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THE DOCTRINES OF SOVEREIGN GRACE

During the seventeenth century a Synod (Church Council) was established to deliberate on and settle a serious matter that had arisen in the Dutch Churches, it became known as the Synod of Dordt and its findings as the “Canons of Dordt.”

The problem was that the Dutch church was being seriously affected by the increasing popularity of a set of doctrines, which were to become known as “Arminianism,” named after James Arminius, a professor of Theology at Leiden University. This doctrine being a refinement of a much earlier heresy called Pelagianism, also named after its originator, the British monk Pelagius.

In 1610 the followers of Arminius presented their views in the Remonstrance. The teachings eventually being formulated into the following five points : -

Partial depravity

Conditional election. (Election is based on foreseen faith)

Universal atonement

Resistible Grace

Possibility of falling from Grace.

The members of the Synod, after several months of careful deliberation rejected these doctrines as heretical and set out the Reformed biblical doctrine in five counter points, namely: -

Total depravity

Unconditional election

Limited atonement

Irresistible Grace

Perseverance of the saints.

These five points summarise the true biblical condition of all men and God’s most gracious dealings with them.

This term simply means, that mans sin has so separated him from God that it is impossible for him of his will or volition to return to his creator and be saved, man is spiritually dead, this is what the Bible says “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;” read Ephesians 2:1-6, this is mans natural state. Furthermore the natural state of man who is dead in sin is “carnally minded” and is at “enmity against God” Romans 8:7. Mans will is stubbornly set against God.

Total depravity, does not mean the person has reached the very limits of sinful activity, rather that man by himself has no means by which he is able to do anything to save himself. There is a great gulf fixed so that no one can pass from earth to heaven, see Luke 16:26. So if man cannot bridge that gulf, and if man is to be saved, then only God can do so.

Let us consider three implications of this:

1: Can a man desire to be born again and follow instructions on “how to do it?” No, for that would be like saying that a dead man lying in a grave can desire to come out of the grave, and follow instructions as to how he might be made alive. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing” John 6:33.

2: Can any man of his own freewill, in his natural state, (remember he is dead) “accept Christ” as his Saviour, so that he becomes saved? The answer is No, accepting Christ is a good work done only after God the Holy Spirit has quickened that soul to life. “No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” John 6:44.

3: Can you “offer salvation” to anyone? Well yes you can, but unless the Holy Spirit has or is working on the soul, all the offering of the Gospel in the world will not make that soul live. Ephesians 1:1-2.

Only God can take that which is dead and bring it to life, and He does that sovereignly, without our aid, without our asking, from beginning to end “Salvation is of the Lord” Jonah 2:9. This is the faith that we preach at St Paul’s Bexhill, because it is the true Gospel and gives God all the glory!

Arminian doctrine claims that the sinner did not completely fall, therefore the sinner is only partially depraved, this implies that the gulf between God and man, may be partially bridged by mans efforts! That man has a hand in his salvation. This is false doctrine.

This means simply: God has chosen some to eternal life, without looking for anything good in them as a condition for loving and saving them.

“Conditional election” the doctrine of Arminianism teaches that God chooses those to be His, who first loved and chose Him, this is getting things in reverse order. The Lord Jesus makes this point very clear when He says, “You have not chosen me, I have chosen you” John 15:16. Paul in Romans 5:8 says “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” I also suggest that you read Romans 9:11-21, notice particularly v16 “it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” In Acts 13:48 we read that “as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” Only, when we understand this language are things placed in their correct relationship.

“Conditional election,” to use and old saying, puts the cart before the horse, because it says that man believes, and because he has believed he is then ordained to eternal life. May I suggest that you read carefully John 10:26-30, I dare not even being to image what the denial of this truth would mean! Before we are saved, we could do nothing good, John 15:5; Ephesians 2:1-6, therefore the only conclusion that can be drawn is that we could never choose God. And never would, and never would be saved.

But God is sovereign and chooses whom He will choose. All we are and all we have is given us by God.

However there are some passages of scripture that the advocates of the Arminian heresy use in trying to prove that God chose those unto salvation because He foresaw those who would repent and believe and thus be saved, these, they claim are those whom He calls the elect. In other words God has to wait and see what man decides to do, before He can make them His children. Such a passage is 1 Peter 1:2 “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” The word foreknowledge or foreknow has been the subject of almost endless disputes in regard to its meaning. The literal meaning of the word is beyond dispute, meaning to know beforehand; that is to be acquainted with future events.

God, because of who He is, does indeed have knowledge of all things from the beginning to the end. It is inevitable He knew who He would save, not because he had to wait and see who would believe and be saved, but in the context of all other scriptures, because He did out of the morass of sinful humanity chose to save for His praise and glory, “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes,” Revelation 7:9 if not it makes God, who is Almighty, all powerful, reliant upon the whim of man.

L - LIMITED ATONEMENT

To some this is and I quote, “abhorrent.” But why should this be, when even at a basic level man has choice to do so many things, is God to be denied such a privilege? Are we prepared to take something to ourselves and deny it to God?

Those who dislike this doctrine have the false idea that God chose some to life and some to damnation. Such could not be further from the truth. It was man who chose to disobey God and so condemned himself, man himself, of his then perfect freewill that chose damnation, not God, man pf his own choice separated himself from God. It was mans action, not God’s that placed an impassable gulf between God and himself. Adam knew the consequences that would follow his act of disobedience God had told in no uncertain terms “the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”. The Bible says “there is none righteous no not one” why? “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Why? Because “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men.”

God on the other hand in Grace and Mercy has chosen to save some for His own praise and glory. For whom did Christ die? Some teach that Christ died for all men therefore it is possible for all men to be saved. If Christ died for all men, why are not all men saved? Cannot God do what He desires to do? Is there something defective in Christ’s death? Of course not. The truth is, in order to be saved a man must desire to be saved. But the fact is a man who is totally depraved (see definition above) cannot “will to be saved.” He is at enmity with God and wants nothing to do with Christ or His death.

The Bible says that Christ laid “down His life for His sheep,” John 10:11. Christ’s death and what it accomplished is therefore in the words of the Lord Jesus Himself His dying is limited, it is limited to His sheep. Every sin of every one of Christ’s sheep is paid for. Those sins and those alone have been paid. This is the only gospel anything else is another gospel and is therefore by definition “anathema”.

But, comes the inevitable question, what about the “whosoever” in John 3. There is no doubt about it, this is a most wonderful verse, but one that should be treated with great care. As with all scripture John 3:16 -17 must be seen in its contextual setting, as a verse taken out of context makes a pretext, resulting in false doctrine. John 3:16-17 must be seen in the light of the entire discourse of Jesus with Nicodemus, and if you recall, when it came to the matter of rebirth, which is the work of the Holy Spirit and no other, Jesus said “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit, but that which is born of the flesh is flesh, marvel not that I say unto you, ye must be born again, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit sovereignly acts where He will, on whom He will, when He will. The “whosoever” must be seen in the context of the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit and not on the so called freewill choice of man.

A young lady lay dying, she was concerned about life after death, but had no idea what to do about it, she knew there was a God, but she could not approach Him. A Christian friend sent her a card which read “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” Rather than helping her, it saddened her, for said she to herself, I am not one of Christ’s sheep. Then turning the card over she read “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” “Ah” she said I am a sinner, and then Christ died for me. There and then by the grace and mercy of God she was soundly saved. Another one of Christ’s precious sheep gathered into the fold.

But does not John the Baptist say on seeing the Lord Jesus that He came to take away the sins of the world “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.” Yes indeed he does, but does this mean that Jesus takes away the sins of ever single individual in the world? If so why are there so many unsaved and ungrateful sinners in the world? The truth is the word “world” refers to the world in general, to Jew and Gentile alike, the work of the Lord Jesus was not to be confined to the Jewish world, but was also for the benefit of the Gentile world. Until this moment in history, the Jews were the ones who had the gospel, albeit in signs and symbols, but now the full gospel of grace was manifested to all the peoples of the world, it is no longer confined to any one part of the world, but was designed to open the way of pardon to all peoples of the earth. He was the propitiation for the sins of the world. The word world embodies every tongue and nation, every class of people, not every individual.

The fourth Biblical truth in these five points of free and sovereign grace teaches us that God’s grace to save a person cannot be resisted. Grace is God’s free and unmerited power to save a person from his sins, sins which would otherwise lead us to hell.

This grace is irresistible. That means there is nothing in the world that you can do to resist it and thwart God’s intention to save you and to take you to heaven. The certainty of salvation for God’s elect is seen in John 6:37 where Jesus says: “All that the Father hath given me shall come to me ...” There is no doubt that they will be saved. Verse 44 says that those who come to God come because God draws them. Not our will, but God’s will is first and powerful, not our own natural sinful freewill, but God’s irresistible Grace.

Now, some ridicule this truth of the Bible and say that it makes man go to heaven against his will. He kicks and screams all the way to heaven, others that this makes men automatons, both points are contrary to the truth. This is not how the Bible presents God’s grace. God makes His people “willing in the day of His power” Psalm 110:3. For a wonderful illustration of that truth, just consider the Apostle Paul. He was what he was “By the grace of God’ 1Corinthians 15:10. The moment that the knowledge of truth shone in his soul, he said willingly, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Acts 9:6. That surely was not against his will. He was at one moment at war with Christ and Christ’s people, he was literally at “enmity with God” the next a willing servant of the Lord Jesus Christ “it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy”. The fact is the Holy Spirit so acts on the will that man willingly comes to the Saviour

The truth is that man by his sinful nature is the automaton, he is as Jesus says a “servant of sin” John 8:34 “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” A servant is a slave and bound to his master, he is a lackey having to do exactly what his master tells him, the sinner is the true automaton. On the other hand the Lord Jesus says “If the Son set you free ye are free indeed,” praise God no longer under the bondage and slavery of sin, but free men and women in Him. No longer robotic machines doing the will of the world the flesh and the devil, but free in Christ.

Those who sadly have been indoctrinated by the error of Arminanism, will argue that such a doctrine as this, invalidates mans freewill! The truth is quite the reverse. There is no question as to the freewill of man, we have freewill to do many things, we can of our own freewill obey or disobey the law, we can choose to steal or not to steal, we can choose to be faithful to our spouses or have an extra-marital affair. We have freewill to stay in bed all day or get up. Adam alone had free will, that is perfect free will, when he fell into sin, man’s freewill was not removed, it remained intact, yet one thing people tend to conveniently forget when it comes to this matter, is that this freewill, is like everything else about us, corrupted by sin, this did not remain uncontaminated. This will or freewill is therefore also at enmity with God, it is free to follow after the paths of the world, the flesh and the devil, but as it is at enmity with God has no desire or willingness to be converted.

However, when the greatness of the power of God is put forth in the regeneration or quickening of the sinner, subduing the rebellious and unwilling heart and is made willing to be converted to Christ, and Christ alone. The will is made willing by the grace of God, God never violates the human will, and He lovingly brings it into a position where it no longer resists the love of God, but acquiesces to the Holy Spirits advances “We love him, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19, having been quickened by the Holy Spirit, the sinner then freely and willing comes to Christ, fleeing from His sin into the open arms of our wonderful Saviour, who loved us and gave Himself for us.

God’s grace is sweet and irresistible. He makes us love it and want nothing else. He is as irresistible to us as a husband to his newly-wed bride, or the bride to her husband.

But what about 2Peter 3:9 where it says that the Lord is “Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to salvation.” Praise God for such an assurance as this. Again, as with all such passages it must be understood in its contextual setting, and the context is found in ch1:1 and the recipients of the letter “to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:” Then in chapter 3:1 we read “this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance”. This second epistle was therefore written to the same persons as the first, who were they? 1Peter 1:2 the “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” So the words “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” applies to the elect. The Holy Spirit through Peter is speaking, not of the unsaved in general, but of His elect, those who are yet still dead in there sins, none of these will perish, but will all eventually be brought to repentance and faith in Christ.

Repentance is absolutely necessary in order for salvation. “Except we repent, we shall perish,” Luke 13:3-5. God who is a merciful God has no delight in the death of sinners, but the principal design of God in his long-suffering is the blessedness of those “whom he has chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the spirit, and belief of the truth.” To apply this verse in any other manner is to do serious damage to the Word of God.

The last of these five points teaches that God perseveres or preserves His people so they can never be lost. Or put it simply: “Once you are saved, you are always saved.” This does not negate the fact that it is possible to backslide, but the true believer is not, by the grace of God, permitted to fall from grace, for underneath are “the everlasting arms.”

God’s Word is full of proof for this beautiful truth. And though many deny it, and tell you that you can be lost and saved many, many times, and therefore can never be sure of your salvation, the Bible says otherwise. Talking about His sheep, Jesus said: “And I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand,” John 10:28. See also John 6:39, 17:2, 11,12; Romans 8:37-39, 2Timothy 1:12; 4:18.

Some object to this doctrine because it supposedly makes men “carnally secure” in their salvation. That is, if I know nothing can make me go to hell once God has saved me, I will live a worldly and sinful life. There have been some who have used this beautiful truth as an excuse to live like the devil. But they are not Christians. Nor do they understand this truth. Because this truth also implies “perseverance of the saints.” Those who never fall away are saints. They are holy. And they are given by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit power to live holy lives. They “continue in well-doing.” Anyone who says he can live as he wishes has not experienced the saving power of Christ and does not know the meaning of Philippinas 1:6, “He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” God will continue working good works in us until Christ returns. Do not think otherwise.

This is a great comfort. Because we know that if it were up to the individual to remain saved, he would never be able to do it. There is no power in us apart from God’s grace. We therefore praise God for the glorious assurance of Romans 8:38 and we can echo the words “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In conclusion, these great truths are such as set the prisoner free, other doctrines bind the soul to self, to ones own abilities, to ones own strength, and pander to pride. It is probably pride more than anything else that causes professing Christians to reject the great doctrines of free and sovereign grace and adopt the gospel of freewill. However, when understood correctly the doctrines of free and sovereign grace set the sinner free and are great motivating points for true biblical evangelism.

The first objection to the doctrine of election by those who for one reason or another reject it is the supposed negative effect it would have on evangelism. It is assumed by those of the Arminian positions that to believe sovereign election, we render evangelism unnecessary or, at best, impotent. To many of this school who name the name of Christ, election is incompatible with a passion for hell-bound souls. How could we possibly give a sincere and free offer of the Gospel to every creature? How very common is the saying amongst them “if they are going to be saved, why be bothered with the evangelism?” This doctrine, they say, kills and buries the great commission Christ that gave to His church, to reach a lost world with the gospel. Such thinking is as far from the truth as it is possible to get, in fact the great doctrine of election is the greatest motivator for evangelism there is, however space in this magazine will not allow discussion, but we will pick it up the next time. The reality is that the greatest evangelists were and are those who hold to these truths, just to give a clue Spurgeon a great exponent and believer in the doctrines of grace said this: -

“The greatest missionaries that have ever lived have believed in God s choice of them; and instead of this doctrine leading to inaction, it has ever been an irresistible motive power, and it will be so again. It was the secret energy of the Reformation. It is because free grace has been put into the background that we have seen so little done in many places. In Gods hand is the great force which can stir the church of God to its utmost depth. It may not work superficial revivals, but for deep work it is invaluable. Side by side with the blood of Christ it is the world’s hope. How can men say that the doctrine of distinguishing grace makes men careless about souls? Did they never hear of the evangelical band which was called the Clapham sect? Was Whitefield a man who cared nothing for the salvation of the people? He who flew like a seraph throughout England and America unceasingly proclaiming the grace of God, was he selfish? Yet he was distinctively a free-grace preacher. Did Jonathan Edwards have no concern for the souls of others? Oh, how he wept, and cried, and warned them of the wrath to come! Time would fail me to tell of the lovers of men who have been lovers of this truth.”

Whitefield, Spurgeon and Edwards all believed, taught and preached the great doctrines of free and sovereign grace, yet they were among the world’s greatest evangelists, with many souls coming to salvation in Christ through their ministry. The Gospel preached at St Paul’s is the Gospel of God’s amazing and sovereign grace.

It always amazes me that those who deny these great truths have the temerity to sing the wonder hymn “Amazing Grace” for by denying these things, they also deny the very things this hymn portrays, as it is a hymn that expresses the free and sovereign grace of God in the sinners salvation.