Week 8 - Irresistible Grace

I called and you didn't answer. I spoke and you didn't listen.

So clearly there's a sense in which God calls people and they reject it. Or the Holy Spirit is graciously drawing people and they resist him. That was us prior to conversion. That's also the case for those who are not elect. And we call this God's general calling. Anytime the gospel is preached, everyone within earshot is being called by God to repent and believe. God commands all men everywhere to repent. And further, I would add that the Holy Spirit is certainly involved in working to, in some sense, encourage or draw people to believe. Even among the non-elect and us before conversion, the Holy Spirit produce conviction of sin. He often works to enable people to understand more of who God is, to understand more about what God has done in Christ. The Bible talks about how the Holy Spirit strives with us. And yet, that is grace that people resist and often outright reject. And so this would be what we call the general calling. I think we see this in passages like Matthew 22, where Jesus tells the parable of the great wedding feast. And he concludes that after people from all over are invited, and many resist and reject the invitation. And then Jesus says,

for many are called. but few are chosen.

But Reformed theology argues that also in scripture, it speaks of another kind of calling, which we might call effectual calling. And this is the calling from God that happens at the moment of conversion. It's when God calls us not just generally, but powerfully and effectually. He calls us out of darkness into light. And this is the calling that I think passages like Romans chapter 8 verses 28 through 30 speak about. In that passage we read,

and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

And notice that it's the same people all along the way. That's why this is sometimes called the golden chain. There's this inseparable links. Those who were predestined are called. Those whom are called are justified. So whoever is called in this sense, none of them are lost along the way. They're all justified, which means they're all brought to faith. This is a calling that produces faith and results in us receiving the gospel. It's effectual or irresistible. I think we see this illustrated in passages like Acts 16 verse 14, where it says,

the Lord opened Lydia's heart to give heed to what was said by Paul.

Or another example, when Paul is recounting his conversion in Acts chapter 26, He talks about how he was on the way to Damascus wanting to imprison Christians or even kill them. And then Jesus appears to him, stops him dead in his tracks. And among other things, Jesus says,

it is hard for you to kick against the goats.

You've been resisting me, now you're going to serve me. You are my chosen instrument to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. And by the way, a goad, this is like a pointy stick that you would use to control cattle, right? And the harder they push against it, well, the more it's gonna hurt them. And so you can really control them. It's hard for them to resist that. And so this, I think, is a picture of irresistible grace. Right, no matter how hard Paul's gonna fight against this, Jesus is gonna have his way with him. He didn't just invite Paul to follow him and become an apostle. He called him effectually to be that. And then just one more example of this in scripture would be in John chapter five, verses 24 through 29. And in these verses, Jesus is gonna talk about two different resurrections. that are both in response to his call, to his voice. And he says,

truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here. When the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live. For as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. Do not marvel at this. For an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Okay, so Jesus talks about two resurrections. I think at the end, he's, verses 28 and 29, he's very clearly talking about a future physical resurrection. When those who are in the tombs will hear his voice and be physically raised and come out to be judged and either receive heaven or hell. But earlier in those verses, he's talking about a present spiritual resurrection. how people who are spiritually dead are gonna hear his voice and respond to him in faith and thereby receive eternal life right now. And the key thing to see is notice how Jesus is drawing a parallel between those two. In other words, the very authority by which Jesus calls people to rise up from the dead in resurrected bodies on the last day. Well, he's saying that's parallel to the kind of authority by which in the here and now he is calling people to himself to receive the gospel. And I think one of the implications of that is that's not resistible. There won't be anyone on judgment day who says, no thanks, I think I'll stay dead. Like no, our bodies will be resurrected. In the same way, when Christ calls us to himself, when the Holy Spirit calls us, we don't resist it. That resistance is overcome, we're brought to faith. This is why I think the story of Lazarus is helpful. He's dead in the tomb. Jesus doesn't just invite him to come out. There was not a chance that Lazarus, in his free will, would say, no thanks. Jesus called to him,

Lazarus, come forth.

It was this effectual calling. And I think passages like John 5 help us to see, well, that's parallel to the way he calls us to faith as well. And that's what irresistible grace is getting at. It's when the Holy Spirit calls us to faith in Christ, as he will do for each and every one of the elect, it's effective, it's irresistible, it overcomes our resistance to it. Now, a second point about irresistible grace is that the Holy Spirit makes his calling effectual through the miracle of regeneration. Now, regeneration is also called being born again. Many of us are familiar with John chapter three where Jesus has this discussion with Nicodemus and he says,

truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he can't even see the kingdom of God.

And so this idea of being born again or regenerated is to be re-generated, to be re-made, re-created, made new. It means to have our hearts of stone taken out and replaced with a heart of flesh, as Ezekiel 36 talks about. It's like when you gut the inside of a house and you rip out all the old, moldy, gross things. You just gut it and then you make it new. You renovate the house. Well, it's the same idea. The Holy Spirit renovates our hearts and souls from within. He makes us new. He gives us new desires. And a key difference between Reformed theology and Arminian theology is that Arminians are going to say, well, regeneration results from faith. Where Reformed theology says, no, regeneration produces faith. And that's where you'll see in your notes sort of a key phrase, regeneration precedes faith. It's not talking chronologically. It's not that regeneration happens and then a few years go by and then you have faith. What it's saying is that there's a logical dependence whereby regeneration is what leads to and produces faith. Similar to the way that we say we are justified by faith. We mean my justification results from faith. Faith must precede justification logically. Well, in the same way, Reformed theology says regeneration precedes faith. Faith results from regeneration. And that's because when we're born again, our heart is changed. The Holy Spirit has done something to us. It's kind of like when a baby is born. What does he do? Well, he starts breathing. She starts crying. They begin wanting milk and sleep and doing all the things babies do. Well, in the same way, the moment we're born again and we have this new spiritual life, well, we begin praying. We begin hating the sin we used to love and we begin wanting to be obedient and we begin to see Jesus for who he is and we trust him. You know, so irresistible grace is not that God just sort of drags people kicking and screaming against their will into the kingdom. It's that the Holy Spirit so transforms our hearts that we willingly, eagerly come to Christ, run to Christ, and embrace Christ. And so the Holy Spirit makes his call effectual through the miracle of regeneration. We hear the gospel being preached and we respond because the Holy Spirit does this miracle in our hearts. Now, and then a third and final point, regeneration is a monergistic work of God. Now this word monergistic is one of those big intimidating words, but basically it comes from mono, which means one, and then erg, which means work. So literally monergistic means one work. And the idea that regeneration is a monergistic work of God is saying that it's something God does alone. We don't help him. We don't cooperate with him. God does it himself. Now, the alternative would be synergistic or synergism. And in Greek, syun means together. And then again, there's erg, which means work. So synergism would mean working together. That would be the idea of we must cooperate with God in order to be regenerated. And on that point, I just want to remind you of a table that I first introduced way back in week one of this study. You can see laid out Pelagianism, the Catholic, Arminian, and then Reformed. And I don't want to go through the whole table again, but I do just want to remind you of it and kind of point out to you that notice Arminians and Reformed are going to agree salvation is received by faith alone. It's not like Catholic theology where we think we're saved by a combination of faith and works. It's faith alone is how we receive this gift of salvation. What must we do to be saved, to then exercise this faith? Well, in Arminian theology, the idea, it's actually going to be kind of similar to Catholic theology in that it's synergistic. We have to cooperate with God. So again, going back to the analogy of the drowning person, it's like God's grace comes and wakes us up. But now we have to cooperate by grabbing the buoy, and that's how salvation is imparted. There's this working together with God to do what we have to do to receive the salvation, exercising faith. Now reform theology is different from that, in that it's gonna say regeneration comes first, and regeneration is monergistic. Now, Reformed theology is still going to say, I mean, we have to believe. It's not that God believes for us, right? That's something we do. But the idea is that the very grace when God, you know, it's not just that he wakes us up and now we make a decision. Am I going to just sort of grab this or not? It's that when God wakes us up, that the grace that kind of makes us able to respond to the gospel, able to grab the buoy, is at the same time grace that makes us willing, that ensures that we will. It comes together. And that's why in reformed thinking, that's how we explain the fact that in the Bible it often talks about repentance and faith in terms of being gifts of God. Okay, but we do it, yes, but we do it as this necessary certain response to this work of regeneration in our heart. So for example, Philippians 129, it says,

for to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on his behalf,

right? So on behalf of Christ, it's been given to us to believe in Christ. Or in Acts 1118, it says,

when they heard these things, they fell silent and they glorified God saying, then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance. That leads to life.

Or again, in 2 Timothy 2, it speaks of repentance being granted, right? It's a gift of God. And then just one final passage, just to think about the way that salvation, even faith itself is a gift, that the whole work of salvation is something that God does, is in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. And just listen here to the emphasis on God and his work. It says,

and you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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, 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. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works. so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

So again, it's about God. God made us alive. God raised us up. It's God's doing, not ours. Just like, again, thinking about regeneration and being born again. Just think about, naturally, when you were born, what did you do? Nothing. You just received the gift of life. You were passive. It just happened to you. Well, in the same way, we look back and we know spiritually God made us alive. God caused us to be born again. It was his gift. And our response of repentance and faith has just necessarily followed from that. That's irresistible grace. Now any questions about irresistible grace or what I've covered so far? Yep. So Ephesians says, how do you believe you were marked in him with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit? So according to that verse, it seems like in some sense our faith precedes some work of the Holy Spirit. Yes. Being marked in him. So, but you're also saying that the Holy Spirit regenerating our hearts. Right, and so you're referencing in chapter one, like verse 15 or so. So I would distinguish the sealing of the spirit from the regenerating work of the spirit. So I think the spirit works to regenerate us, and we believe, and then we're justified, and among these other blessings of salvation we receive, immediately following faith would include the sealing of the Holy Spirit, and the indwelling of the Spirit. So I would just distinguish those two blessings. So the regeneration, I would say, is the spirit actually changing our heart and our desires within. Indwelling is the Holy Spirit coming to reside within us. Does that help? Yeah, Josh? You mentioned that regeneration, receiving faith, is logical, not necessarily chronological. So I would say that at the moment of regeneration, like immediately following regeneration, is when we, our faith can grow. Our faith has exercised our whole life. But that would be the moment of true belief being initiated in our life. So kinda like there's not a time gap between faith and justification. It'd be very, same idea, yeah. Yes. So it's all of grace that Jesus came down to die and rise again for us. I don't think so. Well, in the interest of time, I want to land with just a concluding application, and really two things. You know, this whole series has emphasized, I mean, at the end of the day, the goal here is that we would see that God deserves all the credit for our salvation. That we would just see more and more clearly how it's all God. And therefore, it should stir in our hearts a desire to praise him, to realize there's absolutely no room for boasting. And just to glorify God for what he has done in his amazing grace. So that would be number one, as we've been stressing. Second application that's a little bit more specific to this is, as we think about evangelism, if God irresistibly calls people, well then I think it helps us see that the key in getting responses in evangelism is not things like, Was I able to put the gospel just the right way? Was I able to be culturally relevant enough? Or if we just had the right mood, we just had the music playing, if we just sort of changed some things like that, maybe that would make the difference. This doctrine helps us to see that no, preaching the gospel is more like going to the local graveyard and talking to people in the graves. Those things aren't gonna make the difference. Now, it's not that all of those things are irrelevant, but they're relevant insofar under the umbrella of just being faithful to God. God's the one that's going to make the difference. If you're going to go to the graveyard and think, what am I supposed to do to see dead people rise up? I think you just say, well, whatever God is telling me to do, I just want to do exactly that because he's the one that's got to do it. And so yes, we want to not put unnecessary obstacles in people's way. We want to present the gospel winsomely in a way that would be glorifying to God. And all of those things matter insofar as we're being faithful. But it's God who gives the increase. I was trying to find the source of this story, but it was Martin Louis Jones and some guy had come up to him and basically he was like,

Pastor, yesterday you had me and if you had just done an altar call, I would have come forward. I would have become a Christian, but you didn't do it and so now today I'm just not interested anymore. You missed your chance.

Well, Martin Lowe joins far from sort of thinking, maybe I need to start doing altar calls. I mean, he basically just responded, I'm like,

well, if whatever experience you had yesterday wasn't enough to make you want to follow Christ today, I'm not interested in it. That's not conversion.

The point is he understood that God's grace is irresistible. That when God purposes to save, it's not like some little circumstantial thing is gonna derail everything. No, when God saves, he saves. And so as we think about proclaiming the gospel, that should be an encouragement to us, and that should help guide us as we try to do so faithfully. Well, let's close in prayer. Father, we do thank you for this time to think about this doctrine of irresistible grace and the way that you call us to yourself powerfully and effectually. Lord, I pray that it would indeed stir in us greater gratitude and humility and hearts eager to praise you and eager to share the good news of the gospel with others. Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.