IRRESISTIBLE GRACE EXPLAINED
According to The Westminster Confession of Faith:
All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only,
He is pleased, in His appointed time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a 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 (X:1). Is it possible to “come most freely” when you are “made willing”? Once you truly understand what Calvinism means by being “made willing,” it is clearly a logical contradiction to say that a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ freely. This is the reason Calvinists use the word irresistible when speaking of saving grace. Although some Calvinists will use the term irresistible grace in both a broad and a narrow sense, in this chapter we will, for the most part, limit ourselves to a consideration of grace as it relates to salvation in the most basic and narrow sense. Sometimes Calvinists refer to this as saving grace as opposed to sustaining grace or some other theological distinction. Spurgeon referred to this irresistible saving grace as: The mighty, overwhelming, constraining force of a divine influence. ...312 Can you freely resist a mighty, overwhelming, constraining force? Sproul explains the difference between an inward call to salvation, which is a synonym for irresistible grace, and an outward call, which is a gospel proclamation and invitation, as follows: When I was a boy my mother used to stand at the window and call me into the house for dinner. Usually I came at the first summons, but not always. If I delayed, she would call a second time, usually with greater volume. Her first call was not always effective. It failed to gain the desired effect. Her second call usually was effective; I hurried into the house.313 This illustration is misleading in that it put the onus on young Sproul to heed the call of his mother, even if he did not do so the first time she called. In Reformed Theology, the one who fails to respond to the outward call was never the recipient of an inward or effective call. Still there is some value in this illustration. Sproul is trying to make the point that a call that is positively responded to is a saving call. If the call is not positively responded to, it is not a saving call. It is not, however, an effective call because it is responded to, as it was with the young Sproul. Rather, according to Reformed Theology, it is positively responded to because it is an effective call. In Sproul’s childhood illustration, his mother probably expected young Sproul to heed the call the first time just as he actually did the second time. The only difference that mattered was in young Sproul’s response to his mother’s two calls. Unlike the call of Sproul’s mother (who intended her son to respond to both the effective and the ineffective call to dinner), in the Reformed view, only the saving call of God is intended to bring a lost person to salvation. The non-saving call (i.e., the gospel proclamation) of God is not intended to bring a lost man to salvation unless it is accompanied by a hidden, secret, and inward saving call. As for the place of preaching the gospel, insofar as the effective or saving call is concerned, Sproul says: The preaching of the gospel represents the outward call of God. This call is heard audibly by both the elect and the non-elect. A human being has the ability to resist and refuse the outward call.
He will not respond to the outward call in faith unless or until the outward call is accompanied by the effectual inward call of the Holy Spirit.314
Again, in Calvinism the call is effective not because it is responded to. It is responded to because it is the effective or irresistible kind of call. Sproul explains:
There is a call of God that is effective. When God called the world into being, the universe did not hesitate to comply with the command. God’s desired effect in creation came to pass. Likewise, when Jesus called dead Lazarus from his grave, Lazarus came to life.315 This distinction is very important. Allow me to explain it this way. Suppose a soldier is called upon by his commanding officer to return to his post. As long as the soldier has the option or ability to disobey that order it would not be an effective, efficacious, or irresistible command. Only if the commanding officer was able to force or make the soldier obey, taking away the option to disobey, could it be said that this was an effective command in the Calvinist sense. The most important thing about this call, as with most every other issue central to Calvinism, is that only God has a meaningful say in what takes place as a result of the call. Man does not and cannot have a say. Generally speaking, it can be argued that all forms of Calvinism embrace something that can be called monovolitionism. That is, only one being (God) has a will that makes a difference. While Calvinism implicitly teaches this in a general sense, it is especially prominent in Calvinism with regard to where a person ends up—whether that be in heaven or hell. As an uncreated object can have no say in its own creation and as a dead man can have no say in his resurrection to life, even so the Calvinist argues that a spiritually dead man cannot, while spiritually dead, respond positively with true and saving faith to God. That is, he cannot voluntarily receive eternal life offered to him in the gospel on the condition of faith while he is still unregenerate. This is also to say that he cannot believe in God’s Son for salvation until he is born again and given faith with his new life in Christ. The dark side says that the reprobate has only one “choice” when the gospel is preached to him, and that is to reject the gospel in unbelief. Sproul goes on to explain:
Effectual calling is related to the power of God in regenerating the sinner from spiritual death. It is sometimes called “irresistible grace.” ... When Paul teaches that those whom He predestines, He calls, and those He calls, He justifies, the call to which He refers is the effectual call of God.316 Sproul then says: The effectual call of God is an inward call. It is the secret work of quickening or regeneration accomplished in the souls of the elect by the immediate supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit. It effects or works the inward change of the disposition, inclination, and desire of the soul. Before the inward effectual call of God is received, no person is inclined to come to Him. Everyone who is effectually called is now disposed to God and responds in faith. We see then that faith itself is a gift from God, having been given in the effectual call of the Holy Spirit.317
Since a man cannot choose to believe in Christ before regeneration, according to Reformed Theology, logically he cannot choose to repent of sin, especially the sin of unbelief. So that the elect can and will repent, the irresistible call of Calvinism is also an irresistible call to repentance just as it is an irresistible call to faith. John Piper explains: When a person hears a preacher call for repentance he can resist that call. But if God gives him repentance he cannot resist because the gift is the removal of the resistance. Not being willing to repent is the same as resisting the Holy Spirit. So if God gives repentance it is the same as taking away the resistance. This is why we call this work of God “irresistible grace.”318 This is also why I say that an irresistible call cannot be responded to freely. An irresistible call to faith and repentance equals a forced response in faith and repentance. Erickson represents Calvinism in saying:
Because all humans are lost in sin, spiritually blind, unable to believe . some action by God must intervene between His eternal decision and the conversion of the individual within time. This activity is termed special or effective calling. ... Special calling means that God works in particularly effective ways with the elect, enabling them to respond in repentance and faith, and rendering it certain that they will. . Special or effectual calling . involves an extraordinary presentation of the message of salvation. It is sufficiently powerful to counteract the effects of sin and enable the person to believe. It is so appealing that the person will believe.319
Sproul says: The term irresistible grace is misleading. Calvinists believe that all men can and do resist the grace of God. ... [God’s grace] is irresistible in the sense that it achieves its purpose. It brings about God’s desired effect. Thus I prefer to use the term effectual grace.320 In other words, those who resist the grace of God are only fulfilling God’s purpose for them. This is the desired effect grace is supposed to have on them. More often than not, a Calvinist uses the term “irresistible grace” with the elect in mind, and the divinely desired effect or purpose is their salvation, initially in terms of regeneration and then justification. In Reformed Theology, regeneration precedes and produces faith. Faith then results in justification. Spencer says: The Calvinist insists that salvation is based on the free will of God, and since God is omnipotent, His will cannot be resisted.321
Thus, if salvation occurs, it is God’s will. If it does not occur, it is not God’s will. Translated in terms of the elect, it is God’s will that they be saved. In terms of the reprobate, it is God’s will that they be damned. Also speaking of irresistibility in the narrower or pre-conversion sense (i.e., leading up to and bringing about salvation initially), Curtis Crenshaw says:
... that God decides who will be saved and when, [and] that man does not have a “free will” and that God’s grace is irresistible (a free gift).322
He also says: The Bible speaks against “free will” .323
And:
God irresistibly enables us to believe the Gospel.324 The difference between the Calvinist and the non-Calvinist (i.e., Biblicist) view is not in the fact that Calvinists say that God irresistibly enables us to believe the Gospel. Rather, it is that they say God irresistibly makes us (the elect) believe, or, if you prefer, makes us believers. The Calvinist view is also differentiated in two ways. Calvinists deny that many sinners are enabled by God to believe. They also affirm (by implication) that some are decreed by God to unbelief and its horrible consequences for all eternity. To help make this very important distinction as clear as possible, consider the following analogy. Suppose there is a man stranded on an island without water or food. Suppose that the pilot of a plane flies over the island and drops (by parachute) water and food to the stranded man. Without the water and food supplied by the pilot, the stranded man would have died in just a matter of a few days. Without the help of the pilot, the stranded man is not able to drink or eat. With the help of the pilot, the stranded man is able to drink and eat. The ability of the stranded man to drink and eat is directly related to and dependent upon the provisions dropped onto the island by the pilot. If the stranded man is to benefit from those provisions and live, however, he must choose to drink the water and eat the food. The fact that he can do so does not guarantee that he will do so. This is how the non-Calvinist views the offer of salvation. All lost men can believe and be saved and in fact are called upon to do so. Happily some do and tragically some don’t.
Now suppose, there is a man in a hospital unconscious and dying of dehydration and starvation. In such a helpless state, the doctor on duty decides to rehydrate and feed the man intravenously. Only after this man is revived is he able to drink and eat on his own. This is how the Calvinist views the salvation process. You do not choose to believe but you are chosen to believe. According to Reformed Theology, if a man believes it is because he was chosen to believe. The choice a man makes to believe is merely the effect of which the prior choice by God is the cause.
Calvinists believe that if man could be free to accept or reject the salvation that God offers by grace through faith in His Son, salvation could not be a gift and could not be sovereignly bestowed. Calvinists have imagined that a relatively free man would be the undoing (theoretically speaking) of an absolutely free and sovereign God. They have also concluded that a freely or graciously given gift would not be a gift at all if the one offered the gift were able to freely receive it. Contrary to Scripture and logic, W. E. Best says: The idea of free grace and free will are diametrically opposed. All who are strict advocates for free will are strangers to the grace and sovereignty of God.325
While I agree that God irresistibly enables us to believe, nowhere in Scripture do we find the notion that God makes us believe (or makes us believers) as Calvinism teaches. I am also a little mystified as to why a free gift must be an irresistible gift. I would love to hear the Scriptures or logic that leads to such a conclusion. Steele and Thomas explain: In addition to the outward general call to salvation, which is made to everyone who hears the gospel, the Holy Spirit extends to the elect a special inward call that inevitably brings them to salvation. The external call (which is made to all without distinction) can be, and often is, rejected; whereas the internal call (which is made only to the elect) cannot be rejected; it always results in conversion. By means of this special call, the Spirit irresistibly draws the sinner to Christ. He is not limited in His work of applying salvation by man’s will, nor is He dependent upon man’s cooperation for success. The Spirit graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ. God’s grace, therefore, is invincible; it never fails to result in the salvation of those to whom it is extended.326
According to Calvinism, therefore, salvation results when saving grace is extended to the unbelieving elect. The unbelieving elect are then irresistibly and supernaturally turned into the believing elect. Thus, the gospel invitation extends a call of salvation to some (i.e., all but the elect) without the necessary saving grace that is required to produce the salvation of those called to that salvation. On the one side, Calvinism teaches that there is a caste of men who are unconditionally elect from all eternity and therefore inwardly and irresistibly called in time. On the other side, the dark side, it teaches that there is a caste of men who are unconditionally reprobated from all eternity and therefore not called inwardly in time.
While heavily criticized by their so-called hypo-Calvinist counterparts, the hyper-Calvinists should be applauded for at least attempting to be a little more consistent with the implications of Calvinism. One breakaway Reformed church association called the Presbyterian Reformed Church (PRC) says: The objection of the PRC to the offer is not at all that the offer requires that the gospel be preached to all, or that the offer insists that all be called to believe on Christ. But the objection is that the offer holds that this preaching and calling are grace to all?11
Obviously, if the gospel proclamation cannot be believed by reprobates, then there can be nothing gracious about the offer. The problem with this view, besides the fact that it is patently unscriptural, is that it cannot give a reasonable explanation for making an ungracious offer in the first place. To say God says so and that settles the matter does not amount to a reasonable explanation. It just makes God responsible for the unreasonable and ungracious offer. Why offer to give to a person what the person cannot receive? To use ignorance of who can and cannot receive the gift of eternal life made in the offer is not a good answer. God, the one on behalf of whom the gospel preacher is making the offer, is certainly not ignorant of the one to whom He is making the offer. Nevertheless, hyper-Calvinism is a slight improvement over hypo-Calvinism, insofar as consistency is concerned, because it admits that the offer of Reformed Theology is not a well-meant offer. Steele and Thomas, representing the mainstream or hypo-Calvinism, explain: The gospel invitation extends a call to salvation to everyone who hears its message. It invites all men without distinction to drink freely of the water of life and live. It promises salvation to all who repent and believe. But this outward general call, extended to the elect and un-elect alike, will not bring sinners to Christ. Why? Because men are by nature dead in sin and are under its power.
They are of themselves unable and unwilling to forsake their evil ways and to turn to Christ for mercy. Consequently, the unregener ate will not respond to the gospel call to repentance and faith. No amount of external threatening or promises will cause blind, deaf, dead, rebellious sinners to bow before Christ as Lord and to look to Him alone for salvation. Such an act of faith and submission is contrary to the lost man’s nature.328
Boettner says: As the bird with a broken wing is “free” to fly but not able, so the natural man is free to come to God but not able.329
Some freedom! Augustinianism, the precursor to Calvinism, says that man is so bound by sin that all that a man can do is sin. Erickson, reflecting on Augustine’s views, explains: This is not to say that man is not free. Man has options, but those options are all sinful in nature. He is free to choose, but merely to engage in one sin or the other.330
Here we have an excellent explanation as to what the Calvinist has in mind when he says that a lost man is a free man. According to this view, the lost sinner cannot do the right thing. He can only do the wrong thing.
Spurgeon illustrates the difference between the ineffectual or general call that comes as the gospel proclamation to the reprobate, and the effectual and directed call that is meant only for the elect as follows: The general call of the gospel is like the common “cluck” of the hen which she is always giving when her chickens are around her. But if there is any danger impending, then she gives a very peculiar call, quite different from the ordinary one, and the little chicks come running as fast as they can, and hide for safety under her wings. That is the call we want, God’s peculiar and effectual call to his own.331 In Spurgeon’s Catechism, he connects the application of redemption, which is the actual time when the elect are saved as well as the method by which they are saved, to the Calvinist notion of irresistible grace or effectual calling. That is:
Q. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us (John 1:12) by his Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-6).
Q. How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us (Ephesians 2:8), and by it uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling (Ephesians 3:17).
Q. What is effectual calling?
A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit (2 Timothy 1:9) whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery (Acts 2:37), enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ (Acts 26:18), and renewing our wills (Ezekiel 36:26), he does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel (John 6:44-45).
Q. What benefits do they who are effectually called, partake of in this life?
A. They who are effectually called, do in this life partake of justification (Romans 8:30), adoption (Ephesians 1:5), sanctification, and the various benefits which in this life do either accompany, or flow from them (1 Corinthians 1:30). The Calvinist can and sometimes does say that a person must choose to be saved, but he cannot say that an unregenerate person must or even can choose to come to Christ. For it is only after regeneration that a man is made to believe and only after regeneration that a man is made willing, according to Calvinism. Crenshaw, referring to an illustration he borrowed from Boice, says:
Preaching the Gospel is like tossing torches in 55-gallon drums.
You toss the torch in one drum and there is water in the drum so the torch goes out. The same happens with another drum. Then the torch is cast into a drum with gunpowder in it—boom! An explosion occurs. So it is with preaching. We preach and preach and nothing happens; the word falls on deaf ears that cannot—and will not—hear. Then God regenerates one and boom, conversion occurs.332
Sproul says: The Calvinist view of predestination teaches that God actively intervenes in the lives of the elect to make absolutely sure that they are saved.333
He then says: Of course the rest are invited to Christ and given an “opportunity” to be saved if they want to ...334
Putting the word “opportunity” in quotes and the words if they want to in italics is Sproul’s way of nodding that he understands that these are just words without substance in light of what Calvinism says about unconditional election, irresistible grace, limited atonement, etc. In other words, it is not a genuine opportunity to reprobates and as reprobates they cannot want to be saved. This is in full accord with the decree of God concerning their destiny. Thus he is quick to add:
Calvinism assumes that without the intervention of God no one will ever want Christ. Left to themselves, no one will ever choose Christ.335
It must be remembered that Calvinism requires more than a pre-salvation intervention of enablement on the part of God. It requires that the prefaith intervention include a regenerating of the lost, which in turn brings with it a saving faith. Sproul explains the Calvinist logic as follows:
Fallen man is still free to choose what he desires, but because his desires are only wicked he lacks the moral ability to come to Christ. As long as he remains unregenerate, he will never choose Christ.336 This notion that nothing short of regeneration will enable and/or make a man believe is central to the Calvinist doctrine of salvation in general and of their doctrine of irresistible grace in particular. Virtually all Calvinists agree that believers are supposed to preach the gospel without distinction for two primary reasons:
Because we cannot be sure who the elect are and are not; and
Out of obedience to God who commands that we do so.
They are divided as to whether or not this call to believe can be a valid offer of eternal life when proclaimed to the reprobate. The hypo-Calvinists have somehow convinced themselves that such an offer is valid. The hyper-Calvinists do not believe it is a real or a valid offer of eternal life to the reprobate. In this instance, the hyper-Calvinist is compelled by the logic of Reformed Theology to accept the implications of a Calvinist offer of eternal life to the reprobate. Evidently, the hypo-Calvinist ignores the logical implications of his views.
While hypo-Calvinists are affirming only what Scripture affirms with regard to the validity of the offer in a gospel proclamation, it is difficult to see how such an offer—in keeping with the implications of unconditional election, irresistible grace, and limited atonement—can be viewed as a valid offer of eternal life. In fact, it is more than difficult. Unless you are wearing special Calvinist-colored glasses, it is impossible. Mainstream or hypo-Calvinists continue to insist that the offer of eternal life proclaimed in the gospel to the reprobate is valid, despite the fact that reprobates cannot accept the offer due to the decree of God concerning their ultimate damnation. Berkhof explains the hypo-Calvinist view in light of the hyper-Calvinist objection. He says:
There is an objection derived from the bona fide offer of salvation.
We believe that God “unfeignedly,” that is, sincerely or in good faith, calls all those who are living under the gospel to believe, and offers them salvation in the way of faith and repentance. ... The offer of salvation in the way of faith and repentance does not pretend to be a revelation of the secret counsel of God, more specifically, of His design in giving Christ as an atonement for sin. It is simply a promise of salvation to all those who accept Christ by faith.337 Berkhof goes on to explain: This offer, in so far as it is universal, is always conditioned by faith and conversion. Moreover, it is contingent on a faith and repentance such as can only be wrought in the heart of man by the operation of the Holy Spirit.338 Not only so but: The universal offer of salvation does not consist in the declaration that Christ made atonement for every man that hears the gospel. .
It consists in (a) an exposition of the atoning work of Christ as in itself sufficient for the redemption of all men ...339
If that is the Calvinist version of a bona fide offer, I will have to think twice before doing business with a Calvinist. The catch in this offer is not even in small print. It is altogether hidden from view, in that it can only be discerned by a “secret counsel of God.” Anticipating the obvious questions that inevitably come from detractors like me, Berkhof says:
It is not the duty of the preacher to harmonize the secret counsel of God respecting the redemption of sinners with His declarative will as expressed in the universal offer of salvation.340 At least Berkhof seems to acknowledge that one cannot harmonize both the Calvinist view of a divine decree which unconditionally condemns untold millions to eternal damnation without remedy, and also a scriptural declaration that God would have all to be saved. Still, some Calvinists obey the command to preach to everyone with the full assurance that the damnation of some is set in the same spiritual and eternal cement as is the salvation of others. The only way we can be reasonably sure an elect person has been the recipient of irresistible grace, according to Calvinism, is when he positively responds to or no longer rejects the gospel. While the preaching of the gospel is not always accompanied with an irresistible grace leading to salvation, irresistible grace is never received apart from the gospel, according to many if not most contemporary Calvinists. As already noted, hypo-Calvinists do not say that all grace is irresistible or that it always leads to salvation. Rather, they say that saving grace is irresistible and therefore always leads to salvation. It should, however, be evident that irresistible grace, as defined in Calvinism, suffers from many of the same logical, practical, and scriptural problems, as does unconditional election. Keep in mind that, according to Reformed Theology:
If you are among the elect caste of humanity, you will necessarily come under the irresistible grace of God and eventually must/will be saved.
If you are not one of the elect, you will not come under the influence of the irresistible grace of God and will not/cannot be saved.
Thankfully, the offer of eternal life, expressed in a variety of ways and in many different contexts, is much more straightforward and less complicated to understand in the New Testament than it is in Reformed Theology. The scriptural response evident among those who hear the gospel and thereby receive or reject the gift of eternal life offered in the gospel is also far less complicated than how it is presented in Reformed Theology.
According to H. Wayne House, the general calling (in contrast to the effectual calling):
... involves the presentation of the Gospel in which the individual is offered the promise of salvation in Christ by faith in order to receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.341 He also says that the general calling:
... reveals the great love of God to sinners in general.342 Is the “individual” truly “offered the promise of salvation in Christ by faith” if the individual cannot have faith because that faith is withheld from him by God? I have to ask (along with Dave Hunt) “What love is this?”