Are Some Reprobate Then?

Jonathan Edwards preached in the 1740s to bring on the Great Awakening: "...Their foot shall slide in due time; the day of their calamity is at hand" (Deut. 32:35). When he preached "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" this was his text.

Reprobate means condemned beforehand. Paul calls them vessels of wrath as opposed to vessels of mercy. It's God's call who we are. Even our niceness is God's gift to us, not our gift to God. God doesn't actively force a person to reject Him or disobey Him--He does it on his own accord. Jean Calvin called this doctrine the "horrible decree." The opposite of reprobation is the doctrine of election which is clearly mentioned in Titus and 1 Peter 2:7-9. I don't believe in double-predestination or that God makes some reject Him--that is called hyper-Calvinism and Calvin didn't believe that. God merely passes over the reprobate to go their own way (preterition).  "To the elect...." If you can prove reprobation which is a doctrine with much consternation like predestination (nobody likes to talk about it), you can by default prove election.

In my view, (doctrine of preterition) God passes over the non-elect and lets them go their own way, but all of us would reject God if He hadn't had worked in our hearts and wills to make us willing to do His will (cf. Phil. 2:13). Compare John 6:44 and 6:65 which says that one cannot come to Jesus unless it has been granted him and the Father draws him (woos him).

Three verses stand out to be brought to our attention.[All verses in NKJV.] Jude 4 says, "For certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this condemnation...." 1 Peter 2:8 says, "They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which also they were appointed." And finally 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says, "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." These verses are pretty straightforward and don't need commentary

Is not God the potter and we the clay; cannot God do with us as He sees fit, whether for common or for honorable use. How then can God blame us if He chooses? This is the question that Paul anticipates in Romans 9:19, "You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?'" If you can answer this you deserve a doctorate in theology. Nota bene that Paul knew ahead of time that people would wonder about election and try to reconcile it with free will. The fact is, is that we cannot resist God's will--He always gets His way.  Soli Deo Gloria!

By The Grace Of God

"[H]e predestined us ... according to the purpose of his will"  (Ephesians 1:5, ESV). 

Paul would not boast, but in the Lord, but he was forced to tell of his sufferings for Jesus (cf. 2 Cor. 11) as if they were the marks of Jesus, a crown, and not just a feather in his cap.  Jesus warned him of the great things he must suffer for sake of His name upon his salvation experience in Acts 9:16.   We are all that we are by the grace of God, not just Paul. "By the grace of God, I am what I am..." (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10).   George Whitefield said, upon seeing a man dragged to the gallows, what he thought:  "There but for the grace of God, go I." That's humility, thinking of others rather than yourself, (if God were to withdraw His restraining grace from us, we'd be all worthy of prison or worse!), and thinking of your unworthiness compared to the grace of God.

None of us was elected conditionally, but unconditionally, and not according to anything we did or didn't do, or any work or righteousness in the flesh.  "Grace reigns through righteousness." (Cf. Rom. 5:21), and that means that grace is sovereign and when God decides to send grace it's irresistible and effectual in its purpose according to the will of God. God's sovereignty is over everything and absolute and is not limited by our freedom--what He says and decrees will happen according to plan! We have "believed through grace" (cf. Acts 18:27), and God quickened faith within us, as we received faith or were given it,  and didn't achieve it--it's a gift, not a work!  If it were a work we would have merit to boast of.  Merit is opposed to and counter to grace; we cannot earn salvation, didn't deserve it, and can never pay God back for it.

It is important to be grace-oriented to get away from the paralysis of legalism and the mentality that we have a performance-based faith and works earn favor with God or that we can ingratiate ourselves with Him.  "The faith you have is the faith you show, they say in theology.  Christians aren't saved by good works, but unto them and in order to do them as a result of gratitude and a changed heart.  We are indeed saved by faith alone, as the Reformers taught, but not by a faith that is alone!  Faith without works is dead, according to James 2:17 and we are not saved by them, nor without them, for they prove our faith as fruit--as a sign of a good tree.  (Ephesians 2:10 says we are "saved unto good works, which God ordained beforehand, that we should walk in them.")   God's providence guides us to a productive life of good deeds and works.

We cannot believe, except by grace, because Jesus said that we can do nothing apart from Him:  "Apart from Me you can do nothing"  (cf. John 15:5).  Every good thing comes from God, the Ultimate of Goodness or Supreme Good (of Plato), and source of all blessings; and every perfect gift is from grace to us to be stewards of.  Our righteousness, then, is not a gift or offering to God, but His gift to us!  "Who makes you to differ?  What do you have that you didn't receive?"  (Cf. 1 Cor. 4:7).  If left to ourselves, none of us would've chosen Christ (cf. Matt. 22:14, "Many are called, but few are chosen" and cf. John 15:16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you"). We weren't inclined to come to Him, and our destiny is ultimately in the hands of God, not ours!

The good works we do are God working through us as vessels of honor doing His bidding and will.  "I will not venture but to speak of what Christ has accomplished through me"  (cf. Romans 15:18).  "... you have done for us all our works"  (Isa. 26:12, ESV).  Our fruit is from God per Hosea 14:8 and the fruit of the Spirit is God's blessing on our lives as He cultivates us and causes us to grow; gifts are given, fruits are grown.  We don't automatically exhibit all the fruits as infant believers, but must grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, as 2  Pet. 3:18 exhorts.

Understanding grace is paramount to comprehend that salvation is all grace  (the work of God according to John 6:29, ESV, which says, "... This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent..!) and not our work:  "Salvation is of the LORD," according to Jonah 2:9 and that means it's not synergistic or a cooperative venture with God, nor a work of man alone apart from God's aid, but wholly accomplished by God;  salvation is the accomplishment of God, not the achievement of men, which is religion trying to gain the approbation of God and reach out to Him--Our God took the initiative and reached down to us in grace, seeing our hopelessness, and desperateness without His intervention.  He called us, not because of our works [of righteousness or pre-salvation works], but according to His purpose and grace (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9).  Works say "Do," while God says, "Done."

 No one can pat themselves on the back or give themselves kudos for achieving salvation as if they were wise, good, virtuous, or even intelligent!  It remains a mystery why God chooses some and not others ("the elect obtained unto it and the rest were hardened" according to Roman 11:7 and Acts 13:48 says that "as many as were appointed unto eternal life believed."

The Golden Chain of Redemption from Romans 8:29-30 makes it patent that God loses no one in the shuffle from foreknowledge to glorification--all who are called are justified, not some lucky ones who endure through trials or don't "lose their salvation." These verses militate against the prescient view that God elected us because we had or would have faith, instead, we are elected unto faith, not because of it--there is no room for any merit in our salvation.  You must distinguish between the inward call of God, which is always effectual, and the outward gospel call given by us to the lost to exhort them to repent and believe in Jesus, which can turn on deaf ears and be ineffectual.

And so none of us has the right to get a big head, even Paul had a thorn in the flesh to keep him from getting one, and we are all one in Christ, with no elite believers who are privileged or especially blessed--God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality (cf. Rom. 2:11; Acts 10:34).  If we think we came to Christ on our own and by our own ability without being wooed, we probably left alone too and don't have the Spirit.  If we don't need regeneration or grace to believe, what good is it and who needs it?  The only ones who get the call are the ones the Father grants can come to Him and the ones He draws or woos (elko or to drag in Greek--implying force). 

There is no second blessing, or higher life, or work of grace, as some holiness-movement believers (Neo-Pentecostal or charismatics) will have you believe--nowhere are we commanded or exhorted to seek the "baptism" of the Spirit.  "We are all baptized into one body by the Spirit"  (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13).  There is one Lord, one faith, and only one baptism according to Eph. 4:4!  Soli Deo Gloria!  

Answering God's Call

 "Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified..."  (Rom. 8:30, ESV). [Note that no one is lost in the shuffle of salvation!] 
"This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (cf. John 6:29).
"... Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice"  (cf. John 18:37). 
"... [A]s many as were appointed to eternal life believed"  (Acts 13:48, ESV).  

"I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision," (cf. Acts 26:19). 

Man gives the outward, general call  (cf. Titus 2:11) of the biblical evangel to the world, exhorting repentance and faith via the preaching of the Word's gospel message--to preach the Word.   Man's call is often rejected and ineffectual, and can fall on deaf ears!  They say that the convert hears the gospel and rejects it 7.6 times before coming to saving faith.  Even the demons believe and tremble (cf. James 2:19) and God requires a faith that is alive with worship and devotion, but also discipline and obedience.  No fruit--no faith (the instrumental means)--no salvation (no evidence)!  We may say in resignation, "Let the chips fall where they may!" but God is the sole primary cause of the universe--we're merely secondary causes used by God to accomplish His will and bring Him glory!  We exist, to bring glory to God (cf. Isa. 43:7):  "The chief end of man is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever" (cf. The Westminster Shorter Catechism).

Some people merely produce foliage, not fruit, because they aren't abiding in the vine and they will be pruned.  It is important to note that the gospel in vogue isn't necessarily the one Paul preached--and he pronounced an anathema on those false teachers who watered down the gospel (a different gospel or dumb-downed version) or mixed it with works, and forsook the way of grace alone.  Grace and works don't mix!  We are indeed saved by grace alone, through the channel of faith alone, and this must be invested in Christ alone, all according to the authority of Scripture alone, so as to ensure the glory going to God alone.  There's no merit system in our salvation--God doesn't grade on a curve.

We must respond to the inner calling of the gospel to our souls (cf. Romans 8:30) that must respond to the so-called wooing or drawing of the Holy Spirit.  John 6:44 makes it clear that the Father must "draw" one, and John 6:65 makes it clear that God must "grant" the privilege of believing in Him.   God grants faith and salvation (cf. Phil. 1:29) and it is a gift and not a work (a meritorious one)!  If it were a work we would have reason to boast, but Titus 3:5 says we're not saved "by works of righteousness which we have done."

Paul says in Eph. 2:9 that we are not saved by works--the reason being to eliminate boasting or bragging before God.  Now, the wooing of God is necessary and sufficient to bring us to Christ: no one would come to  Him without it; if we came to Him alone, we will leave alone!   God's call is irrevocable and efficacious, meaning that it is a permanent call and God gets His desired effect."As many as were ordained to eternal life believed" (cf. Acts 13:48).  AND WE HAVE "BELIEVED THROUGH GRACE." (CF. ACTS 18:27).  We receive our faith, we don't achieve it  (cf. 2 Pet. 1:1). 

Some believe that God woos all men, this would make God out to be a failure; however, those whom He woos do come and without regret--no one who believes is ever disappointed in God. (cf. John 5:24).  If you are inclined to ascribe universality to wooing, then does He woo equally?  And why do only some respond?  There is no way to avoid this doctrine without assigning merit.  Our salvation is a pure act of grace and there is no room for works--we are not saved by works, but not without them!  This doctrine refers to the irresistible grace of God--God's grace is sovereign and reigns (cf. Rom. 5:21).  Christ is Master of our fate, and Captain of our soul.

Our destiny is ultimately in God's hands, not ours (cf. Psalm 31:15; Job 23:14)!  If we had to do anything for it, we'd fail, and so God does everything in our monergistic salvation--we do not take part in it nor contribute, nor cooperate with "pre-salvation" works either.   God must regenerate us by quickening faith and granting repentance  (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25) in order to save us--we don't save ourselves--if you put faith ahead of regeneration, you are effectually saving yourself.   If you can believe without being regenerated, what good is regeneration? If our salvation were in our hands and up to us, we'd blow it or botch it!   Salvation is grace from beginning to end as Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith.  It is not a human achievement, but divine accomplishment!  God makes us willing and able to believe and repent: Scripture says, "For God is at work with you, both to do and to will of His good pleasure" (cf. Phil. 2:13; cf. Col. 1:29; Heb. 13:21).

God calls and we answer, those who are of the truth hear the words of truth and hear God's voice and calling.   Jesus said that His sheep hear His voice and follow Him.  It is not the calling that saves on, nor faith in the calling, but faith in the One making the call:  "Many are called, but few are chosen" (cf. Matt. 22:14) refers to the general call of the gospel message to the world at large. "The elect attained unto it, the rest were hardened [blinded]" (cf. Rom. 11:7).   We must always remember that we didn't choose Him, but He chose us (cf. John 15:16).  We are the elected ones, and remember this point of doctrine:  We are elected unto faith (see the ordo salutis and the Golden Chain of Redemption), not because of faith, which is the false prescient view--Romans 8:29-30 militates against it.   For whom He calls, He regenerates unto faith and repentance (cf. 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Thess. 2:13), and simultaneously justifies them.  We don't get any credit for believing, it is given or received, not achieved, and we cannot conjure it up--it comes by the hearing and the hearing of the Word of God (cf. Rom. 10:17).

Christians have answered the call and will be fit for being His vessels of honor, we all have to make sure of our calling and election (cf. 2 Pet. 10), though, because assurance is not an automatic fruit of salvation.  "Have mercy on some who doubt, [offer reassurance from the Word]" says Jude 22.  John writes to give assurance of salvation; obviously, it's not a sure thing (John 20:31; 1 John 5:13).  Paul said that if we are faithless, He remains faithful (2 Tim. 2:13).  In the final analysis, we must not divorce faith and works, they are distinguished but not separate--we are saved by faith alone, but no by a faith that is alone (from the Reformer's battle cry) as James 2:17 says, "Faith without works is dead"  (can that faith save?).

In sum, God reserves the right to call whom He will and to have mercy on whom He will and harden whom He will (cf. Rom. 9:15).   Some sinners receive mercy, some receive justice, but God is unjust to no one.   God predestined us according to His good pleasure and the purpose of His will, not according to anything we did (cf. Eph. 1:5; Titus 3:5).

Finally, let me sum up citing three verses:  "[W]ho saved us and called us to a holy calling not because of our works but according to his purpose and grace..." (2 Tim. 1:9, ESV); "God in heaven appoints each man's work"  (John 3:27, NLT).

"... 'A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven'"  (John 3:27, ESV).   Soli Deo Gloria! 

The Few, The Chosen

Christian theologians don't have any problem realizing that God chose Israel, or even that He only saved a remnant that He preserved; however, they have consternation over believing that God can choose Christians and predestine their salvation.  We were not chosen because of our works, but according to the purpose of His will (cf. Eph. 1:5).  It wasn't anything in us that merited salvation--it was grace all the way, from beginning to end.  Jesus said in John 15:16 that we didn't choose Him, but He chose us.  Matt. 22:14 says:  "Many are called [the outward gospel call], but few are chosen [elected]." This is so we have no basis of pride! 

People generally believe they are protecting God's reputation by denying predestination, because they perceive it as making God out as a despot.  We are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, which means God loved us personally before salvation. We are elected unto faith, not because of faith (which is the prescient view that Romans 8:29-30 militates against).  Election must be unconditional or it opens the door to merit, it had to be by grace alone and God saw nothing good in a totally depraved man.  We were not inclined to come to Him but only came because of the wooing of the Holy Spirit ("No man can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him," John 6:44).

Yes, this does mean our ultimate destiny is in the hands of God and God left nothing to chance or out of His sovereignty (Jonathan Edwards said he liked to assign absolute sovereignty to God):  This means there isn't even "a maverick molecule in the universe!"  Grace is sovereign because it is irresistible according to Reformed tradition--this is stated in Romans 5:21, where it says "grace reigns through righteousness."

Who is the promise of salvation designated for, then?  "For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself"  (Acts 2:29, ESV). There are two callings here:  The outward call that we announce to the world of sinners and the inner calling that is effectual that God does.  "Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?"  (cf. Isa. 53:1).  Doctor Luke says, "as many as were appointed to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48, ESV).  God does reserve the right to have mercy on whom He will (Rom. 9:15,18).   God quickened or kindled faith within the elect so that they got born again and exercised faith and repentance unto salvation. If left to ourselves, none of us would come to Christ or believe in Him.

Philippians 2:13 says that God is at work within us both to do and to will of His good pleasure--God woos us and works on our hearts to make believers out of us and turn hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, because He is the Potter and we are simply clay in His hands. God can make the "unwilling" willing or the unbelieving believe!   God has given man a choice, but we do not have the ability to respond favorably to the gospel message apart from the grace of God working in our hearts ("Apart from Me you can do nothing," says John 15:5), and grace prevails over our reluctance.

No one is able to resist God's will according to Romans 1:19 and God has mercy on whomever He wills and hardens whomever He wills (cf. Rom. 9:18). We have a destiny:  "For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:9, ESV; cf. Jude 4; 1 Pet. 2:7).  Note the order of God's sanctification prior to faith:  "[Because] God chose you as the first-fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth" (2 Thess. 2:13, ESV).  Who got saved? "What then?  Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.  The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened [blinded]" (Rom. 11:7, ESV).

We don't necessarily need free wills to be saved then, but wills made free!  "If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed." (John 8:36).  We are not born free and innocent but enslaved to sin and totally depraved.  Only the Son can set us free and the truth is the agent.  There is temporal will like what foods you like and you do have the power to choose them, but spiritual and/or moral freedom is not granted--Adam had it and lost it and we are in Adam, our representative who lost it for us before salvation, when we are in Christ and set free.  John 6:44 says that no one can come to the Father unless He draws him and v. 65 says it must be granted by the Father.

Apart from Christ, we can do nothing (cf. John 15:5).  If left to ourselves, none of us would've chosen Christ!  No one can resist God's will according to Romans 9:19 and our salvation doesn't depend upon human will according to Romans 9:16. ("It is not of him who wills.....").  God's sovereignty is not compromised nor sacrificed because of our wills--He remains 100 percent in control of all events and things per Ephesians 1:11 (ESV), which says God "works all things according to the counsel of his will."

The only way our will could be considered free is that we feel no outside force and never do anything we don't want to do--God doesn't coerce us against our wills but makes the unwilling willing.  We are never forced to do what we do not want to do.  We do make choices but God decides what the choice is and He knows how we will respond and can manipulate or orchestrate whatever events He wills to precipitate His divine, decreed, sovereign will. Free will must be seen only as the ability to make choices based on our desires uncoerced. 

In sum, our salvation does not depend upon our wills (they are so little of the equation that depends on God being sovereign anyway--as He orchestrates all events providentially):  "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy" (Romans 9:16, ESV).   Soli Deo Gloria!

Who Chose Whom?

The question is whether we chose Christ first before God chose us, or that God chose us because He saw that we would choose us (called the prescient view); the former being that we become the elect when we get saved, instead of being born elect, and the latter that God merely saw something meritorious in us that prompted election (which would be the beginning of salvation by works). The election is unconditional, meaning that there was nothing in us that God saw to make Him elect us. The answer is that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and that we were elect and predestined from our conception to be saved. "For the elect obtained unto it, and the rest were hardened...." Christ said, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you... [John 15:16]."

 Fact is, we never would've chosen Christ if He hadn't intervened and poured out His grace on us to make us willing (yes, God can make us willing to do His will--see Psa. 110:3 and Phil. 2:13). The miracle is not that all don't get saved, but that anyone gets saved--if God would've chosen to save only one He would've been justified.

Jesus said in John 15:5 that without Him we can do nothing. That means that we couldn't even choose Christ apart from grace. The doctrine of total depravity or total inability attests to this fact--all of our nature is infected and depraved with sin, and we are as bad off as we can be. God gives us all a choice, but that does not mean we can choose without grace. Pelagius, the heretic, argued that God can only hold us responsible for what we can do, and this is what people are saying when they say that if the non-elect can't choose, that they have an excuse (that they were on the wrong list). The Word says in Rom. 1:20, "...They are without excuse." The blame is theirs, not God's. Romans 9:20 says, "O man, who are you to reply against God...?" God is no man's debtor, says Luther; and He didn't have to save anyone, just as He did not spare the angels who sinned. "...Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25).

Some say that election makes God look like the worst of despots--meaning the condemned never had a chance. John 5:40 says that "you were not willing." Do you remember the old poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley? "I am the captain of my soul, I am the master of my fate." Well, sorry to say that God is the master of your destiny and the conqueror of your soul if you are saved." God never gives up His sovereignty in order to get someone saved. "Many are called, but few are chosen." Acts 13:48 says, "For as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."

One of the slogans of the Reformation was soli Deo Gloria, which means "to God alone be the glory." If we choose Christ on our own ability, apart from God's help, then we get some of the glory--but God wants all the glory. It all depends on whether you see salvation as a human achievement or divine accomplishment.

In summary, we owe our faith to our election, not our election to our faith.

SOLI DEO GLORIA!