DOCTRINES OF GRACE. CHAPTER 10: IRRESISTIBLE GRACE. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
DON’T MEN IN THE BIBLE RESIST GOD ALL THE TIME?
One objection to the doctrine of Irresistible Grace is that the Bible is full of instances where men resist the very will of God, perhaps even, the very grace of God. They conclude that irresistible grace must be a myth because men seem to be able to hold God at arm’s length. In addition they argue that God’s call is not effectual because men often refuse His offers and His warnings. The bible chronicles many instances of man’s resistance to God, therefore there is no such thing as God irresistibly wooing sinners to Himself. After all, God is always inviting men to come to Him but men seem empowered to resist.
We admit that the observation is accurate. The Bible has many examples of God pleading with men to obey Him. He sends prophet after prophet by whom He calls the nation Israel to repentance. They almost always resist. The most notable instance of man’s resistance to God’s call is found in Genesis 6:3 where pleads through Noah that men will turn from their evil ways. But they entire world resists and so the flood came. Yes, men do resist God. But Irresistible Grace says that when God calls His elect to Himself for salvation that man cannot resist. Jesus said, ‘all that the Father gives me SHALL come to me.’
The question is not ‘can God be resisted.’ The question is that can God draw something to Himself irresistibly when He so desires? By looking at nature, we see that God is perfectly able to draw things to Himself. For example in Amos 5:8 the prophet is clear that God irresistibly moves the light and darkness and the sea.
‘He made the Pleiades and Orion; He turns the shadow of death into morning And makes the day dark as night; He calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the face of the earth; The LORD is His name.’
We see this power of God demonstrated in the animal kingdom. Many psalms attest to the fact that God sovereignly guides and directs the animal kingdom. [1] Who can forget the story of Christ drawing all those fish into Peter’s net when he had toiled all night and caught nothing (Luke 5:4-6)? Jesus repeats the miracle in John chapter 21. Or what about God directing ravens to feed the depressed prophet (1 Kings 17:4-6)?
If God can control the inanimate celestial bodies and the animal kingdom, then it is not farfetched to believe He can also move the human will. This is exactly the force of the argument that Jesus makes in John 6:44. Speaking to the complaining Jews He says, ‘No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him and I will raise him up at the last day.’ Later on in John 12:32 Jesus links the irresistible drawing power of God to His work on the cross. ‘And I, if I am lifted up from the earth will draw all peoples to Myself.’ [2]
Critics of Irresistible Grace will argue that bible verses about God’s drawing are scanty. In fact when one reads the bible it seems as though things move according to natural forces rather than the imposition of God’s will. But as we have tried to argue, God rarely shows forth His naked power. He prefers to operate behind the scene by employing means, much like the puppet master moves the puppets from behind the curtain. If we were to look at the means only we might rightly conclude that they are the force behind any action. But stories like that of Joseph and Jonah cure us of this misconception. In Joseph’s case his brothers’ evil deeds were in some mystical way ordered by the Lord as Joseph so testified in Gen 50:20. The storm that arose and threatened to capsize Jonah’s escape ship was actually sent by God (see Jonah 1:4).
A second way to prove that God irresistibly draws sinners to Himself is by reviewing the doctrine of Total Depravity. As we have tried to show in chapter two, Total Depravity is the doctrine that says man is not only dead in sin by nature due to his standing in Adam, but he is also an inveterate sinner in his actions and incapable of doing anything good no matter how hard man tries. As Paul says, ‘The carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God and ‘neither indeed can be’ (Rom 8:9). From this we learn that man’s separation from God is a status issue (he inherits Adam’s status of guilt), a moral issue (he commits evil continually) and a volitional issue (he is repulsed by God). Because of these factors, man’s heart will never respond favorably to God’s call. God must overpower that will by His irresistible grace in order for man to come.
The Doctrines of Grace do not deny that man can resist the overtures of God. What it does say is that there is a certain kind of calling that cannot be resisted. This specific call is what we call the inner call of the gospel to the elect. This is the specific call that lies within the general call but is qualitatively different. Whereas the general call consists only of God’s external invitation, the internal call is an irresistible call that is energized by the power of the Holy Spirit. To say it another way, the command for man to come to Jesus, like any other command, can be resisted. But when the Holy Spirit fills that call with divine power, then this invitation is obeyed. This is what John Bunyan was getting at when he wrote this catchy ditty.
“Run, John, run the law commands but gives me neither feet nor hands’
‘Tis better news the Gospel brings. It bids me fly it gives me wing.’ [3]
If Total Depravity is true, then men have a complete inability to come to Christ. The only logical conclusion, therefore, is that if anyone comes to Christ it must as a result of God’s specific intervention in his life. This we call Irresistible Grace.
So do men do resist the overtures of God? Yes, Total Depravity asserts this. Yet the Bible also teaches that there is a call of God that is different from the general call of the gospel, a call that cannot be resisted by the human creature because it is empowered by divine omnipotence. This is exactly what Jesus was talking about when He said, ‘many are called but few are chosen’ (Mt 22:14). This explains why two people of equal access to the gospel call, of equal intelligence and life experiences, can have a totally different response to the gospel. The difference lies in the hidden work of the Spirit that enables some to come. This is the essence of Irresistible Grace.
IF MAN HAS NO ABILITY TO OBEY THE GENERAL CALL OF GOD THEN GOD IS NOT SINCERE.
Since the dawn of time God by His Spirit has continually called the human race to repent of its sins and return to Him. In fact, the entire Bible seems to be a record this calling. But, alas, few men come. Because of this, many deduce that God is not sincere in calling. After all, according to the Doctrines of Grace He could draw all to Himself if He so wanted.
First of all, that God calls all men to himself cannot be denied. As we have previously argued this is the general call of God. But is it genuine? The Bible is clear that God truly wants men to get right with Him. We read that Spirit strives with sinful men to obey God. Truly God desires His law to be obeyed. Over and over again He pleads with Israel to obey Him. Consider the words of Jeremiah 44:4-6,
‘However I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!” But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods. So My fury and My anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.’
For failure to heed God’s voice Jerusalem would be conquered and the people exiled just as the Northern Kingdom had been over a hundred years earlier. God continually yearned for the obedience of His people but they had refused to listen. In another text God painstakingly reviews Israel’s history.
“Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal’ (2 Kings 17:13-16).
Other texts remind us that God continually seeks the repentance of His people. In the wisdom book of Proverbs, for example, God details humanity’s resistance to submit to God’s wisdom. Proverbs 1:24 says, ‘because I have called you and you have refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded.’
As the New Testament opens God sends the nation one last prophet who will be that ‘voice crying in the wilderness.’ His message will be Israel’s final warning. He calls the nation to repent and be baptized. The reason for his urgency is because the King has come and the people of God must either receive Him or their status as God’s people will be given to another nation (Mt 21:43). But once again the Spirit’s voice is repelled by Israel’s hardness. God has called His people one last time and they have once again rejected Him. God’s call to Israel even extends into the apostolic ministry. Stephen calls his accusers to account, ‘you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did’ (Acts 7:51) and they choose to stone him rather than repent. How marvelous is the longsuffering of God toward the nation Israel.
With the advent of the ministry of Jesus a great change in God’s methodology is detected. Rather than plead for obedience to His law, God pleads with men to simply trust in His Messiah who has done the complete work of salvation in His perfect life and death. In addition He promises the very Spirit of God to help in their faith.
Yet even here there will be resistance. As the Old Covenant saints were judged by their failure to keep the law, so humanity under the New Covenant will be judged by their failures to heed the Spirit’s testimony about the Son.
‘And when He (the Spirit) is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged’ (John 16:8-11).
Sin and disobedience and judgment will now be defined in terms of one’s relation to the person of Jesus Christ, and especially to His atoning death on a cross in history. Sin will be defined as rejection of the Messiah. Righteousness will now be defined by one’s faith in the righteous One, who by virtue of His perfect life sits upon the throne of God. Judgment will now be the due penalty to all who fail to bow the knee to the risen Christ, the devil being the chief antagonist. Despite all the advantages of the gospel age, men will still reject the voice of God. The nations will turn from the good news of salvation in Christ as was predicted in the Second Psalm,
‘The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel against the Lord and His anointed saying, “Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us”’ (Psalm 2:2-3).
In the New Covenant God will continue to call the nations to have faith in His Son and the nations will continue to resist, much like Israel of old. Such resistance will be the norm throughout church history. The resistance to the call of the gospel will begin right out of the gate We have this recorded for us in the Book of Acts which is one long commentary on the effectual call of some (see Acts 8:26-40; 13:12, 48; 16:25-34) and the wholesale rejection of the gospel by others. One representative verse is found in Acts 13:45-46.
‘But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.’
The call to the Gentiles as with the call to the Jews is couched in language of urgency and command. God is not fooling around with man’s disobedience. He yearns for men to come to Him, even men like Athenian philosophers who mock the Christian faith.
‘Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead’ (Acts 17:3-31).
This pattern continues to this very day as we find outlined in the Book of Revelation. After mankind is warned time and time again by great natural disasters, they only become hardened and do not repent (see Rev 16:9, 11).
In every sense and in every era God yearns to have sinful man be reconciled to Him. The New Covenant ministry of the Apostles is no different from the Old Covenant ministry of the prophets. The messengers plead to the people of God on behalf of the Spirit but are often rejected, persecuted and abused. The point is clear; the summoning voice of God is genuine but in all ages it often falls on deaf ears. Though God sincerely hopes for men to obey and trust Him, man chooses to go his own way. To a drifting Christian community the writer of Hebrews warns the believers not to follow Israel’s example of resisting God’s voice. Quoting Psalm 95 he says,
‘Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years”…. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God’ (Hebrews 3:7-9, 12).
Hopefully this is sufficient to show that God has always been sincere in calling men to return to God. This is clearly evidenced by an abundance of clear texts in both testaments that show this to be so. The doctrine of Irresistible Grace in no way vitiates the sincerity of that call. The fact that the external call has no efficacy to draw a dead sinner to Christ in no way impugns the integrity of that offer. The Scriptures are clear on this point.
IRRESISTIBLE GRACE NULLIFIES THE GENERAL CALL OF GOD
Another twist on this objection is that if there is such a thing as the efficacious call, then does the general call have any meaning? We state the problem this way; if One already knows what one is going to do, then why is a call needed in the first place? It is like a coach who has already promised a position to a certain player yet he holds tryouts anyway. The process would seem gratuitous, even disingenuous.
If God operated in space and time there might be some merit to the argument. If God chooses some from eternity, and stands outside of space and time then a call within time is both frivolous and unnecessary. But when we consider that God operates both out of time and in time then ideas of eternal predestination and temporal calling can be reconciled. Truly God knows the end from the beginning. But God equally operates in history. The incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ, is the apex of God work in history. So while on one hand God views all things in the eternal present, on the other hand He voluntarily submits Himself to the limitations of space and time in His work of redemption. This means that God can both know everything at once in His transcendence and yet operate as knowing progressively in the life of His Son, Jesus Christ in His immanence. Perhaps we can say it this way; while God knows both the means and the ends of all things, in Christ He emptied Himself of that divine prerogative by allowing the redemptive events play out in a time-bound and space-bound world.
Men, of course, cannot do this. All that man knows is contained by space and time. Man cannot know one thing and then act on another level as if he didn’t know. That is not only impossible for a finite being but it would also be disingenuous. But for God who is infinite Creator and who has subjected Himself in the incarnation to being finite and created, this dual track of reality is affirmed by revelation and embraced by faith. We have in the Bible evidence upon evidence of that God knows and controls all things. We also have it revealed that God chooses to operate within history, making decisions, reacting to events, and showing pleasure or displeasure as the case may be. For example in Psalm 106 the author lists many of the events of Israel during and after the Exodus. The author highlights Israel’s repeated failures. In verse 23 the author speaks of the time God’s anger burned against Israel and the nation would have been destroyed had not Moses interceded.
‘Therefore He said that He would destroy them,
Had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach,
To turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.’
Did God know that He would not destroy Israel according to covenant promise? Yes. Yet, the text is clear that His wrath was turned away by the actions of Moses. Though God ordained all things, He condescended to and even reacted to the intercession of Moses not to destroy the nation. God both lives in the eternal present and sees all things while entering the redemptive drama in space and time.
it is possible, therefore, for God to freely offer salvation to all who come and offer genuinely while at the same time ordaining those who will come according to His divine omniscience? The answer is yes; the two realities neither contradict on another, nor can the limitations of human reason reconcile them. We believe and that is enough.
HOW CAN GOD DRAW MEN TO HIMSELF CAPRICIOUSLY WITHOUT ANY WARRANT?
Critics of Irresistible Grace find it nonsensical that a being could draw someone to himself without any discernible reason. But that is to assume that what Christian theology teaches is that God draws men to Himself without reference to anything at all making it a completely capricious, willy-nilly, unpredictable, uncaused act. Truly from the perspective of man, this is true. Grace means that God draws men without reference to anything in the object. But grace does not mean that God has no referent point in His choice. The bible clearly teaches that God efficaciously calls those who are attached to Jesus Christ. In other words, the common denominator of all those who are called to salvation is that they are ‘in Christ’ by eternal decree. These are the ones the Father gave to the Son in eternity, as Jesus notes, “all that the Father gives me shall come to Me” said Jesus.
No one wrestled with God’s warrant behind the calling of sinners more than John Calvin. Hear his conclusion.
‘The persons, therefore, whom God has adopted as His children, He is said to have chosen, not in themselves, but in Christ… if we are chosen in Him, we shall find no assurance of our election in ourselves; nor even in God the Father, considered alone, abstractly from the Son. Christ, therefore, is the mirror, in which it behoves us to contemplate our election; and here we may do it with safety. For as the Father has determined to unite to the body of His Son all who are the objects of His eternal choice, that He may have, as His children, all that He recognizes among His members, we have a testimony sufficiently clear and strong, that if we have communion with Christ, we are written in the book of life.’ [4]
God’s effectual call of sinners is bound by His own eternal covenant with the Mediator. Christ is, as Calvin says, ‘the mirror’ of God’s electing/calling purposes. All who have trusted the Son are the called. God does not call sinners whimsically, and without warrant. He calls those who are given to His Son. The called ones and those ‘in Christ’ are one in the same. And the proof that one is called in Christ is his faith. So says Jesus,
‘This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day’ (John 6:39)
And,
‘Now I tell you before it comes that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent me’ (John 13:19-20).
The warrant for God’s call of sinners is not purposeless. The divine call is irreversibly connected His Son. Those who trust Him are the called.
BELIEF IN THIS DOCTRINE DETERS ONE FROM THE QUEST FOR HOLINESS OF LIFE.
This objection attaches itself to almost all the Doctrines of Grace. One can understand why. If God is the One who effectually calls sinners to Himself then why need the sinner to do anything at all to validate that call? Thus, many assert that the doctrine of irresistible grace cuts the nerve of a Christian striving for holiness.
At first glance, this argument seems valid. If it be true it would have a profound effect on how Christians employ approach their own and evangelize the lost. The reasoning seems sound. If God calls without any contribution by the recipient, then the sinner should relax and take no ownership in the process. In other words, as was expressed in the 1960’s; ‘let go and let God.’
This objection can only be answered by reviewing what has already been said about God’s call of sinners. Once again the answer revolves around the idea of God’s use of means. If, as we said in the previous section, the called ones are those who have trusted in Christ, then faith in Christ is the means whereby one is called. This, of course, is an act of the will. The means are necessary, but are the means actually the energy behind the saving? No, God is the energy. However, the bible encourages men to ask and seek and knock and trust and come. And who can deny that the Bible is repeatedly filled with such exhortations? Christ implores the weak and heavy laden to fall on Him (Mt 11:28). He calls for men to enter the narrow gate (Mt 7:13). If anyone will come to Christ, an act of volition will be involved. Period.
How do we then reconcile the apparent downplay of the human will supported by irresistible grace? The quick answer is that Irresistible Grace does not downplay the use of the human will. It calls on us to embrace both biblical truths for both truths are clearly taught in Holy Writ. God calls sinners irresistibly while charging them ‘seek the Lord while He may be found?’
We return again to our argument in the previous chapter that God is the author of the means as well as the ends. When God calls a sinner to himself, it may be irresistible with respect to God’s purpose, but He uses means to bring to those ends to pass. Those means are to exhort sinners to flee to Christ and to find refuge in Him. On God’s side, the results are foreknown. On the human side, no man knows the results and is therefore left with obedience to the command. That is to say, man is responsible for his choices. And those who fail to make the choices commanded by God shall be damned, not because they were not elect, but because they refused to come to Christ. If anyone says, ‘I refuse to come to Christ because God has not drawn me’, he has totally misunderstood the word of God and put himself in a perilous place.
To be sure, among some Reformed people, there has been a resurrection of that grave error which has sometimes been called hyper-Calvinism. This belief says that men need not be called by the gospel unless they show some evidence of a tender heart. This understanding places a roadblock between the free offer of the gospel and the sinner. It spurns the need to invite or implore people to come to Christ unless they show some prior softness to the gospel. But let is ever be said, the doctrine of Irresistible Grace has nothing to do with this approach. Rather it accords with the view of the greatest evangelist who ever lived, the apostle Paul, who in Romans chapter nine lays out the most compelling argument for election and then in chapter ten implores sinners to confess with the mouths and believe in their hearts. Paul saw no conflict between God knowing the end and urging men to attend to the means. Once a person can put these two ideas together and cling to them both by faith, he immediately finds peace in his heart. The doctrine of Irresistible Grace neither dissuades men from coming to Christ, nor does it demotivate those who try to evangelize the lost.
THE CALL ONLY ENABLES MEN TO COME TO CHRIST BUT DOES NOT GUARANTEE IT.
All Evangelicals will admit that grace is necessary in order for one to be saved. That includes Catholics, Wesleyans, Charismatics, and Reformed. The question to be asked is not whether or not grace is necessary for salvation but how much is required and what does it accomplish. Because man uses his will to receive the gift of Christ, many have posited that grace merely clears away the resistance to Christ but it is still up to the person, aided by grace of course, to make that final decision. This includes God’s call to the sinner. All Christians admit that the call of God is powerful yet is it still left to man to receive it. In other words, the call of God is not absolutely irresistible. This, the advocates say, preserves man’s participation in his salvation, his free will and renders him culpable for his unbelief, as the Bible teaches.
The scheme just described is commonly called Arminianism. Arminianism is another word for semi-Pelagianism [5], a scheme discussed in a previous chapter. [6] Arminianism allows for degrees of man’s participation. The degree varies from church to church, from leadership to leadership. Some posit that man’s contribution resides in his participation in the sacraments. These ‘means of grace’ bestow on man the grace needed to maintain their salvation; and man is responsible to perform them. Baptism takes away original sin while Penance restores to the sinner a state of grace. This is the system of Rome. Other Semi-Pelagian systems assert that there is a prevenient [7] grace that comes upon the sinner and removes the crippling grip of sin on the human will. This enables the person to choose Christ for salvation. What binds these systems together is the idea that God and man cooperate in the saving work.
This system is no doubt appealing to merit-minded humanity. Naturally anyone who holds some kind of God-man cooperation must deny the monergistic, [8] irresistible call of God. In the semi-Pelagian (Arminian) paradigm all the ‘calling’ texts in the Bible are to be seen as free offers of salvation to men who in and of themselves can receive it or reject it. Semi-Pelagian advocates deny a call of God that draws a person irrevocably to God.
No doubt Semi-Pelagianism is an attractive system. It tries to honor the bible by reconciling two truths; God’s grace in salvation and man’s free choice. Many wonderful Christians believe this. Yet with all its good intentions, semi-Pelagianism misses a key question: is salvation all of God or does the bible teach the need for human cooperation? Semi-Pelagianism asserts the latter. In this, semi-Pelagianism holds something in common with pure Pelagianism. Both agree that man’s free choice is what activates salvation. The two systems say basically the same thing and differ only in degree, not quality. Both of them are forced to give ultimate credit of salvation to man allowing man to boast which clearly contradicts 1 Cor 1:31 and Ephesians 2:9. Those who say that Semi-Pelagianism is a biblical compromise are not seeing things clearly. They do not understand that their system it steals from the glory of God. Fortunately, many who hold to this doctrine do not see this logical inconsistency and would be horrified to think they rob from God’s glory. In fact the Arminian paradigm gives great credit to God and one sees this in their praying and praising. Were they to see their logical inconsistency they would change in a moment. Sadly, they don’t.
To get back to our original question, is the call truly God irresistible or can man resist it by the force of his will? Is semi-Pelagianism a defensible position? It might be easier to answer that question if we note that semi-Pelagianism, as moderate as it sounds, still denies the sovereignty of God in salvation. If you reduce it to its most basic tenet, semi-Pelagianism asserts that pure grace is not sufficient to save. God can only do so much but it is man who makes the all-important final contribution to salvation. Seen in this light, semi-Pelagianism is really another, yet more palatable, form of Pelagianism. In semi-Pelagianism, God’s grace is necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition. Both Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism counter Reformed Theology (Calvinism) which unapologetically states that God’s grace alone is the sufficient condition that actually saves souls. Let me illustrates the three systems this way. A POW standing on the prison grounds needs to jump 15 feet in order to grab ahold of a hanging ladder to escape to freedom. Pelagianism says the man has everything in him to jump and escape. Semi-Pelagianism says someone needs to lift up the man on to a platform 10 feet high and from there the man can jump to freedom. Reformed Theology says the man is crippled and there is nothing in him to enable him to get to the ladder. In order for him to escape he needs someone to pick him up and carry him over the fence.
For everyone who believes that God’s gracious call can be resisted, for every well- meaning Arminian, we must ask the same question that Paul asked the Corinthians: ‘who makes you to differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?’ [9] The only difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that God drew the One to Himself by Irresistible Grace and allowed the other to drift away according to his own evil nature. Theology and logic demand that if any man is to be saved God must irresistibly draw Him. The Bible clearly teaches that the flesh can do nothing good (John 6:63). It can’t even climb the fence of salvation if it had but an inch to go. The heart is made of stone, it is dead. It can no more voluntarily choose to come to Jesus Christ than a dead man can sing dirges at his own funeral.
GOD’S NATURE DEMANDS THAT GRACE IS FOR EVERYONE
One last objection must be here addressed by those who quibble about the doctrine of Irresistible Grace. And it is this; ‘we understand that God’s grace is necessary to save, but doesn’t God give grace to everyone?’
There are two answers to this common question. First, the very fact we use the word ‘grace’ in the realm of salvation limits it to those who are elect. If grace means favor, then it could be rightly argued that God will only give grace to His own. If this is the meaning of the word grace, then we could rightfully say that God does not give grace to any of the non-elect. This position makes sense. Most New Testament texts use the word grace in that way. Verses that seem to say that God gives grace to all men, like Titus 2:11 [10] do not convincingly show that God gives grace to all men. If one believes that grace cannot in any sense be given to unbelievers then there can be no such thing as common grace.
However in almost all theology books, there is a category that often goes by the name of common grace. This means that God as the Creator shows mercy to all. But mercy, the heart that shows compassion to those in need, is not grace. The text that is usually quoted to prove that God shows grace to all men is Matthew chapter 5 verses 43-48. The key verses is 45
‘That you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.’
The question we must always ask is what does this passage teach? The point here is that the sons of the kingdom should reflect their God by showing kindness to all men indiscriminately. After all, this is what God does when he shines on everyman’s field irrespective of who he is. God sends rain to atheists and Christians alike. But is this text teaching that God gives a portion of His grace to every man? If we use the lexical meaning of grace then the answer would be a resounding no! The lexicons agree that grace essentially means favor. Man doesn’t favor everyone, and neither does God. He calls some men to Himself, others He does not. He elects some but not everyone. But in this text God is saying that He gives the same natural blessings to all men. In other words He is not showing favor to anyone in particular but is spreading out His kindness and mercy to all men equally. The giving of sunshine and rain reflect the merciful heart of God, not His favor to anyone in particular. If some want to call this common grace we take no issue with it. The Scriptures seem to teach a general beneficence of God to all men. But let us realize this is not grace in the lexical sense. That we believe in God’s general kindness to all must not be confused with His gracious demeanor toward some. The mercy of God to all is completely different from God’s bestowal of favor on some. Irresistible Grace is therefore God’s special call to some which brings them to the Savior.
CONCLUSION
Irresistible Grace is that divine work whereby God specially favors the elect by drawing them to His Son, Jesus Christ. This grace is not coercive. God does not force men to come to Him by forcing their wills. Rather God enlivens the souls of some by His regenerative power and then woos the enlivened soul which comes willingly and freely to the Savior. Other metaphors abound to demonstrate this miraculous work of regeneration. The Bible teaches that God give spiritual birth to His people by the word of truth. It also teaches that God takes out the stony, God-rejecting heart of His elect and gives them a heart of flesh. All these images agree on one thing; God gives men a new nature, one that freely and joyfully comes to Jesus freely. Irresistible Grace then is a wonderful doctrine that says God so changes man’s heart that when the call comes the man actually desires to come. Therefore, this doctrine doesn’t teach that a man is saved against his will. In addition, this grace does much more than render men salvable. It actually saves sinners. Nothing more is needed than God’s grace to save mankind.
Lastly, Irresistible Grace does not negate the reality that man can resist God. God can and does call all men through the gospel. This, men can and do resist. The entire history of Israel, the world, and the visible church demonstrate that sinners reject the overtures of the Spirit. Here again we must distinguish between the genuine free offer of the gospel to all men and the divine favor that is exercised on some to draw them to the gospel.
When we carefully meditate on the doctrine of Irresistible Grace we will begin to see its beauty in God’s saving scheme. If men willfully run from God and willfully send themselves into judgment, then to think that God has reached into that morass of stubborn flesh and saved some brings ‘wonder, love and praise’ to God. That God would change men’s heart so that they yearn for the Savior, and in coming to Christ they receive all the blessings and privileges of salvation ought to bring joy to the heart. The doctrine of Irresistible Grace is therefore one of the greatest joys that can come to the ear of a believer.
END NOTES:
[1] Consider Job 12:7-10, ‘But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.’
[2] The word ‘all’ is being used in the distributive sense meaning that Christ in His death will draw not only Jews to salvation but all kinds of men from every tribe and nation.
[3] The saying may have originated with the 18th century Scottish preacher Ralph Erksine. See https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/run-john-run/
[4] Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin, John. Book III, 24.5
[5] Commonly called Arminianism
[6] Somewhat different from Pelagianism that believes man can be saved apart from any gracious action of God.
[7] Prevenient grace is grace that ‘comes before’ salvation and prepares the sinner for that greater work.
[8] Monergistic – means ‘one working’ that is, God alone works in the irresistible call of man. Man is passive.
[9] 1 Cor 4:7
[10] ‘For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men…’ In the context Paul is saying that grace as come to ‘all kinds of men’ in particular older men (vs 2), young men (vs 6) and bondservants (vs 9).