Cheryl Schatz

Mark,

Is there any passage that shows that an unregenerate person cannot hear God at all? Acts 10:1-4 shows Cornelius as one who was not yet a believer in Jesus, called “devout”, one who “feared” God and spoke to God “continually” in prayer. He was not deaf and blind spiritually when the angel of God showed up and called to him. And what the angel told him, he was spiritually aware of and he obeyed.

Acts 10:1–4 (NASB)
Cornelius’s Vision
1 Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort,
2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.
3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!”
4 And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

Notice that the call came to Cornelius not to Peter. Peter did not send for Cornelius to come to him nor did Peter send himself to Cornelius’ house.

Acts 10:5–8 (NASB)
5 “Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter;
6 he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.”
7 When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants,
8 and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

Here we have a man who has not yet been born again, act in obedience to the angel and it was Cornelius who summoned Peter. These are not the actions of a “dead” man who is unable to hear from God.

So thus the first main verb of the passage is in verse 5 “made you alive” is contrasted against the first person plural present participle in verse 1. Verse 2 says ‘in which you once walked” parallel to verse 10 which shows the new way to walk

In the full context of chapter 1 and chapter 2, the first man verb is not contrasted with the present participle of verse 1 but connected together by the theme of the power of God in setting all things under our feet. It is a unit that is consistent in its positive expression of God’s power over “all things” including sin.

The ‘kai’ (and) in verse one relates the passage back to chapter 1- a continual theme. Chapter 1 highlights God’s predetermined plan for his people to His glory and thus chapter 2 flows through with this thought.

Yes, you are right. The “kai” in verse one does relate back to chapter 1 – a continual theme of God’s power over all things and putting all things under our feet. How is it that the theme of all things under Christ’s feet and all things under our feet is consistent with us being dead and unresponsive because of sin? No, that doesn’t sound right nor is it a consistent flow. Rather it is far more consistent to say that the present tense that we are dead to sin is the power of God within those who are believers and the term “in which you once walked” is describing what exactly we are dead to – the old life and the power that sin had on us that enslaved us. But that sin is now “under our feet” by the very power of God which raised Christ from the dead.

to be continued..