Those who have first learned about God’s sovereign grace, are often confused, and have many questions. Pastor Brian takes time in this message to try to answer eight commonly asked questions about the doctrines of grace.
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Questions About God’s Sovereign Grace
2 Peter 3:9
We have been on a journey over the last couple of months, exploring the doctrines of God’s sovereign grace. We have seen that man is totally depraved, and as such, is unable to come to Christ or cooperate with God in his salvation. We have also seen that before the foundation of the world, God chose a certain number of the human family to be saved. This choice was not based on any foreseen merit, faith, repentance, or choice that they would make, but merely on God’s good pleasure alone. We also saw that Christ in His death had a particular focus on His elect. Yes, His death was sufficient for all men, but it was designed to actually bring all His elect to salvation. We also saw that God’s grace in salvation is invincible and irresistible. God calls His elect with an effectual call that brings them into fellowship with Christ, makes them alive together with Christ, draws them to the Savior, and changes their heart. Then we saw that once God has brought a sinner into this state of grace, that sinner is eternally secure. Nothing or no one can ever snatch that person out of the hands of Christ.
Now, I realize that I’m speaking to a bunch of folks that had never heard these doctrines preached before. Yes, some of you are familiar with them, but a lot of you aren’t. Therefore, I assume that my sermons as of late may have confused you. You may have questions or objections to what I have been preaching. That is to be expected! When I first embraced God’s sovereign grace, I had all kinds of questions and objections too. Everyone does. So, this morning, I want to wrap up our series on the Doctrines of Grace, by dealing with various questions that people have to these truths.
1. What About 2 Peter 3:9?
“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
Some say, “See! There it is! It couldn’t be any clearer. God doesn’t want any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” You’re right. That is exactly what it says. God is not wishing for any to perish. But let’s take a closer look. Who does Peter mean when he speaks of “any”? Well, if we read this verse in its context, Peter is saying “God is patient toward you, not wishing for any [of you] to perish. Well, who is the “you” God is patient toward? In 2 Peter 1:1 we discover that Peter was right to “those who have obtained a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. In other words, Peter is saying that God is patient toward His elect, not wishing for any of them to perish, but for all of them to come to repentance.
However, let’s take this verse the way many understand it. Many believe the verse means that Christ’s second coming has been delayed because God doesn’t want any to perish. But, does that even make any sense? The truth is, the longer Christ waits to return, the more people will perish. If God didn’t want anyone to perish, the best thing He could have done is sent Christ back in the 1st century. That way, billions of people would not have lived and died, the vast majority of whom perished through unbelief. If it is really God’s wish that no one would perish, He is working against Himself by delaying Christ’s second coming. Every year that Christ does not come back, millions more people perish.
No, it seems to me that the true meaning of this passage is that God has delayed Christ’s coming because He doesn’t want any of His elect to perish, but is waiting for all of them to come to repentance. When the final elect soul has been brought into Christ’s kingdom, then He will return.
2. What About 1 Timothy 2:3-4?
“This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
The typical Arminian understanding of this text is that God desires everyone to be saved, so unconditional election must be a false doctrine.
One way that those who hold to the doctrines of grace have responded to this text is to say that “all men” does not mean all men without exception, but all men without distinction. They point to the first two verses of the chapter where Paul urges them to pray on behalf of all men, and then lists certain kinds of men, like kings and all who are in authority. They believe that this passage is teaching that God desires all kinds of men to be saved – not just the Jews, but people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. So, are they right? Did Paul mean all men without distinction, instead of all men without exception? Well, I’m not sure. That might be what Paul meant here. However, I don’t believe we are constrained to adopt that interpretation.
This reminds me of something Charles Spurgeon once said in a sermon on 1 Timothy 2:4. Spurgeon had a very famous predecessor in his church, the Reverend John Gill who wrote a massive commentary on the entire Bible. Gill believed this verse meant God desired all kinds of men to be saved. Well, Spurgeon differed from John Gill, and I’m going to read you a lengthy quote from this sermon:
“Shall we try to put another meaning into the text than that which it fairly bears? I think not. You must, most of you, be acquainted with the general method in which our older Calvinistic friends deal with this text. “All men,” say they, – “that is, some men”, as if the Holy Ghost could not have said “some men” if He had meant some men. “All men,” say they; “that is some of all sorts of men”; as if the Lord could not have said “all sorts of men” if he had meant that. The Holy Ghost by the apostlte has written “all men,” and unquestionably he means all men. I know how to get rid of the force of the “alls” according to that critical method which some time ago was very current, but I do not see how it can be applied here with due regard to truth. I was reading just now the exposition of a very able doctor (Gill) who explains the text so as to explain it away; he applies grammatical gunpowder to it, and explodes it by way of expounding it. I thought when I read his exposition that it would have been a very capital comment upon the text if it had read, “Who will not have all men to be saved, nor come to a knowledge of the truth.” Had such been the inspired language every remark of the learned doctor would have been exactly in keeping, but as it happens to say, “Who will have all men to be saved,” his observations are more than a little out of place. My love of consistency with my own doctrinal views is not great enough to allow me knowingly to alter a single text of Scripture. I have great respect for orthodoxy, but my reverence for inspiration is far greater. I would sooner a hundred times over appear to be inconsistent with myself than be inconsistent with the word of God. I never thought it to be any very great crime to seem to be inconsistent with myself, for who am I that I should everlastingly be consistent? But I do think it a great crime to be so inconsistent with the word of God that I should want to lop away a bough or even a twig from so much as a single tree of the forest of Scripture. God forbid that I should cut or shape, even in the least degree, any divine expression. So runs the text, and so we must read it, “God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Spurgeon goes on to say, “It is quite certain that when we read that God will have all men to be saved it does not mean that He wills it with the force of a decree or a divine purpose, for, if He did, then all men would be saved. He willed to make the world, and the world was made: He does not so will the salvation of all men, for we know that all men will not be saved… Does not the text mean that it is the wish of God that men should be saved? The word “wish” gives as much force to the original as it really requires, and the passage should run thus – “whose wish it is that all men should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.”
But of course you are all thinking, “How can God desire something that He doesn’t do?” God can do anything He wants. And if He wants all men to be saved, why doesn’t He save them all? There are two possible answers to that question. Everyone believes that God doesn’t actually save everyone. So, if God wants all to be saved, but has not decided to actually save everyone, there must be something more else that He desires more, which would be lost if He exerted His sovereign power to save all. Now, what is that “something else”? Some would say that “something else” is man’s power of self-determination and the resulting love relationship with God. God doesn’t save everyone, because if He did, He would violate man’s free will, and then there would be no way for man to enter into a meaningful relationship of love with his Creator. That’s one possibility. The other possibility is that the “something else” that would be lost if God saved all is the manifestation of the full range of God’s wrath and mercy. That is precisely what Paul teaches in Romans 9:22-23.
When the Bible refers to “the will of God”, there are several different nuances of meaning. Sometimes this refers to the will of God’s decree, which will take place because He has decreed it. Sometimes the “will of God” refers to the will of God’s command. God commands His creatures to do this, and not to do that. And then, sometimes the will of God refers to the will of God’s desire. It expresses what He wants, all things being equal. The will of God can refer to the will of God’s decree, the will of God’s command, or the will of God’s desire. I believe in 1 Timothy 2:4, it refers to the will of God’s desire. God truly desires all men to be saved. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He has true compassion on the perishing. His offers of salvation are genuine and free. However, the will of God’s desire does not overrule the will of God’s decree.
In the Revolutionary War, a Major Andre committed treason against the new nation. George Washington had a decision to make. On a personal level, Washington did not want to execute Andre. He had real and profound compassion for him. Yet, wisdom and justice required Washington sign his death warrant. I believe it is similar in the case of God and sinners. God truly desires their salvation, but because of greater purposes, has not decreed it.
So, 1 Timothy 2:4 does not crush the doctrine of unconditional election. 1 Timothy 2:4 simply tells us that there are two wills in God – the will of His desire, and the will of His decree.
3. What About Matthew 23:37?
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”
Those that reject the doctrines of grace believe that this verse destroys the doctrine of invincible grace. They believe it teaches that God may want to save people, but is unable to, because some people won’t let Him. Well, let’s take a close look at the text.
First, what danger is Jesus talking about. There is nothing in this text that says anything about eternal salvation. It speaks about Jesus wanting to gather certain people together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. A hen gathers her chicks under her wing when an enemy is approaching, like a chicken hawk. Well, what enemy or danger is Jesus referring to? Is He describing the sinner’s eternal doom? I don’t think so. Let’s think in terms of context.
Notice the previous three verses in Matthew 23:34-36, “Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” Here Jesus says that upon His generation would fall all of the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth. Christ’s generation would reject and crucify Him, and then persecute and kill His apostles. In righteous response, God would cause massive guilt and judgment to fall on them. What is Jesus referring to? Well, just read the next verse (verse 38), “Behold your house is being left to you desolate!” What house is Jesus talking about? He’s talking about the temple. When God brings down His judgment on Jesus’ generation for rejecting and crucifying the Son of God, it will result in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. By the way, that literally took place in 70 A.D. That is also what Matthew 24 is all about. So, the danger Jesus is talking about is the imminent destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, in which over a million Jews were slaughtered by the Romans. Jesus warned the Jewish leaders of this coming destruction, but they were unwilling to repent or heed His warning. We have Jesus’ warning in Luke 19:41-44, “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Second, who is Jesus talking to? He says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!” Jesus is addressing the Jewish religious leaders. It was always the religious leaders who persecuted God’s prophets. This can be seen easily in the context. The entire chapter of Matthew 23 is devoted to Jesus rebuke of the Jewish religious leaders, the scribes and Pharisees. Eight times in this chapter Jesus pronounces a “woe” upon them. A “woe” is equivalent to “doom” or “cursed”. Seven times in this chapter, Jesus calls the religious leaders hypocrites. He calls them blind guides, sons of hell, fools, and serpents. Then, at the end of all of that He says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem.” What is He saying? “You scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you religious leaders.” You who have always been the ones who have killed the prophets I have sent to My people.
Who is Jesus talking about? Notice Jesus says, “How often I wanted to gather your children together.” Who are the children of the Jewish religious leaders? The people of Israel. The Jews. Jesus wanted to gather the people of Israel together and shelter them from the awful destruction that was going to come upon them within 40 years. But, in order for that destruction to be stayed, the people would have to acknowledge Jesus as God’s Messiah, and believe in Him. However, the religious leaders would have none of that. They took Him and crucified Him instead. So, because the religious leaders would not repent of their intention to crucify Jesus, the people of Israel were doomed to suffer this horrible holocaust.
So, this text really has nothing to do with Jesus not being able to save sinners because they won’t let Him. In its context, it is speaking of the Jewish religious leaders not being willing to repent and follow Christ, and therefore the awful judgment that would come upon the whole nation.
4. How Can God Hold Sinners Responsible To Do What They Are Unable To Do?
Now, this is not so much a Biblical question, but a philosophical question. There question is basically, if all men are in a state of total inability to repent and believe on Christ, how can God hold them responsible to repent and believe? On the surface this sounds like an unanswerable question. However, we must remember that man’s inability to come to Christ is his own fault. In the beginning Adam had the ability to either obey or disobey (Eccl. 7:29). His choice to eat of the forbidden fruit plunged him and all his descendants into a condition of slavery to sin, and thus, a state of inability to savingly respond to God’s offer of mercy.
You might say, “But that was Adam, not me! Why am I being held responsible for what Adam did?” My friend, do you realize that your damnation and your salvation work according to the exact same principle? You were born condemned because of Adam’s sin. His sin was imputed to you. However, if you want to get rid of condemnation by imputation, you also have to get rid of righteousness by imputation. Your salvation works on exactly the same basis as your condemnation. You were condemned because of the disobedience of Adam your representative. But you are saved because of the obedience of Christ your representative. If you get rid of one, you also get rid of the other. In other words, you have no hope of ever being saved, except that someone else represented you. And the truth is that you and I don’t get to make the decisions here. This is God’s universe, not yours. And in God’s universe, He makes the rules and calls the shots. God has already decided that both man’s damnation, and his salvation rest on his representative. You were damned because of the sin of another. The Bible says that his sin is your sin. But you are saved because of the righteousness of another. The Bible says that His righteo your righteousness.
Imagine a man who asks for welfare support for his family, because he is disabled and can’t work to support them. However, when he is questioned, it is discovered that the reason he is disabled is because he deliberately had his arms amputated. The reasons he had his arms amputated is because he was lazy and didn’t want to work. Can he justly appeal to the U.S. Government to support him and his family? No, it’s his own fault that he can’t provide for his family. Likewise we are at fault for our inability, for all of us have confirmed Adam’s rebellion with our own. We are all responsible for our sin.
Further, man’s inability to come to Christ results from the fact that he lacks the necessary will to come to Christ. In other words, he cannot come to Christ because he will not come to Christ. God doesn’t hold men responsible to do what He has not equipped them to do. For example, God does not hold men responsible to fly, because He has not given them the necessary equipment to fly. However, God does hold men responsible to repent and believe, because He has given them everything necessary to do that. God has given us a brain that can think, and a will that can choose. However, the sinner will never use his brain and will to repent and believe because he doesn’t want to. He loves his sin more than Christ.
The sinner’s inability is not a natural inability, but a moral and spiritual inability. It is the kind of inability that Joseph’s brothers evidenced in Genesis 37:4, “And his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms.” The inability of Joseph’s brothers to speak on friendly terms did not arise because they did not have mouths, lips and tongues. Rather, they could not speak to Joseph on friendly terms because they hated him, and had no heart to do so. Likewise, the sinner is unable to believe in Christ, love Christ, and repent of sin, not because God hasn’t given him a mind, heart, and will that can do these things, but because his mind, heart, and will are in rebellion to God.
Iain Murray in his book The Forgotten Spurgeon, explains the futility of this argument in this way: “Man’s spiritual inability is due solely to his sin and therefore it in no way lessens his responsibility. That man must be able to believe and repent in order to be responsible for unbelief and impenitency is a philosophical conception nowhere found in Scripture; in fact it is directly contrary to Scripture because, if responsibility were to be measured by ability, then it would mean that the more sinful a man becomes the less he is responsible!”
Whoever heard of a judge who would not hold a man responsible for his crime of murder merely because he hated his neighbor so much he was unable to keep from pulling the trigger?
There are really three schools of thought on this subject. The Arminian says that man is not unable to repent and believe. The Hyper-Calvinist says that man is not responsible to repent and believe. The Reformed Christian says that man is unable to repent and believe, and man is responsible to repent and believe. The other two schools of thought have eliminated one of the Biblical truths, in order to eliminate tension and confusion in their minds. The Reformed believer embraces both of these Biblical truths, and is willing to live with the tension, because he believes that both are true.
5. What About The Biblical Teaching on Free Will?
First, I would ask, “what Biblical teaching?” Get a concordance and look up “free will” and see how many times it appears in your Bible. The only time it ever comes up is in reference to freewill offerings in the Old Testament.
We need to be careful here about how we define man’s free will? If we mean by that man’s freedom to make his own moral choices, then yes, all men have that kind of free will. If, however, we mean by that man’s ability to come to Christ, then no one has that kind of free will. The truth is that all men are free to choose according to their nature. As I have pointed out before, even God can not choose contrary to His nature. Well, the sinner has a sinful nature, and he is free to make any choice he wants that is consistent with that nature. However, he lacks the ability to choose Christ over his sin.
If we gave a pig a choice between living in a clean house or a mud hole, the pig would choose the mud hole and the cat the clean house every time. Even though the pig is free to choose whatever it wants, it will always want to dwell in a dirty environment over a clean one. This preference is built into the nature of the pig. In order for the pig to prefer to live in a clean house more than a muddy pigpen, it would need to have its “pig nature” replaced with a “cat nature.” Likewise, the sinner is free to choose sin or Christ, but as long as he possesses the nature of a sinner, he will always choose sin over Christ. When God saves a sinner, he changes his nature, and so the sinner comes most willingly to Jesus Christ.
6. How Can Sovereign Election Be True When So Few Christians Believe It?
Perhaps it is true that a minority of believers today hold to the doctrine of sovereign election, but it has not always been that way. In fact, for the first 200 years after the Protestant Reformation, this teaching was included in the creeds and confessions of the Reformed, Presbyterian, Baptist, Anglican, and Congregational churches. It can be found in the Belgic Confession (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1563), the Second Helvetic Confession (1566), the Canons of the Synod of Dort (1619), the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), the Savoy Declaration, the London Confession of Faith (1689), and the New Hampshire Confession (1833). In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, sovereign election was believed and taught by the majority of evangelical believers. In modern times there has been a tremendous resergence of reformed theology in the evangelical church.
The truth of sovereign grace was taught by Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, Hugh Latimer, William Tyndale, John Owen, John Bunyan, Matthew Henry, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd, Isaac Watts, John Newton, William Carey, Robert Murray McCheyne, Charles Spurgeon, Arthur Pink and Martyn Lloyd-Jones, among others.
7. Won’t Belief in Sovereign Grace Put Out The Fire Of Evangelism?
Many scoff at those who believe in God’s sovereign grace by saying, “If I believed what you believe, I would never witness to a lost person again. Why should I? The elect will be saved whether I witness to them or not!” The problem, however, in this kind of thinking is that they have failed to understand that God not only ordains the end, but also the means that lead to the end. So, what are the means that lead to the end of all the elect being converted? They are our faithful preaching and witnessing and loving and praying for lost souls. Not only has God chosen to save particular people, He has chosen to save them through the preaching of the gospel. Far from causing us to cease evangelizing, this truth gives us the certainty that our efforts will be successful. If there were no such thing as election, there would be no converts, and heaven would be empty. But since God has chosen a vast multitude that no man can number (Rev.7:9), we can be absolutely sure that these chosen people will be brought into His kingdom. Knowing this causes God’s people to burn with zeal to proclaim the gospel so that the elect will be saved.
Jesus said in John 10:16, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock with one shepherd.” Far from quenching the fire of evangelism in Jesus’ ministry, it caused Him to cry, “I must bring them also!”
We see the same thing in the ministry of the apostle Paul. In 2 Timothy 2:10 he says, “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.” Instead of causing Paul to sit on his hands, the truth of election caused Him to labor and pray and fight and preach and endure all things!
In addition to that, just take a look at church history. You will find that some of the most evangelistic preachers, pastors, and missionaries who have ever lived have believed the doctrines of sovereign grace, including George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, William Carey, and Charles Spurgeon.
In my own life, belief in sovereign grace has not quenched my desire to make disciples, but has only inflamed it. I trust it will be the same for you as well!
8. How Can I Know If I Am One Of God’s Elect?
Of course, this is the million dollar question! Everything I have taught concerning God’s sovereign grace is true only for the elect. Everything hangs on whether you are one of the elect or not? Be very careful at this point! Do not just assume you are one of God’s elect, unless you have sufficient warrant to do so. Jesus will declare to many on Judgment Day, “Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness, I never knew you.” These people called Jesus Lord. They had spiritual gifts. They had made a profession of faith. Yet, on the final day they are sent to hell. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” According to Jesus, true conversion is marked by doing the will of the Father. While the non-elect practice lawlessness, the elect are known by obedience to God.
So, what are some of the marks of a true child of God?
- He has as his ambition to please the Lord (2 Cor. 5:9)
- He does not practice sin (1 John 3:9)
- He practices righteousness (1 John 3:10)
- He loves the brethren (1 John 3:14)
- He believes that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 5:1)
- He has been given a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek. 36:26)
- He is a new creation; old things have passed away, and new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17)
- He has been made spiritually alive (Eph. 2:5)
- He loves the Lord (1 Cor. 16:22)
- He is indwelt by Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 13:5)
- He experiences the Spirit bearing witness with his spirit that he is a child of God (Rom. 8:16)
- He is disciplined by the Lord when he pursues sin (Heb. 12:8)
Peter says that we should be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing us (2 Pet. 1:10).
Conclusion
My friends, if you are not sure whether you are a true child of God, do not rest until you know it. Seek Him. Repent. Trust Christ. Cast yourself on His mercy, and cry out, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” To those who trust Him, God is faithful to save forever!
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