Anyway, all this led me to think about grown sinner's like myself (and everyone else on earth for that matter). We are in the same predicament as my son. We all begin our lives with that heart of stone that will not submit to the authority of God that is over us. Not just will not, but can not. We hate the idea that we're not autonomous so much that we would never dream of submitting to the true God out of our own volition. Some preachers preach hell like it's a way to scare people into turning to God. "You don't want to go to hell do you?" is a line some use when witnessing. Nobody really wants to spend eternity in torment if there's a better option, lets face it, and most people brush this off with vain speculations that a 'good' God would never punish people for eternity in hell. But here's the reality. If it was granted me to have the keys to hell (and directions to it's gates) and I were to show sinners the torments of it, it still would not be enough to convince the sinner to turn from his sin and worship the true God in the way he must be worshiped. I'm not saying that men would not seek to find a way to avoid it, like I said, no one really wants to spend eternity in torment. But I am saying this: man in his natural fallen state hates submitting to the authority of the true triune God of the universe so much that hell is still better than a heaven where all creation praises Him for eternity. Hell is not an adequate deterrent to the natural man from his natural ways. I could show the unsaved the very chambers of hell and he still would not turn from his sin to worship God. Oh sure, he might make some show of repentance hoping to appease God, he might become an outwardly religious zealot. But inside he's dead. In the words of our Lord: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness." Those scribes and Pharisees were the most outwardly religious guys around in Jesus' day. But the truth remains that inside they were wrought with sin and unrighteousness. And given the choice between true worship of the true God for eternity or an eternity in hell - he'd choose hell every single time. "Give me liberty or give me death" becomes the sinners motto when facing the reality of this. If we must sacrifice our autonomy (or delusions thereof) to escape eternal death, we won't. We can't because we are so opposed in our fallen hearts to the God of god's. The only solution, the only way that a man enslaved to sin will turn to God in true faith and repentance is if God does something to him, that if given the choice in his natural state he would never allow. God must rip that heart of stone from his chest and replace it with a new heart. A heart that is capable of receiving the faith and repentance (also from God) that leads to eternal life. Then and only then will we be truly able to turn to the only God worthy of worship and submit to him in love. Only then are we capable of desiring a heaven where heaven and earth proclaim the excellence and majesty of it's Creator. Only then will we be able to say with the Psalmist: "One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. "(Psalm 27:4 ESV)
I can't convert anyone. Not with any means known to man, not with good arguments, not with the sword, not with trickery, not with emotional excitements, not even if it were possible to show him heaven and hell. That's God's thing, and only God's.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. (Romans 8:7 ESV)
