There are 5 points of Calvinism.
Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints
When we come to Christ, there’s this idea that it is a decision we make. Some people say “I accepted Jesus as my personal savior.” Now from our perspectives this makes sense. God says Come, and we go. For our whole lives, we’ve learned at a young age that we can do something we are told to do, or we can not do that thing. When our mom’s or dad’s say, “come here” we can either listen to them or we can ignore them. It’s our choice. And when we hear God’s call, and we follow, it can seem like we made a choice.
I remember about 16 years ago when I raised my hand and stood up after a worship service. I thought I did something, because Jesus said, “come.” Matthew 11-28:30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
I wanted rest, and the Bible said I could get it by coming to Jesus. When we come to God, we follow Jesus’s command, but it’s a bit different than every other time you follow an instruction. When we study what this actually means, we learn the deeper truth. That’s why it’s so important to read your Bibles. The whole thing, not just 1 verse here or there. Don’t just trust what people tell you. When I was young in my re-birth, I thought I accepted Jesus. I thought I made a decision to “come,” in response to Jesus’s call. The verse before Jesus tells us to Come, all who are weary and burdened he says this:
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Jesus says come, but the only people who listen, the only people who CAN listen, were MADE ABLE by God to hear. And Jesus says that the Son chooses who to reveal the Father to. The Son Chooses who. We read in the Bible that we were predestined. Since this was a choice made before time, and Jesus says that the Son Chooses, then Jesus is saying here that he was with God in the creation of the world, and Jesus chose us to respond to his call and to have God revealed to us.
This response to the “Gospel Call” is unique, because we were destined to respond to it. Responding to Jesus’ call is like seeing a door that says the word “Come.” and then walking through it. And as soon as you walked through it, you look back and other side of the door says “You were called”. If you weren’t called, you wouldn’t have walked through. And if you weren’t called, you COULDN’T have walked through either. But when you walk through it, you realize that walking through was never anything you could have done on your own, without being drawn by God. So we have nothing about this process that we can boast in. There’s nothing we do to initiate this response. We were dead. And that election, or that Predestination, is not in any way dependent on what we do. I thought about God’s omniscience and figured maybe God chose us, based upon what he knew beforehand that we would choose. It’s kind of a clever idea, but that can’t be right. It isn’t even dependent on what an all knowing God sees that we will choose to do. If that were the case, we’d be able to boast in our choice still, and God would just be rewarding a work that He sees us doing. Even if it was a work that He saw or knew about before time, it’s still not Biblical. But our salvation isn’t by our works. It’s by God’s grace and it’s God’s choice, not our choice or our response.
Now the confusing part is according to the Bible, we do respond to Jesus’ call. We are called by God, and we respond to it. But because we were predestined and foreordained, for us the call is actually irresistible. We can’t ignore it, and we can’t resist it. Well, we CAN temporarily neglect it, but if God decided beforehand for us to be Elect, then He chose for us to respond to this call and we WILL ultimately respond to the call.
The grace of God may indeed be resisted, but it will not be successfully resisted by those whom God has chosen in Christ to salvation from before the creation of the world.” – Anthony Hoekema
When using the words irresistible grace, it kind of opens the door to arguments and examples where it’s clear that God’s grace can be resisted. Atheists resist God all the time, and they do so up to their death. And even Christians can resist God at times. But ULTIMATELY, God’s grace is irresistible for us. Some prefer to use the term Invincible or Unconquerable. Because there are people that can and do resist. But since they can resist, that means that they were not called. Cornelius Plantinga says, “Nobody [among the elect] can finally hold out against God’s Grace. Nobody [among the elect] can outlast Him. Every elect person comes . . . to give in and admit that God is God”.
Now how do we respond to the call?
That’s something that we can’t do alone. We’re dead. So dead people can’t under their own power or will do anything. We respond, because God makes us respond. I had originally thought I made a decision or choice. Then I thought I made a choice that was impossible apart from God’s Grace. Then I learned it wasn’t a decision that I made or a choice that I came up with. God chose and decided, and I followed. There’s this analogy that somebody came up with at some point to try and teach a response to the Gospel call. Basically it was that you had a dirty house, and Jesus knocked at the door and asked to come inside to clean it. Now it’s kind of a cute example, but it’s inaccurate on many levels. And it’s strange that someone would take the time to come up with that illustration. Somebody had to make that analogy or story up. And it’s totally unnecessary because there’s an even better and more real example in the Bible. It’s Biblical. Responding to the Gospel is like Jesus taking a dead man and calling him out of the Grave. Just like Lazarus. John 11:41-44
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
Verse 41-42 is interesting how Jesus prays to God first. He first prays to God, and outlines their relationship, then does this miracle to reveal God to the people. This part is just like Matthew 11:27 where Jesus says Nobody knows the Son except the father, and nobody knows the Father except for the Son and who the Son chooses to revel the Father to.
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Lazarus didn’t want Jesus to come inside the grave and tidy up. Lazarus didn’t fix himself up, change out of his grave clothes and put on some cleaner clothes first. Lazarus didn’t even want to live or want to be cleaned. Lazarus was a corpse. Corpses can’t want things. Corpses can’t make decisions. Colossians 2:13-14
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
We were dead. We had no pulse. We were unable to be inclined toward God. Our flesh was uncircumcised and not devoted to God. But God made us alive. Because of our sins, we were indebted. All of God’s good laws testified against our goodness, our worthiness. We were condemned by the laws that we couldn’t keep. But God forgave us. Jesus died for us and nailed our indebtedness and our sins to the cross. The wages or penalty of sin is Death. And Jesus paid those wages with his death. But God made us alive. If you are someone who says, “I accepted Jesus as my personal savior” there’s some good news. You understand what sin is, and you don’t like it. God’s Spirit has recreated your heart and you are disposed to and inclined towards God. Without the work of God’s spirit, you are incapable of inclining your own heart towards God. If you say “I accepted Jesus as my personal savior” it means you claim to have had a willing response to God’s call to come. You are repentant and know you need a savior. These are all good things. Not just good things, but miraculous things. But if you think you accepted Jesus, and were behind making this decision, I would say to keep searching the Scriptures. If you accepted Jesus, that means that your salvation is based on your works (of accepting Jesus) and not God’s Grace (of Him calling and redeeming you). Taking the credit for responding to a gospel call is kind of like withholding glory that belongs to God and withholding praise that He’s due to receive in saving you. From your perspective, saying you accepted Jesus seems to make sense, but it doesn’t tell the story quite right. It doesn’t follow the script the way it was written by God.
Even if this is review, it’s the kind of thing we need to be reminded of and the kind of thing that doesn’t get old. To hear about Jesus death and our life is the wonderful and glorious Gospel which frees us. Now we are no longer dead in our sins, but we become more and more dead to our sins. I want to touch briefly on the concept of the perseverance of the saints. If we respond to the call of the gospel, the Bible tells us that we are part of the elect, and God will not lose any who he’s called. We have eternal security in our salvation. John 10:27-29
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
This verse is a very strong promise that if we are His, we will always be His. If God gave us to Jesus and placed us in Jesus’s hand, we can’t be taken from His hand. And if we are in Jesus’s hand, we are in the Father’s hand too. We will persevere until the glorious end. Sometimes this verse is troubling because instead of giving us a promise to persevere, it has the opposite effect and makes us think of the negative case. What if I don’t persevere? This verse says if you don’t persevere, you weren’t really one of His sheep. If you resist God in the end, you were never one of those who He called. It’s a scary thought, and it’s one that is sobering. You might ask, “Am I God’s?” “How do I know?” That’s not something that I can answer for you. Nobody knows your heart except for you and God. The Bible says if you persevere, if you respond to the Call, then you ARE His. But that is making an assumption about an end state. If being saved is important to us, and it should be, then we will ask those types of questions and we care about the answers. The fact that you are asking “Am I God’s” is a very good sign that you aren’t dead to God. But it isn’t the only consideration. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says
5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you―unless, of course, you fail the test?
The Bible gives us indicators to tell us whether or not we are living as a Christian. Now is a good time of year to examine yourselves. I will go through a few questions that you could ask. Jesus’s sheep listen to his Voice. Do you listen to God’s voice? There’s two questions in that. One, do you find yourself desiring to study the word of God? In Psalm 42 the writer says, as the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for you, Oh God”. And Two, is your life Goverened by God’s word? When you do hear, do you obey? God’s word should be actively shaping our lives and correcting and teaching us. People who find themselves with new insights from studying scripture and making changes to their character are growing in spiritual grace. Related to that question, If you are reading the word of God, and being corrected by the word of God, are you becoming more and more aware of your sin in your lives? Paul described himself as the worst sinner in the world. As we continue to let God’s word grow in our hearts, we become more aware of sin. Rather than being discouraged to find more sin in our lives, we are saddened, but we are grateful that we aren’t enslaved to that sin. From there, we become more and more aware of God’s grace and his forgiveness. How thankful are you toward God? How much do you appreciate forgiveness? Because we know forgiveness, we can become more forgiving ourselves. Do you find yourself more and more willing to forgive others when they sin against you? Growing in Grace means being more patient and forgiving to people when they wrong us. Being in Christ means being loving. We should love one another. Our salvation is a very personal thing between us and God, but it should affect all of our relationships. How important are your relationships with each other? Does your love for the Church of God continue to grow? Husbands should love their wives like Christ loved his Bride, the Church. Do we find our love growing for Christ’s bride, the Church? And that doesn’t just mean the Universal Church or the Kingdom of God, but are we being more and more loving to members of the church? Our Brothers and sisters should be important to us. We should see evidence that we love and care for each other’s physical and spiritual needs.
5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you―unless, of course, you fail the test? 6 And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.
Paul’s exhortation to test yourself is kind of scary, but the next verse has a confidence that if you ask those questions you will discover that we don’t end up finding out that we’re failures. Asking these questions is important from time to time. It’s great to see what areas you are growing in, and which areas to continue to pray for God’s work and grace to grow you more. But we always should remind ourselves that we aren’t saved by those works. We aren’t tested to see how much we’ve grown in order to get into heaven. Salvation is all God’s choice and His Grace. We test ourselves to strengthen our hearts and find things to praise God for, when things go well and we can give thanks and show gratitude. And when we fail those tests, we can thank God that his Grace is sufficient for our weakness. We can thank God that Jesus didn’t fail any of those tests, and His works, not ours will ensure our salvation. Ephesians 1:3-14
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will― 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment―to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession―to the praise of his glory.