By faith Moses, when he was come to years,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the
treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward (Heb.
11:24-26).
ARMINIAN ARGUMENT:
Moses’ “choosing,” mentioned in this
passage, is appealed to by all who teach that salvation is dependent upon the free
will of man. Salvation is “offered” to
all in the preaching, so it is argued, and man must then “make his choice or
decision.”
(I)
Rev. Ronald Hanko
[Source:
Covenant Reformed
Fellowship News, vol. 1, no. 10]
Salvation
does not depend on man’s choice to serve God or permit Christ to enter his
heart.
Man’s
choice is always for sin—apart from God’s work of grace. He can do nothing else
but choose sin. Luther wrote his greatest book, The Bondage of the Will,
to prove that man’s will is a slave to sin.
That
is the horror of sin: Man cannot do any good at all—that is bad enough; But man
cannot even want to do good. That is the great slavery of sin. He is so
tightly tied in the chains of sin that his will is bound completely and can
only choose sin.
What
a hopeless sinner man is. Salvation is only of God.
Yet
Scripture teaches that we choose.
In
Hebrews 11:24-26, Moses is said to have made a choice: “By faith, Moses, when
he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches
than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the
reward.”
But
Moses’ choice for the people of God was a choice which he made “by faith.” When
God gives his people the gift of faith, by that power of faith they are able to
choose to cast their lot with the people of God by forsaking the world with its
treasures and pleasures. They are able to do this even when joining with the
people of God means suffering affliction with the people of God and enduring
the reproach of Christ.
----------------------------------------------------
(II)
More
to come! (DV)
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