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HOW DID WE COME TO FAITH? Introduction: Jesus' Hard
Words
Why should we study what the Bible says about how we came to
faith in Jesus? Isn't it enough to simply believe and let it go?
After all, do not such discussions only cause hurt feelings and
doctrinal arguments among believers? These are good questions.
Here are two answers. First, Jesus himself calls us to pay
attention to His hard words,
Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man
ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the
flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are
spirit and they are life (John 6:61-63).
Second, we should think about these things because they
concern God's glory. He is rightly jealous for His glory. He
says, "I will not give my glory to another."1 Neither
should we give God's glory to another. The question of who saves
whom is central to God's glory.
Its true that discussing God's eternal decisions can cause
trouble. This is also true of any one of a number of biblical
doctrines. The solution can hardly be to refuse to think about
or discuss Bible doctrines. Scripture itself gives guidelines
for Christian discussion. If we treat one another with love,
humility and patience, not thinking more highly of ourselves
than we ought, then we ought to be able to grow together
gracefully.2
In any doctrinal discussion, the most important question is,
"What does God's Word say?"3 It is God's Word which
should determine what we believe. God's Word alone is His
Spirit-inspired, infallible, inerrant, authoritative,
self-revelation for faith and life. God's Word written must
determine our faith and confession, even if what it says is
difficult to accept
Sin Means Death and Total Inability
Understanding what the Bible says about sin is essential to
understanding what the Bible says about salvation. What is sin?
1 John 3:4 says, "Every one who does sin, does lawlessness
because sin is lawlessness."4 James says that if we
break one law, we have broken them all.5 Sin is the
violation of God's holy requirements. God's Word is an
expression of God's holiness. Sin is an offense against God.
Paul says, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His
sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become
conscious of sin."6
God's Word is equally clear that every human being is born
"in sin."7
There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one
who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned
away....They have together become worthless; there is no one
who does good, not even one...All have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God.8
Contrary to the generally accepted modern view of man, Paul
says that by nature we are not seekers after righteousness or
God. We are by nature at war with God. The results of sin are
accurately described as "total inability." In Romans 8:7 Paul
puts it this way,
The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to
God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful
nature cannot please God.
Outside of Christ, before we have been redeemed, our natural
(fallen) state is such that we are unable to obey God, it is
impossible. Reminding God's people of the radical nature of
God's saving grace John emphasizes the divine initiative in
salvation:
Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent His
Son an atoning sacrifice for our sins.9
In Genesis 2:17 we read that God commanded our first parents,
Adam and Eve, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. The command to avoid one tree in the Garden was God's
standard of holiness for Adam and Eve. God's Word says that Adam
and Eve were created "in the image of God."10 The
text gives every indication that they had the power and ability
to obey God. They freely chose not to obey God.11 The
narrative of Genesis chapter 3 certainly seems to confirm
Augustine's conclusion that before the fall we were able not to
sin. After the fall, we were not able not to sin.
It is important to note that the penalty attached to the law
was death. "For when you eat of it you will surely die."12
Paul says, "The wages of sin are death."13 Death, in
God's Word, stands as the absolute opposite of life. Let me
illustrate. In High School I had a Physiology teacher who took
the class to see cadavers at a university medical school. We
were allowed to put our gloved hands into the corpses, to learn
how the human body works. Had those bodies any life in them I
assure you, I would not have had my hands in their chest
cavities! But the cadavers were dead. Dead people do not revive
themselves. Dead people do not call the ambulance. Without God's
power, dead people simply stay the way they are, dead.
In Adam's Fall Sinned We All
In Romans 5:12-21 Paul explains how we died. He says that
Adam stood before God, in the Garden, as the representative of
the entire human race. When Adam sinned, we all sinned. His sin
was imputed— put on; credited — to us. Adam's sin offended God
and brought physical and spiritual death and corruption to the
entire human race.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man,
and death through sin, and in this way death came to all
men, because all have sinned...For if the many died by the
trespass of the one man...The judgment followed one sin and
brought condemnation...For if, by the trespass of one man,
death reigned through that one man...Consequently, just as
the result of one man's trespass was condemnation for all
men...For just as through the disobedience of the one man,
the many were made sinners.
The original sin of Adam has radical effects for our daily
lives also. We sin because we are sinners by nature. We do not
become sinners after we sin for the first time in our individual
existence. We are not each born as Adam, without sin. We are
born sinful and we act accordingly. Paul explains the
relationship between our sin and our sinfulness this way.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and
sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways
of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air....14
The old puritan rhyme is correct, "In Adam's fall, sinned we
all." The result of our sin is that we are spiritually dead.15
Because we are spiritually dead we have no natural desire to
know God or to be saved.16 We are prone by the way we
are from birth to hate God and our neighbor. Outside of Christ,
we would be lost and without any hope. God's Word says that we
are lost and dead, not merely confused or sick. Because we are
in such a sad state God alone can save, by grace, through faith.
God's Word gives no indication that we are, by nature, in any
position to cooperate with God. God is not "waiting" helplessly
for us to come to Him. There is nothing in us that makes us
worthy before God. All human beings stand before God as hell
deserving sinners.
Grace and Faith
The good news is that there is hope in Jesus! Romans 5:8 says
that "While we yet were sinners, Christ died for us." Jesus died
to pay the penalty for the sin of all his people. Our sin was
credited to Christ, and His righteousness was credited to those
who believe.17 Whoever believes in Him has
everlasting life.18
Ephesians 2.8,9 says,
For you were saved by grace through faith--and this faith
does not come from yourselves, but it is the gift of
God--not from works, so that no one will be able to boast.
What is the nature of God's grace? First of all it is saving,
"you were saved by grace." It is saving in that it delivers the
believer from the state of being under God's condemnation to a
state of being under God's favor. The Biblical words for grace,
Chen (O.T.) and Charis (NT) and are not ever used in Scripture
to indicate that grace merely enables a person to cooperate with
God.19 Grace is never merely enabling, it is always
saving.
By its very nature, grace is a gift, it is the unearned favor
of God. In Romans 6:23 Paul contrasts works righteousness with
the righteousness which comes by grace. "The wages of sin are
death, but the gift of God is eternal life." A gift is the exact
opposite of wages. A gift is not required, it is given merely
out of one's good pleasure.20 Grace is not earned, as
Paul says, because then "grace would no longer be grace"21
Even the faith of which Paul speaks in Ephesians 2:8 is a
gracious gift. It is true that it is we who must do the
believing. No one can do our believing for us. The Gospel says,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved."22
Faith is the means through which people received the grace of
God. Faith appropriates God's grace, faith trusts that Christ
has acted on my behalf. Faith says,
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in
me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself for me (Gal 2:20).
Yet, in the translation of Ephesians 2:8,9 given above, it is
clear that the clause, "it is the gift of God", refers to faith.
God has ordained that it is through faith the saving grace of
God is received. With this biblical teaching in view, the old
hymn takes on new meaning:
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was
lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see. 'Twas grace that taught my
heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; How precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed!
The question is: how do sons and daughters of Adam, dead in
trespasses and sins, come to believe in Jesus? This is the
question which I will seek to answer in the rest of this essay.
Freely Chosen By God
God's Word teaches that our election is not conditioned upon
any merit in us. There is no teaching anywhere in God's Word
that we are somehow able to recommend ourselves to God.
Deuteronomy 4.32-40 illustrates this choosing of a people by
God. In his speech to Israel, Moses compares the choosing of
Israel in vv.32-34 to the primeval creation.
Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God
created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has
anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it before ever
been heard of?
Moses supposes that his audience is familiar with the
creation narrative, which says,
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was
formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of
God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light", and there
was light.23
The Letter to the Hebrews says,
By faith we understand that the earth was created at God's command, so that
what was seen was not made out of what was visible.24
God spoke and all things came into being. Before God spoke,
no earth existed. The same is true of God's people. In his
speech, Moses says that God spoke Israel into existence as a
people.25 For this same reason, it is God who
sovereignly calls, elects and saves a people to be His
possession,26 because he is, as Paul puts it, the
Creator of a "new creation in Christ."27 The creation did not
help God. God made the creation by His Word, without any help
from us. Moses goes on to say that, in fact, the fact that
Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob elects a people for
Himself, makes Him unique among all the god's.
Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation,
by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an
outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord
your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?28
Three chapters later, Moses denies that there was any quality
inherent in Israel which made the sons of Jacob worthy of being
called the people of God.
The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were
more numerous than other people, for you were the fewest of all people. But it
was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers
that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of
slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, King of Egypt.29
According to this passage, there are two reasons for God's
choosing of Israel, His undeserved love and His Covenant promise
to Abraham.30
God's Sovereign Decisions in Exodus
Several passages in Exodus make the whole matter of God's
sovereignty, predestination and election very explicit. In
Exodus 4:11, in answer to Moses' excuse about not speaking well,
the Lord asks the rhetorical question, "Who gave man his mouth?
Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives sight or makes him blind?
Is it not I, the Lord?" God's absolute justice and power are
fundamental themes of the Exodus narrative.
Throughout the Book of Exodus the Lord declares unequivocally
that,
...I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will not let the people go...But
I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and
wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you.31
Exodus 7:22 says "...and Pharaoh's heart became hard". That
Pharaoh is said to "harden his heart" shows that we are not
robots.32 God uses means. People also retain a sin
corrupted will. Exodus 8:15 indicates that Pharaoh looked at the
situation and then he "hardened his heart". That was a willful
act on Pharaoh's part. The ultimate cause of Pharaoh's hard
heart, however, must be understood in light of earlier and later
passages which say clearly that God himself hardened Pharaoh's
heart.
This can be a difficult teaching to accept. Many years ago
while enrolled in a Bible Literature course at a large state
university the class came upon these passages in our studies.
After reading them, one of the students blurted out, "this must
be a mistranslation! This can't be so!" Actually the grammar of
each of the verses is unambiguous and is rendered correctly
above from the NIV. What caused problems for my fellow student
was a common (but unbiblical) assumption that it is unfair for
God to hold humans responsible for anything over which they do
not have absolute control.33
Adam Again?
This premise insists that God treat each of us as though we
were Adam and not the children of Adam. However we cannot have
it both ways! If we each wish to be Adam, then we must do away
with Jesus, since he purposefully came to earth to succeed where
Adam failed. If we were in a position to be Adam then Jesus was
wasting His time, or providing insurance at best. This does not
accord with Jesus self-description as "the way and the truth and
the life."34
Scripture explicitly rejects the notion that moral
responsibility is contingent upon human autonomy. In Exodus
9:15,16 the Lord says to Pharaoh.
I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a
plague that would have wiped you off the face of the earth. But I have raised
you up for this very purpose, that I might show (in) you my power and that my
name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
According to Scripture, Pharaoh existed primarily to bring
glory to God. The grammar of v.16 is exceedingly clear and the
language equally blunt. God raised Pharaoh up so as to use him
to demonstrate His power to harden and to redeem. It is against
the backdrop of the hardness of Pharaoh's heart, against the
backdrop of the plagues on Egypt, that the greatness of God's
grace in redeeming Jacob's sons is to be seen. The marvel is not
God's cruelty in hardening Pharaoh, but in redeeming Israel's
sons!
The Apostle Paul and The Fairness Doctrine
What makes these verses even more important is the way Paul
interprets them in Romans chapter 9. In God's treatment of
Pharaoh, Paul sees the prime example of God's predestinating,
sovereign, electing, grace.
So then salvation is not of him who wills, nor of him who
runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to
the Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up
that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be
declared in all the earth. Therefore he has mercy upon whom
he wills and whom he wills, he hardens.35
Through the example of Pharaoh, Paul also answers what I call
the "fairness question" which asks, "Is it fair that God wills
that some should be saved and that some should not?" Paul's
reply, "What shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!"36
God is fair. It was not God who sinned in the garden. In Adam,
we were not created with any defect. We were created in the
image of God. God made Adam and Eve so that they could live
obediently, but they chose not to. That is not God's fault. The
marvel is not that some are not saved, but that anyone at all is
saved.
If, however, salvation is all of God, then how can he
condemn those who do not believe? Paul's answer,
But indeed O' man who are you to reply against God? Will
the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'Why have you
made me like this?' Does not the potter have the power over
the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor
and another for dishonor?37
Free Will
That Adam had a free will, the ability to sin or not, is
widely accepted. The idea however, that human beings have a free
will has a long history in Western theology and continues to
strongly influence many Bible interpreters and theologians. Many
evangelicals simply assume that the doctrine of free will is a
biblical one. It will be helpful, therefore, to understand the
background of this idea in the Western intellectual tradition.
Reacting to Augustine's strong doctrine of human depravity
(inability) and divine sovereignty, the British monk Pelagius
(c.400) and his followers challenged the doctrine that all
humans are federally (legally) united to Adam and thus fell with
him. By breaking the legal/moral link between Adam and us, the
Pelagians almost eliminated the effect of sin upon us.
Though the Councils of Carthage (411) and Orange (529) sided
with Augustine, afterwards the majority of the medieval church
moved in a steadily semi-Pelagian direction, attempting to
synthesize Pelagius with Augustine. The synthesis said that
sinners are able to cooperate with grace toward justification.
In the high middle ages the semi-Pelagian banner was carried by
Gabriel Biel (c.1420-95) and the greatest humanist of all,
Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469-1536), against whom Martin Luther
reacted during the Reformation.38 In the late 16th
century, Jacob Arminius (1560-1609) renewed the semi-Pelagian
struggle against the Pauline doctrine of the will. Later, the
great German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) defined free
will to mean something like "the power of contrary choice." Kant
said that a choice is truly moral choice only if the one making
the decision has the power to will the contrary.
Though the doctrine that (fallen) human beings retain a free
will is widely held, it is not is certainly not Pauline. He
argues from God's electing wisdom that God has the right to
choose Jacob and reject Esau.39 We are not in any
position, being sinners and finite humans, to question His
mysterious, eternal, decisions. God's Word nowhere provides any
defense whatsoever for the position that man has the ability to
will the contrary to God's will. Rather, God's Word, as we have
already seen, provides extended passages defending God's
righteousness in His sovereign eternal gracious decrees. I doubt
that is possible to find a single passage in God's Word which
clearly teaches that created, sinful, human beings have a free
will relative to God's. If Pelagius, Erasmus and Kant are
correct, then one must say that Pharaoh is not morally culpable
for his hardness because he did not have the power to will the
contrary to God's decree. One would be forced to conclude that
God is a evil tyrant who uses people as puppets.
A word of clarification about the meaning of the term "free
will" is in order. One may use the term free will. If, with
Jonathan Edwards, we define a free will as that will which acts
according to its nature, then the will, in this restricted sense
may be said to be free. Sin warps our will so that, by nature,
we do not will to do what is pleasing to God. Because of our
relationship to Adam, we freely will to sin.40 The
fallen will may said to be free in an existential, or
experiential sense. No one visibly compels any human being to do
anything they do not will to do. After all, we experience
ourselves choosing daily or moment by moment. One always has a
choice, even if one of the choices is unpleasant.41
Nevertheless, ultimately, the human will must be said to be
limited by God's decisions. Any other position is suicidal to
the Christian faith. If one assumes that believers or
unbelievers have the power of absolute contrary choice relative
to God's decrees, then all of the biblical language describing
God's eternal decrees becomes meaningless and mythological.
Second, if we have the power of contrary choice relative to
God, then we must find some foundation in the Word of God to
show that God has voluntarily limited Himself in some way so as
to give us this almost divine prerogative. In the light of
passages studied (and the ones forthcoming) this will be
extremely hard to do.
Third, if we have the power of contrary choice, what does the
Bible mean when it says that we are dead? Is this language also
mythological? Why does the Bible consistently use death as the
analogy for our spiritual state outside of Christ if God really
means to say that we are only sick or ill? Why doesn't God's
Word ever once describe us as "sick" or "ill" or only in a
weakened condition?
It is sometimes asked: what if someone wanted to be saved but
couldn't be saved because they weren't predestined? This might
be an interesting question except that there have never been any
such people. According to Scripture, everyone who wants to be
saved will be saved because anyone who desires salvation, does
so because God has effectively called them to faith by the work
of His Holy Spirit.42 The premise of the question is
flawed. It assumes that sinners, if given the chance, will
believe in Jesus on their own. This isn't true. We saw above
that we are all dead in sin. Apart from the prevenient work of
God's Spirit dead men don't love Jesus. The Scriptures make it
clear that no one even wanted to be saved, until God gave them a
desire to be saved. Everyone who believes in Jesus does so
because God predestined us, called us by the Holy Spirit, gave
us a new life, mind and heart (i.e., we were born again) and
caused us to believe in Jesus.
The Golden Chain
Romans 8:28-30 says,
And we know that all things work together for the good to
those who love God, to those who are the called according to
His purpose, because, those whom he foreknew, he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order
that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover
those whom he predestined, these he also called, those whom
he called these he also justified, those whom he justified,
these he also glorified.
Because of the way they link one part of salvation with
another, these verses have been called "the golden chain." These
verses speak of God's eternal, pre-creational, decisions. We're
all familiar with vs.28. Notice, however, that those for whom
all things work out, are those whom God has "called". He
explains that the group of everyone called is the same group as
those whom God foreknew. Everyone he "foreknew" belongs to the
same group of those who have been "predestined". This is the
same group as those who are "justified" (i.e., declared to be
righteous before God). The same group about whom all these other
things are said, is the same group whom God will glorify. In
each verse it is God who is the subject of the verse, the person
doing the action, and those whom he is saving are the objects of
God's gracious acts.
Salvation is from God from beginning to end. By definition,
grace excludes human effort. Grace rescues a drowning man unable
to save himself. Grace is raises the dead to life by the
sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Bible calls
Christians the "elect". The noun "elect" (that is, "the chosen
ones") occurs 25 times in the New Testament.43 Using
the word "elect" or "chosen" only makes sense in the context of
God's sovereign predestinating grace. Believers are elect
because we have been chosen by God, not because they have helped
God to be a Savior. In Ephesians 1:1-15 Paul explains how, when
and why God decided to save us. How is "in Christ." In vv.3,4,10
Paul says that we (believers) were chosen "in Christ",
before the foundation of the world, in order that we
might be holy and blameless before Him, having predestined
us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ, according to the
good pleasure of His will.44
According to God's Word, those who believe were chosen by God
before the world was created so that he would glorified
(Ephesians 1:6). How? "Having predestined us...". God in His
grace chose us, even though were worthy of destruction. We
believe because God predestined us to believe. Why? Because it
is "according to the good pleasure of His will."
God's Sovereign Choice According to Peter
The Letters by the Apostle Peter make it equally clear, in
his own style, that he believes God predestined God's people to
faith. In 1 Peter 1:1-3 he calls his readers (us!), ...the elect
aliens...according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
through the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus
Christ and sprinkling by His blood...". These verses define, for
Peter, what it means to be "elect". Some have tried to show that
these verses prove that election only means that God could see
in advance who was going to believe. This understanding ignores
the context of the word "foreknowledge" as well as all of the
other Biblical passages which clearly teach the contrary. Look
at the grammar of these verses. Peter calls his readers, "elect
strangers". In verse two we are elect "in the sanctification of
the Spirit" i.e., by the work of God's Spirit we were set apart.
We were elect "to the sprinkling of blood". Again, these phrases
indicate that salvation is God's work in us and for us. We do
not sprinkle ourselves. Sprinkling is something done to us by
God!
This clarifies Peter's use of the word "foreknowledge."45
That God foreknew whom he had chosen is clear Biblical teaching.
Paul teaches the exact same thing in Romans 8.29 where the verb
"to foreknow" is used as part of God's "foreordaining" described
in vs.28.46 Foreknowledge implies in Scripture, not
just a bare knowing ahead of time, but rather an intimate
relationship. Repeatedly Scripture uses in the Old Covenant the
verb Yada "to know" as a euphemism for sexual intercourse.47
The same verb lies behind Peter's choice of the Greek noun
Prognosis in this passage. To clinch the argument we need only
to look at Peter's use of the verb "to foreknow" in his
Pentecost Sermon. In Acts 2:23 Peter explains the crucifixion by
saying,
This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and
foreknowledge; and you with the help of wicked men put him
to death by nailing him to the cross (NIV).
The noun "foreknowledge" elaborates or explains the phrase
translated as "set purpose".48 These terms are used
interchangeably. We could well speak of God's decided purpose.
Whatever foreknowledge means, it must include God's will which
has settled the future as well as his advance knowledge about
the future. Never are events described with the verb "to
foreknow" as though God had only advance knowledge but not
control over them. Instead His foreknowledge is always described
in conjunction with His working of His decrees.
At the same time, despite God's "foreknowledge" and his
"predetermined will", Peter refuses to release his hearers from
their moral obligation. He reminds them that it was they, not
God, who nailed Jesus to the cross. It is they who are culpable
before God.
Peter also liberally uses the language of predestination to
describe God's people. In chapter 2.9,10 Peter describes his
readers as,
a chosen people, a holy nation, a people belonging to
God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you
out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not
a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had
not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (NIV).
His gentile readers are called "chosen" or "elect".49
Prior to our calling we were "in darkness" a poetic way
describing spiritual death. The image reminds us of creation and
the Exodus out of Egypt. Notice too that in verse ten, the elect
are those who "have received mercy". Mercy is received, not
earned or deserved, but bestowed by God by grace through faith.
As in Acts 2:23 it is evident here too that, for Peter, God's
electing grace does not nullify the human obligation of a
response of gratitude. According to verse nine, the elect were
chosen by God for the purpose of telling other people about "the
praises of Him who called you out of darkness...."
God's Sovereign Choice and the New Life in John's Writings
John's gospel opens with a very strong and clear statement of
God's total control over the process of salvation. This flows
out his discourse on the pre-existence of the Son of God: "In
the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the
Word was God." And the Son's role in creation: "All things came
into being through Him, without Him nothing came into being
which has come into being."50
As in Deuteronomy the creation motif appears alongside a
description of salvation. This is not accidental. If we say that
the Son of God sovereignly created all that exists, then it is
very difficult to evade the conclusion John draws in 1:12-3
regarding Jesus' total control over salvation. "But as many as
received Him, to them he gave the right to become children of
God, to those who believe in His name...."
Some have read this verse to imply that we must first move
our will to accept Jesus as our Savior, before God can make us
children of God. This reading might be plausible, if one ignored
all of the other passages which we have studied, and if this
verse was taken out of its context. The next verse, however,
explains who receives Jesus. "Those who were born, not by blood,
nor by the will of man, but by God."51
As in Romans 10:10 where we are called to believe and
confess, and in Acts 16:31 to "believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ", John 1:12 does not answer the question of how we come
to faith in Jesus. Verse thirteen does: by God's will. John
starkly contrasts the will of man with the decision of God. It
will not do to try to wedge a little human effort in between the
"receiving" of vs.12 and the being "born" of vs.13. First, as we
will trace out shortly, John's gospel teaches that we come to
faith according to the decree of God prior to creation. There is
no way to get behind God's will.
The creation narrative of Genesis 1:2 is the background for
Jesus' discourse on the Spirit's moving.52 This is a
relatively frequent image in the Old Covenant Scriptures. The
Spirit is said to reside over the Tabernacle.53 In
this Spiritual sense, Israel as God's people is a re-creation.54
In John 5:21 Jesus ties together the creation theme with His
resurrection teaching. He illustrates God's sovereignty in
salvation by explaining His power over the resurrection. For as
the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives
life to whom he wills. Jesus, like Paul, begins from the premise
that men are dead in sins and trespasses and must be raised to
life through the supernatural, gracious, powerful, work of God's
Spirit. Dead men do not raise themselves. Ask Lazarus.
Resurrection is a powerful and clear analogy to God's saving
work in the life of the sinner.
Salvation and the Spirit
Scripture says that we come to faith as a result of the work
of the Spirit.55 We have seen that we are spiritually
dead in Adam. It is when we are grafted onto Christ that we are
made alive. This union with Christ is God's gracious act through
the means of faith.56 Do we obtain new life because
we believe or do we believe because we have been given new life?
The biblical answer is the latter. The faith which unites us to
Christ is the fruit of the new life. Jeremiah 13:23 asks, "Can
an Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Neither
can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil." Jesus agrees
in Matthew 7:16-20, "A bad tree cannot bear good fruit." In
Adam, we are bad, dead, trees. Likewise, Jesus told His
disciples regarding salvation, "with man it is impossible, but
with God, all things are possible".57 Paul says that
though we are wasting away outwardly, inwardly we are "being
renewed."58 This renewal is something done to us, not
by us.59 John's gospel also reflects this idea that man's basic
disposition, because of the fall, is to sin. People do not come
to Christ for fear of being exposed as hell-bent sinners.60
Second, John clearly teaches throughout his gospel that
"faith" or "believing" is a result of the previous (prevenient)
work of God's Spirit. For John, we are not born because we
believe, but we believe because we have been born. The reasons
for this are many. In John's gospel, the state before re-birth
is like death and blindness.61 It is Jesus who gives
sight to the blind. The blind do not give themselves sight,
anymore than the dead raise themselves or the water turns itself
into wine.62 Jesus' explanation of the process of
being "born again" in John 3:1-11 makes it clear that we do not
give birth to ourselves, but we are delivered into new life by
the sovereign, immediate, work of God Himself, through the means
of faith. Sealing this understanding of the new birth is that
fact that Jesus uses Genesis creation narrative as the
background for His explanation of new life in John 3:1-21.
I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God
unless he is born again...I tell you the truth, no one can
enter the kingdom of God he is born of water and the Spirit.
Flesh gives birth, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit
(vv.3, 5, 6).
The pre-requisite for seeing and entering the kingdom is the
new birth. The question is, how does one obtain that new birth?
Are we born because God has seen that we believed? Not according
to Jesus. Verse 6, "Spirit gives birth to spirit" seems pretty
clear. Nicodemus will not be able to give birth to Himself, but
rather, he must be born by the Spirit. Jesus continues,
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound,
but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is
going, so it is with everyone born of the Spirit (v.8).
Clearly, Jesus is presuming and teaching the sovereign work
of the Spirit in bringing unborn (i.e., lost, blind, dead) to
new life. This is the foregoing or prevenient work of the
Spirit. One does not give birth to himself, rather he is
begotten. The original language of John 3 emphasizes the
sovereignty of the Spirit in giving new life. In the original
Jesus says, "You must be born Anothen."63
Everywhere else this word is used in the gospel of John it means
"from above". Later in this chapter Jesus refers to the one who
"comes Anothen" ("from above") and contrasts him with
those of the earth. In 19:11, Jesus tells Pilate that he could
not crucify Jesus unless it was "given to you from above." In
neither context does "again" make sense. Thus it is likely that
the actual primary meaning of Anothen in 3:3 and 3.7 is
"born from above." If this is so, then it could not possibly
mean "born again" in the sense that we are spiritually renewed
when we chose to believe. If the new birth is "from above" then
it is from without and something which is done to us.
Notice too, that Jesus says that no one can "see" or "enter"
the Kingdom unless he is born. There are compelling reasons for
understanding the words "see" and "enter" to be referring to
belief. Hard after his explanation of the Work of the Spirit,
Jesus equates this "entering" with "belief" in 3:12. In
vss.15,16,18 everyone who "believes" has eternal life. According
to Jesus, people do not come to faith, because (by nature) "they
love darkness rather than light" (v.19). The entire gospel of
John is an evangelistic call to faith in Jesus. John testifies
that he wrote his gospel "so that you may believe that Jesus is
the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His
name."64 Consistently, in John's gospel, entry into
the kingdom is something which happens to one.
Jesus also draws imagery from Ezekiel's prophecy concerning
the dry bones.65 In Ezekiel, the Lord asks a
rhetorical question, "Son of Man, can these bones live?" The
answer, of course, is no. The entire point of the narrative is
that God will sovereignly resurrect His people, through the
moving of the Spirit over the dry bones. God says,
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be
clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from
all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new
Spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone
and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in
you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep
my laws.66
These texts describe a change in man which is beyond his
capacity. These are radical, Divinely worked, changes. It is God
who sprinkles, God who gives the new heart, who gives the Spirit
and move us. These promises are made to those dead. These
promises are not conditioned upon our merit--as if dead men
could bring themselves to life.67 For Jesus, these
narratives illustrate not only of the regenerating (new life
giving) work of the Spirit in the lives of individuals, but also
his birth and resurrection. It is through the over-dwelling of
the Holy Spirit that he was conceived and born of virgin Mary.68
It was also through the agency of the Holy Spirit that the Son
was raised again.69
If God's Spirit is said to have been one of the agencies of
the Son's resurrection, it is not too much to expect that sinful
creatures also are totally dependent upon the Spirit for new
life! It is through the work of the Spirit that humans are
enabled to hear the Word with believing ears. Paul teaches this
explicitly in 1 Corinthians 2:14,
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things of
the Spirit because they are foolishness to him, and he
cannot understand them, because they are spiritually
discerned.
Salvation as a Gift
In Philippians Paul speaks about the new life this way,
The terms of this passage are those of a royal grant, a gift.
Faith was granted and along with it, the privilege of suffering.
In 2 Timothy 2:25, Paul instructs the young pastor to be patient
with those who oppose him, waiting for God to "grant them
repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth."
The Book of Acts consistently speaks about the new life as
though it were something God accomplishes in us. In Acts 16:14
Luke records the conversion of Lydia thus, "The Lord opened her
heart to respond to Paul's message." Note that Lydia did not
open her own heart, but it was the Lord who performed the
Spiritual cardiac surgery. In Acts 5:31 Peter is reported to
have described repentance and forgiveness of sins both as gifts
from God. In Acts 11:18 Peter again speaks of God granting
repentance leading to life.
In his own commentary on his gospel, the Apostle John
repeatedly describes new life as coming "from God."71
As we have seen above, John uses creation as an analogy (as does
Paul) to explain the origins of the new life. For John, in the
prologue to his gospel, "in Him (the Word) was life...."72
Life is original and inherent in the Son of God. Life is
something which is imparted to creatures by the creative Son of
God. So too in the Epistle. The Son is the Word of Life.73
Eternal life is with the Father.74
Because spiritual life is original with God and ours only
derivatively (it is given to us by God because we are fallen and
dead) John describes Christians as those born "from God."75
In 1 John 3:9 it is those who are "born from God" or "born by
God" who do not 'sin'. Further only those whose birth has God as
its source cannot sin.76
There is a causal relationship between the spiritual birth
and the abstinence from sin. The birth provided by God is
demonstrated by not sinning.77 Only those who have
God as their Father, who have been given the new birth by Him,
love the brothers in Christ.78 Everyone who belongs
to the class of called believers belongs to the class of those
who are born of God.79 Those born from God are
overcomers.80 Note the causal relationship in every
"born" passage. Faith and love are fruits of birth!
The Protestant View of Grace
Another reason why we must reject any interpretation of John
1:12,13 which makes faith the cause of the new birth (as opposed
to the sovereign work of God), is that such a view makes faith
virtually a meritorious work and the ground or basis of our
justification before God.
The crux of the reformation was the question of the Bible's
teaching on salvation. Luther's theology was revolutionized by
Romans 1:17, "The righteous will live by faith." Luther came to
understand that it was not baptism, the decree of the Church, or
a habitual disposition which recommended us to God, but God's
grace alone. For Luther, this grace was a sovereign, predestined
gift.81
As we have already seen above, faith, for Paul, is the gift
of God.82 It is the means of receiving the
righteousness of Christ.83 Faith is designed by God
to apprehend some righteous object. Christ is the object of
saving faith. We believe in Jesus. We trust in His obedience. It
is Christ's obedience and righteousness which is the
righteousness which can stand before God.
To be sure, as we saw in our survey of John's use of the
word, faith plays an absolutely crucial role in our salvation.
The key is to put faith in the correct place so that we do not
ask of it more nor demand of it less than God does God's Word
puts our sin problem and its solution in legal and economic
terms, e.g., justification, condemnation, judgment, credit,
righteousness etc. Scripture nowhere teaches that faith is the
legal ground of justification. God's Word unequivocally teaches
that it is the righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer
which is the legal basis of our justification before God.84
Scripture nowhere teaches that we are justified because we
generated faith on our own. Time and again God's Word teaches
that faith is the God ordained instrument of receiving the grace
of God.85
If we make faith a meritorious work then we have reverted the
Galatian error of saying, "grace plus".86 In the
Galatian case it was grace plus circumcision. If we are renewed
and saved because we chose to believe, then how are we different
from those Galatians who said that we justified because we
believe and are circumcised? Faith is absolutely necessary, but
it is not a work. It is the product of divine grace.
Does Jesus Have a People?
In John 6:37-39 Jesus gives us some insight into His eternal
relationship with His Father.
Everyone whom the Father gives to me will come to me, and
the one coming to me, I will not cast out...this is the will
of the One who sent me, that I shall lose none of everyone
whom he has given me, but (instead), I will raise him up on
the last day.
The Father has given a people to Jesus to save and resurrect.
These people are a gift from the Father to the Son. A gift does
not give itself! The Son has come (v.38) to do the Father's
will. The Father's will is that none should be lost. Verse 65
clarifies the whole matter of the order of salvation and the
relationship between God's eternal decisions, made before
creation existed and our faith.87 Jesus' teaching
here is occasioned by the apostasy of some of His followers.
God's Word says,
...For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them
did not believe and who would betray Him...This is why I
told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has
enabled him.88
The Lord is repeating what he has already said in vs.44,
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me
draws him". The decision is God's. He does the drawing.
People don't come to faith in Christ unless they are drawn.
Jesus stated this proposition in terms of possibility and
impossibility. It is impossible in the nature of the case,
that dead and blind sinners should come to Jesus. Only those
raised and given new life believe.
People are the objects of the Father's drawing work. The
people drawn are those whom God has chosen before the
foundations of the world. Those whom God has drawn to Christ
come to faith. They believe in Jesus. According to vs.65, it is
only when we are drawn by God, led by the hand as it were, that
we come to faith. It is the work of the Spirit of God to lead
blinded sinners to sight and faith, as Jesus made the blind man
to see.89
This closely knit chain of God's grace is absolutely
necessary to our salvation. Jesus came to accomplish the
Father's will, to seek and save the lost, to save those whom the
Father has drawn. Should Jesus fail to accomplish the Father's
will, we are all lost! Every believer affirms that Jesus did not
fail. Jesus said, "It is finished!"90
In John 10:14-16 Jesus describes the Good Shepherd's
knowledge of the sheep (saved people) by using an analogy with
His Father's knowledge of Him. Jesus says that he "knows" His
sheep in the same way, with the same intimacy and eternality,
that the co-eternal, co-existent, consubstantial Father knows
the eternally begotten Son. This is not mere advance knowledge!
Continuing with the Shepherd-Sheep metaphor, Jesus says,
I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no
one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given
them tome, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out
of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one.91
According to Jesus, eternal life is neither earned nor
deserved. It is a gift from the shepherd to the sheep, just as
the sheep are a gift from the Father to the Son. Our salvation
is as safe as the Father's hand is secure.
In His High Priestly prayer, in John 17:2, Jesus again says
that he has been granted all authority so that he can give
eternal life.92 He does not say that he has been
granted all authority with a view to waiting around to see who
is smart enough to believe. Instead it is the Father who has
given him believers, and to these same believers Jesus will give
eternal life.93
The Apostle John in his epistles returns to the theme of
election as he addresses either an individual woman or a
congregation as the "elect lady" and refers to her "elect
sister."94 These references must be understood in the
context of the theology expressed already in the gospel. Also in
the Revelation Christ gives this promise to believers,
They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will
overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of
kings--and with Him will be His called, chosen and faithful
followers.95
Divine Sovereignty: Means & Instruments
It would be a mistake to conclude, because it is God who
sovereignly decides to save and to bring us to faith and
salvation, that God does not use means and instruments to
achieve His purposes. Quite the opposite is true. The first
example is the very incarnation of the Son of God Himself.
Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God is more than a means, but
he is the "Way."96 Taking on human flesh to achieve
salvation for sinners shows an extreme willingness to use means!
God also uses faith as a means, as we have already seen. The
Spirit of God is the means or the agent of regeneration, life
giving, so that dead people come to eternal life through faith.
In Romans 8:28 Paul speaks of those "called according to His
purpose" and again in vs.30 of those whom God "predestined he
also called; those he called, he also justified." These verses
are usually interpreted to speak of the "internal" call by God,
through the Holy Spirit, of the believer to faith. I believe
this is correct. This call is sometimes called the "effectual"
or "effective" call. It is the effectual Paul has in mind in 1
Corinthians 1:9, "God, who has called you into fellowship with
His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful". Everywhere in the
New Covenant, where God is said to do the calling, it is this
effectual call which is in view. Two possible exceptions will be
discussed below.
In the case of the Exodus, God chose to use the stuttering
Moses. He might have skipped the painful process of the ten
plagues. In His unrivaled wisdom, however, God chose to execute
His decisions through the means of the Red Sea episode, and
through the plagues.
In Revelation 17:14 is the "called" who are the elect.97
This must be an internal, effectual call, or else everyone who
has ever heard the external call is included in the term elect.
Such an interpretation makes nonsense of the Revelation's
teaching about hell. Hebrews 9:15, says "those who have been
called...receive the promise of an eternal inheritance." In
Romans 1:6, believers are the "called of Jesus Christ..." The
called are those who understand the wisdom of God.98
For Peter, our internal calling is synonymous with our election,
and something we need to "make sure."99
The Preaching of the Good News
Nevertheless, Scripture speaks a great deal about another,
verbal, external, call. It is the gospel call. In the Old
Covenant the prophets frequently made such calls for repentance
and faith to Israel. For example, God complained about Israel's
rejection of his "call". Then there was the promise that
"Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved".100
It is this sort of call of which Jesus speaks when he says,
"Many are called, but few are chosen."101 The same
idea is found in Acts 17:30 where Scripture says, "The times of
ignorance God overlooked, but now God commands men everywhere to
repent." Jesus issues such a call to faith in Matthew 11:28,
"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give
you rest" and in John 3:16, "...whosoever believes in Him shall
not perish, but have everlasting life."
This is also the way to understand Jesus' words in Matthew
9:13, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." This
refers to his external, vocal, verbal, call to repentance and
faith. At the same time, it should be noted that those disciples
whom he calls in this passage actually do come! The verbal,
external gospel call is the instrument used by God to bring men
to saving faith.
Paul summarizes the Good News in 1 Corinthians 15.1-5:
By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the
Word I preached to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first
importance: That Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the
third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared
to Peter and then to the Twelve.
It is because God is sovereign that believers can joyously
anticipate success in preaching this Gospel. Paul does not--and
neither should we--preach out of mere duty! The Lord Jesus told
Paul,
Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent, for
I am with you and no one is going to attack you and harm you
because I have many people in this city.102
The Good News is the exacting instrument of the Spirit to
bring hearers to life. James 1:18 says, "he chose to give us
birth through the Word of Truth, that we might be a kind of
first fruits of all he created." He ties together the motifs of
God's sovereignty in redemption and creation, as we have already
seen done in 2 Corinthians 5:17 and in John's gospel. The
language in the original refers to the act of giving birth,
ceasing to be pregnant.103 The instrument of this
Spiritual mid-wifery is the gospel, the "Word of Truth."
Paul routinely ascribes such power to his gospel message. In
Ephesians 1.13 he explains to his readers how and when they came
to faith. "And you were included in Christ when you heard the
Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation". So also in
Colossians 1:5-6 the News is, "the Word of Truth, the gospel"
which is "producing fruit and growing." In 2 Corinthians 6:7
Paul parallels the "Word of Truth" with "the power of God."104
The exemplar passage is of course Romans 1:16 where the gospel
"is the power of God for salvation of everyone who
believes....". Paul says that he became a father to the
Corinthian church "through the gospel."105 For Paul
there is no dichotomy between God's eternal decision to save and
the use of the instrument of the gospel.
Because from the beginning God chose you to be saved
through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through
belief in the truth. He called you to this through our
gospel...106
In Romans 10:13-15 Paul explains in detail the relationship
between the gospel and faith.
...Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be
saved. How can they believe in the one of whom they have not
heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to
them? And how can they preach unless they are sent. As it is
written, 'How beautiful are the feet are the feet of those
who bring good news!'
As in Joel 2:32 and Acts 2 sinners must call upon the name of
the Lord. But they cannot call until they have heard. There is a
chronological priority and dependency. Lost sinners are
dependent upon the message of the resurrection. It is through
the instrument of the gospel that God saves sinners. Peter
agrees: "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed,
but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of
God."107
The Well Meant Offer of the Gospel
Some have concluded that if God has predestined those whom he
will save through grace, then preaching is useless. Ignoring,
for the moment, our just completed conclusive survey of passages
which proves that God uses means, let us explore God's revealed
intentions. The assumption behind this complaint is that God
does not deal with us in good faith, that if the Bible really
does teach predestination, then God talks out of both sides of
His mouth. This complaint and its assumption ignores what God's
Word has to say on the subject. When God offers salvation to all
who believe, the offer is sincere. When the gospel is verbally
preached to unbelievers (whether within the visible Covenant
Community or in a purely missionary setting) God sincerely
offers eternal life to whomever will come. This is the paradox,
that in some sense, God desires what he has not decreed to
happen, i.e., the salvation of all men.
An instructive Old Covenant example comes in Deuteronomy
5:29. Here, Moses repeats the Sinai commandments for those who
were not there. Toward the end of his sermon, Moses relates the
words of the Lord.
"O' that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and
keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with
them and their children forever.
What is significant about this verse for our discussion is
that the Hebrew text uses a verb form (optative) which expresses
emotion and which implies a desire which will not be fulfilled.
Here God desires what he has not decreed and what will not
actually come to pass. In Ezekiel 18:21-23 God says,
But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has
committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and
right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the
offenses he has committed will be remembered against him.
Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live.
Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares
the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn
away from their ways and live?
And a moment later God says again,
For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares
the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!108
And again,
Say to them, 'As surely as I live', declares the
Sovereign Lord, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the
wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.
Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O' house
of Israel?109
God is not revealed to us as though he is emotionless. We
know from God's Word that he does not change.110 Yet
God reveals himself to us as a God who sincerely desires to see
everyone come to faith.
The New Covenant picks up this thread of God's
self-disclosure and takes it even further, applying it not only
to national Israel, but to all men! In Matthew 5:44-48 Jesus
teaches us about love for our enemies by appealing to the
example of His Father.
You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and
hate your enemy'. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your
Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and
the good, and he sends rain on the righteous and the
unrighteous...Therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father
is perfect.
The implication of this passage is unmistakable. Jesus wants
believers to love unbelievers as the Father Himself loves them.
This is what he means here by the word "perfect."111
Jesus says in Matthew 22:37, "O' Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you
who killed the prophets, how often would I have gathered you as
a hen...." The Lord, who knew before the foundations of the
world those for whom he was to die yet speaks of an unfilled
desire.112
The entirety of Jesus' public preaching and ministry is one
sustained sincerely intended offer of salvation. The Gospel of
Mark begins with a call to repentance and faith.113
Matthew 11:28 summarizes Jesus' message, "Come to me all you who
are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest".
2 Peter 3.9,15 says,
The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some
people understand slowness. He is patient with you, not
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to
repentance...bear in mind that our Lord's patience means
salvation....
The context of the passage is about the second (and final)
advent of the Lord Jesus. Some people are beginning to mock the
second coming as a cruel joke played on believers. Peter's
response is to point out the Lord's intentions.
Of interest to us right now is the reason for God's patience.
Jesus' return is delayed, so to speak, for the sake of lost
sinners. It is conceivable that Peter refers to the elect not
yet come to faith. Still there is a universal tone to the
passage. This is Peter's application of Jesus' principle taught
in Matthew 5.43-48. Even though the World scorns God's people,
God is patient and gracious.
Perhaps nowhere else in God's Word is this sincere offer of
salvation put as wonderfully and beautifully as in the
Revelation.
The Spirit and the Bride say come, and let him who hears
say come, and let him come, and whosoever will may come and
drink..."114
Many well meaning, but misguided, Bible interpreters have
inferred from the set of passages just reviewed that God is
theoretically sovereign but practically impotent to bring about
the salvation of those whom Scripture calls "elect". This
conclusion however, is not warranted by the texts we have
surveyed. Rather it stems from a philosophical presupposition
which says, "If God sincerely desires the salvation of everyone,
it must be hypothetically possible for everyone to be saved, or
else God would be guilty of cruelty and unfairness".
Conclusion
The immediate answer to this "problem" lies in our discussion
of Romans chapter 9 above, to which I refer you. But the real
answer is mystery. A mystery is something known to God but
inexplicable by man. That God is One in three persons is true
and must be affirmed by all Christians, at peril of the soul,
even though no one can give an thorough explanation of how this
is possible. Christ is both true man and true God. All
Christians must affirm this too, at peril of the soul.
How we can be legally and morally responsible for Adam's sin
is a mystery, but one which must be affirmed. That God is
actually sovereign actively in history and yet we are morally
responsible for our own actions, is another mystery. These are
true paradoxes where two sides of a matter must be affirmed in
order to be faithful to God's Word.
The paradox of the free offer of the Gospel is another. For
our purposes here it is helpful to note that Scripture does not
have a problem with this or the other paradoxes mentioned. As we
have seen, Scripture very clearly teaches that God is just.
God's Word also teaches that he has decreed and predestined and
sovereignly elected whomever comes to faith in the Lord Jesus.
All of this being true has not kept God from speaking about
the lost in very powerful, sincerely meant ways. God intends to
stir the believer's heart to compassion for the lost, not to
cause him to make cold (ungodly) calculations about whether a
given (presently) unsaved person is elect or not. Our joy is to
tell that person that Jesus was raised from the dead and because
of the resurrection, there is new life in Christ!
Thus, evangelism is not a burdensome, dreary task dutifully
carried out by grim harvesters of souls. The Good News really is
good! Heaven rejoices over the repentance of a lost sinner, so
should we.115 The Father rejoices when the prodigal comes home.
The parable of the lost son means nothing if not that the Father
Himself rejoices when the lost come to faith.116
Let us be found faithful in giving God His right as the
sovereign Lord in His eternal decisions and gracious salvation.
Let our hearts be filled with praise and gratitude for His
mighty work and outstretched arm in delivering us from the
bondage of sin! Let us respond to His grace with heartfelt
thanksgiving. Let our so overflow that we cannot help but make
known the riches of His grace to a world lost and dead in sin!
Endnotes1 Isaiah 42.8.
2 See 1 Corinthians 13.4-7; Philippians 2.1-4.
3 I assume the Protestant doctrine of perspicuity, that is,
on essential matters the Scriptures are clear. I assume that
biblical soteriology, or the biblical doctrine of salvation, is
an essential scriptural teaching. This is not to say that all
the passages under consideration are equally clear or that there
is uniformity among Christian Bible scholars in their
interpretation. Certainly this is not so. This paper is not,
however, explicitly about hermeneutics or the science of
interpretation, but actually engaged in the work of interpreting
texts by relating them to one another.
4 My translation.
5 James 2.10
6 Romans 3.21.
7 Psalm 51.5.
8 Romans 3.10-2,23.
91 John 4.10.
10 Genesis 1.26-7.
11 Genesis 3 [all].
12 Genesis 1.26-7.
13 Romans 6.23.
14 Ephesians 2.1-2.
15 Romans 6.23; Ephesians 2.5-6.
16 Genesis 8.21; Isaiah 53.6; Jeremiah 17.9.
17 1 John 4.10; 2 Corinthians 5.21; Romans 5.12-21.
18 John 3.16; John 20.31.
19 Chen is used for grace 43 times in the O.T.
Charis occurs approximately 141 times in N.T.
20 Romans 3.23; Ephesians 1.4.
21 Romans 11.6.
22 Acts 16.31.
23 Genesis 1.1-3
24 Hebrews 11.2.
25 Deuteronomy 4.33-6.
26 1 Peter 2.9-10.
27 2 Corinthians 5.17.
28 Deuteronomy 4.34.
29 Deuteronomy 7.6-7.
30 See Genesis 13.14-7; 15.1-21; 17.1-22.
31 Exodus 4.21, 7.3
32 Exodus 8.15,19.
33 This is a very powerful belief which many readers have
brought to the reading of Scripture which is quite simply
unsupported by text itself. It so controls one's perceptions
that it becomes almost impossible not to see it in Scripture.
Yet, read on its own terms, Scripture never assumes that human
moral responsibility is contingent upon freedom relative to God.
34 John 14.6
35 Romans 9.15-8
36 Romans 9.14.
37 Romans 9.20-1.
38 See Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will
(Cambridge, 1957).
39 Romans 9.13-4.
40 Jonathan Edwards, "A Careful and Strict Inquiry into the
Prevailing Notions of the Freedom of the Will," The Works of
Jonathan Edwards 2 vol. (Edinburgh, 1976), 1.12, 21-3, 51-3.
41 Edwards, notes that even an allegedly free will is limited
by the fact that it cannot choose to stop choosing, lest it
cease to be a will at all (ibid., 1.12).
42 John 1.12,13; John 17.3; 20.31.
43 Compare Matthew 20.16; 24.22-31; Mark 13.20-7; Romans
8.33; Colossians 3.12; 1 Timothy 5.21; Titus 1.1; 1 Peter 1.1;
2.4-9.
44 Ephesians 1.4,5; compare 2 Thessalonians 2.13; 2 Timothy
1.9; Titus 1.2.
45 Prognosis.
46 Proginosekein.
47 See Genesis 4.1, 25.
48 Horismene boule.
49 Eklekton.
50 John 1.1-3.
51 John 1.13.
52 "And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters".
53 Exodus 40.34; Deuteronomy 32.10,11; Isaiah 31.5; 1 Peter
4.14.
54 Paul picks up this theme in 2 Corinthians 5.17 when he
declares, "You are a new creation in Christ!"
55 See John ch. 3 [all].
56 Ephesians 2.8-9.
57 Matthew 19.16-30.
58 2 Corinthians 4.16.
59The verb used there is the passive voice of Anakanein.
Compare Colossians 3.10; Romans 2.12; and Ephesians 4.23.
60John 3.19,20.
61John 12.37-41; John 9.
62John 11.33-44; 2.1-11; Matthew 19.29-34.
63 Anothen.
64 John 20.31.
65 Ezekiel 37.1-14.
66 Ezekiel 36.25-27. See Jeremiah 31.31-34.
67 See 1 Corinthians 2.14,15; Galatians 5.22; Romans 6.17-22.
68 Luke 1.35.
69 Romans 8.11; 1 Corinthians 15.45.
70 Philippians 1.29.
71 1 John.
72 John 1.4.
73 1 John 1.1.
74 1 John 1.2.
75 1 John 2.29.
76 As John narrowly conceives of sin in this Epistle.
77 1 John 5.18.
78 1 John 4.7.
79 1 John 5.1.
80 1 John 5.4.
81 Luther regarded his 1525 response to Erasmus, De Servo
Arbitrio (On the Bondage of the
Will), as his most important. That the Protestant doctrine
of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ
alone, required the doctrine of predestination, was a
commonplace in the Reformation.
82 Romans 6.23.
83 Ephesians 2.8-9.
84 Romans 5.12-21; 2 Corinthians 5.21; Hebrews 11.
85 Romans 3.21-4.25.
86 Galatians 1.6-10; ch.3.
87 Ephesians 1.5,11; Romans 8.29; Revelation 13.8.
88 John 6.65.
89 John 9 [all].
90 John 19.30.
91 John 10.27-30.
92 Matthew 28.18-20.
93 John 17.6, 9.
94 2 John vv.1, 13.
95 Revelation 17.14.
96 John 14.6.
97 Kletoi and Eklektoi.
981 Corinthians 1.24.
99 2 Peter 1.10.
100 See Isaiah 65.12; 55.1ff; Joel 2.32.
101 Matthew 22.14.
102 Acts 18,9-10.
103 Apokuein.
104 2 Timothy 2.15.
105 1 Corinthians 4.15.
106 2 Thessalonians 2.13-4.
107 1 Peter 1.23.
108 Ezekiel 18.32.
109 Ezekiel 33.11.
110 Hebrews 31.8.
111 See Luke 6.35-6.
112 Ephesians 1.1-15; Galatians 2.20.
113 Mark 1.15.
114 Revelation 22.17.
115 Luke 15.7,10.
116 Luke 15.30-1. |
