To texascowgirl, you have some great trues, one is, "Man has never had a free will". Others have given some great posts. to jandian I would say, man has never been "independent" of God. Adam and eve together represent "mankind'. But Man is the head of woman. The head of man is Christ; but man and woman have never been indepentent of each other, we are all interdependent. But if we becomes someones codependent ,then we are in hot water.
to all, Concerning salvation, please keep two key words in mind, "Impart" and "Impute". When God gives us birth in to His family, He "imparts" a new nature into us; Like a blood transfusion; But when God forgives us, He
"imputes" christ's righteousness to our account in Heaven. The new birth is not Imputed to us, the new birth is Imparted to us. The difference is between a heart transplant operation and drink of fine wine. The wine can knock out the pain for a while but the Heart transplant will save our life. Salvation is a new life style and we can now be "drunk" with the Spirit and not with the wine of human achievements, free will, and the sense of worth. No sinner "deserves" salvation, it is the gift of GRACE. God elects some ,Out of "the same lump" Rom.9:21 of sinful humanity; God picks, indiscriminately, only by LOVE, some for salvation and leaves the rest for damnation. We must never "rationalize" away the Bible truth; there are no "contradictions" in the Bible. Love to all Hoffco