It is true that all men have a responsibility or an obligation to believe the Lord and His Gospel. To not believe the record of Christ's accomplished work of salvation for His people is a terrible sin for which men will be held accountable. All men have a duty to bow before the Lord, to acknowledge Him as their Sovereign Creator, and to honor Him. But do men have a duty to be blessed? Are men responsible for the blessings which flow from Christ to His people? No, of course not! That is a ridiculous concept indeed! But saving faith is that blessed gift of God that gives men the ability to look to Christ and see that the benefits of His sacrificial work apply to them. It is a gift of assurance. To suggest otherwise is to take this wonderful gift of God and turn it into a work.
Those who insist on the doctrine of "duty-faith" suggest that all men have a responsibility to be saved. They suggest that those for whom Christ did not die are duty-bound to look to the Lord and believe that He loves them and that He died for them. Men are encouraged to believe a lie. So in order to be seen as honest men, these perverters of the Gospel reinvent the concept of atonement and twist it so that Christ's death becomes sufficient for all and efficient for only the elect. Salvation is not accomplished until it is applied. In this unbiblical scheme, unelected men are duty-bound to have these blessings based on Christ's supposedly loving and hypothetical atonement for them. Since this proposition is accepted as true, then it logically follows that these blessings must be offered as something that can be accepted for salvation or rejected for damnation to all men indiscriminately. Of course the concept that men are totally dead in trespasses and sins is now also twisted so that men are now physically capable of accepting this "offer" but are spiritually limited. Does this not sound like free will theology? It does to me. Sadly it passes for "sovereign grace" theology these days!
The next time someone tells you that saving faith is a work that must be performed by men, I suggest you respond to their folly by inquiring them if regeneration is also a work that men must perform. What about sanctification or even the future resurrection at Christ's return? Is that now too a command which men are obligated to obey?
God is responsible for all of salvation. God and man cannot both be responsible. To suggest that man is responsible to have saving faith while acknowledging the Sovereign Grace of God is to embrace a contradiction and entertain a doctrine of devils. Let us flee from such follies.
Grace and Peace,
Brandan