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Irresistible Grace,” Vox Evangelica 4 (1965): 55-64

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Irresistible Grace,” Vox Evangelica 4 (1965): 55-64 Owen J. Thomas, “Irresistible Grace,” Vox Evangelica 4 (1965): 55-64. Irresistible Grace Owen J. Thomas [p.55] In order of consideration, the idea of ‘irresistible grace’ follows on directly once the doctrine of election is reasonably laid down. If God’s people are elected to redemption, the question immediately follows: How do they become partakers of it? Here the frontier between dogmatic and pastoral theology has already been reached, and the problems involved in the answer to this question cannot well be discussed without due regard to their pastoral implications. At the same time the doctrine must not be left to the mercy of purely subjective considerations, nor should philosophical speculations concerning ‘foreknowledge’ and ‘necessity’ be allowed to decide the matter. Many theologians, ancient and modern, are quite clearly alarmed by the implications of such a question. Some would protest that it is over-simplified when Calvin affirms: ‘The fathers are sometimes too scrupulous on this subject, and afraid of a simple confession of the truth, lest they should afford an occasion to impiety to speak irreverently and reproachfully of the works of God. Though I highly approve this sobriety, yet I think we are in no danger, if we simply maintain what the Scripture delivers.’ (Institutes, Book II, ch. IV. iii.). The Shorter Catechism, which has an admittedly pastoral bent, answers the question as follows: ‘We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ by the effectual application of it to us by His Holy Spirit.’ It further explains that the Spirit performs this operation by ‘working faith in us, and hereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.’ (Shorter Catechism, Answer 30.) Then it further enlarges on the nature of ‘effectual calling’: ‘(It) is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds to the knowledge of Christ and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the Gospel’. The term ‘effectual calling’, as described in the Shorter Catechism, does not state explicitly the idea of ‘irresistible grace’. Yet the larger Confession of Faith makes it perfectly clear that this is what the Westminster Divines had in mind by using the term ‘effectual calling’: ‘(They are called) out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ, taking away their hearts of stone and 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.’ Then, as if challenged to be more explicit, the Confession explains: ‘This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein until, being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it.’ (Confession of Faith, ch. 12, sections 1 and 2.) The purpose of this article is to show that this doctrine may be reasonably [p.56] Owen J. Thomas, “Irresistible Grace,” Vox Evangelica 4 (1965): 55-64. argued from the conservative evangelical point of view, therefore it will be of first importance to examine ‘what the Scripture delivers.’ I. THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE First of all, the witness of the Apostle Paul is that the call of God contains a sufficiency of grace which is designed to be effective in the salvation of the elect. Generally speaking, this is seen in the fact that, although among those who were designated the people of God, or ‘Israel’, the election of God seems to have been largely frustrated, as, for example, in the days of Ahab, when the majority worshipped Baal, yet in actual fact this was not so, because God had reserved to Himself ‘seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal’. Paul here concludes: ‘What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it.’ (Rom. xi. 7.) An interesting personification which implies that, within the election, God operates the means whereby it becomes effective. The Apostle elsewhere gives more detail, showing that the election becomes effective ‘through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth’. (2 Thess. ii. 13.) The extent to which this divine initiative is needed is measured out in a further striking statement in the Letter to the Ephesians: ‘...and you did he quicken, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins.’ (Eph. ii. 1). This reinforces an earlier statement in the Letter to the Romans to the effect that divine redemption was accomplished in the face of human impotence ‘...when we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly.’ (v. 6). There are also Old Testament passages cited which seem to indicate that the New Covenant was to be made effective in its beneficiaries by an effectual call. So, for example, Ezekiel describes its application as the giving of a new heart, the putting within of a new spirit. Deuteronomy has already described it as circumcision of the heart. It seems possible also that this is what the Psalmist meant when he said: ‘Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power,’ (Psalm cx. 3) the idea being that in the midst of a world at enmity with God, one of the most notable manifestations of His sovereign power would be the willingness of His elect people. There is more than a hint of this also in the great ‘Evangelical Prophet’. The word of God will carry with it the means of working effectually in those for whom it is determined. This is compared to natural causes, which have inevitable results: ‘As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, ... so shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please.’ (Isa. iv. 10, ii). An interesting sidelight on this is the interpretation which E. J. Young suggests for Isaiah liii. 1. He takes the two questions as a synonymous parallelism. This would mean that ‘believing the report’ would be the result of a divine operation implied in ‘the arm of the Lord revealed’. (Isaiah Fifty-three, ad. loc.) Turning again to the New Testament, the Confession further instances statements of our Lord Jesus Christ, as recorded by the Evangelists, which seem clearly to lend weight to this view. The elect are given to Him by the Father. Their initial characteristic or distinguishing mark is, that they come to Him [p.57] Owen J. Thomas, “Irresistible Grace,” Vox Evangelica 4 (1965): 55-64. ‘All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me.’ (John vi. 37.) They make the right choice, which, at the same time, has as its determining antecedent the choice of Christ Himself: ‘Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.’ (John xv. 16.) They are also aware of Who He is and are able to confess Him ‘the Son of God’; which, in turn, is a further manifestation of an effectual call, because this saving knowledge is not so much arrived at as given by God. Such gospel knowledge is not the result of human speculation, however penetrating, but is imparted to and apprehended by those whose minds are invaded by a divine revelation. So to Simon, after his climactic outburst in Caesarea Philippi, the mystic rejoinder comes, ‘Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.’ (Matt. xvi. 17; cp. also xi. 27). This is strongly borne out by the Johannine record of Christ’s intimate prayer to the Father before the final conflict of the Cross. The disciples are referred to as ‘the men whom thou gavest me out of the world...’, regarding whom, together with all believers in every age, perfect unity of purpose is expressed, as between Father and Son, and in whom this unity of love must be progressively reflected or realized. ‘All mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.... Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word; that they may all be one; ... that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them.’ (John xvii. 6-26.) The whole atmosphere and manner of this prayer suggests that it will be unconditionally answered (see verse 2). Such is the Scripture testimony adduced as to the essence of such a call; but now that which is remarked as to the means whereby it is applied to each believer may be reviewed. A catena of passages from the Pauline Epistles is brought to bear on this vital aspect of the subject. In 2. Tim. i. 9, the phrase kl»sei ¡g…v (‘holy calling’) is most interesting, being in the instrumental case adverbial to kalšsantoj (‘having called’), which in turn is in parallel construction with sèsantoj ¹m©j (‘having saved us’). The conjunction kaˆ (and) may here quite reasonably be taken as having epexegetical force, so that the second makes a kind of synthetic parallelism, adding to the meaning. This would therefore seem to indicate that those who are saved are enabled to apprehend their salvation, not from their own initiative, but through a grace imparted in the ‘holy calling’.
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