Condemnation

We are not only under condemnation through our offences, but we are under the dominion of a fallen nature which is at enmity against God. It is not only that we have committed sins for which we need mercy, but we have a sinful nature which needs to be made anew. Arminianism preaches the new-birth but it preaches it as a consequence of or an accompaniment to the human decision; it represents man as being born again by repenting and believing, as though these spiritual acts are within the ability of the unconverted. This teaching is only possible because of an under-estimation of the toatal ruin and impotence of the sinner. The Scripture says that the natural man cannot receive spirtiual things and it is because of this that the Divine quickening must precede the human response.

Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 83