Part 3
Calvinism: understanding John 6 and the
rest of scripture regarding your sin, your salvation, the power of God, the
power of man, the power of the cross, and how to get out of bed in the morning
a believer
I.
Review
A.
TULIP
B.
Total Depravity
i. We
need God to intervene
C.
Irresistable Grace
i. God
overcomes our resistance
ii. Why?
What is the foundation for God’s action?
II.
Unconditional Election
A.
Definition
i. WCF:
Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation
of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the
secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen in Christ unto
everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, without any foresight
of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing
in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto; and all to the
praise of His glorious grace.
As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath He, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore, they who are elected being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ; are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season; are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by His power, through faith, unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.
As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath He, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore, they who are elected being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ; are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season; are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by His power, through faith, unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.
B.
Scripture
Predestination/Election
is in the bible and can’t be ignored
(not just the idea, but the word)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that
we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to
adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind
intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely
bestowed on us in the Beloved.
In [Christ] also we have been chosen, having been
predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of
His will.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for
good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the
image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and
these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also
justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
Two options:
1) The above definition
2) The Arminian
conception: Election is based on foreknowledge of future faith (Classic
Arminianism)
- Doesn’t make logical sense, nor does Scripture support it…
Is
Election Based on Foreknown Faith or Does Faith Happen Because of Election?
When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing
and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to
eternal life believed.
Do We
Belong to God Because We Come to Jesus, or Do We Come to Jesus Because We
Belong to God?
I have manifested Your name to the men whom You
gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they
have kept Your word. . . . I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the
world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours.
John 6:37-39
All that
the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will
certainly not cast out. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that
He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
Are We
Jesus’ Sheep Because We Believe, or Do We Believe Because We Are His Sheep?
The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying
to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us
plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works
that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe
because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and
they follow Me.”
Is
Evangelism Making Sheep or Gathering Sheep?
I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I
must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one
flock with one shepherd.
Is
World Missions Begetting Children of God or Gathering Children of God?
[Caiaphas said,] “it is expedient for you that one
man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” Now he did not
say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied
that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in
order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are
scattered abroad.
And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a
vision, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent;
for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have
many people in this city.”
Did God
Choose Us Because He Knows We Will Come, or Do We Come Because He Chose to Give
Us the Will to Come?
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent
Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. . . .” And He was saying,
“For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has
been granted him from the Father.”
A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a
seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord
opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.
Is
Election Based on Foreknown Faith or Is Faith the Effect of Election?
And we know that God causes all things to work
together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to
His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many
brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He
called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What
then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did
not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also
with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's
elect? God is the one who justifies.
Objection:
unconditional election means God doesn’t get what he wants
Some Texts
that May Seem Problematic for Unconditional Election
First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers,
petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all
who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all
godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our
Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
I. Howard Marshall, who is not a
Calvinist and who writes on this text in “Universal Grace and Atonement in the
Pastoral Epistles,” The Grace of God, the Will of Man: A Case for Arminianism,
(p. 56), concedes that there are two levels of willing implied in this
text:
To avoid all misconceptions it
should be made clear at the outset that the fact that God wishes or wills that
all people should be saved does not necessarily imply that all will respond to
the gospel and be saved. We must certainly distinguish between what God would
like to see happen and what he actually does will to happen, and both of these
things can be spoken of as God’s will. The question at issue is not whether all
will be saved but whether God has made provision in Christ for the salvation of
all, provided that they believe, and without limiting the potential scope of
the death of Christ merely to those whom God knows will believe.
But nowhere in the entire essay
does Marshall mention the one text in the Pastoral Epistles that points most
clearly to these two wills and what they are, namely, 2 Timothy 2:24-26
and 2 Peter 3:8-10.
The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome,
but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness
correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them
repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their
senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him
to do his will.
Marshall
poses the question whether any text in the Pastorals would lead us to believe
that “faith and repentance are the gifts of God, who gives them only to the
previously chosen group of the elect” (p. 66). He concludes that there is not,
even though the text that comes closest to saying this very thing is passed
over.
But do not let this one fact escape your notice,
beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand
years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count
slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all
to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which
the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with
intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
“Do I have any pleasure in the death of the
wicked,” declares the Lord GOD, “rather than that he should turn from his ways
and live?"
Lamentations 3:31-33
(An example of God willing in one sense what he does not will in another sense)
For the Lord will not reject forever,
For if He causes
grief,
Then He will have compassion,
According to His abundant lovingkindness.
For He does not afflict willingly,
Or grieve the sons of men.
A more contemporary Arminian
argument (Election corporate, not individual)
Stated: The point is that the election of the church is a
corporate rather than an individual thing. It is not that individuals are in
the church because they are elect, it is rather that they are elect because
they are in the church which is the body of the elect One. (R. T. Forster and
V. P. Marston, God’s Strategy in Human History , 1973, p. 136).
Is
Election Not Individual Because It Is “in Him”?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that
we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to
adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind
intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely
bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Does
“All Things” Include Our Faith?
In [Christ] also we have been chosen [eklerothemen],
having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the
counsel of His will.
Were We
Dead and Unable to Believe So That Life and Faith Had to Be Given to Us?
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great
love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made
us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up
with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so
that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of
works, so that no one may boast.
Is
Election Individual and Are We in Christ Because of God?
For consider your calling, brethren, that there
were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but
God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has
chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and
the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that
are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast
before God. But by His doing (eks autou) you are in Christ Jesus, who
became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and
redemption.
Is
Election Individual?
Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose
the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He
promised to those who love Him?
Is
Election the Effect or the Cause of Obtaining Salvation, That Is, of Foreknown
Faith?
Do you not know what the Scripture says in the
passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, THEY HAVE
KILLED YOUR PROPHETS, THEY HAVE TORN DOWN YOUR ALTARS, AND I ALONE AM LEFT, AND
THEY ARE SEEKING MY LIFE.” But what is the divine response to him? “I HAVE KEPT
for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL.” In the same
way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to
God's gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works,
otherwise grace is no longer grace. What then? What Israel is seeking, it has
not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened;
just as it is written, “GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND
EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.”
Is
Election Individual and Unconditional and Dealing with Eternal Destiny?
I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying,
my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and
unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed,
separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the
flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory
and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the
promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the
flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the
word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from
Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but:
“THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” That is, it is not the children
of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are
regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise: “AT THIS TIME I WILL
COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON.” And not only this, but there was Rebekah
also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the
twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's
purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because
of Him who calls, it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.” Just
as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” What shall we say then?
There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to
Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON
WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the
man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR
THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY
NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” So then He has mercy on whom
He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, “Why does
He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O
man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why
did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over
the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another
for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to
make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for
destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels
of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.
C.
Explanation
i. The
Two Wills of God
1.
Sovereign
2.
Moral
ii. God
was under no obligation to save anyone. He would have been perfectly just to
leave all under condemnation
iii. Pactum
Salutis
iv. The
act of election saved no one, but marked out certain individuals for salvation
D.
Conclusion
Sources:
David N. Steele, Curtis C. Thomas, and S. Lance Quinn, The
Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, and Documented (Phillipsburg:
P&R, 2004).
John Piper, TULIP: The Pursuit of God's Glory in
Salvation (DVD series)
Westminster Standards
Canons of Dort
Belgic Confession
Heidelberg Catechism
