Moral Agency

Moral responsibility implies moral ability. Is that so? No! All people have the moral responsibility to obey all of the commandments perfectly, but they do not have the moral ability to do it! That is obvious. Christ alone could perfectly obey all the law for us as our Substitute. And, praise Him for that! - Joel Merritt

Interesting...I do have some thoughts on this issue, but for the moment, I find this to be an important enough issue that I don't think I should just start spewing out what I think yet. The first thing I want to do is get the comments from all of you on this issue. I know some of you may not read this thing very much, but I have also posted a link in at least two other places so that you all can get a hold of it. Hopefully you have found your way here and can comment on your thoughts about this issue. I would greatly appreciate any feedback you have to offer on such.

Here are some questions that I think are pertinant to this discussion:

• What is the definition of Sin?
• Upon what basis is it decided that one person is damned, and another saved?
• What is responsibility?
• Can someone be responsible for something over which they have absolutely no control?
• If a person can thus be held accountable, how, why?
• In theory, is it possible that someone else could have theoretically been able to provide the needed sacrifice for salvation's redeeming work?
• Why and how?

What I am looking for here is more than just the mumbo jumbo that each "side" tends to spit out here, I am looking for the actual root of the issues. I don't want to have to look at semantically fuzzy arguments. Really, what I want are clear cut, biblically consistent, logical, well thought out, and foundationally solid arguments for one side or the other, in such a way that I can more clearly understand the points of view of each side. I do not think this is the place to debate each other's views, I'm just looking for your view, and the logic behind it, down to the very roots and presuppositions.

Would each of you be thus so obliging?