to salvation given to specific people at a specific point in their life, a point chosen by God. God does not call all men to salvation (1 Corinthians 1:26). God quickens a man’s dead spirit through faith, the faith that God gives him as a gift (Romans 12:3; Ephesians 2:8). God simultaneously gives him belief (John 6:29; Philippians 1:29), repentance (2 Timothy 2:25), and understanding (Luke 24:45, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Timothy 2:7). Without God acting first on a spiritually dead man to quicken him, that lost man has no hope of being saved (Ephesians 2:12, 1 Thessalonians 4:13) because in his lost condition he is totally depraved, hates the Light (Jesus Christ) and will NOT come unto it (John 3:20).
The bottom line is that we become children of God NOT by our decision - it’s God’s. Always has been, always will. (John 1:13)
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