I delivered this on Speakers Corner, Revelation TV on 24 Nov 2016
For a while you will be able to see the programme here. Eventually it will be removed.
http://www.revelationtv.com/programmes/episode/speakers-corner377145
These are my notes for the programme.
Derivation of term.
Not found in scripture and is culled from the acronym TULIP linked to the teachings of John Calvin. It is the I of TULIP.
T Total Depravity
U Unconditional Election
L Limited Atonement
I Irresistible Grace
P Perseverance of the Saints.
Many of these terms are misunderstood and cause confusion. The terms are being forced into the acronym, to create something memorable, a flower, a tulip.
I prefer the following.
R Radical Corruption
S Sovereign Election
D Definite Atonement
E Effectual Grace
P Perseverance of the Saints
No longer memorable I’m sorry to say, but less controversial without watering them down.
Is Grace Irresistible?
Irresistible applied to grace conjures up the wrong message and image. Why? Because we resist God’s wonderful grace all the time.
- The grace of His revelation of Himself in Creation. Billions reject it.
- The grace of the written Gospels. Billions reject it as myth and fantasy.
- The grace of the wonderful person of Jesus Christ revealed as the Son of God, Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Billions reject Him, first Israel and then the world, though they acknowledge He was a good teacher.
Millions of believers reject the doctrine of irresistible grace too. They say, “I don’t want a God who takes me against my will into the Kingdom, who saves me unconditionally without my agreeing to it, who chooses me without my choosing Him. And what about all those people who want to be saved and can’t be? It’s a hideous doctrine, straight from hell,” they say.
The trouble with this attitude is it’s shot through with pride and unbelief.
Pride insists the Creator should not be able to call the shots for the created – clearly and irrefutably countered by Paul in Romans 9.
Unbelief, fuelled by the pride, because of the abject refusal to believe what God has said about election.
Luke 1:45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” (Lk. 1:45 ESV)
There is a blessing in the humility of simply believing God. Conversely there is a lack of blessing in not believing.
Zacharias was made mute for his unbelief earlier in the chapter.
Effectual Grace at Work
Reformed theologians talk about there being a Logical Priority in the order of salvation.
They say Regeneration and Justification MUST precede Faith. But we are justified by faith alone.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Rom. 5:1 NKJ)
Being translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God is a process that is instantaneously conducted with the declaration of faith.
Faith comes – justification is instant. No time gap.
Nevertheless, Justification depends upon a prior condition – the condition of faith in Christ as Saviour.
BUT – reformed theology still says that in fact justification precedes faith. Why?
Because:
- Before a person declares faith in Christ ……
- Before they confess a belief in Christ……
- Before they exercise their will to embrace Christ as Saviour……
Before any of these things can happen, God must do something for them and in them.
Radical Corruption
We need now to revisit the fall covered by T in the acronym Tulip.
Something happened. Original Sin – not the eating of the fruit but the resulting condition. Radical Corruption. Total Depravity not a suitable term – all have some redeeming features! Radical Corruption better.
Now we come to the T and I (or R and I) relationship from TULIP.
The great theological controversy! Augustine vs Pelagius, Luther vs Erasmus, The Reformation vs Roman Catholicsm.
Augustine’s prayer was ….
“Lord, Command what Thou wouldst, and grant what Thou doest command”
Pelagius was a British monk whose theology has been debated ever since, as indeed has Augustine’s.
Pelagius accepted the first part of the prayer but powerfully refuted the second part.
Augustine believed that fallen man was incapable of doing what God commanded in any meaningful sense.
Pelagius believed that although man was fallen he still had a moral capability to do the will of God.
This divide continues right up until today and will continue unless ……
The Pelagian position is that man has a little island of righteousness that seeks God and allows him to accept God for himself.
Pelagians believe that if God woos a person, encourages, performs miracles in plain sight and continues to urge, then at the appropriate time, of man’s choosing, he will respond and be saved.
Does it Matter?
- In terms of the truth of your salvation – No
- In terms of your understanding of your salvation – Yes.
Pelagians, typified in recent history by the position of John Wesley, refute that man is truly dead in trespass and sin. They argue that fallen people are always ready to come to faith in the Lord.
Problem – This is not what the bible says.
Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
We must be born again of the spirit.
Who had anything to do with their natural birth?
Who oversaw their own conception?
Answer – Nobody! You had zilch to do with your physical conception and you have nothing to do with your spiritual conception either.
Conception must precede birth.
Regeneration must precede faith.
Listen again to Jesus ……. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
It is the Spirit of God Who initiates your rebirth by drawing you to Jesus.
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (Jn. 6:44 NKJ)
Let’s look at this. We see here huge historical theological bias. The bias is not willful, but it clearly demonstrates man’s misunderstanding of the manner of the work of God in saving men.
Let me explain.
It is perfectly legitimate to translate the Greek word used here as “draw”. But it’s a weak word which suggests a meek and mild activity going on in the background and externally.
The person who rejects the doctrine of election will have no trouble with this. God draws and we respond; the effectiveness of the drawing being dependent on our response.
But this same Greek word translated “draw” in John 6:44 is in Acts 16:19 translated “dragged” and by implication “dragged forcibly”!
Acts 16:19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. (Acts 16:19 NKJ)
If your translation has “drew” rather than “dragged” make a margin note reminding yourself it should be dragged and link it to John 6:44.
Back to John 6:44. The drawing, or dragging is not external. It’s of the Spirit and internal and independent of you – John 3.
This is what is meant by irresistible grace. A better description is Effective Grace.
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (Jn. 6:44 NKJ)
Lexicographical studies have shown the best translation is not draw or drag but is rendered by the English word COMPEL.
Let’s see if Jesus agrees?
But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master.
Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'” (Lk. 14:1 ESV)
This is a parable about election and effectual grace.
The first invitation is the Gospel delivered to Israel first and later to the world. It is refused by all.
The second invitation is the gospel to those who will be saved and includes the world. They neither accept nor refuse but are “brought in” or “lead in”.
The final invitation is a restatement of the second for emphasis. This is a typical Hebrew idiomatic device.
Listen – ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
That’s it! That’s saving grace!
It is effectual. It is irresistible! It’s all of God. And He alone defines who it is that will be saved.
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience– 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ– by grace you have been saved– 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph. 2:1 ESV)
