The Liberating power of the Reformation in the doctrines of grace
Text Romans 9 Time 22 11 17 Place Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Let's
begin with some definitions.
The Reformation
refers,
of course,
to events that occurred in Europe in the 16th
Century. What was “the greatest revival since Pentecost” began
when Martin Luther (1483-1546) protested against the sale of
indulgences by posting 95 theses for debate on the door of the castle
church in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1517, 500 years ago this year.
The
Roman
Catholic Church dominated European life throughout the Mediaeval
period. The Reformation
began as a protest movement, calling for reform within. Previous
reform
movements had come and gone but this time, in God's providence, was
different. Johannes Gutenberg (c 1400-68) had invented movable type
in 1450 and the new technology made possible the swift and widespread
dissemination of ideas. In the end the Roman Church was not radically
reformed but a radical new form of Christianity did begin - the
Protestant religion.
Among
Reformation leaders, after Luther, were John Calvin (1509-64) and
Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) in Switzerland and in Britain men such
as John Knox (c 1513-72) William Tyndale (1494-1536) and Thomas
Cranmer (1489-1556).
The
Reformation brought to light vital Bible doctrines long neglected and
perverted in the church. Crucially there were what are dubbed
the five solas
– sola scriptura, sola christus, sola gratia, sola fide, soli deo
gloria
(Scripture alone, Christ alone, Faith alone, grace alone, the glory
of God alone). Another
obvious example is how thinking changed over the Mass. Romanism
taught it was a bloodless re-sacrificing of Christ's body and blood
by a supposed priest. Transubstantiation maintained that while the
elements remained visibly unchanged they became Christ's body and
blood. Such ideas were shown to be utterly false.
The
doctrines of grace
is the phrase
used
for Reformation teachings to do with soteriology/salvation. They are
sometimes referred to as Calvinistic doctrines or Calvinism.
Doctrines
of grace
is preferable as it avoids using a man's name and the suggestion
these are human teachings rather than divine teachings from the
Bible.
What
are these doctrines? There are five. True to what Calvin and the
Reformers taught, it was not until 1619 (over a century after the 95
Theses) that they were formulated as they are today. The doctrines
came to prominence not because of an attack from outside (the
Romanists had done their worst at the Council of Trent, 1545-63) but
an attack from inside. It began with a Dutchman called Jacobus
Arminius (1560-1609). In 1610 his followers proposed their five
points known as the five articles of the Remonstrants, five
remonstrations against Reformation truths.
The
five points of Calvinism first appeared in answer to the arguments of
the Remonstrants or Arminians at an international Synod in Dordt
(Dordrecht) in the Netherlands. The Synod met
November 1618-May 1619 in 154 sessions with 62 Dutch delegates and 27
from other countries, including six from Britain.
The
five points are often remembered by means of the acronym TULIP a 20th
Century invention
popularised in Predestination
by Lorraine
Boettner (1901-90) in 1932.
1.
Total
Depravity (Total Inability/ Original Sin)
2.
Unconditional
Election
3.
Limited
Atonement (Particular Atonement/ Redemption)
4.
Irresistible
Grace
5.
Perseverance
of the Saints (Preservation of the saints, Once saved always saved)
The
acronym has drawbacks but is a useful mnemonic. These
doctrines are often opposed but were preached in the earliest days by
Augustine and others, in the 16th
Century by the Reformers, the 17th
by the Puritans, the 18th
by
Whitefield, the 19th
by
Spurgeon, the 20th
by Martyn Lloyd-Jones and are still preached today. Time
Magazine in 2009 cited Calvinism as one of 10 major ideas changing
the world. These five ideas are still changing the world today. We
should know them. Let me explain the words
1.
Total
Depravity (Total Inability, Original Sin) This
is where to begin. We need to be clear firstly as to what is
fundamentally wrong and how bad things are. Depravity
is corruption or wickedness. The word total
does
not mean absolutely or completely depraved – no-one is as bad as
possible or as often as possible. All can do relative good - helping
old ladies across the road, building hospitals. Total depravity means
that we are by nature only and always sinning; unable
to do, understand or desire what is good. We are not just sick but
dead
in our transgressions and sins.
Boettner “This
doctrine of total inability which declares that men are dead in sin
does not mean that all men are equally bad, nor that any man is as
bad as he could be, nor that anyone is entirely destitute of virtue,
nor that human nature is evil in itself, nor that man’s spirit is
inactive, and much less does it mean that the body is dead. What it
does mean is that since the fall, man rests under the curse of sin,
that he is actuated by wrong principles, and that he is wholly unable
to love God, or to do anything meriting salvation.” To spell it
out. By nature we are ...
1.
Only and always sinning. The
unconverted cannot do what is truly good in God’s sight. They lack
faith and the desire to please God. Like
David, we all have to say (Ps 51:5) Surely
I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Prov
22:15a Folly
is bound up in the heart of a child. Some
think children
are born innocent but they are born
sinners. You don’t have to teach them to do wrong. It
is in our nature to sin. We
all have
a sinful nature. We inherit it from our first father Adam (original
sin/pollution). We
are all born with a bias to evil and are by
nature deserving of wrath (Eph
2:3).
By
nature we are incapable of doing anything truly good. The Bible
spells it out
Gen 6:5 The
LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that
every
inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the
time. Jer
17:9 The
heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can
understand it? Isa
64:6
… all
our righteous acts are like filthy rags Rom
3:10-18 As
it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no
one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned
away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does
good, not even one ….
This
is a heart matter not to be confused with physical inability. $ A
paralysed man cannot come to church due to physical
inability but the fact he does not want to come is due to moral
inability.
2.
Totally unable to do, understand or desire what is good.
An
alternative phrase preferred by some is total
inability.
It has drawbacks but is useful
as it drives home the fact of our inability to do, understand, to
even desire what is good. There is a threefold inability.
Inability to ...
1 Do the good.
Canons
of Dort “all men are conceived
in sin, and are by nature children of wrath, incapable
of saving good,
prone to evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto”.
Matt
7:17, 18 every
good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A
good tree cannot bear bad fruit … or
a
bad tree ... good fruit.
Jn
15:4, 5
...
No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I
am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you,
you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 1
Cor 12:3 …
no
one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus be cursed and no
one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit Rom
8:7, 8 The
mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to
God's law, nor can it do so.
….
2
Understand the good. By
nature we don't even understand what is good. Acts 16:4 says it was
only after God opened Lydia's heart that she responded to the
message. Until then, her understanding was darkened. There was a veil
over her heart preventing her from seeing the truth (2 Cor 3:12-18).
It was only when God operated on her spiritually that she could
respond. We all need that. This is why people could hear Jesus preach
and not believe. Jn 1:11 He
came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
1
Cor 1, 2 teaches the cross (the basic Christian message) is
foolishness to unbelievers who cannot know God by their own wisdom.
If it is a matter of intelligence clever people will all believe but
it is not down to natural wisdom. (2:14) The
person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from
the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot
understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
Without
the Spirit it is impossible to understand.
3
Desire the good. By nature we
can't even desire anything truly good. Edwin Palmer “The pit of
total depravity is that natural man does not even desire a good
goal.” By nature we hate the good; we hate God. Jn 6:44, 65 No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them ….
and
no
one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them. We
are so depraved we can't choose Jesus. We can't even take the first
step to him. By
nature our hearts are stone and unless God melts them and makes them
flesh it is hopeless. Without regeneration we can do nothing. It is
not faith that leads to new birth, new birth leads to faith. To be
alive to Christ we need to be new created, raised from the grave,
made alive (Eph 2:1) from being dead in transgression and sins
2.
Unconditional Election
Election
refers to how God chooses or selects people for himself. There are
three possible options - God saves all, God saves none or, as the
Bible teaches, he saves some.
Unconditional
means that this choice is not based on any conditions such as
intelligence, which tribe or nation you belong to, how God foresees
you will react to the gospel. Again, either this is true or God
chooses us for something found in us. In truth, it entirely depends
on God and his choice. In Romans 9 we are reminded that God says he
will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. He is the potter who
makes the pot. He decides what it will be like.
Many
Scriptures teach this doctrine. Eg Jn 6:37-39 … 15:16 All
those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I
will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my
will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of
him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me,
but raise them up at the last day. ...
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and
bear fruit ….. What
he says of his disciples is true of all his people. Acts
13:48 When
the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honoured the word of the
Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
2
Thess 2:13 But
we ought always to thank God for you ... because God chose you as
firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit
and through belief in the truth. Eph
1:4, 5 For
he chose us (not
we him) in
him (Christ)
before
the creation of the world to be holy and blameless (not
because
we were holy and blameless) in
his sight. In love he predestined us (election
is loving predestination)
for
adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his
pleasure and will –
note that.
Romans
8:29, 30 For
those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and
sisters. And
those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also
justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Romans
9:6-26 perhaps is the most powerful passage. Paul points out that
although God's great promise is to Abraham and his descendants this
doesn't mean just any child of Abraham is blessed - Isaac not
Ishmael. Then he says (10-13) Not
only that, but Rebekah's children were conceived at the same time by
our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done
anything good or bad - in order that God's purpose in election might
stand: not by works but by him who calls - she was told, The older
will serve the younger. Just as it is written: Jacob I loved, but
Esau I hated.
Is
this fair? 14-18 What
then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, I
will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I have compassion. It does not, therefore, depend on human
desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh:
I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power
in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he
hardens whom he wants to harden.
Why
am I to blame? Paul anticipates another objection. 19-21 One
of you will say to me: Then why does God still blame us? For who is
able to resist his will? You
may not like his answer But
who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed
say to the one who formed it, Why did you make me like this? Does not
the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some
pottery for special purposes and some for common use? God
is God. He does as he pleases, whether we like it or not.
Paul
then says (22-24) What
if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known,
bore with great patience the objects of his wrath - prepared for
destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory
known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for
glory - even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also
from the Gentiles? He
is careful not to speculate but does ask what if, instead of saving
everyone or no-one God chose to save some and not others in order to
magnify his glory? $ The picture is often used of how a diamond
necklace will look much more beautiful placed against a black velvet
cushion. We do not know why God has acted as he has but he does not
have to answer to us, we have to answer to him.
3.
Limited Atonement (also known as Particular Atonement or Redemption)
Limited
Atonement speaks to the question for whom Jesus died. Was it for
everyone in general or his people in particular? Was his atonement a
definite one, intended to save or just to make salvation possible?
Jn
10:15 I
lay down my life for the sheep. He
doesn't lay down his life for the goats but for the sheep.
Interestingly, he says the unbelieving Jews (26) do
not believe because you are not my sheep. Eph
5:25-27b is interesting too. There Paul says Husbands,
love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up
for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water
through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church,
without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and
blameless. Husbands
and wives are to reflect the truth about Jesus Christ and his church.
Christ
loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy. These
verses do not really work if we take the view that Christ died for
everyone not for the church.
Someone
will say what about a verse like Jn 3:16? For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. God so loved
the
world. We
always need to be careful with the word world.
When it says in Luke that the whole
world
went to be taxed when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, it clearly means
the whole Roman world. When Jn 3:16 mentions God loving the
world
it either means the world in general, as opposed to just the Jewish
world, or more likely the world in its wickedness and lostness.
Rom
8:32 may not seem to give support either He
who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all
- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all
things? But
who is this all?
If you work through the chapter it is clear again that Paul is
speaking about Christians and no-one else. The object of
predestination and the atonement of Christ are the same – the
elect.
Another
way of looking at this is to consider what Jesus did on the cross.
Did he die to make salvation possible or to save his people? His
atonement is either limited in extent or power. It is either confined
to certain people or unable to save certain people who it is supposed
to be for. The fact is that through the cross Christ provides a
complete salvation for his people. This is one reason he said It's
finished
on the cross.
John
Murray “The very nature of Christ’s mission and accomplishment is
involved in this question. Did Christ come to make salvation of all
men possible, to remove obstacles that stood in the way of salvation,
and merely to make provision for salvation? Or did he come to save
his people? Did he come to put all men in a savable state? Or did he
come to secure the salvation of all those who are ordained to eternal
life? … The doctrine … must be radically revised if, as
atonement, it applies to those who finally perish as well as to those
who are heirs of eternal life. In that event we should have to dilute
the grand categories in terms which the Scripture defines the
atonement and deprive them of their most precious import and glory.
This we cannot do. The saving efficacy of expiation, propitiation,
reconciliation and redemption is too deeply embedded in these
concepts and we dare not eliminate this efficacy. We do well to
ponder the words of our Lord himself I
have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him
who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that of
everything he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up in the last day
(Jn 6:38/39) Security inheres in Christ’s redemptive
accomplishment. And this means that, in respect of the persons
contemplated, design and accomplishment and final realisation have
all the same extent”
Richard Phillips “If
we think of the atonement as a bridge spanning a great river,
Arminians see it as infinitely wide, but not reaching all the way to
the far bank; Calvinists hold that the atonement is a narrow bridge,
wide enough only for the elect, but reaching all the way to the other
side. We believe that Christ's death actually saves those for whom He
died.”
4.
Irresistible Grace Grace
can be defined as God's undeserved love. When
we say that it is irresistible
we mean it comes in so powerfully on God's chosen ones that they
cannot resist it.
Understand
what we do and don't mean by irresistible. $ If a person resists
arrest he puts up a fight against it. He will fail if those who
arrest him are strong enough. Arrest will be irresistible. Resistance
can be a quite violent thing then. A killer has hold of you and you
can't resist him.
But
we're not talking about that sort of irresistible. It is much more
like when you see something good and tasty – some tasty yams say; a
piece of ripe fruit just ready to eat - and you can't resist eating
it. This is why some prefer effective
or
certain
grace.
What
happens is that God changes a person's nature. Whereas by nature we
desire only what is evil, what is opposed to God. God, however, works
within and changes hearts from stone to flesh so that they freely
choose to follow him and serve him.
$
Here is person who naturally likes to roll in the mud. Say you could
change him so that he learned to prefer walking around, sitting in a
chair. What a good thing. So God changes a person so that he wants
the things God wants,things that are for his good.
The
teaching is conformed by Scriptures such as Jn
6:37
All
those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I
will never drive away.
Then
a little later (44) he says No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I
will raise them up at the last day.
The
Son has received a certain number from the Father, the elect. All
these will
come to me Jesus
says. How? By irresistible grace. Jn 10:16 I
have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them
also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock
and one shepherd.
See
how confident Jesus is of future conversions. They
too will listen ... How
so sure? Irresistible grace. Rom
8:29, 30 For
those God foreknew (loved
beforehand) he
also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he
predestined he also called; (external/internal)
those
he called, he also justified …..
5.
Perseverance of the Saints (Preservation of the Saints, Once Saved
Always Saved) The
saints
are all true Christians. This teaching says that once you become a
Christian you will go on being one. You will persevere,
you will be preserved in your faith. Again many verses support this
view
Jn
6:39 … 10:28. 29 And
this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all
those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
...
I
give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will
snatch them out of my hand.
My
Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can
snatch them out of my Father's hand.
Perhaps
the most convincing text. Eph 1:13, 14 And
you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in
him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit
guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are
God's possession - to the praise of his glory. 1
Pet 1:4, 5 talks about
an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven
for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the
coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last
time. God's
power is at work in the believer so that he can never be lost. Php
1:6 being
confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it
on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus This
is my favourite. We may leave jobs half done but God never does.
Lloyd-Jones “God does not merely initiate the work and then leave
it, he continues with it; he leads us on, directing and manipulating
our circumstances, restraining us at one time and urging us on at
another. Paul's whole conception of the Church is that it is a place
where God is working in the hearts of men and women.”
People
object to this on two main grounds: 1. What about backsliders or
apostates? Given that clearly some people appear to be Christians
then go back on it – how do you explain that? First, we do not deny
that genuine Christians can backslide. Spurgeon put it this way: you
may be knocked down on the deck of the ship many times without being
washed overboard. In getting to the top of a hill you may fall many
times. Sin may creep in at many points yet not have final dominion.
Of course, there are also people who profess to be Christians who in
the end prove not to be Christians after all. We know that the seed
did not all fall on the good soil. Jesus warns there will be many who
claim to know him who will nevertheless be rejected. Sometimes it
becomes clear who these are even on earth. This reminds us how
important it is to make your calling and election sure.
2.
Isn't this dangerous teaching that will encourage a lack of holiness?
This is the other argument. Yet anyone who thinks like this shows
they cannot really be a Christian or at least have much understanding
of the gospel. If you really are converted then you will want to be
holy. Your great desire will be to be more and more pleasing to God.
Php
2:12,13 Therefore,
my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence,
but now much more in my absence - continue to work out your salvation
with fear and trembling, the
encouragement he gives them to do this is for
it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good
purpose. If
you're a Christian God
is at work within you. He won't give up on you – don't be tempted
to give up on him.
On
first sight these teachings may not appear to be particularly
liberating. Let me assure you they are. John Piper has an article
listing 10 things the doctrines of grace do for him. Let me mention
some. He says they make him ...
1.
Stand in awe of God and lead me into the depth of true God-centred
worship
2.
Marvel at my own salvation
3.
Confident that the work which God planned and began, he will finish -
both globally and personally
4.
See everything in the light of God's sovereign purposes – that from
him and through him and to him are all things, to him be glory
forever and ever
5.
Hopeful that God has the will, the right and the power to answer
prayer that people be changed
6.
Sure that God will triumph in the end.
Now
that's what I call liberatng!
