predestination foreknowledge effectual calling: is according to God’s purpose
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs
And works his sovereign will.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face. William Cowper
Now surely, one of the most comforting things about any faith in the absolute sovereignty of the grace of God ought to be the assurance we derive from that faith that God is still on the throne even in our most dismal defeats and that the clouds we so much dread are waiting to pour only showers of blessing on our head. Arthur C. Custance, The Sovereignty of Grace (Curt Daniel, The History and Theology of Calvinism (Darlington, Co Durham: EP Books, 2019), 717.)
Surely apart from You the way cannot be perfected, nor can anything be done unless it please You. You teach all knowledge and all that shall be, by Your will shall it come to pass. Apart from You there is no other able to contest Your counsel, fathom the design of Your holiness, penetrate the depth of Your mysteries, or apprehend Your wonders and surpassing power. (Michael O. Wise, Martin G. Abegg Jr., and Edward M. Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (New York: HarperOne, 2005), 135.)
When Paul finishes chapters 9 to 11 of Romans, he says, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor?” (Rom. 11:34). Cf. Isa. 40:13, 14: “Who hath directed the Spirit of Jehovah, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?” Cf. the divine irony in Job 40:7:
“Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me.”
The exclusion of a counsellor has its basis in “of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things” (Rom. 11:36). The word counsellor indicates someone who co-wills, who participates in the making of plans. Such willing is impossible for man with respect to God. The question, “Who hath been his counsellor?” needs no answer.
For the question refers to the depths of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God (Rom. 11:33), and there is no counsellor possible, and consequently no authority which could from the outside protect the sovereignty against the strain of arbitrariness. For this reason, some people have not hesitated to speak of divine arbitrariness. (G. C. Berkouwer, Divine Election, Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1960), 55–56.)
It is known to you by clear evidence that the judgments of God are beyond measure. You know that they are called a “great deep” Psa. 36:6. Now consider the narrowness of your mind, whether it can grasp what God has decreed with himself. What good will it do you in your mad search to plunge into the “deep,” which your own reason tells you will be your destruction?
Why does not some fear at least restrain you because the history of Job as well as the prophetic books proclaim God’s incomprehensible wisdom and dreadful might? If your mind is troubled, do not be ashamed to embrace Augustine’s advice: “You, a man, expect an answer from me; I too am a man. Therefore, let both of us hear one who says, ‘O man, who are you?’ Rom. 9:20.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 953.
God’s sovereignty. Someone who makes a decree concerning a matter stands above that matter; it falls under his authority. He can do with it as he wills. Thus God stands sovereignly above all possible things. Whether they will receive existence or how they will exist depends entirely on His eternal purpose. (Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, ed. Richard B. Gaffin Jr., trans. Richard B. Gaffin Jr., vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012–2016), 78.)
In the first instance, then, (ἐξουσία-authority; power) signifies the absolute possibility of action which is proper to God, who cannot be asked concerning the relationship of power and legality in this ἐξουσία, since He is the source of both. Thus the word (ἐξουσία-authority; power) arises in two passages which speak directly of God’s incontrovertible freedom to act:
to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jud 25; Luke 12:5
for Paul the process of creation itself is an exercise of the absolute power of God and its supreme expression, since what is created owes its being to the Creator and thus bears witness in its very existence to the (ἐξουσία-authority; power) of the Creator. (Werner Foerster, “Ἔξεστιν, Ἐξουσία, Ἐξουσιάζω, Κατεξουσιάζω,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 566–567.)
First, Adam’s existence and identity as a creature, and by extension Eve’s—Adam and Eve created in His image—that identity is framed in terms of the existence and activity of the Creator King during the creation week.
In fact, the absolute ontological dominion of the Creator King emerges as He speaks into existence each day. The divine fiat of “Let there be …” is followed by the fulfilment “and it was so.”
There is no indication of any resistance that thwarts the sovereign plan of the Divine Architect, who speaks into creation His royal temple. Each day of creation is a dramatic manifestation of the incontestable and supreme sovereignty of Elohim, the great Creator King, who originates all finite things ex nihilo—“out of nothing” or “into nothing.” (Lane G. Tipton, TH221 Doctrine of Man, Logos Mobile Education (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).)
Even in these redemptive re-creation accounts that portray God’s victory as an overcoming of monstrous powers, the idea conveyed is not at all that God was obliged to wrest world dominion as the spoils of battle from the clutches of eternal rivals. The absolute lordship of God is the presupposition and explanation of his triumph, not its sequel.
The battle, therefore, is not the means by which God acquires the throne, but is rather a sovereign exercise of that imperium which belongs to him as the Creator who sits enthroned from the Flood, yea from everlasting (Ps. 29:10).
The battle and the conquest are in fact acts of divine judgment against transgressing subjects.
(Meredith G. Kline, Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006), 36–37.)
The doctrine of providence teaches us that not only spiritual judgments but also physical calamities should be received as general warnings of divine wrath and calls to repentance (Luke 13:1–5). We may not assume that specific sorrows are divine penalties for the sins of specific individuals (John 9:1–3), as the book of Job eloquently declares.
However, God’s wrath against man’s sin manifests itself in a general curse upon the earth and its biological life, which results in sorrow and death for mankind (Gen. 3:17–19). God subjected creation to futility and placed it in the “bondage of corruption,” so that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain” (Rom. 8:20–22).
These cosmic labor pains (Matt. 24:6–8) are the horsemen of Christ sent out into all the earth (Revelation. 6). Douglas Kelly observes from Scripture that God’s “judgment is visited upon pagan nations and their leaders for their violation of moral standards which they clearly knew. cf. Isaiah 13–21; Jeremiah 46–51; Amos. 1–2.”
Disasters, demonic influences, and wars are God’s trumpets to warn mankind of the wrath that is yet to come (Revelation. 8–9). His providence constantly reveals both the goodness of the Creator and the wrath of the Judge.
Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Revelation and God, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 200–201.
But when there is eventually no option, because of people’s refusal to bow the knee to him, then Paul’s triple refrain comes hauntingly into our consciousness: ‘God gave them up … to impurity … God gave them up to dishonorable passions … God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct’ (Rom. 1:24, 25, 28).
This threefold abandonment by God of the people he has made for himself leaves them at the mercy of their own desires and of their enemies, none of which have any mercy.
‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Heb. 10:31), but it may well be an even more fearful thing to be given up by the hands of the living God'.
Prior, D. (1988). The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God. (J. A. Motyer & D. Tidball, Eds.) (p. 160). Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.
Thus, God’s wrath at sin is revealed by giving the wicked free will, not taking it away.
So if we were to ask how wrath feels, the answer would be: it feels like freedom of will. God betrayed them into their own hands.
So God cursed the ungodly with free will, withdrew his Spirit and bound us forever to ourselves.
From then on love, not faith, makes us the kind of sinners we are. Whatever we love leads us around, Luther said, “like a ring in a cow’s nose” until death consumes us.
Steven D. Paulson, Lutheran Theology, Doing Theology (London; New Delhi; New York; Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2011), 78.
Significantly, Ephesians 1:9–10 appears to indicate that God’s ultimate purpose in creation was to establish His Son— the “Christ”—as the supreme Ruler of the universe. (Roy B. Zuck, A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, electronic ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1991).
Kuyper preached a lofty view of God’s sovereignty and pointed out his acts of “common grace.” “The world after the fall is no lost planet, only destined now to afford the church a place in which to continue her combats; and humanity is no aimless mass of people which only serves the purpose of giving birth to the elect,” Kuyper said.
“On the contrary, the world now, as well as in the beginning, is the theater for the mighty works of God, and humanity remains a creation of his hand, which, apart from salvation, completes under this present dispensation, here on earth, a mighty process, and in its historical development is to glorify the name of Almighty God.” (Collin Hansen, “The Politics of Service,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 92: America’s 20th Century Evangelical Awakening (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 2006).)
Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of our ancestor Israel, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. And now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your glorious name. 1 Ch. 29:10–13
The example of Job is particularly instructive. Job and his friends stress equally that God is all-powerful and perfectly good; but the message of the book as a whole is that their conception of God is not high enough.
God’s ways are unfathomable; his knowledge, limitless; his power, effectual; who can tell him he is wrong? What man has the arrogance to deny divine providence by ignorant words? (Cf. Job 26:14; 37:5, 15, 23; 36:22–6; 38:2; 40:8–10; 41:10f.; etc.) No simple solution is possible, for men with their limited knowledge cannot judge God’s government.
Man’s peace must come from knowing and trusting this God. ‘It is significant that Job cries out in the end, not “I understand!” but “I repent.”
Since it is this transcendent God who directs man’s goings, how can man comprehend his own way (Prov. 20:24; cf. 3:16; 16:1–4; Jer. 10:23; Job 38:2; 42:3)? (D. A. Carson, Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility: Biblical Perspectives in Tension (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2002), 217.)
Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases. Psa. 115:3.Who can command and have it done, if the Lord has not ordained it? Lam. 3:37
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that evil and good come? Lam. 3:38
Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster befall a city unless the Lord has done it? Am 3:6
The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Prov. 16:4
but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. Psa. 75:7
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21
God created Adam mutable, not immutable, and this opened the door to a possible, if not inevitable, fall. Augustine again said:
“What makes such evil possible is the fact that no created nature can be immutable.”
In Heaven, however, saints will be immutably impeccable, as Augustine accepted. The matter of divine immutability and human mutability is crucial to the Augustinian/Reformed viewpoint.
Herein lies the marvel, that with voluntary agents, who do as they will, yet the eternal purpose in every jot and tittle has to this moment been fulfilled; and as the impression answers to the die, so has the history of the universe answered to the eternal purpose, and to the solemn decree of the Most High.(Charles H. Spurgeon, “Deep Calleth unto Deep,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 15 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1869), 208.)
To me belong vengeance and recompense.In due time their feet will slip,
because their time of calamity is near
and the things prepared for them draw near Dt 32:35 ISV
We emphasize that foreordination in eternity is not the same as approval in time,a proviso often overlooked or misunderstood by anti-Calvinists.
God is so good, that he would not suffer evil if he could not bring good out of it. In regard of the issue and event of it, sin may be termed (as Gregory said of Adam’s fall) Felix Culpa, a happy fall, because it maketh way for the glory of God.
It is good to note how many attributes are advanced by sin—mercy in pardoning, justice in punishing, wisdom in ordering, power in overruling it; every way doth our good God serve himself of the evils of men.( Thomas Manton, An Exposition of the Epistle of James (London: Banner of Truth, 1968), 93. )
This plan of salvation finds its conclusion and fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is this aspect of Scripture—this story of salvation—that makes the Bible distinct from all other “bibles” of pagan religions. These reveal no order or plan. They embody no historical revelation of God working out His saving purposes.
The Bible, by contrast, is a unity because it is the record of a progressive revelation of the will of God for humankind’s salvation.
The Bible is, in short, a “gospel” in the fullest sense of the word.
(David S. Dockery, ed., Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992), 26–27.)
Our thinking and willing and doing, even in their sinful course, take place under the rule of God, and nothing happens outside the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11). The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water; He turns it to whatever He wills (Prov. 21:1). The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his goings (Prov. 5:21; 16:9; 19:21; and 21:2). see Westminster Confession
Believers believe and live because they were elected and predestined to faith and all of its consequences out of God’s grace and good pleasure alone. As Augustine observes:
God, therefore, chose believers, but in order that they might be believers, not because they already were (citing Jas 2:5).…Faith, then, both in its beginning and in its completeness, is a gift of God, and let absolutely no one who does not want to be opposed to the perfectly clear sacred writings deny that this gift is given to some and not given to others.
Augustine quotes Eph. 1:3–12 at length here and feels that this text is clear enough in itself to substantiate his position on election and predestination. “He chose us, therefore, not because we were going to be, but in order that we might be holy and spotless. It is, of course, certain; it is, of course, clear; we were going to be such precisely because he chose us, predestining us to be such by his grace”
In summary, the Father and the Son choose people to whom the Father will be revealed (Matt 11:25–27), according to the divine purpose, independent of human effort (Rom 9:11, 16). It was the Father’s good pleasure to grant his kingdom as a covenantal inheritance to his Son and from his Son to his people (Luke 12:32); to accomplish this end God sent his Son as mediator (Isa 42:1; 1 Pet 1:20; John 3:16) out of his originating love.
They did not love him first, but he did love them first (1 John 4:10). In consequence of this love, Christ gave himself for his sheep (John 10:11, 15; Matt 1:21; Eph 5:25), his friends (John 15:13–14), whom the Father had given him before the world existed (John 17:5–12, 20) and whom he calls “by name” (John 10:3) rather than as a nameless collective.(S. M. Baugh, Ephesians, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 169,170.)
Before the first star was kindled, before the first living creature began to sing the praise of its Creator, he loved his Church with an everlasting love. He spied her in the glass of predestination, pictured her by his divine foreknowledge, and loved her with all his heart; and it was for this cause that he left his Father, and became one with her, that he might redeem her. It was for this cause that he went with her through all this vale of tears, discharged her debts, and bore her sins in his own body on the tree.
For her sake he slept in the tomb, and with the same love that brought him down he has gone up again, and with the same heart beating true to the same blessed betrothment he has gone into the glory, waiting for the marriage day when he shall come again, to receive his perfected spouse, who shall have made herself ready by his grace. Never for a moment, whether as God over all, blessed forever, or as God and man in one divine person, or as dead and buried, or as risen and ascended, never has he changed in the love he bears to his chosen. Charles Spurgeon
Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013). see B B. Warfield, on predestination
So I ask, “God has not rejected his people, has he?” Of course not! I am an Israeli myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he chose long ago. Do you not know what the Scripture says in the story about Elijah, when he pleads with God against Israel?
“Lord, they have killed your prophets and demolished your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life.” But what was the divine reply to him? “I have reserved for myself 7,000 people who have not knelt to worship Baal.”
So it is at the present time: there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if this is by grace, then it is no longer on the basis of actions. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.
What, then, does this mean? It means that Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking, but the selected group obtained it while the rest were hardened. ISV. Rom. 11:1–7
One thing then that is laid down is, —that few are saved in comparison with the vast number of those who assume the name of being God’s people; the other is, —that those are saved by God’s power whom he has chosen with no regard to any merit.
We now perceive, that though universal calling may not bring forth fruit, yet the faithfulness of God does not fail, inasmuch as he always preserves a Church, as long as there are elect remaining; for though God invites all people indiscriminately to himself, yet he does not inwardly draw any but those whom he knows to be his people, and whom he has given to his Son, and of whom also he will be the faithful keeper to the end.
But if no regard to works can be admitted in election, without obscuring the gratuitous goodness of God, which he designed thereby to be so much commended to us, what answer can be given to Paul by those infatuated persons, (phrenetici —insane,) who make the cause of election to be that worthiness in us which God has foreseen?
For whether you introduce works future or past, this declaration of Paul opposes you; for he says, that grace leaves nothing to works. Paul speaks not here of our reconciliation with God, nor of the means, nor of the proximate causes of our salvation; but he ascends higher, even to this,—why God, before the foundation of the world, chose only some and passed by others: and he declares, that God was led to make this difference by nothing else, but by his own good pleasure;
for if any place is given to works, so much, he maintains, is taken away from grace.
It hence follows, that it is absurd to blend foreknowledge of works with election. For if God chooses some and rejects others, as he has foreseen them to be worthy or unworthy of salvation, then the grace of God, the reward of works being established, cannot reign alone, but must be only in part the cause of our election.
For as Paul has reasoned before concerning the justification of Abraham, that where reward is paid, there grace is not freely bestowed; so now he draws his argument from the same fountain,—that if works come to the account, when God adopts a certain number of men unto salvation, reward is a matter of debt, and that therefore it is not a free gift. (John Calvin and John Owen, Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 411.415)
And, in a quite different and much more intimate way, God by His Spirit dwells in the hearts of His children. By that Spirit He brings them to the confession of Christ as their Lord (1 John 4:3), makes them know the things that are given them of God (1 Cor. 2:12; 1 John 2:20; 3:24; and 4:6–13), grants them the gifts of wisdom and knowledge (1 Cor. 12:8), and works in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).11 Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 85.
Although the grace of God saves sinners by a powerful life-giving work in the soul, we have no expectation of such a work taking place apart from the hearing or reading of the gospel.
As Samuel Willard (1640–1707) observed, the gospel is God’s appointed means of salvation (Rom. 1:16). Through the gospel, God deals with men as he created them: as reasonable creatures with minds, wills, and affections that act according to persuasion and conscience (2 Cor. 4:2; 5:11).
Faith in Christ must involve knowledge of him whom we trust (2 Tim. 1:12), and this knowledge can come only by hearing or reading the Word of God (Rom. 10:14–17).
We are to fear God who has no words (unpreached), and run from him to the place where he has given himself in words—that is to the preacher. Only there do fear and wrath end in Christ incarnate as he gives himself to sinners. Luther learned this strange Christian flight from Paul’s argument that God’s eternal and immoral wrath (Romans 1:18) ends only where he wants to be found in his words of promise (Romans 3:24).
Life without a preacher is life with a knotted collection of voices that either accuse or excuse, but in either case end up used in the service of self-justification.
Steven D. Paulson, Lutheran Theology, Doing Theology (London; New Delhi; New York; Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2011)
Hence, the gospel of the Scriptures must be preached so that people may become wise unto salvation by faith in Christ (2 Tim. 3:15–4:2).(Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Spirit and Salvation, vol. 3, Reformed Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 258–259,287.)
Nothing is more central to human life than the knowledge of God through Christ. The apostle Paul counted all the honors and preferments of this world to be “but dung” compared to “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8).(Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Revelation and God, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 512.)
We next inquire who are the subjects of faith? The reply is, only the elect, hence it is called “the faith of God’s elect;” (Titus 1:1,) and it is only given to those, “that are the called according to his purpose,” (Rom. 8:28,) and are “ordained to eternal life,” (Acts 13:48.)-Benedict Pictet, Christian Theology, trans. Frederick Reyroux (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, n.d.), 303.
The church must not conclude that godliness comes from their own inherent abilities since the gifts given to believers are rooted in the knowledge of Christ. Everything needed for eternal life is mediated through the knowledge of the Christ, who calls believers to himself.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 2 Pet. 1:3
The word for knowledge is again epignōsis (cf. 2 Pet.1:2), referring to the encounter with Jesus Christ that began in conversion and continues thereafter. The focus is on conversion since Peter referred to God’s calling (kalesantos). English readers are apt to understand calling in terms of an invitation that can be accepted or rejected.
Peter had something deeper in mind. God’s call is effective, awakening and creating faith. Paul referred to calling in this way regularly (e.g., Rom 4:17; 8:30; 9:12, 24–26; 1 Cor. 1:9; 7:15; Gal. 1:6, 15; 5:8, 13; 1 Thess. 2:12; 4:7; 5:24; 2 Thess. 2:14; 1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim 1:9). More significantly, the word “called” also has this meaning in (1 Peter 1:15; 2:9, 21; 3:9; 5:10).
First Peter 2:9 indicates that conversion is in view, for God called believers out of darkness into his marvelous light. The terminology reminds us that God is the one who called light out of darkness (Gen 1:3). Some scholars maintain that the calling of the apostles is in view, but it is not likely that Peter restricted such to the apostles.(Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 292.)
But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 2 Cor. 4:7
In Eph. 2:1, 5, Paul has identified his audience as “dead” in transgressions. Even more damning, humans were universally (“we” and “the rest”) identified as “by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3). There is no escaping nature. Humans are born in transgressions and are dead in them. The dead cannot choose to believe and enter into election in consequence. They are “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph.2:12). Who, then, will deliver the lost human race from bondage to this death?
The answer of course, is that even faith—the capacity to believe in Christ—is itself a gift originating from God, mediated by his incarnate Son, and effected in them through the Holy Spirit through the secondary means of gospel proclamation (“faith comes by hearing”; Rom 10:17) as an act of new creation. God’s gracious salvation through faith does not originate from humans themselves, and neither is it given in response to human efforts making them worthy of the gift (Eph.2:8–9).(S. M. Baugh, Ephesians, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 168–169.)
as the Scriptures teach us, saying: The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not; where St. John calls men darkness. Jn.1:5
Therefore, we reject all that is taught repugnant to this concerning the free will of man Isa. 26:12; Psa. 94:11; since man is but a slave to sin, Jn. 8:34; Rom. 6:17; 7:5, 17; and can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven Jn.3:27; Isa. 26:12; For who may presume to boast that he of himself can do any good, since Christ says: No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him?Jn.6:44, 65; Who will glory in his own will, who understands that the mind of the flesh is enmity against God? Rom. 8:7; Who can speak of his knowledge, since the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God? 1 Cor. 2:14;
In short, who dares suggest any thought, since he knows that we are not sufficient of ourselves to account anything as of ourselves, but that our sufficiency is of God? 2 Cor. 3:5; And therefore, what the apostle says ought justly to be held sure and firm, that God worketh in us both to will and to work, for his good pleasure Phil. 2:13; For there is no understanding nor will conformable to the divine understanding and will but what Christ has wrought in man, which He teaches us, when He says: Apart from me ye can do nothing. Jn. 15:5. (The Belgic Confession Historic Creeds and Confessions, electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Lexham Press, 1997).
One passage that shows with unmistakable clarity that the “special” or “effectual” call of God is taught in Scripture is Romans 8:29–30. Notice two things about this passage. First, the calling of God to be saved here is extended only to some and not to all. Who, according to Romans 8:30, are those called? Answer: “those He predestined” are “also called.” Thus, this call is not extended to all people everywhere but only to a certain subset of the whole of humanity, viz., only to the “predestined.”
It is for those alone who by faith accept this revelation that everything works together for good.
Lest loving God appear to be a meritorious act, Paul proceeds immediately to define those who love God as those “who have been called according to his purpose.” Our love is a response to His call, and His call is the historical expression of His eternal purpose.
But most Calvinists understand Scripture to say that since unconverted sinners are dead in their sins (Eph. 2:1), blinded by Satan so that they cannot see Christ’s glory (2 Cor. 4:4), and fully unable to do anything pleasing to God (Rom. 8:6–8), therefore God must work in them to open their blind eyes, to enliven their hard hearts, and to grant them the capacity for doing what they simply could not do on their own, viz., believe in Christ so as to be saved.
Does Scripture indicate that regeneration precedes and grounds saving faith? Consider two passages: 1 John 5:1; Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the One who gives new birth loves also the one who has been born of Him.(LSB) and John 1:12–13;
But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—[Isa. 56:5.] Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!] The Amplified Bible
Scripture describes this Spirit-wrought change as a new birth (John 3:5), a passing from death to life (John 5:24), a drawing of the Father (John 6:44), a bringing into the fold (John 10:16), an opening of the heart (Acts 16:14), a calling according to God’s purpose (Rom. 8:28), an enlightening of the eyes (Eph. 1:18), a spiritual resurrection (Eph. 1:19–20), a quickening from the dead (Col. 2:13), a regeneration (Titus 3:5), a heavenly calling (Heb. 3:1), and a calling from darkness to God’s marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).
Christians receive this inward call by grace. God’s grace, which manifests His power, is determined to save them (Rom. 8:28–30). His work of redemption is just as sovereign in application as it is in determination and provision.
Grace alone can do what nothing else can do; good advice, moral living, and the law are not sufficient. Dead men need not lectures but life. They need the kind of power that was present when Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43).
(Joel R. Beeke, Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2008), 107.)
So John is saying that the person who has been and is born again is like this: he does what is right. That is, being born again accounts for doing right. This surely means that the new birth precedes a righteous life; otherwise John would be teaching works-righteousness (i.e., doing “what is right” accounting for being born again)! No, rather, regeneration accounts for the “right” sort of actions and behavior of which John speaks.
It simply cannot be the case that God looks ahead in time and sees those who will believe in Christ and so elects them based on his advanced knowledge of their faith. For apart from regeneration, God would see only unbelief as he looked down the corridors of history.
In other words, God cannot choose people to regenerate by looking ahead and seeing them doing what only those already regenerated can do! Therefore, because regeneration is the enlivening work of God (alone) in the hearts of those dead in sin, and because regeneration gives rise to saving faith, the doctrine of regeneration requires the unconditional nature of God’s election to salvation.
(Jack W. Cottrell et al., Perspectives on Election: Five Views, ed. Chad Owen Brand (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), 16,19,21,22.)
The intention and purpose of God receive primacy rather than the choice of human beings. This is confirmed elsewhere in Paul, for the election, predestination, and calling of believers is according to God’s “purpose” (πρόθεσις, prothesis; Rom. 9:11; Eph. 1:11; 2 Tim. 1:9). Moreover, as most scholars affirm, “calling” (κλητός, klētos), must be understood as effectual.
It is not merely an invitation that human beings can reject, but it is a summons that overcomes human resistance and effectually persuades them to say yes to God. This definition of “calling” is evident from Rom. 8:30, for there Paul says that “those whom he called (ἐκάλεσεν, ekalesen) he also justified.” The text does not say that “some” of those called were justified.
This understanding is also vindicated by Rom.4:17, where God’s call effectually brings into existence things that did not exist (cf. also Rom. 9:24–26; 1 Cor. 1:9, 24, 26–28; Gal. 1:6, 15; 1 Thess. 2:12; 5:24; 2 Thess. 2:14; 2 Tim. 1:9).
The foundational reason why all things work for believers’ good begins to emerge: God’s unstoppable purpose in calling believers to salvation cannot be frustrated, and thus he employs all things to bring about the plan he had from the beginning in the lives of believers.
(Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, vol. 6, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 451.)
When they inquire into predestination, let them remember that they are penetrating into the recesses of the divine wisdom, where he who rushes forward securely and confidently, instead of satisfying his curiosity will enter an inextricable labyrinth.
For it is not right that man should with impunity pry into things that the Lord has been pleased to conceal within himself, and scan that sublime eternal wisdom that it is his pleasure that we should not apprehend but adore, that therein also his perfections may appear. Those secrets of his will, which he has seen it meet to manifest, are revealed in his word—revealed insofar as he knew to be conducive to our interest and welfare. (Job 9:10; Psalm 103:11; Isaiah 55:8; Romans 11:33–34) John Calvin
Elliot Ritzema, 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).
The Bible indicates that the glory of God is the final end of our sanctification. After having written in Ephesians 1:4–5 that God has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world and that he has predestined us to be adopted as his children, Paul adds, “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph.1:6)—a thought that is repeated in verses Eph.1:12 and Eph.1:14 (“for the praise of his glory” and “to the praise of his glory”). Elsewhere Paul prays that the love of his fellow Christians may abound more and more, so that they may be pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness, “to the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1:9–11).
In the Book of Revelation the Apostle John pulls aside the curtain of mystery and gives us a glimpse into heaven. He hears voices—the voices of the redeemed—singing, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13).
The ultimate goal of all of God’s wondrous works, including the sanctification of his people, is that he shall be given praise, honor, and glory forevermore.
(Anthony A. Hoekema, Saved by Grace (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994), 232.)
The doctrine of God’s election does not eliminate human responsibility. The fact that no one can come to Jesus unless they are drawn by the Father (Jn 6:44) never stops Jesus from calling people to come to him (Jn 7:37). The seed is sown everywhere, even though it can only bear fruit when it falls on good soil (Mk 4:1–20).
Paul knows that “those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit” 1 Cor. 2:14, yet he makes an open statement of the truth, commending himself to everyone 2 Cor. 4:2. He has “become all things to all people, so that by all possible means [he] might save some” 1 Cor. 9:22.(Sigurd Grindheim, Introducing Biblical Theology (London; New Delhi; New York; Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2013), 192.)
At Romans 13:14 we read that we must “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and at Galatians 3:27 we read that because we are baptized into Christ, we are clothed with Christ. By this reading, the wedding guest who is cast into outer darkness receives this judgment because he has refused to be clothed with Christ.
He is clothed in his natural clothes, as it were. Apart from being clothed with Christ, we stand judged before God. In a different Pauline figure, only “in Christ” do we have in God a heavenly Father and not a righteous judge.
Grace is freely given, situating us in God’s company by an act of loving election. As a consequence, we are obliged to live as God’s people, according to God’s will for our lives. To do so is to give honor to the king, to God, and to live in terms of God’s claim upon us.
The failure to do so is to scorn God’s love, God’s choice of us. It is to assert our autonomy, to live in pride, which means that we are found clothed with ourselves rather than with Christ.(Andrew Purves, “Theological Perspective on Matthew 22:1–14,” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, vol. 4 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 168. )
John’s Gospel assumes sinful man’s need, the sacrifice of Christ the Lamb to bear away the sin of the world, and the offer of light and life in Christ. The new note is an emphasis on sin that refuses to accept the salvation provided in Christ, by the love of God for the world—the refusal to believe. It is for loving darkness, rejecting light, refusing to “see” Christ the Savior, that man is judged already (Jn. 3:16–21).(R.E.O. White, “Sin,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1968.)
Without sin, there could be no grace or wrath, for both presuppose the existence of sin. Grace forgives sin; wrath is angry with sin. It is like Romans 4:15, where it is stated that there is no sin without law. There could be holiness but not wrath without sin. Likewise, there could be love but not grace without sin. God loved the holy angels but never showed them grace. He gave no grace to fallen angels but decreed to give grace to some fallen humans (2 Timothy 1:9).
This sheds light on the principle “where sin abounded, grace abounded still more” (Romans 5:20). This is somewhat displayed in Philemon 15–16: “For perhaps [Onesimus] departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother.”
Sin is the black velvet that makes the diamond of God’s love sparkle more gloriously. God foreordained sin to forgive elect sinners and thereby display super-love, “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Ephesians 1:6).
The same is true with divine wrath. God revealed holiness to the unfallen angels and to Adam before the Fall. But He then revealed wrath to the fallen angels and humanity once they sinned. Wrath is an extension of holiness, as grace is of love.
Wrath is God’s angry holiness, His offended purity. It is the violent negative reaction to holiness’ opposite. Grace is shown to some of those who deserved wrath (Ephesians 2:3), but God decreed to leave other sinners in sin to display the glory of His wrath (Romans 9:22). Thus, the Reformed doctrines of election and reprobation are crucial to a biblical answer to the question of the origin of sin.
Resembling Augustine, Thomas Watson commented: “God would never permit any evil if he could not bring good out of evil.” I would add: He could bring glory out of evil. What depths of wisdom there are in God’s foreordination of all things for His glory! (Romans 11:33) This has practical implications, as Calvin pointed out:
“Thus, if we ask the question, why did God allow men to fall and become so miserably lost, the answer is that God desired us to lean on his grace alone.”
John Gill said, “The same decree which permits sin provides for the punishment of it.” J. C. Philpot added,
“It is sufficient for us to know that sin is, and that it is a blessing to know also there is a cure for it.”Augustine: “Let us confess with the greatest benefit, what we believe with the greatest truth, that the God and Lord of all things who made all things very good, both foreknew that evil was to arise out of good, and knew that it belonged to his most omnipotent goodness to bring good out of evil,
rather than not permit evil to be, and so ordained the life of angels and men as to show in it, first, what free-will could do; and, secondly, what the benefit of his grace and his righteous judgment could do,” (August. Enchir. ad Laurent).
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 1997).
We should discuss the whole subject only in an attitude of humble repentance and grateful love.(Curt Daniel, The History and Theology of Calvinism (Darlington, Co Durham: EP Books, 2019), 265-270.)
It is a very solemn subject, and I desire to speak most solemnly; therefore, I entreat you to hear most earnestly, especially you unconverted ones. It is a very great mystery that God permits the ungodly to go on as they do. Walk down some of our streets, if you dare, at night, and mark what you shall see.
You inwardly exclaim, “I wonder God permits it. Here is a reeking Sodom in the heart of a so-called Christian city.” Step into some of the dens of infamy, and you will feel, “God could, if he would, suppress this in a minute: why does he not?”
Hearken for a moment to the talk of blasphemers: what atrocious insults they perpetrate upon the Majesty of Heaven! They go out of their way to imprecate curses upon themselves, their limbs, their eyes, their souls. What are they at? If they will not obey God, could they not at least let him alone, and not insult him to his face?
Do not deceive yourselves by any dream of annihilation; do not imagine there shall come a period to your woe. If there were the shadow of a ground for that statement, hell would cease to be hell, for hopelessness is of the essence of hell.
O, by the boundless love treasured up in Christ Jesus, remember there is equal terror in his wrath! The hand that is mighty to save is equally mighty to destroy.
All omnipotence has been put out to save, but this rejected, an equal omnipotence shall be put out to crush. Tempt not the Lord. The deeps of your sin are already challenging the deeps of his justice. “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?”
Awaken not the fury which ye cannot endure, overcome, or avoid. Kindle not the fire which, like flame among stubble, will burn furiously, and cannot be stayed. O dash not your souls upon the bosses of Jehovah’s buckler 2 Sam. 22:31; cast not yourselves upon the point of his glittering spear 2 Thess. 1:8,. God grant of his eternal mercy that you may not tempt those deeps. (Charles H. Spurgeon, “Deep Calleth unto Deep,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 15 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1869), 213.214)
One aspect of our turning back to God (Isa. 55:6–7) is acknowledging that his glorious being transcends our thinking: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa.55:8–9).
In the Enlightenment, the notion of externally received revelation as the final judge of truth was replaced by internal human reason. In other words, enlightened human beings would no longer be bound by the dictates of any external authority, be it the church or the Bible, that claimed to speak for God.
They would follow their own experience and reason wherever it would lead as the means of obtaining knowledge rather than blindly accept what they regarded to be the superstitions proclaimed and taught by traditional Christian faith. Instead of believing in order to understand, the Enlightenment maintained that humans should believe only that which they could understand.
Similarly, with respect to morality, it was believed that human reason was able to discover the natural moral law that was internal to all persons and to bring about conformity to this universal natural law for the good of all
John R. Franke, Barth for Armchair Theologians, Armchair Theologians Series (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 6.
—all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
This weighty truth, thus emphasized, writes folly on all modern attempts to improve human nature; because they all proceed on the false assumption that it is what goes into the man that defiles him, and ignore the solemn fact that in the natural heart there is “no good thing” (Rom. 7:18). Until, therefore, a new heart has been given by God, all attempts to make black white will be labour in vain. Compare Matt. 15:18–20.(Ethelbert William Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible 140.)
God’s Word bridges the gap, for he adapts it to our capacities so that it nourishes us as rain and snow nourish the plants of the ground (Isa.55:10–11). The call to repentance is a call to faith in God’s Word: “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live” (Isa.55:3).
Only when he hears God does the wicked man forsake both “his way” (self-determination) and “his thoughts” (rational autonomy), and “return unto the LORD” as the transcendent source of direction and wisdom (Isa.55:7).
The stress on faith lies not on the believing act, but on that which is believed. Thus Paul does not appeal to his audience ‘to have faith’, but rather he reminds the church at Corinth of the gospel, which he had preached and they had believed (1 Cor. 15:11).
(Brevard S. Childs, Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2011), 606.)
The distinction between God’s decretive will and preceptive will guards two great doctrines: God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. We see both in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Peter preached in Jerusalem that Christ, “being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23).
On the one hand, the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus was clearly against God’s preceptive will, for it was the murder of God’s righteous servant. On the other hand, the death of Christ fulfilled God’s decretive will, for all these things took place according to God’s plan.
This distinction also has enormous practical value for the Christian life. We must learn to distinguish between what God will do with our lives and what our duty is toward God. When we pray for God to teach us his will, we must seek to know our responsibility and be content to leave his plans for our future hidden in the secrecy of his wise decree.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words Ro 8:26
It is not a question of how we are to pray, as if God is concerned with our method of praying. Prayer is designed for the helpless and the helpless cannot be asked to measure up to some arbitrary standard of acceptability.
It is rather a question of what we should pray for. In times of distress, it is difficult to know whether we should ask for a change of circumstance or for the strength to endure. This comes from our human frailty, our “weakness” Paul calls it. Because we do not know what to pray for, the Spirit takes over the task and intercedes on our behalf to God.
The intercessory work of Jesus, the great high priest of the order of Melchizedek, is well known to most Christians. “He is forever able to save the people he leads to God, because he always lives to speak to God for them. CEV (Heb. 7:25 ) ”.
Our sins merit God’s wrath but Jesus stands at the right hand of God continuously presenting the evidence that the punishment we deserve has already been paid by His own death on the cross. He is our intercessor. We sometimes forget, however, that the Holy Spirit also pleads our case.
Therefore, let us approach him in holiness of soul, raising pure (1Tim. 2.8) and undefiled hands to him, loving our gentle and compassionate Father, who made us his own chosen portion.
(I Clement 29.1 Rick Brannan,The Apostolic Fathers in English)
Sorrow is a normal part of the world in which we live. Setbacks are common. Things don’t always work out as we have planned. Disasters happen. We are all under the condemnation of physical death. Yet all of these can and do work for the good (not necessarily for the convenience or the immediate pleasure) of those who are called according to the will of God. An old poem says:
I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chattered all the way:
But I was none the wiser
For all she had to say.
Then I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’er a word said she;
But Oh the lessons I did learn,
When Sorrow walked with me.
Robert H. Mounce, Themes from Romans, A Bible Commentary for Laymen (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2005), 100-104.
How precious it is to know God’s covenant, for all the forces of creation cannot move him from his determination to glorify his righteousness by keeping his word! Though we often do not understand God’s specific purposes in his works of providence, we may be assured that he is always working to fulfill his covenants in judgment and salvation, for he is righteous. (Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Revelation and God, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 269–270.767.817.)
Westminster Confession Go Back
GOD hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined, to good or evil.(Mat.17:12, James 1:14, Deut.30:19)
II. Man, in his state of innocence's, had freedom and power to will and to do that which is good and well-pleasing to God; (Eccl. 7:29; Gen.1:26) but yet mutably, so that he might fall from it. (Gen.2:16,17, Gen.3:6)
III. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation;( Rom.5:6; 8:7; John 15:5) so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good,(Rom.3:10, 12) and dead in sin,(Eph.2:1, 5; Col.2:13) is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.(John 6:44, 65; Eph.2:2-5; 1 Cor.2:14; Tit.3:3-5)
IV. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin,(Col.1:13; John 8:34, 36) and by his grace alone enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; (Phil.2:13; Rom.6:18, 22) yet so as that, by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.(Gal.5:17; Rom.7:15, 18, 19, 21, 23)
V. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to do good alone in the state of glory only.(Eph.4:13; Heb.12:23; 1 John 3:2; Jude 24) (Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition (Philadelphia: William S. Young, 1851.)
St. Paul’s allusions to the all-determining hand of God,—the letters that we have from him come from Paul the evangelist,—but it is not merely a soteriological conception that he is expressing in them, but the most fundamental postulate of his religious consciousness; and he is accordingly constantly correlating his doctrine of election with his general doctrine of the decree or counsel of God.
No man ever had an intense or more vital sense of God,—the eternal (Rom. 16:26) and incorruptible (Rom.1:23) One, the only wise One (Rom.16:27), who does all things according to His good-pleasure (1 Cor. 15:38; 12:18, Col. 1:19, 15), and whose ways are past tracing out (Rom. 11:33); before whom men should therefore bow in the humility of absolute dependence, recognizing in Him the one molding power as well in history as in the life of the individual (Rom. 9:).
Of Him and through Him and unto Him, he fervently exclaims, are all things (Rom. 11:36, cf. 1 Cor. 8:6); He is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:6, cf. Col. 1:16); He worketh all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11): all that is, in a word, owes its existence and persistence and its action and issue to Him.
The whole course of history is, therefore, of His ordering (Ac. 14:16; 17:26, Rom. 1:18f.; 3:25; 9–11, Gal. 3, 4), and every event that befalls is under His control, and must be estimated from the view-point of His purposes of good to His people (Rom. 8:28, 1 Th. 5:17, 18), for whose benefit the whole world is governed (Eph. 1:22, 1 Cor. 2:7, Col. 1:18).
The figure that is employed in Rom. 9:22 with a somewhat narrower reference, would fairly express St. Paul’s world-view in its relation to the Divine activity: God is the potter, and the whole world with all its contents but as the plastic clay which He molds to His own ends; so that whatsoever comes into being, and whatsoever uses are served by the things that exist, are all alike of Him. In accordance with this world-view St. Paul’s doctrine of salvation must necessarily be interpreted; and, in very fact, he gives it its accordant expression in every instance in which he speaks of it.
B B. Warfield, “PREDESTINATION,” ed. James Hastings et al., A Dictionary of the Bible: Dealing with Its Language, Literature, and Contents Including the Biblical Theology (New York; Edinburgh: Charles Scribner’s Sons; T. & T. Clark, 1911–1912), 58.
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