Featured Is Grace Irresistible?

Calvin doesn't cover 2 Samuel 12:23 so we go to John Gill,
Verse 23
But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast?.... And pray; it is to no purpose, no end can be thought to be answered by it:

can I bring him back again? from the state of the dead, bring him to life by fasting, and praying, and weeping; that is not to e expected:

I shall go to him; to the state of the dead, to the grave, where his body was, or would be; to heaven and eternal happiness, where his soul was, as he comfortably hoped and believed: from whence it appears, that the Old Testament saints did not suppose an annihilation at death; but believed the immortality of the soul, a future state after death of eternal life and bliss:
but he shall not return to me; in the present mortal state, though at the resurrection they should meet again.
We see Matthew Henry on 2 Samuel 12:23
To him to the grave. Note, The consideration of our own death should moderate our sorrow at the death of our relations. It is the common lot; instead of mourning for their death, we should think of our own: and, whatever loss we have of them now, we shall die shortly, and go to them. Secondly, To him to heaven, to a state of blessedness, which even the Old Testament saints had some expectation of. Godly parents have great reason to hope concerning their children that die in infancy that it is well with their souls in the other world; for the promise is to us and to our seed, which shall be performed to those that do not put a bar in their own door, as infants do not.

Gill sees all infants or young going to heaven and Matthew Henry sees he believers children going to heaven. Bottom Line David said He would go to him

 

Where exactly do you all see this in the text, that works are in the sight of men, and faith is in the sight of God? I don't see that anywhere, but I do see this in the text:

14 What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him?

Is that before men or before God?

I see this:

21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?
22 Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect;

Was Abraham's works before men or before God?

What about these works, before men or before God?:

6 who will render to every man according to his works:
7 to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life: Ro 2

What about these works?:

28 Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice,
29 and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.

In fact, show me one passage pertaining to our eternal judgment that isn't about works. You people have gone to seed with 'faith alone'.

 

The fact is I'd never heard of 'easy believism' until I joined this site, and most likely it was from a MacArthurite. For the record I'm a huge fan of Mt 11:28-30.

 

I have no idea how any of the above addresses the seeming discrepancy between:

....the doers of the law shall be justified: Ro 2:13

....and:

...by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified... Ro 3:20

 

So God "calls people" to His ministry fully knowing they are destined for an eternity in everlasting torture and no matter how authentically they convey the promise of the Gospel, even actually seeing others saved through their ministries, they themselves can never obtain that same salvation because has condemned them, even though they are are preachers of the Gospel, to Hell?

How, then, can we ever truly know we are in the grip of grace having "confessed with our mouths and believed in our hearts" a Gospel that has, ultimately, been made ontologically unavailable to us?

 

You are totally confused. It's not referencing preachers of the Word or Gospel. It's speaking of some though being under the sound of the ministry of the Word, nevertheless are unregenerate --i.e. nonelect.

 

Hello PJ,

Many sit under the word being preached and taught. They come out for their own reasons in the strength of the flesh. They are religious, and see some good in "going to church".
These devoid of the Spirit will be rejected as without a wedding garment.

mt22;
9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

 

Cute, and so clever. It actually requires more than the one verse to understand and the brevity on my part was intended to direct you to the entire passages.

Though certainly redeemed, 'the law written in their hearts' denotes 'regenerate'.

13 for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified:
14 (for when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are the law unto themselves;
15 in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them);

Christ illustrated these truths wonderfully in Luke 10:29-36. It wasn't the priest or the Levite, who had the law and were hearers of it, but it was a Samaritan that had compassion on him that had fallen to the robbers. The priest and the Levite went to the other side of the road and walked on by, but the Samaritan proved to be neighbor, he showed the agape of a regenerate heart that fulfills the law as described in Ro 13:8-10.

And it bothers me not in the least to explain these things to you. The underlying continuity throughout THE BOOK never ceases to amaze me and I'm happy to share it with you.

 

"....the doers of the law shall be justified: Ro 2:13"

Works that come naturally from the regenerate heart.

"...by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified... Ro 3:20"

Works performed intentionally to earn favor.

 

Isaac born after the Spirit before he was weaned; David made to hope while on his mother's breast; John the Baptist filled with the Spirit while in the womb; Paul separated from his mother's womb to preach to the nations; yes, it's obvious, it's irresistible.

 

Congratulations, you found the exceptions. BTW, you forgot Mary.

 

Excellent. Thank you.

 

Is Grace irresistible or better can it be resisted? First look at Adam and Eve, God said don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you thereof ye shall die.

So Adam was given a choice, follow God's command or reject God and eat of the tree. Eve was tempted we all agree there, but did she have to give in to temptation, for that matter do we? She didn't have to but she had Volition that the ability to chose and she chose to give in to the temptation from satan, she chose to violate God's command, didn't she?

Adam had the fruit brought to him and he chose to eat thereof, could he have resisted or did God build him to be irresistable to that temptation. We see he mad a conscious choice by volition to disobey and by that sin entered into the world and death by sin.

So what about God's offer of Grace for salvation, did Adam and Eve coose to believe that a savior was coming or did God force it upon them?
What about Cain he knew there was a God and he knew of the promised see, and what was he told,
Genesis 4:
6 And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Very clear Christ is giving Cain a choice an offer, do what I command and believe or keep on being rejected, who had to make a choice here God or Cain?
Cain refused to accept what God ask Him to do yet God offered it to Him, if Grace is irresistible then god would not have offered him the choice to do well or not do well, God let Cain act through volition.

1 Timothy 2:
1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

Notice Paul says to pray for ALL MEN, not just believers nor those who are the elect. What are we to pray for Verse 4 God will have ALL me saved and come unto knowledge of the truth.
God's will is that all come to the truth, do ALL well many come to conviction and many rejest the Holy Spirit's drawing. But if grace is irresistable then God will have all men to be saved, everyone would be chosen for that is God's will that all be saved and yet not all are saved.
We see too Matthew 12:
31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
What is blasphemy against the Spirit?

Rejecting His call, associating His works to those of satan, and thus rejecting the Holy Spirit's call continually. Saul rejected and rejected, he heard Stephen speak and reject, that resisted the Holy Spirt that day, Acts 7:51, Saul was right there resisiting the Holy Spirit's call, resisiting God's grace, until that day on the Damascus road when finally the Lord Jesus drew him and he answered the call. He resisted Stephens witness by his own volition, but then on the road to Damascus he used his volition and believed. Incident upon incident we see that people resist the call,
Acts 26:
27 King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.
28 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
29 And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.

King Agrippa resisted he exercised his volition that day and is in hell today because he reject the calling, Paul said "I know that thou believest" , Agrippa was right there he just needed to answer the drawing of the Holy Spirit but like the ones who judged Stephen he resisted the drawing and was forever lost as much as we know.

 

Hi brother this examples that you mentioned are not the same as when the gosple is preached to sinners. A baby in his mothers womb cannot resist or not resist the grace of God, it does not have that faculty or that capacity to accept or reject the grace of God. God im is sovereignty can fill with the Spirit John the Baprisyy and he can separate someone like Paul from his mothers womb to preach to the nations the gosple. Amen to that.

Is grace irresistible or is grace free? Did Christ died on the Cross for the sins of the world or just for the sins of the elect? Does God all will be saved and come to the knowledge of truth?

Questions that we need to honestly answer to ourselves in the light of God's truth and not in the light of our preconceived ideas that we have already formed.

Can grace be resisted? A sinner resists the free grace of God when he rejects the gosple and Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Since the day of Pentecost up to now there have been millions and millions of people who have resisted the free grace of God and they will give an account to God for that at the day of judgement.

In spite of all of men dosobidience not to obey the Word of God and believe Jesus Christ his Son, God in his mercy has elected a chosen people in Christ for himself and his glory.

It will be more correct to say that God drew the lost sheep to Christ the Shepherd and without this drawing no man can be saved. And those who are the true elect of God the Father will hear the voice of their Shepherd and Savior and come to him and be saved by the free grace of God.

Those who the Father has chosen to to be confirmed to the image of Christ will be saved and no devil or power or anything in this world or boyond it will be able to seperate them from the love of God.

 

Delivered from what?

 

For Psalms 22:9 we see Calvin's answer to this,
"9.Surely thou. David again here raises a new fortress, in order to withstand and repel the machinations of Satan. He briefly enumerates the benefits which God had bestowed upon him, by which he had long since learned that he was his father. Yea, he declares that even before he was born God had shown towards him such evidence of his fatherly love, that although now overwhelmed with the darkness of death, he might upon good ground venture to hope for life from him. And it is the Holy Spirit who teaches the faithful the wisdom to collect together, when they are brought into circumstances of fear and trouble, the evidences of the goodness of God, in order thereby to sustain and strengthen their faith. We ought to regard it as an established principle, that as God never wearies in the exercise of his liberality, and as the most exuberant bestowment cannot exhaust his riches, it follows that, as we have experienced him to be a father from our earliest infancy, he will show himself the same towards us even to extreme old age. In acknowledging that he was taken from the womb by the hand of God, and that God had caused him to confide upon the breasts of his mother, the meaning is, that although it is by the operation of natural causes that infants come into the world, and are nourished with their mother’s milk, yet therein the wonderful providence of God brightly shines forth. This miracle, it is true, because of its ordinary occurrence, is made less account of by us. But if ingratitude did not put upon our eyes the veil of stupidity, we would be ravished with admiration at every childbirth in the world. What prevents the child from perishing, as it might, a hundred times in its own corruption, before the time for bringing it forth arrives, but that God, by his secret and incomprehensible power, keeps it alive in its grave? And after it is brought into the world, seeing it is subject to so many miseries, and cannot stir a finger to help itself, how could it live even for a single day, did not God take it up into his fatherly bosom to nourish and protect it? It is, therefore, with good reason said, that the infant is cast upon him; for, unless he fed the tender little babes, and watched over all the offices of the nurse, even at the very time of their being brought forth, they are exposed to a hundred deaths, by which they would be suffocated in an instant. Finally, David concludes that God was his God. God, it is true, to all appearance, shows the like goodness which is here celebrated even to the brute creation; but it is only to mankind that he shows himself to be a father in a special manner. And although he does not immediately endue babes with the knowledge of himself, yet he is said to give them confidence, because, by showing in fact that he takes care of their life, he in a manner allures them to himself; as it is said in another place,

“He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry,” (Psalms 147:9.)

Since God anticipates in this manner, by his grace, little infants before they have as yet the use of reason, it is certain that he will never disappoint the hope of his servants when they petition and call upon him. This is the argument by which David struggled with, and endeavored to overcome temptation."

 

Now Calvin on Paul,
"Galatians 1:15
Who had separated me. This separation was the purpose of God, by which Paul was appointed to the apostolic office, before he knew that he was born. The calling followed afterwards at the proper time, when the Lord made known his will concerning him, and commanded him to proceed to the work. God had, no doubt, decreed, before the foundation of the world, what he would do with regard to every one of us, and had assigned to every one, by his secret counsel, his respective place. But the sacred writers frequently introduce those three steps: the eternal predestination of God, the destination from the womb, and the calling, which is the effect and accomplishment of both.

The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah, though expressed a little differently from this passage, has entirely the same meaning.

“Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb I sanctified thee; a prophet to the nations have I made thee.” (Jeremiah 1:5.)

Before they even existed, Jeremiah had been set apart to the office of a prophet, and Paul to that of an apostle; but he is said to separate us from the womb, because the design of our being sent into the world is, that he may accomplish, in us, what he has decreed. The calling is delayed till its proper time, when God has prepared us for the office which he commands us to undertake.

Paul’s words may therefore be read thus: “When it pleased God to reveal his Son, by me, who called me, as he had formerly separated me.” He intended to assert, that his calling depends on the secret election of God; and that he was ordained an apostle, not because by his own industry he had fitted himself for undertaking so high an office, or because God had accounted him worthy of having it bestowed upon him, but because, before he was born, he had been set apart by the secret purpose of God.

Thus, in his usual manner, he traces his calling to the good pleasure of God. This deserves our careful attention; for it shows us that we owe it to the goodness of God, not only that we have been elected and adopted to everlasting life, but that he deigns to make use of our services, who would otherwise have been altogether useless, and that he assigns to us a lawful calling, in which we may be employed. What had Paul, before he was born, to entitle him to so high an honor? In like manner we ought to believe, that it is entirely the gift of God, and not obtained by our own industry, that we have been called to govern the Church.

The subtle distinctions into which some commentators have entered in explaining the word separated, are altogether foreign to the subject. God is said to separate us, not because he bestows any peculiar disposition of mind which distinguishes us from others, but because he appoints us by his own purpose (28). Although the apostle had most explicitly attributed his calling to the free grace of God, when he pronounced that voluntary separation from the womb to be the origin of it, yet he repeats the direct statement, both that, by his commendation of Divine grace, he may take away all grounds of boasting, and that he may testify his own gratitude to God. On this subject he is wont freely to expatiate, even when he has no controversy with the false apostles"
Virtually everyone of us has received our call before we were born, we see why in
Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
Why were Isaac, Jacob, David, Jeremiah and Paul all seen as called to office before birth or on their mothers womb, because as God told Jeremiah "before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. This brings us back to God's knowing beforehand, Foreknowledge, God knew that each and every one of these men would trust Him, He knew Beforehand all about them, Calvin states this in the above "what he would do with regard to every one of us, and had assigned to every one, by his secret counsel, his respective place. But the sacred writers frequently introduce those three steps: the eternal predestination of God, the destination from the womb, and the calling, which is the effect and accomplishment of both." So if this calling to office was accomplished beforehand as Paul and Jeremiah state then it holds true what Paul stated, "Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." 1 Peter 1:2 "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied."

Very clear God has called us, elected us and given us the Spiritual Gifts we need because He knew everything about us beforehand. While the decision to trust Him is resistible, He knows who will answer the call and who will resist and therefore election and our office for Him are Predestined.