Building Blocks: Calvinism: Irresistible Grace

Our fourth point of Calvinism for discussion is Irresistible Grace.  The essence of this point is that Grace is more powerful than free will.  To truly flesh out this topic, we will need to look at the condition of man, the state of the heart, the condition of free will, the definition of Grace and the power of the Holy Spirit to give this Grace to His elect.

As we continue developing the five points, let’s look at the picture of the first three points once again.  We have God looking out from eternity over mankind and seeing a vast graveyard of death.  Jesus comes and becomes a shining light.  The Holy Spirit comes and transforms a host of elect into belief.  This elect is justified by the atonement of Jesus, but only the elect.  Now, we come to the issue of how we respond to the Holy Spirit.

A helpful paradigm to remember as we work through this is that if we are reprobate, we have no one to blame but ourselves; but if we are elect, we have no one to whom to give credit but the Holy Spirit.  Free will is a concept that we embrace and are reluctant to relinquish.  It is important to understand from the outset that Calvinism does NOT deny free will.  Calvinism deals with free will acting vertically, not horizontally.  What this means is that this present world is fallen in Adam.  Therefore, all things in it are fallen in Adam.  Within this system, we may make choices based upon our fallen perceptions of this fallen world.  No one is denying that humans make decisions.  The problem is that our hearts are fallen.  Deep down we are evil.  We cannot choose God, we don’t even see it as an option.

The Gospel is foreign to man, it is external to man, it is contrary to what man would contrive on his own, it is offensive to man.  In short, the Gospel is not of this world; therefore, man would never consider it an option, let alone choose it.  This is what free will can accomplish: nothing in terms of the Gospel.  The Holy Spirit is sent to the elect to allow them to receive the Gospel and believe the truth of it.  This act of Grace, moderated by the Holy Spirit, is a gift.  There is no action in receiving it.  We are not seeking it, we are not even reaching out for it.  This Grace comes upon us and we are powerless to stop it.  We are powerless to stop it because it is external to our experience and foreign to anything we can encounter in this world in this present age.  This is what irresistible grace means, that we cannot prevent Grace from having its effect on us.  If we are among the elect, the Holy Spirit will find us.  Events will move in such a way that we come in contact with the Gospel.  We will hear the Gospel and eventually we will believe the Gospel.  That is Grace, and it is irresistible.

In this topic and the last, I have not spent much time quoting passages.  That is because as controversial as these topics may be, the last topic, Perseverance of the Saints, will contain by necessity all of the passages that weigh upon this discussion.  Your indulgence is appreciated.

--Troll--