Unconditional Election and Assurance

If you want a short, biblical, and edifying explanation of the doctrines of grace (aka TULIP), you’ll want to start with Richard Phillips’ What’s So Great About The Doctrines Of Grace?  At the end of each doctrine, he gives several points of application. 

For example, here’s one way that unconditional election is great: “Because it promotes assurance of salvation but not presumption.”  The quote is worth posting in full.

“The Bible establishes salvation on the basis of saving faith in Jesus Christ.  No one who does not display credible faith in Christ should ever think himself elect.  Election, like salvation, is only ‘in Christ.’  But what a comfort it is to know that if I do believe in Christ, the Bible tells me I was chosen by God from before the foundation of the world.”

“Here is where the doctrine of election so greatly helps.  It tells us that if we can say to God that we trust in Jesus, then God tells us our faith is grounded on the solid rock of his eternal election.  We are not saved by believing we are elect; rather, we realize we are elect because we have faith in Christ.”

“Faith assures us that we are secure in God’s eternally strong hands.  How many Christians stumble on in weakness, burdened with doubts that would be erased if only they knew their salvation rested not in themselves but in God?  Election tells us that it was God who sought us and not we who sought him, that God called us to himself because he chose us long ago.”

“I don’t know about you, but that changes everything in my struggle for assurance of salvation, and therefore gives me peace about my eternal soul.  Calvin speaks with characteristic understatement when he write, ‘If we find no certainty in things on earth, we must know that our salvation rests upon God, and that he holds it in such a manner that it can never vanish away.  This is a happy consideration.’”

Richard Phillips, What’s So Amazing About The Doctrines Of Grace?, p. 46-7.

rev shane lems

Unconditional Election: A Motive to Missions

 Sometimes people say that the doctrines of grace (aka Calvinism) are a hinderance to missions and evangelism.  The reasoning goes like this: why share the gospel with someone if he might not be elect?  Why share the gospel with someone if Jesus didn’t die for him?  While hypercalvinists might say “Good point!” to those questions, biblical Calvinists answer those questions something like J. M. Boice did:

“People suppose that if God is going to save certain individuals, then he will save them, and there is no point in our having anything to do with it.  But it does not work that way.  Election does not exclude the use of the means by which God works, and the proclamation of the gospel is one of those means (1 Cor. 1:21).”

“Moreover, it is only the truth of election that gives us any hope of success as we proclaim the gospel to unsaved men and women.  If the heart of a sinner is as opposed to God as the Bible declares it to be, and if God does not elect people to salvation, then what hope of success could we possibly have in witnessing?  If God does not call sinners to Christ effectively, it is certain that we cannot do so either.  Even more, if the effective agent in salvation is not God’s choice and call – if the choice is up to the individual or to us, because of our powers to persuade people to accept Christ – how could we even dare to witness?  For what if we make a mistake?  What if we give a wrong answer?  What if we are insensitive to the person’s real questions?  In that case, people will fail to believe.  They may eventually go to hell, and their eternal destiny will be partly our fault, and how could any thinking, feeling Christian live with that?”

“But on the other hand, if God has elected some to salvation and if he is calling those elected individuals to Christ, then we can go forth boldly, knowing that our witness does not have to be perfect, that God uses even weak and stuttering testimonies to his grace and, best of all, that all whom God has chosen for salvation will be saved.  We can be fearless, knowing that all who are called by God will come to him.”

This excellent quote was taken from Boice’s chapter on unconditional election in The Doctrines of Grace (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009).

shane lems

Salvation: All of God, All of Grace

  This is a great section from a great book:

“The doctrines of grace [a.k.a. TULIP] stand or fall together, and together they point to one central truth: salvation is all of grace because it is all of God; and because it is all of God, it is all for his glory.”

“To fully appreciate the glory of God in the doctrines of grace, it helps to recognize the role of each person of the Trinity in the Five Points of Calvinism.  Election is the choice of God the Father.  The atonement is the sacrifice of God the Son.  The grace that draws us to Christ and enables us to persevere to the very end is the work of God the Holy Spirit.  Thus salvation is all God’s work from beginning to end – the coordinated work of the triune God – as it must be, if we are to be saved.”

“Consider: if we are actually dead in ours sins (radical depravity), then only God could choose us in Christ (unconditional election), only Christ could atone for our sins (particular redemption), and only the Spirit could draw us to Christ (efficacious grace) and preserve us in him (persevering grace).  Therefore, all praise and glory belong to God alone: ‘For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever!’ (Rom. 11:36).

James M. Boice and Phillip Graham Ryken, The Doctrines of Grace (Wheaton: Crossway 2009), pages 32-33.

shane lems

sunnyside, wa

Election, Perseverance, And A Pastoral Letter

 In Letter 12 of his Letters, John Newton wrote to a friend who was skeptical about the doctrines of unconditional election and the perseverance of the saints.  In a charitable and pastoral way, Newton gave his Christian friend some encouragement in thinking about these doctrines.

He opened by explaining that we don’t come to learn the truth through our own natural ability.  “It is not therefore by noisy disputation, but by humble waiting upon God in prayer, and a careful perusal of his holy word, that we are to expect a satisfactory, experimental, and efficacious knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.”  In other words, these doctrines are not simply mathematical equations proven by some scientific method but truths God reveals to his people through personal, prayerful study of the Word.

He moved on and gave practical advice on how to study these doctrines.  First, he said, “[Do not] lay too great stress upon a few detached texts, but seek for that sense which is most agreeable to the general strain of the Scripture.”  By this he meant to let Scripture interpret itself by way of the analogy of faith.  Second, and subordinately, he said to compare experiences with the truths of Scripture.  For example, when Christians stand firm to the end of their trial filled lives, does experience show that it is by their own power and fortitude or by God’s power through his grace? 

Third, Newton told his friend not to hesitate embracing these doctrines simply because he had a few objections to them.  If we’d wait to believe a truth until all our objections are cleared, we would never believe!  ”We are poor weak creatures; and the clearing up of every difficulty is not what we are immediately called to, but rather to seek that light which may strengthen and feed our souls.”  Finally, he wrote that “whatever is from God has a sure tendency to ascribe glory to him, to exclude boasting from the creature, to promote the love and practice of holiness, and increase our dependence upon his grace and faithfulness.”  Calvinism has everything to do with God’s glory in saving hell-bent, spiritually dead sinners and making them holy so they can give God glory by depending completely on his grace and mercy in life and in death.  This is thoroughly biblical!  Newton even ends the letter by saying, “the doctrines of grace are doctrines according to godliness.”

There is a bit more to this letter that I’ll have to mention later.  Newton goes on to explain from Scripture the comforting truths of election and perseverance.  This letter not only contains some solid advice on studying the doctrines of grace, it also explains them in a biblically edifying way.  Equally important is Newton’s pastoral approach in loving this Christian who was unsure that the doctrines of grace (Calvinism) were true.  Many of us could learn a thing or two from Newton’s method of teaching the truth in love, humility, and patience.

If you want to read the entire  letter, you’ll need to get The Letters of John Newton.

shane lems

What’s So Great About the Doctrines of Grace?

 If the Reformed tradition is a like a handful of jewels, as I believe it is, one of those jewels is Calvinism, or TULIP.   Certainly there is a lot more to the Reformed tradition than just Calvinism (i.e. the Three Forms of Unity, covenant theology, liturgical worship, polity, piety, etc.), but the “five points” are a fundamental part of Reformed theology.  I recently finished Richard Phillips’ What’s So Great about the Doctrines of Grace (Orlando: Reformation Trust, 2008); it was a great reminder of the Bible’s teaching on total (radical) depravity, unconditional election, limited (definite) atonement, irresistible (sovereign) grace, and perseverance (preservation) of the saints.  

I really appreciate What’s So Great because it is clear, straightforward, and concise.  This small book is around 100 pages; each chapter is just under 20 pages.  Chapter one is a biblical discussion about the sovereignty of God and the remaining five chapters cover TULIP.  The chapters are structured the same: after a biblical discussion of each doctrine, Phillips handles common objections and then gives several reason why each doctrine is “so great.”  He does a great job of simply laying out a biblical case for these truths and then shows how they are life-changing for the Christian.

Several women in the congregation I pastor told me about this book and how they appreciated it; after reading it I now plan on getting a few extra copies to give out to those who visit our church and have questions about TULIP.  This is a good one for average readers who want either a solid review of TULIP or those who or want to learn more about these doctrines of grace.  I’ll end with a few quotes.

“With sin corrupting our every faculty, we are no more able to will after God than a blind man can see, a deaf man can hear, or a mute man can speak.”

“We are not saved by believing we are elect; rather, we realize that we are elect because we have faith in Christ.”

“It is when you realize that even your faith is the out working of Christ’s saving death for you, by the electing will of the Father, as applied by the Spirit, that you know the solid ground on which your salvation stands.”

“Regeneration – the new birth – precedes faith, so that prior to being born again it is impossible for anyone to believe on Jesus.”

“…As faith is the gift of God’s grace, the Christian’s perseverance is the work of God’s continuing grace.”

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shane lems