THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE CONCLUSION.
WHY THEY ARE LIFE TO THE SOUL?
THEY REVEAL THE CHARACTER OF GOD.
No truths show us the character of God quite like The Doctrines of Grace. These doctrines display a God who is the Omnipotent Creator and Sustainer of all things. He not only brought the universe into being with a word, but He brought forth His redeemed by a similar act of omnipotence. [1] Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and this verse may be rightly set alongside Jonah 2:9 which says “salvation is of the Lord.” The Doctrines of Grace magnify the God who is holy and just. God cannot merely forgive offending sinners and let bygones be bygones. God has divine standards which cannot be compromised. Thus if God will save sinners, the demands of the law must first be satisfied. And The Doctrines of Grace point us to the gospel where the satisfaction of God’s holy law was accomplished at the cross of Jesus Christ. Here we have the heart and soul of The Doctrines of Grace. It is God and God alone who must accomplish the work of saving sinners. From the very beginning of time, God’s plan “to save His people from their sins” [2] has never varied. Everything in history and eternity moves inexorably toward that grand design. From choosing sinners in eternity past, to sending His beloved Son to die for them, to granting to His elect the gift to believe, to enabling them to persevere in the faith by His Spirit, every aspect of these glorious doctrines points to a God whose purposes have never changed and whose focused desire to save His people has continued without hitch “yesterday, today and forever.” [3] From eternity the divine face was set like flint to the cause of redeeming His people. These great doctrines describe how God did it all. They both magnify God’s justice but even more importantly they most beautifully display His grace. God freely giving Himself and all good things to sinners is the central theme of the Bible. Constantly we read about God’s yearning to forgive and save sinners “without money and without price.” This theme permeates the Bible from beginning to end. We are constantly reminded that God “delights in mercy.” [4] For all eternity God will continue to magnify “the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us, in Christ Jesus.” [5] This lavish bestowal of Grace on unworthy sinners is the truth that undergirds the entirety of The Doctrines of Grace.
In addition, no other theological construct is more theocentric and God exalting while humbling the person of man. The Doctrines of Grace put God in the center of all things and leave Him without rival. The flesh will rebel against them. We all want to save ourselves. But in the end this is the only theology that corrects our self-centeredness and brings rest to our souls. Who can find any comfort in a system where his eternal destiny rests on his own performance? The nature of sin is to inflate man’s capabilities. Such an overestimate of human prowess has led many to reject these doctrines in favor of a more man-centered scheme. Over time, such a theology can only lead to disappointment and failure. Man-centered theologies of every sort are but one manifestation of a larger family of truth called by John the Seer the religion of man, or 666. Every one of these false religions will be destroyed. Only the Doctrines of Grace that center around God and His work will survive. Only the religion of 777, the whole and perfect will of God, will stand the test of time.
THESE DOCTRINES NECESSARILY OPPOSE THE FLESH
The unmitigated display of God’s grace is the glory of these doctrines but let us not forget that this fact also highlights their great vulnerability. Over the course of history, the great opposition to The Doctrines of Grace comes from opponents who misunderstand the freedom of grace. Tell men they are free and that can mistakenly lead to all kinds of debauchery. The counter this trend, theologies have arisen that have given some of the responsibility of salvation to man. This, so it is believed, causes man to take holiness of life seriously. But such wresting some of the salvation work away from God always leads to disaster. We find this pattern in the very beginning of the Bible with the lives of Adam and Eve. Essentially they broke away from God believing that they must be a bit independent from Him. They believed the lie that they could save themselves at least in part. The result is that they made the separation from God a permanent reality and ever since the human race has paid a huge price for their misguided ‘contribution.’ And so every false religious system rests to some degree on man saving himself. For this reason, The Doctrines of Grace, which give all the saving merit to God, will ever be hated by the natural heart. They have always suffered from bad press. Many untaught believers look at them as one would look at an amnesty program. They think these truths give saints the license to sin without repercussion. This is NOT what the Doctrines of Grace teach. Rather these glorious truths change the focus of one’s spiritual progress from human effort to divine effort, from synergism (man’s cooperation with God) to monergism (God’s unilateral work). But the natural man opposes giving God complete control and so many have often opposed these truths, trying to win back for man some of the salvation credit.
The doctrines oppose the flesh in another sense. Because God is in control He employs unrestrained freedom to discipline His children. This means that God does not merely show sinners the correct pathway to follow but He gives them the very energy and willpower to see it through. As Peter says, God has given us “all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (2 Pet 1:3). The acting agent of this salvation is God the Holy Spirit, who gives to God’s people various divine gifts that guarantee their endurance to the end, gifts like faith and repentance. [6] So when the Calvinist says that God keeps His sheep to the end, he means that God has given them all things necessary to endure Newton’s “many dangers, toils, and snares.”
This may all sound enticing until one begins to understand that the normal way that God gives His children persevering strength is through trials. The Christian life is never depicted as a man walking dreamily through life unconcerned about his obedience because he has in his hip pocket an insurance policy of God’s sovereign care. No, God actually becomes a Father involved with every phase of the journey. Thus, God works through means in order to bring His children to the ultimate goal of conformity to the image of His Son, even if that means the Christian must die in the just process as did Christ. [7] Far from being a ticket to a guaranteed victory without cost, The Doctrines of Grace depict the Christian life as a sculptor taking a rough block of marble and turning it into something beautiful. Now the marble may think it is special because it was chosen by the sculptor. But that attitude soon changes as the chisel begins its transformative work. See the artist relentlessly chipping away at all the unsightly and useless pieces. The block of marble groans, cries…. and almost dies but the Sculptor never abandons the stone. Even after the work of chiseling is finished the work of polishing has just begun. This produces a more subtle pain that causes it to cry again for mercy. But the pain leads to the end product. The day soon comes when the tarp is ripped off and the sculpture is revealed to the world. And what a beautiful thing it is! It is then that the stone will understand the need for all the chiseling and will thank the Sculptor for His perseverance in the work. The Doctrines of Grace implies God’s constant discipline which displeases the flesh.
This idea of God’s faithful work in disciplining His children is captured in an anonymous poem, “When God wants to Drill a Man.” [8]
‘When God wants to drill a man, and thrill a man and skill a manWhen God wants to mold a man, to play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart, to create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed, watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him, and with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks. When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses and with every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him to try His splendor out– God knows what He’s about!’
That God begins, sustains and completes the work of salvation in His children is a truth we dare not back off from. It is the ultimate hope of every believer. This truth, however, does not put the child of God on some kind of spiritual easy street. In fact one could argue that the life of the chosen one of God is more difficult than any natural life ever could be. When God elects someone, He reserves the right to invade their life in any way He deems fit in order to accomplish His purposes in him. When the Christian disobeys God there is never divine abandonment but there is divine chastisement. This chastening can get pretty uncomfortable. Notice the words of David in Psalm 38 as he describes the feeling of his chastisement for his sin,
‘LORD, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, and do not punish me in Your burning anger. For Your arrows have sunk deep into me, and Your hand has pressed down on me. There is no healthy part in my flesh because of Your indignation; There is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my guilty deeds have gone over my head; Like a heavy burden they weigh too much for me. My wounds grow foul and fester Because of my foolishness. I am bent over and greatly bowed down; I go in mourning all day long. For my sides are filled with burning, And there is no healthy part in my flesh. I feel faint and badly crushed; I groan because of the agitation of my heart.’This is a veritable description of a hell-like experience by one of God’s chosen. But it is not hell. It is the life that all of God’s children may expect. Phrases like, “God’s burning anger,” “Your arrows have sunk deep into me,” “a heavy burden,” “bent over,” “greatly bowed down,” “filled with burning,” “faint and badly crushed” and “agitation of my heart” are often a necessary part of the saint’s experience. Even submissive Christians often suffer deeply because God will also employ pain to drive even the obedient Christian closer To Him. In this case the pain does not come from a Father’s chastisement for sin, but from a father’s love for his child. But in every sense it spells pain. Hebrews 12 speaks directly to this,
‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.’The point of all this is to show that believing God does the work of saving in no wise leads to a life of license. These doctrines rather teach that believing in the Christ is the entrance into a covenant relationship with a God who will do everything and anything to bring His child home. No natural man would ever sign up to be one of God’s children. He would run from such an agreement if he had the choice. After all, who would voluntarily follow someone who was always there to keep him from straying and would resort to every kind of disciplinary action in order to achieve full submission? In every sense The Doctrines of Grace oppose the flesh.
THE GREAT BENEFIT OF THESE DOCTRINES
Though The Doctrines of Grace do not seem enticing to those who understand salvation as being synergistic, for those who have embraced them and have understood God’s sovereign role in all of salvation, these doctrines are the most comforting and assuring truths found this side of heaven. For the pilgrim of faith to know that he or she embarks on a journey that will certainly reach the Celestial City is no small blessing. This they know because it is God who is promised to bring them home. This makes all the chastisements along the way but a minor inconvenience in light of this promise. Knowing that the end is certain gives any traveler a greater cause to persevere to the end. This certainty also enables the sojourner to deal with the pain along the way. This too is a blessing. That is, those who have this promise are better able to cope with the hardships of cancer, the loss of a child, hunger, or relational strife. And this is exactly what The Doctrines of Grace do for those who believingly hold to them. The Apostle Paul, who suffered more than most, says it this way,
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
Another blessing is that this firm hope vitiates the temptation to live a life of licentiousness. This is exactly the opposite of what critics say. So many teachers miss this point, failing to see that these doctrines actually deter sin. Of course this understanding of the divine guarantee to finish the race was prevalent in the mind of Jesus Himself. What enabled Him to be “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil 3:8)? A gritty exercise of the will? Hebrews chapter twelve helps with the answer. It speaks of the Messiah’s trek to the cross as one filled with joy, a joy that was fueled by the sure prospect of securing the salvation of His people. The Doctrines of Grace do not guarantee an easy life but a life that will certainly make it to the end. This brings the believer a joy that resists the temptation to sin.
The practical aspects of The Doctrines of Grace with respect to living and enjoying the Christian life are incalculable.
ONE FINAL REVIEW
We close our study of these glorious truths with a review of each one. So valuable and comforting are these five points that one cannot hear them enough. We will do our best to dig them solidly into your ears.
TOTAL DEPRAVITY
Key Verse: “There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10-12).
Everything in the Bible logically flows out of this truth. If man is basically good, or somewhat good, or has a component of goodness in him, then salvation can be accomplished by what is good in man. And if there is a salvation for really good people, then there is no need for God to slaughter His Son. As damaging as this thinking is, a large swath of evangelicalism believes that man is in some capacity good. Many will say man is bad in most ways, but will fall short of saying that he is bad in every way. Free will theology, which dominates many evangelical circles, believes that man is fallen except in the human will. This belief claims that if man is properly enticed, convinced, or pushed he can willingly believe on the Savior and be saved. But the Bible says otherwise. Jesus Himself told the crowd, “No man can come to me except the Father who sent Me draws him” (Jn. 6:44). This text makes it clear that no one seeks God, that is, man in the flesh has no appetite to seek God. Why is this so? Because man is both darkened in His mind to the knowledge of God and warped in His affections to love God. Natural man does not know the biblical God nor esteem Him. God is to mankind intellectually and emotionally repulsive. Even nice people have no real desire for the biblical God. They are, as Paul says, “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). Once you believe that man is a dead sinner, incapable of anything good, then you will come to realize that salvation must truly be of God, a truth Jonah discovered in the belly of a great fish (Jon 2:9). Believing this truth enables us to see the wonder of the next doctrine.
UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION.
Key Verse: “Just as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame” (Ephesians 1:4).
If total depravity be true, unconditional election is a logical necessity. If men are dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), have minds that are blind with no access to light (Eph. 4:18) and feel only hatred for the God of the Bible (Rom 8:7), then in order for God to save anyone He must powerfully invade their lives. His first act to save sinners is the election of some people “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). The motive of this election is “the good pleasure of His will” (vs 5). That is, God chooses men solely from the inclination of His nature to bless and not from anything resident in the object. Our text tells us that this election is mediated through the person of the Jesus Christ. No one is elect apart from vital attachment to the Redeemer. The goal of this election is to be holy and without blame. This holiness is both positional and experiential. We are holy because we are set apart in the holy One Jesus. But there is more. This connection to Jesus Christ inexorably leads to a practical life of holiness. Romans 8:29 reminds us that we are “predestined (elected) to be conformed to the image of His Son.” In His inscrutable will God has not elected all humanity. He is under no constraint to do so. Men are willfully guilty and deserving of death. The fact that God elects some is a testimony not to a divine bias but to divine grace. Because no man knows the identity of the elect the commission to evangelize is not weakened by this truth but strengthened. We know that those chosen will respond to the gospel when it is preached, a promise that bolsters our gospel efforts. Nor does this doctrine discourage us because there are so few who are saved. To be sure, the Bible is clear that the company of the redeemed will include a multitude from every tribe, kindred and nation. [9]
LIMITED ATONEMENT
Key Verse: “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).
This doctrine has been misunderstood and resisted more than the others. But when properly understood it is a beautiful truth indeed. It simply asserts that the Shepherd died for His sheep, no more and no less. Or to say it another way, Christ died specifically for all the elect. The atonement is only limited as to its intent, not its scope. Had Christ chosen every last person to be saved, His work on the cross would have been sufficient to achieve that goal. As to intent however, this doctrine asserts that Christ died only for the elect not the non-elect. If He died for everyone in a redemptive way then everyone would be saved. But we know that Jesus did not die for Judas or the false teachers in Jude whose condemnation is marked out. He died for the elect and the elect only. The beauty of this doctrine is clear; Christ went to the cross with each of His sheep on His heart and dying for them by name. Of all those whom the Father gave Him He vowed to lose none and to raise them up at the last day. This is glorious news for those who are saved. Christians have no halfway, partial, or uncertain salvation. God never chooses a person then refuses to pay the price for their release. He saves every one of His children. The atonement is like a laser beam not a shot gun. Christ aims for the heart of His elect and washes it in His blood. Many systems like to think that Christ died in general for all and salvation is effectuated by a person’s faith. In other words, man’s belief in Jesus is what ultimately saves him. But this would be no salvation at all seeing that man cannot move toward God or exercise faith in his own strength. So while it seems generous to say that Jesus died in a general way for mankind, it is rather cruel for it whispers a vague promise that it cannot fulfill. How glorious it is that God actually died for a people of His choosing. How gracious of God that out of the mass of rebellious humanity God sent His Son to actually pour out His blood for specific rebels who hated Him. Does not this magnify the glory of the God? And doesn’t it exalt the cross of Christ that accomplished a certain salvation for a multitude of sinners that no man can number? His offering on the cross made perfect all those who were set apart for Him in eternity past.
IRRESISTIBLE GRACE
Key verse: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you’ (Jer 31:3).
The Old Testament prophet uses Israel as a pattern to show how God invades the lives of His people to save them. This invasion is what the New Testament refers to as ‘calling.’ In a real sense God ‘calls’ or invites all men to Himself through the gospel. This is the general call. But the Bible is clear that there is also an inward call, an efficacious drawing that actually brings sinners to the Son. We call this the effectual call. Notice how the prophet looks forward to that call of sinners in the gospel days.
‘And it shall come to pass in that day, That the LORD, will whistle for the fly That is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, And for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. They will come and all of them will rest And in the clefts of the rocks And on all thorns and in all pastures’ (Isaiah 7:18-19). God has whistled for His elect from the four corners of the earth and they have come. This was due to God’s coercion, as some would argue, but a gentle drawing of grace. In this call God does not meddle with the human will or force Himself upon men in any way. Rather, as the great Confession says, God draws the elect by enlightening their mind in order….
‘to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.’[10]
In the mystery of God’s workings, He calls every one of His children home by His inscrutable power, yet He does it in such a way that all the elect freely come, having seen the beauty of Christ and desiring nothing else but Him.
THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS
Key Verse: ‘Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.’
This doctrine is the icing on the cake. It is the beautiful ending for God’s long story of salvation. The ending couldn’t have happened any other way. The story began with God choosing those who He would save. Then, in natural progression, He purchased that same group by paying their ransom price on the cross. In time God called the chosen ones and drew them to Himself by a gentle, secret and irresistible pull of grace. And if God expended so much energy to save these sinners, then one would rightly conclude He must keep them to the end. And this is precisely what the Bible teaches. That God preserves his elect through the difficult wilderness of life is a great truth. How He does it is even better. The Bible teaches that God preserves His sheep, not by artificially protecting them from all harm, but by allowing them to go through the messy events of life while preserving them by very pedestrian instruments called the means of grace. God does whatever He has to do to keep His saints on that pathway to glory. Such things as His word, reproof, comfort, prayer and the sacraments are God’s means to keep His children safe. On top of that He gives them the Holy Spirit who works in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. So while the persevering saint works out His salvation by applying Himself to these means of grace, know that it is God who gives him everything necessary for life and godliness. Without this divine equipage the believer would fall away from the faith. The bottom line is that not one of Christ’s sheep will perish. The sovereign Shepherd keeps all that the Father has given Him and ‘none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.’ The Perseverance of the Saints is beautiful capstone to these glorious doctrines. If a true Christian could lose His salvation then all the other truths would be empty talk. And if this doctrine were not true, what devastation would it cause in the life of the every believer. Christians would continually fear slipping off the salvation cliff. Again, if this doctrine were not true, there could be no assurance of salvation and every season of dullness or besetting sin would be viewed as potential apostasy. This would cause many true Christians to limp to heaven, listless, doubting, and fearful. Perseverance gives grit to the believer. It provides him room to live life in faith without being stalled by gripping fear. Quite frankly it gives him freedom, the freedom to live for God by faith, knowing that no matter the outcome, God will always be him, even to the end.
THE CONCLUSION OF CONCLUSIONS
We have at last come to the end of the road. We have studied and reveled in The Doctrines of Grace and we now bask in their lingering aroma. But in a real sense this is just the beginning. Knowing these doctrines and living in light of them are two different things. The truths have been planted, now it is time to see them grow.
And so we ask, are these doctrines worthy of our devotion, and, if so, what is it about them that makes them special or unique in the doctrinal landscape? The answer is simple. The Doctrines of Grace have the stamp of heaven on them. These are not earthly truths. The great discoveries of Bacon or Newton or Einstein, worthy are they are, pale in comparison to what God has discovered to us in these five mighty pillars of biblical revelation. For truly they bear all the marks the heavenly pattern we see throughout Scripture. Jesus taught us that we must go down in order to go up. We must sink low in our own confidence, our own abilities, and our own self-sufficiency in order for us to be exalted in due time. To go upwards we must first be abased, to be honored among men we must be servants of all. Even the Son of God could not avoid this immutable divine law. He must become the very worm of the earth to become the Prince of the Nations. He must be submissive to the ravenous appetite of death in order to give eternal life. And it was only when He went down into the lower parts of the earth that Jesus was exalted and given a name that is above every name.
So the Doctrines of Grace follow this divine pattern. They take us down, down, down into the dregs of our vile nature and show us how dead, dark and damned we really are. The truth of Total Depravity wrecks us. We feel the depth of our sin and are undone. Yet it serves as a springboard that catapults us into the expansive delights of God’s marvelous salvation. The Doctrines of Grace do what no other set of truths do. They remove from our thinking all ideals of fleshly effort, or manly contribution, or human goodness. And once these phantoms are removed God comes into the void and begins to work. They teach us about God’s timeless election of sinners, His determination to pay their ransom price at the cross, His strong voice to call them home and His sustaining work to keep them safe throughout life. These truths take the spotlight off man and shine it brightly on the God who does it all. Lifting up God to the place of highest honor is what these doctrines do. And the only response to them is pure worship. No wonder they have long been blessed of God.
And so we leave behind The Doctrines of Grace – or do we? In a larger sense we can never leave them behind as David left behind the two hundred warriors at the Brook Besor.[11] And why can’t we leave them behind? Because they were never ours in the first place. These doctrines belong to God. They show forth a God who came to us by His own initiative and saved us. They chronicle His work, not ours. What holds them together is the divine promise, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ And so God will continue to exalt these doctrines for they exalt Him. He is the only Savior, as the song says,
‘No power of hell, no scheme of man will ever pluck me from His hand.’
We say goodbye to these doctrines. But they don’t say goodbye to us. They are still with us and shall never leave. They shall continue to work in us now and forevermore. We bow down to worship the God who is their author. No other response will do except that of the heavenly worshippers.
‘You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power. For You created all things And by Your will they exist and were created.’
Amen and amen.
NOTES:
[1] See 2 Cor 4:6
[2] Matthew 1:21
[3] Hebrews 13:8
[4] Micah 7:18
[5] Ephesians 2:7
[6] See Philippians 1:29, 2 Tim 2:25
[7] See 1 Cor 11:30
[8] Some credit this poem to pastor Henry Francis Lyte (1793 – 1847) but no originals have been found. Others say it is a ‘Christianized’ form of a poem by Angela Morgan (1875 – 1957) called ‘When Nature Wants a Man.’
[9] See Revelation 7:9
[10] Westminster Confession X, 1
[11] 1 Samuel 30:10