Peter’s Two Swords

Right before Jesus Christ is betrayed and crucified, He tells His disciples that things are about to change.

During Christ’s ministry, the disciples did not need provision or protection; they had the Son of God.

But when the Son of God leaves, they are told to carry a purse and money and swords.

The disciples pipe up that they already have two swords with them.

Apparently, the Catholic Church has taken this episode as proof that Peter, representative of the Pope, has the authority over the two swords, which represent Church and State power.

Yes, this is ridiculous, but alas, that is the sort of application you’ll derive from the Bible if you read it allegorically.

In reading Ellicott’s Commentary, an excellent briefish commentary on the whole Bible, he had this to say about this Catholic interpretation. I think it is awesome.

The mystical interpretation which sees in the two swords the symbol of the spiritual and temporal authority committed to St. Peter, and to the Pope as his successor, stands on a level with that which finds the relations of the Church and the State foreshadowed in the “two great lights” of Genesis 1:16. Both are simply the dreams of a diseased fancy, and find their fit home at last in the limbo of vanities.

“The limbo of vanities” is sheer wordplay awesomeness.

Bravo, Mr. Ellicott, Bravo.

God Tells People What To Do, Not You!

The degree that you desire to dictate another person’s beliefs and actions is the degree to which you do not trust God.

Telling other people what to do, then punishing them if they don’t do it, which can be as subtle as getting mad at them, is dangerous.

If you are telling other people what to do and believe, then you have put yourself in the place of God.

Furthermore, you have become responsible for their actions. If they do what you say, it’s kind of your fault!

Cults and man-made religion are heavy on telling people what to do and believe. They use peer-pressure, intimidation, punishment, conformity, and shame to get obedience.

They do not allow any thinking or diverting from the path. The leader of the cult or man-made religion will become god-like. They may even tell you they are infallible, or speak for God.

Because telling people what to do and then judging what is done is God’s job. People who get used to doing this view themselves as God.

Alas, I’m not just warning you about Jim Jones and L. Ron Hubbard. I’m talking about you and me.

When you get mad because people don’t vote like you, dress like you, eat like you, identify with every little weird thing you identify with, you are getting close to Jim Jones status.

In fact, the difference between you and Jim Jones is only the number of people who listen to you. It always starts with just one listener though!

You better watch out!

Then again, I aint telling you to do anything. Do whatever you want. But what I can do is quote God:

But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
–Romans 14:10-12

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
–Philippians 3:14-15

Grace Abounds When We Don’t Sin

The same grace that brings salvation also teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, so we can live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

Too many people limit God’s grace to salvation. Now that I’m saved, grace is done. I’m in.

But God gives more grace. Abundant, manifold, and exceeding grace.

This grace helps us overcome sin even now.

God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud. That phrase is stated two times in the New Testament.

I’d like to show you the context of both of those times. Perhaps it can help us understand what grace is given to humble people for.

But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
–James 4:6-7

Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
–1 Peter 5:5-9

Both passages about God resisting the proud and giving grace to the humble, have to do with resisting the Devil.

Grace gives you the ability to resist the Devil and sin.

Grace doesn’t just show up after we sin. Grace isn’t passively available to make up for the sin you already did.

No, grace can keep you from sin and keep you from falling for the Devil’s deceptions.

With every temptation there is a way of escape. It’s just that most of the time we don’t really want to escape temptation. Our flesh would actually like to go do the sin.

Our selfish pride, our desire to do what we want to do, gets in the way. We don’t humble ourselves, thus we miss out on the provision grace provides to protect us.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
–Hebrews 4:16

Grace is always available. More grace than we can imagine. We don’t make grace abound by sinning; we make grace abound when we resist sin.

Resisting sin is what grace helps us do.

Yet many have the idea that grace exists so I can sin and get away with it. We think that sinning makes grace bigger.

That’s not true. It’s not that God’s grace is not big; it’s that we’re not using it. We’re keeping it ineffectual because we want to go do our proud, selfish sin.

If we only knew what we had in God’s grace. If we only knew. If we could drop the brainwashing we’ve received about God’s grace, and take God at His word that grace helps us not sin. Imagine, just imagine, what life could be.

The grace is there. Do you want it?

Grace and Works are Not Opposed to Each Other

I have long heard that grace and works are not compatible. If you are saved by grace, then works have nothing to do with anything.

The main proof text is Romans 11:6

And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

The context of this verse is referring to the plan of God in choosing the Jewish people to bring forth the Messiah and God then putting them aside and now going primarily to the Gentiles.

Romans 9-11 has little to do with Calvinism and much to do with God’s plan of salvation and how Jews and Gentiles play their part in this plan.

When it comes to God’s plan, He will make sure there is a remnant that remains faithful to carry the plan ahead. This remnant is there by grace.

In other words, Jews didn’t become the Chosen People because they were so deserving of the honor. Nor are Gentiles now in because they are so much better.

Nope. No one earned that remnant status. The remnant is there because of grace.

Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
–Romans 11:5

This elected remnant is there by grace, not by works. If you keep Romans 11:6 in its context, you can clearly see that Paul is explaining the election of the remnant. He’s not talking about how an individual gets saved, nor is he talking about life after an individual is saved.

To take this verse to mean that grace means we don’t do anything is just goofy.

But I have heard the point taken even further–if you do works, you are going against grace. This is even more goofiness.

Grace and works are not opposed to each other. Grace and work actually work together quite nicely.

Again, let me state, no one is saved by works. I think we’re clear on that. We are saved by grace through faith, it is not of ourselves, not by works, but as a gift from God.

And the next verse says we’re created in Christ Jesus by that same grace to do good works that God has ordained we should do. In other words, grace brings about salvation enabling us to do what God has always wanted people to do anyway–His will.

Grace, when properly understood and applied, will always result in good works. But alas, I’m just saying stuff. There’s no reason why you should listen to me. So, take a listen to God’s Word:

But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
–1 Corinthians 15:10

You can know Paul has God’s grace by observing how much he labors. Doing nothing means you are taking God’s grace in vain–to no profit.

Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.
–2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Grace brings us consolation, comfort, good hope, and establishes us in every good word and work. That’s what grace does every time it’s tried. It keeps you busy.

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
–Titus 2:11-14

Grace doesn’t just bring salvation, it also teaches us to stop sinning and to start doing good stuff. The whole point of God giving grace to save people is to make a people who energetically pursue doing good works.

God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
–2 Corinthians 9:8

I’m not sure how it could be stated any more clearly than this.

The idea that grace and works are opposed to each other is just not true. Yes, there is truth in how people get saved–it is by grace and not by works. There is a definite distinction made there.

But when it comes to life after salvation, the whole point of God giving you grace is so you’d be able to do good works.

Salvation by grace isn’t about leaving you in your sin but when you die you can go to heaven.

Grace transforms and equips us to do good works in this present world. The benefits of grace can be had RIGHT NOW! A new life. A new passion. A new desire. A new heart. A new will. RIGHT NOW!

If you have God’s grace you will be doing good works. If you aren’t doing good works, you have taken His grace in vain, which means you haven’t taken it, folks.

You don’t do good works to get God’s grace. You get God’s grace to do good works.When you receive God’s grace, you do good works. Every. Single. Time.

Irresponsibility Warps Doctrine

Being responsible is hard. Immature people blame others for their problems and look to others to bail them out. Mature people take responsibility for their problems and go fix them as much as possible.

Maturity is hard, which is why most stay in immaturity. It’s easier to let someone else pick up the pieces than it is to 1) stop breaking stuff or 2) fix your own mess.

We want other people to pay for our health coverage so we can continue to be overweight and lazy and yet not have to pay. We want other people to pay for our college education lest we have to like, work. On and on it goes.

Unfortunately, we take this same idea into our spiritual lives.

Remember what happened when Adam got busted? What did he say? “The woman you gave me made me eat the fruit.” Adam blames God and his wife. Never once does he consider his own culpability.

Eve says the serpent made her do it. The serpent, the liar from the beginning, says nothing, which, wow. When Satan performs better than you, that’s not good.

People’s response to sin has been the same ever since. We don’t think our sin is that bad, but if forced to face it, we immediately blame our parents, or the pastor, or the Liberals, or Donald Trump, or the media, or the government, or Big Business, or whatever thing we think is determining our lives.

The real problem with shirking responsibility is that it makes you believe bad things. Getting out of responsibility is the source of much heresy.

The modern warping of “grace” makes people think that fixing your problems is legalism, or works righteousness, or some such thing. Grace makes it OK anyway, why worry?

Calvinism says all things happen by God’s will from eternity past and they all work for His glory. So it makes no sense to beat yourself up too bad, or find fault with anything, nor should you concern yourself with fixing anything since it’s all giving God glory anyway.

Legalism tells you to do some unrelated penance type thing that never really takes care of the problem, but makes you feel better about yourself while continuing to have the problem.

Health and wealth tells us God is happy with us when we get stuff. As long as I have stuff, I can console myself that I’m doing good, never mind the fact that most of my stuff was gotten by my sinful life.

Atheism is structured on this whole idea as well. They deny God simply to eliminate any sort of responsibility or future judgment. They conclude that all things are genetically determined, you can’t help it.

Our fear of responsibility drives much of our doctrine. There is no such thing as secret sin, or a sin that won’t have an effect. If nothing else, it makes us feel guilty, which will warp our doctrine.

Take responsibility for who you are and what you are doing. Understand that every one of us will give an account before God.

He knows what you’re doing and He sees how you handle the results of your actions. He will bring it up some day. Don’t let any warped doctrine eliminate that awareness from your mind.

Grace Gives More than Salvation

When the Bible describes God’s grace, it uses adjectives that describe God’s grace as being big.

Acts 4:33—great grace
2 Corinthians 4:15—abundant grace
2 Corinthians 9:14—exceeding grace
James 4:6—more grace
1 Peter 4:10—manifold grace

People like the idea of God’s grace being big. Unfortunately, the only way we can conceive of grace being big is in relation to big amounts of sin.

We’re stuck with Paul’s question: So, do we sin that grace may abound?

His answer is “no.”

Unfortunately, because people have been listening to theologians more than the Bible, people mostly link grace up with sin.

When we hear that God’s grace is great, abundant, manifold, and exceeding, we think, “Cool! Then it doesn’t matter if I sin! Make that grace big by sinning more!”

Grace deals with more than just sin and salvation.

Ephesians 2:8-9 gets a lot of air time, as it should, it’s a massively huge point, but most people associate grace with salvation. That’s it. Once I’m saved, grace is kind of done, I mean, other than forgiving all the sin I keep on doing.

Grace and giving go together. But Grace doesn’t just give forgiveness and salvation. Grace abounds to giving way more.

God gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

He has freely given us all things to enjoy.

He who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He, not with Him also, freely give us all things?

The grace of God that brings salvation goes on to teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts so we can live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

Grace doesn’t just take away sin and give you salvation. Grace continues to give you all you need, to recreate you in Christ Jesus to do good works (the oft forgotten Ephesians 2:10).

God likes giving. He loves a cheerful giver because God IS a cheerful giver. God wants to give you things too. Not stupid things. Not things to amuse your sinful flesh. But things that build you up, things that edify and strengthen. Things that equip you for every good work.

Are you interested in these things? Do you ask God for them? Do you take them when they are offered?

God gives grace. To give means to extend, to hold out. His hands are extended toward you. He’s waiting for you to take the abundance of provision He freely gives.

Please don’t cheapen this “abundance of provision” as money and health. He gives what is far greater. He gives things that will last for eternity. Don’t settle for fleshly baubles when He extends toward you heavenly treasure.

Grace is a beautiful abundantly giving thing. Please take what God freely gives and don’t be afraid to take more and more. His grace is abundant!

Theologians Diminish Grace

Satan has focused a lot of his deception on the word “grace.” Grace is an abused word. It’s possible another word carries more theological baggage, but I can’t think of what that word would be.

Theology is an attempt to make the simplicity of God’s Word, something the faith of a child can grasp, and make it confusing so you feel like you need the Initiated Few.

You know when you’re walking into Confusing Theology Land when biblical words start getting adjectives stuck in front of them.

“Will” is an example. “Will” simply means a desire. God’s will is what God desires. It’s quite simple.

It remained simple until theologians became a thing. Now it’s not just “God’s will,” now it’s God’s

Decretive Will
Permissive Will
Sovereign Will
Desiderative Will
Directive Will
Perceptive Will

There could be more, it depends who you ask. Also some of the above may be the same wills, I don’t know. I’m not a theologian.

All of this is just silliness. But the silliness doesn’t stop there. The silliness is extended to God’s grace as well. There’s not just “God’s grace” anymore, now it’s God’s

Irresistible Grace
Prevenient Grace
Common Grace
Sanctifying Grace
Salvific Grace

And on it goes.

Here’s the interesting thing, none of these adjectives before will or grace are found in the Bible.

If you look up grace in your New Testament (KJV anyway) and look for adjectives before “grace,” here’s what you’ll find.

Acts 4:33—great grace
2 Corinthians 4:15—abundant grace
2 Corinthians 9:14—exceeding grace
James 4:6—more grace
1 Peter 4:10—manifold grace

All of these adjectives tell you one basic thing: God’s grace is massively huge! When God describes His grace; He makes grace big.

When theologians describe grace, they make it smaller. They whittle away at the concept. They make it fit their particular theological point of the time.

This is where problems start. After a while, we’re not even talking about God’s grace anymore; we’re talking about some theologian’s ax he likes to grind.

Which is why there’s one more adjective used before “grace” in the Bible:

1 Peter 5:12—true grace

Watch out for adjectives before biblical words. Theologians use them to limit a subject, mostly because the Bible doesn’t speak the way they do about a particular word.

Don’t let theologians confuse you about grace. Keep God’s grace big. That’s how He describes it.

Is Jesus a Friend of Sinners?

“If Jesus isn’t a friend of sinners, then He’s no friend of mine.”

I saw this on Twitter last week. It made me pause.

Lots of things make me pause. My brain hiccups. “Wait, what was that? Does that make sense?”

A reasonable response would take up more space than Twitter allows, so I’ll think it out here.

“Jesus is a friend of sinners” is from both Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:34. It’s in the passage about how the people didn’t like John the Baptist cuz he was fasting, and they don’t like Jesus cuz He eats with people.

Jesus Christ does not call Himself a friend of sinners. If you note the wording of the verse:

“and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.“

It was Jesus’ opponents who called Him a friend of sinners, not Jesus Himself. They also called him a drunk. Was their estimation of Jesus correct?

Later, in John 15, Jesus says greater love has no man than this: to lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus then goes on to define who His friends are. It’s important for our ears to hear the words of Jesus Christ here:

“Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.“

So, here’s the deal. Is Jesus a friend of publicans and sinners? In a general sense, probably. What did Jesus call Judas when he came to betray Him?

Jesus said to Judas, “Friend, wherefore art thou come?” He calls Judas His friend. Jesus doesn’t lie. (Although it is a different Greek word!)

There is some truth in calling Jesus a friend of sinners, depending on what you mean by it.

Unfortunately, I think most people mean that being a sinner is ok with Jesus. I can go on sinning cuz Jesus is my friend.

I think that’s the sense of the phrase I saw. If so, I’d throw in some John 15. Then again, maybe they mean it simply as Jesus Christ loved me while I was a sinner.

It just depends. And that’s the problem with most of what people say about the Bible: It depends what they mean. I have little confidence in people to assume they mean something right.

But maybe that’s my problem.

Why Is God So Angry in the Old Testament and so Nice in the New?

One of the ways to tell a person’s lack of familiarity with the actual words of the Bible, is if they think the God of the OT is worse than the God of the NT.

The idea that OT God is worse than NT God is a fairly early idea in Christianity. Marcionism was a heresy within the church around 144. That’s pretty early!

I’d expect people in the Early Church to have some off notions about what’s going on in the NT, since it was fairly new. Everyone was learning what was going on.

But the Church really has no excuse anymore.

Is there more judgmental actions by God in the OT?
Yes there is.

Are there more rules and punishments in the OT?
Yes there are.

Are things like faith, love, and grace mentioned infrequently in the OT?
Yes they are.

Does this mean the God of the OT was more angry, hateful, and judgy?
Nope.

So, what gives? If God didn’t change, what did?

This is kind of an amazingly simple question to answer, it’s really quite stunning how obvious the answer is.

The first 3/4 of your Bible is called what again? And what is the last 1/4 called?

The thing that changed between the OLD COVENANT (testament) and the NEW COVENANT (testament) was the covenant!

God hasn’t changed one bit throughout all eternity. Not once. He’s consistent, which is why we can and should put our faith in Him.

What has changed is how God deals with people.

The Old Covenant with Israel was pretty brutal. That wasn’t God’s fault, the people agreed to it. God merely did what He told people He would do dependent on what they did.

The New Covenant has less judgment, less anger, and more grace and love on display. The Old Covenant, although not exempt from love and grace (love is the fulfilling of the law, remember), didn’t display these things as much because of the nature of the Old Covenant.

God hasn’t changed. Jesus Christ is not holding God back from killing you like He would’ve before. The God of the OT is not any more angry over sin than He is now.

In the OT, God’s anger was displayed quite frequently because He told them that’s what would happen if they disobeyed. In the NT we are merely treasuring “up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

The judgment of the OT was not God’s fault; it was the people’s fault for agreeing to a ridiculous covenant that had no shot of working. God told them not if, but WHEN you break this covenant, wrath will come.

They should have called upon God’s grace by faith and been saved rather than try to rely on their own efforts to be good.

God is the same. The Covenant changed. The covenants make all the difference. Pay attention to them.

What Does This Passage Mean to You? Is a Quick Way to Be Blasphemous

I was working on a lesson about The Four Lepers from Samaria (2 Kings 6:26-7:20). These are the guys who decided to go to the Syrian camp to get food, as they were going to die in Syrian-besieged Samaria anyway.

Upon reaching the Syrian camp, they discovered tons of supplies and no Syrians! God had provided, just like the prophet Elisha said He would.

I find it interesting to search Sunday School lessons to see what applications they get out of these stories. While looking for applications, I came across an article about “Three Business Lessons we can learn from the Four Lepers from Samaria.”

Here are the three lessons. Are you ready? Your life is about to change. And, if you’re in business, your business life is about to be radically revolutionized:

Lesson One:
Strategize. In order to succeed, you have to plan. This lesson is learned from the lepers who drew up a strategic plan to survive. They carried the plan out and thrived!

Lesson Two:
Take Risks. The one who goes outside of his comfort zone is the one who will succeed. The lepers left what they knew for the uncertainty of what they didn’t know. It paid off big time!

Lesson Three:
Acquire Useful Information. Once the lepers discovered the Syrians were gone, they shared what they learned for the profit of many people.

If your life is not already changed, here is the conclusion of the matter, and I quote:

“The take away from this story is that as a Christian, there is need for you to update yourself with the latest trends in your field and not only that, there is need to keep abreast of the latest policy changes in government.”

Unbelievable.

The idea that the Four Lepers of Samaria account was written so that 21st Century businessmen would learn to adapt new trends and change with government policy is borderline blasphemous.

This is the problem with the “what does this passage mean to you?” drivel.

It does not matter what a passage means to you! What matters is what the passage means!

If it’s up to my meaning, then I will change it according to my circumstances, rip it out of context, and more than likely, give me a conclusion that reaffirms what I’m already doing.

I’m quite sure the businessmen who wrote these applications are already doing these things. That’s why they saw them in this story.

The real point of the Four Lepers of Samaria account is that when God says stuff, He means what He says, don’t doubt it. Doubting God’s Word generally leads to bad things. Stop it.

A clear reading of the text will show you that’s what it means and it doesn’t mean anything else.

Don’t get cute with God’s word. We need less cute and more of God’s Word.

Ephesians 1 is About Hope, Peace, and Assurance

Ephesians 1 is an amazingly huge chapter. Not by length, but by subject.

Unfortunately, much of Ephesians 1 has been hijacked by Calvinists. This takes away the fun of actually studying the passage and finding application.

When you get sucked too deeply into the Calvinist/Arminian debate, all you see in Scripture is your side. That’s it. Nothing else exists. Everything is about this issue and this issue alone.

Which is too bad. Just like Romans 9, Ephesians 1 has a very cool point to make.

Ephesians 1 points us backwards first:

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
–Ephesians 1:4

Our minds are expanded to eternity past, before anything was. There, before there was anything physical, there was God.

God had creation in mind. He knew how things would go if He created a creature in His image and gave them freedom to rebel. He knew we would rebel.

But God had a plan. At some point in the future, God would enter His creation and sacrifice Himself for it, demonstrating His great love toward us.

We, believers today, are baptized into the Body of Christ. He chose us to be in Christ, to receive salvation by means of what He did.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
–Ephesians 1:7

Right now we can benefit. We can have complete confidence that salvation is in Christ because this was ordained and determined to be the case since before the world was created.

There is forgiveness in Christ because God determined there to be many years ago. We can have confidence in Him.

But salvation isn’t just about the present or the past, it’s also about the future.

That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
–Ephesians 1:10

There is coming a time when all things will be gathered into Christ, all the created things will be redeemed, including those who came to Christ for salvation now.

This will fully be seen and experienced in the New Heavens and New Earth where righteousness will reign.

This future promise will happen. We can know it will happen because He’s given us the Holy Spirit:

ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
–Ephesians 1:13b-14

The Spirit is the first-fruits–the initial harvest that guarantees more is coming. He’s our down-payment on our future inheritance.

You know if you have the Spirit now, that this eternal regathering under the rule of Christ is yours too!

Paul is pointing us back to give us assurance in God’s plan of salvation–it was planned before the world was created. Then he points us forward to give us more assurance–the Holy Spirit in you is the guarantee you’ll receive the rest of the inheritance. Knowing this better time is coming gives us hope and peace.

Paul writes Ephesians 1 to encourage us. He writes it to give us hope, peace, assurance. Salvation is God’s plan. It’s a solid plan; you can trust it! He gives us His Spirit to help us hang on through this present evil world until we make it to the next.

Take confidence in your God and His promises. Don’t take a beautiful chapter like this and make it about arguing over Calvinism. It aint worth it!

Resisting Irresistible Grace

Irresistible Grace is the “I” of the Calvinist TULIP.

It refers to God’s ability to save all whom He has ordained to salvation. He overrides their will; by His grace He makes them believe.

John Calvin described God’s grace in salvation like this:

“All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, he is pleased, in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call, by his word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.”
–Calvin’s Institutes, Ch. 10, section 1

Two things:

1. You will notice that Calvin chalks people’s salvation up to God’s timing (it’s the first underlined phrase above). This gets at yesterday’s post. We blame God for taking so long to save people, yet God says He’s waiting for us so He can be gracious. If God is waiting to be gracious (God’s words, not mine) in what sense is this Irresistible Grace? Sounds fairly resistible to me.
2. You will notice also some hedging in Calvin’s words. There are so many verses in the Bible that say we have something to do with our salvation, that even Calvin has to back it off a bit. He says, “they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.” If I have to be made willing to come, how is this me coming freely? This is the irrationality of Calvinism, always dismissed with “It’s a mystery.” It is a mystery. It’s a mystery how people can believe such Biblically contradictory stuff.

R. C. Sproul recently died and found out Calvinism was wrong.

But I think Dr. Sproul knew it was wrong before he got before God. Here’s what Sproul had to say about Irresistible Grace:

“The idea of irresistibility conjures up the idea that one cannot possibly offer any resistance to the grace of God.”

Hm, I wonder why people “conjured” up that idea? Perhaps because that’s what the word means! Here’s how Webster’s defines irresistible, “impossible to resist.”

Sproul’s problem is that his doctrine puts him in opposition to common sense. He feels a need to back off the term.

“However, the history of the human race is the history of relentless resistance to the sweetness of the grace of God. Irresistible grace does not mean that God’s grace is incapable of being resisted. Indeed, we are capable of resisting God’s grace, and we do resist it.”

Irresistible Grace can be resisted. Got it?

The Holy Spirit changes the inclination and disposition of our wills, so that whereas we were previously unwilling to embrace Christ, now we are willing, and more than willing.

It’s important to understand who the “our” is here. Sproul is obviously referring to Believers. According to Sproul you will be a Believer if God has ordained you to be a Believer.

If God has not ordained you to be a Believer, you are not part of the “our.” Therefore, if you are ordained to be a Believer, you will not resist God’s grace; God will change your will so you accept it.

Therefore, Sproul still believes in Irresistible Grace, he’s just tired of people picking on this irrationality, so he decides to use a different word for God’s grace that sounds nicer.

“I have a little bit of a problem using the term irresistible grace, not because I don’t believe this classical doctrine, but because it is misleading to many people. Therefore, I prefer the term effectual grace, because the irresistible grace of God effects what God intends it to effect.”

Sproul prefers Effectual to the “misleading” Irresistible. In essence they both mean the same thing–God’s desires will be brought about regardless, which he admits with that last weird sentence–irresistible grace effects what God wants to effect. How is this any different? Sproul just wants to sound like he’s softening things, backing off a bit because he knows this doctrine is ridiculous.

Yes, I am reading into his psychology behind the word change. To me it smacks of deception, because he means the same thing, he just picks a softer word to represent the same hard doctrine.

I think R. C. Sproul’s Calvinism is wrong. I think he thinks that now, too.

“Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you”
Isaiah 30:18