Posts Tagged ‘TULIP’
The 5 Points Of Calvinism
Part 4: Irresistible Grace
This post could very well be the shortest of all the post on the 5 points of Calvinism. Why? Because of this saying of Jesus, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” John 6:37
Notice, Jesus said that ALL whom the Father gives to me WILL come. There are no conditions put on this. He doesn’t say “all whom the Father gives to me will come, if they choose to do so.” He just simply says ALL, who are drawn, WILL, come to Me. That basically settles it.
If you remember from verses 44 and 65 of John 6, Jesus said that NO ONE CAN come to me unless the Father gives them the ability to do so; read them for yourself. So, if no one can come of their own will, unless they are drawn by the Father, they will never come to Jesus, and ALL whom the Father draws, or gives, to Him WILL come to Him.
In short, only those whom the Father draws to Jesus are the only ones who will have the ability to come to Jesus and ALL whom the Father draws WILL come. That is what Irresistible Grace is all about. Man of his own will would never choose to come to Jesus, and only those whom the Father draws, or applies grace, will come and submit to Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Basically Irresistible Grace is the act of God calling those who will be saved and in receiving that call they cannot resist, because it is God’s will for the elect to be saved. Yes, there is an external call given to all mankind but there is also an inner call given only to the elect and this call cannot be resisted. Other verses you can look at are:
- Romans 9:16
- Philippians 2:12-13
- John 6:28-29
- Acts 13:48
- John 1:12-13
In conclusion, no one can come to Jesus unless they are inwardly drawn by the Father and ALL whom the Father draws will come and be saved. Since it is God’s will for the elect to be saved they cannot resist His calling. It is not that He draws them against their will but He does make them willing to respond, and they do.
In the next and final post we will look at the P of T.U.L.I.P. which stand for Perseverance of the Saints. And, as we have seen from the previous 4 posts, we will stay in John 6 to see how this is possible and what Jesus has to say about it. Should be an interesting read.
The 5 Points Of Calvinism
Part Three: Limited Atonement
There will be no one in Hell for whom Christ died and there will be no one in Heaven for whom Christ did not die. Limited Atonement is that part of T.U.L.I.P. that says that Jesus died only for the elect.
In John 6:44 Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” We’ve seen from this passage, and from its companion passage in verse 65 where Jesus also said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”, that unless the Father draws a person, not only will they not choose to come to Jesus of their own will, but they can’t come to Jesus.
This is a part of theology that is never taught. For one thing, it goes against the modern-day teaching that Christ died for everyone and that He draws everyone to Him. If these verses were the only ones with which we are to be concerned then that might be true. However, staying in John 6 and in verse 37 we read were Jesus taught, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”
If this is true, if ALL whom the Father gives to Jesus comes to Him, then we know that not everyone will be drawn because everyone would be saved; and we know that this is not true. Not everyone who says to Jesus “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Everyone will not be saved. Even in verse 39 Jesus says, “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.”
Jesus makes it very clear that everyone whom the Father gives (draws) to Him will come to Him, and He will lose none of them and He will raise them up the last day. So, how is it that only the so-called elect will be saved? In verse 45 Jesus says, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.”
We see the Father, in drawing people to Jesus, will teach them the Gospel, and in teaching them their understanding is opened and they are given the ability to willing come to Jesus, to bow before Him as Lord and Savior.
Now I know you will say that only those who hear will come to Jesus. Good point. So, who they who will hear?
Leaving John 6 let’s go to John 8. Here Jesus is discussing with Pharisees about who He was. Then in verse 42 we read, “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.” You notice that He points out that they do not understand His speech because they are not able to listen to His word. So, now the next question would be “Why?”
Well, Jesus answers that for them as well. He goes on to make the statement that they belong to Satan, that he is their father. Jesus states that Satan is a liar and that because they belong to him they would believe a lie and not the truth. Jesus explains it this way. Beginning with verse 44 we read, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?”
Jesus pointedly asks them “why do you not believe Me?” Then He states the unthinkable in telling them why they do not believe. In verse 47 He says, “He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” Did you get that? Only those who belong to God, the elect of Christ, are the only ones who will here and understand the word of God.
This brings us back to John 6: 45 where we once again read Jesus saying, “‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” Only those who belong to God, that is the elect of Christ, are the ones who will be taught, who will hear and be given understanding and the ability to willingly come to Jesus. The elect will hear, they will be taught, they will understand and they will come to Christ to be saved.
No one can come to Jesus unless they are drawn by the Father. All those who are drawn will come and only those who belong to God, the elect of Christ, are the only ones who will hear the Gospel and they will willingly come to Jesus.
Jesus did not fail in His atoning work of salvation. All for whom He died will be saved. There will be no one for whom He died condemned to spend eternity in Hell and there will be no one in Heaven for whom He did not die. If one tries to enter under their own righteousness, and are not covered in the wedding clothes of the righteousness of Christ’s atoning work, they will be cast out of the wedding feast of the Lamb.
The atoning work of Jesus on the cross through His resurrection from the dead was efficacious only for those whom the Father has decreed or ordained to be saved. For them did Christ die and in that work He did not fail.
In our next post we will look at the ” I ” of T.U.L.I.P. which is Irresistible Grace. We have already touched on that topic in this post, but we had to in order to properly understand Limited Atonement. If you belong to the Father you will come to Jesus, and you will do so willingly.
The 5 Points Of Calvinism
Part Two: Unconditional Election
As we found out in the last post, no one can come to Jesus unless drawn by the Father. So, if no one can come to Jesus of their own will, who can come? The answer is simple – only those whom the Father draws.
In drawing one to Christ does the Father use a litmus test in doing so? There are those who will say that God chooses those whom He sees accepting Him, but that is not found anywhere in the Bible. What is seen is that in Romans 9 we are told that God chose to love Jacob and to hate Esau before they had done anything good or bad so that His purpose in election would stand. In other words God chooses whom He wills according to His purpose and for His own pleasure, and not because of what He sees that man will do or not do.
In Ephesians 1 we find that God chooses whom He wills according to the kind intentions of His will. So it is not of him who wills or runs but of God Who shows mercy. How then, does this fit in with John 6?
In John 6 we read the following, 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
So, those whom the Father draws to Jesus, and He does so by making them alive in their spirit, He will teach them the sinfulness of man, their condemnation because of the sinfulness and the salvation that is found in Jesus.
Now we know from these verses, 39 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. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”, that ALL whom the Father draws will come to Jesus. Because of that then, God chooses whom will be saved unconditionally because salvation is conditioned on what Jesus has done for us and not on what man has done to receive salvation.
God does not base this election on what He sees in man because man is nothing but dirty rags in the sight of God. Only when Jesus is in man does God accept Him based on what Jesus has done for man. Since man cannot come to Jesus unless drawn by the Father, there are no conditions that God puts upon man in order to be saved. Salvation is all of grace, and it is through faith that man is saved. However the faith by which man is saved is the faith of Jesus imputed to man. Man cannot generate any faith towards God for salvation.
So, man is totally depraved and un-able to come to Jesus of his own will in order to be saved, and because of that God unconditionally chooses whom He wills to save, and ALL that He draws to Jesus will come and will be saved.
If God did not do this for us there would no one be saved. That is what Unconditional Election is all about; God saving man when man cannot save himself.
In our next post we will take a look at the ” L ‘ of Tulip and that is Limited Atonement. Here we will see that the sacrifice of Jesus was only for those whom the Father has willed to be saved, and no one else.
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