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Calvinism 4.0: Purchased by the Son

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Introduction

The doctrines of grace are a set of doctrines which describe the three persons of the Trinity as working in concert to secure our salvation. Those whom the Father chose, the Son purchased with His own blood. Those whom the Son purchased with His own blood, the Spirit effectually calls when He converts. At every turn, we are talking about the same group of people. The Father decided, before all worlds, the Son sacrificed before your world, and the Spirit regenerates, ushering you into a new world.

The Son does not try to save different people than the Father has chosen. The Spirit does not try to quicken different people than were bought by the Lord’s blood. The doctrines of grace are doctrines of triune harmony. All three have an identical cross-purpose, which means they are not working at cross-purposes.

The Text

“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14–15).

Summary of the Text

The Scriptures teach us that Jesus died for individuals. He did not die for a cluster or a mass of people. He died for His sheep. He died to secure the salvation of particular persons. He is the good shepherd, and a good shepherd counts his sheep (Prov. 27:23). His sheep know Him, and He knows His sheep. “And am known of mine” (v. 14). His sheep know Him, the Father knows Him, and in the same way He knows the Father. This is how and why He lays down His life for the sheep. Note this—“even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep” (v. 15). The sacrifice of Christ for His own sheep is a sacrifice that emerged from His knowledge of the Father.

What Shall We Call It?

We will simplify all this if we begin by rejecting a term that is commonly applied to this doctrine. The rejected phrase is that of limited atonement. It should be rejected for two reasons. One is that it is misleading with regard to the teaching of the Bible, and the other is that it misrepresents the nature of the debate. One of the most obvious features of the atonement in Scripture is its universality. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the world. God so loved the world.” Consequently, a phrase which seems to deny that universality on the surface is really not all that useful.

Secondly, every Christian who holds to the reality of eternal judgment believes (in some sense) in a limited atonement. The debate is over which aspect is limited—is it the efficacy or extent of it? But more on that shortly.

If you tell someone that you believe in limited atonement, and he disagrees with you, what will he say he believes in? Why, in unlimited atonement—which certainly sounds more biblical. But if you say that you believe in definite atonement, what does he have to say? He has to disagree by saying he believes in indefinite atonement—Jesus died for no one in particular.

So present the question to yourself in this way. It is not a choice between limited and unlimited atonement. It is a choice between definite and indefinite atonement. Did Jesus die in order to secure the salvation of particular individuals? The biblical answer is yes.

Vicarious Atonement

The universality of the atonement in Scripture is not the only obvious thing about it. Another truth, equally precious, and equally clear, is that the atonement is substitutionary.

This means that if Christ died for someone, the for means instead of. It is not a “potential substitution, if only . . .” It is an actual substitution, and therefore efficacious. In our text, Christ lays down His life for the sheep—not the goats. For more on this, consider:

“Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:25–27).

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

It all comes down to this. Christ did not die trying to save anybody. Christ died to secure the salvation of His sheep. The debate centers on the meaning of the word for in the phrase, “Jesus died for sinners.” What does that for mean? One position is that Jesus died to give a chance to sinners, if they only believe, which they probably won’t. The biblical position is that Jesus died instead of particular named sinners, in order to secure and guarantee their salvation.

Christ Died For . . .

Following the great John Owen, we should understand we have only four basic options. Christ died for:

  1. All Sins of men;
  2. All if sins of some men;
  3. Some sins of all men;
  4. Some sins of some men

If we opt for #3 or #4, then we have to say that no one is saved, because all have some sins still to account for. If we say that #1 is the case, then the question becomes why some men are lost. If the answer is “because they do not believe,” is this unbelief a sin, or not? If not, why are they condemned for it? If so, then did Jesus die for it? If so, then why are they not saved? If not, then Jesus did not die for all sins—leaving us with the glories contained within #2.

So some believers limit the efficacy of the atonement, while we do limit its extent. But for us, this limitation is not a tiny limitation. It has borders, but it is an expansive reality. Compare a great wide bridge going across a chasm, which all human beings can fit on, but which does not reach the other side. Contrast this with a narrower bridge, but which crosses the chasm. That does not require the narrow bridge to be a rope walk, or a zip line.

But What about Those Universal Passages?

Doesn’t the Bible say that God so loved the world? Yes, it does, and yes, He does. But let’s take a look at how the Bible uses the term world (Grk. kosmos).

  1. Kosmos describes the universe as a whole (Acts 17:24);
  2. Kosmos describes the earth (John 13:1; Eph. 1:4);
  3. Kosmos describes the world-system (John 12:31);
  4. Kosmos describes the entire human race (Rom. 3:19);
  5. Kosmos describes the entire human race minus believers (John 15:18);
  6. Kosmos describes Gentiles as opposed to Jews (Rom. 11:12);
  7. Kosmos describes a redeemed humanity (John 1:29; 3:16-17; 6:33; 12:47; 2 Cor. 5:19).

In the backdrop of this discussion, remember what you have been taught about the greatness of the Great Commission. The earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The Bible does teach that the world is the object of God’s redemptive and salvific intention. This does not mean that every last person is saved, but it does mean that Christ has secured the salvation of an innumerable host, too big to be counted, and He did it name-by-name.

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).

And every last member of this saved world has been given a white stone, and a new name along with it, a name known only to God and the one receiving it (Rev. 2:17). And that name is only possible because it is followed by the apposition “purchased by the blood.”

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Calvinism 4.0: Election by the Father

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Introduction

Everyone who believes the Bible knows that the doctrine of sovereign election is taught there. Unfortunately, this does not mean that we have universal agreement on the doctrine. There are two main approaches to the subject, the first being that God elects His own on the basis of foreseen faith. The second approach, which I am setting before you here as the teaching of Scripture, is that God elects His own on the basis of His good pleasure alone. The usual name for this understanding is unconditional election, which may cause some confusion. Unconditional election can sound like arbitrary election, or capricious election, which it is not at all. There are conditions involved in our election, just not any conditions to be met by us.

The Text

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 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. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth” (Rom. 8:28–33).

Summary of the Text

When Scripture says that “all things work together for good,” this does not mean that every episode in your life has a happy ending. It does not mean that if you wreck your old automobeater that God will bequeath to you a new BMW. The blessing is for those who are the called according to His purpose (v. 28), and then he outlines that purpose. For those upon whom He set His electing love beforehand (i.e. foreknew), He predestined to a final glorification, that of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (v. 29). This is so Christ could be the firstborn among many brothers. And the whole thing is put together in a tight weave. Here it is: foreknown > predestined > called > justified > glorified (v. 30). The glorification is what we are predestined to, and the calling and justification are God’s intervention in our lives to bring this about. And the headwaters of all of it is the election of the Father. What is the application? It is to not care what the enemies of your soul might want to say about it (v. 31). If God gave up His Son to accomplish this salvation of yours, why would He be reluctant to give you anything else (v. 32)? Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect when God is the one who justifies? If God justifies in the middle of this unbreakable golden chain, we may reason—in fact, so invited, we must reason—from that middle to both the beginning and end of it, which means election and glorification. And the headwaters of all it is sovereign election.

In Whom?

We must begin with the understanding that election cannot be understood apart from Christ. Christ is the Elect One, and all those whom God choose to give to Him are therefore elect in Him. Our election can no more be separated from Christ than any other aspect of our salvation. We are elect because He is elect.

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:1).

The New Testament contains this same truth.

“Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded” (1 Peter 2:6). “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,” (1 Peter 1:20).

Our election and Christ’s election are also seen together.

“Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).

In short, God loves you from forever because He loves His Son from forever.

When?

The biblical answer to the question of when is unambiguous. Before the world was created, before eternal times, God picked out a people for Himself. For those who honor Scripture, there can be no real debate about when God’s election of His people occurred.

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9).

Two more should suffice. “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34).

And of course: “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” (Eph. 1:4).

But Why?

For those who believe the Bible, this is really the heart of the debate. There is really no honest way to evade the force of the Bible’s teaching on when election occurs. Therefore, those who want to dispute the force of this truth do it by seeking to modify the nature of this election.

The biblical position is that God made this choice according to His good pleasure. The more popular view is that He made His choice on account of foreseen faith.

First, the Bible excludes human choice as the basis of God’s choice:

“(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) . . . “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy . . . Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” (Romans 9:11, 16, 18).

But what about the “foreknowledge” argument . . .?

“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” (1 Peter 1:2).

“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” (Rom. 8:29).

There are two important things to note in the Romans passage. One is the object of the verb, and the second is the nature of the verb. The object consists of persons, not actions. The verb refers to love, not cognition.

The Results

When this doctrine is understood and affirmed, there are practical consequences.

Real confidence: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth” (Rom. 8:33).

True tenderness: “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering . . .” (Col. 3:12).

And the only way such triumph and tenderness can live in peace together is when you are clothed in the election of Christ.

 

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Calvinism 4.0: Man as Fallen

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Introduction

The nature of the problem dictates whether or not there can even be a solution, and if so, what that solution might be. Among evangelical Christians, the nature of the “problem” salvation that salvation solves can be described in two basic ways. Either man is sick in his sin, needing to take the medicine, or he is dead in his sin, needed to be resurrected from the dead.

Our purpose here is to examine which of these two options is the Bible’s teaching on this subject.

Free Agents

As we have already considered, because all men are free agents they are free to do as they please. But because they are sinners, what they please to do is sin. They cannot please to choose contrary to their nature, because if they could, it wouldn’t be their nature.

“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:21–23).

The source of all the evil things we do is the unflattering fact of the evil creatures that we are.

As creatures, men are free to do as they please. As sinners, men are not free to do right. If a man could repent his sins and believe in Christ with his old heart, then this would be proof positive that he didn’t really need a new heart. He could do all that God requires of us (repent and believe) with his old heart. Apparently the old heart just needed a little encouragement.

Spiritual Death

Now the Scriptures expressly describe the unregenerate condition as being one of death. This does not mean that unbelievers are dead in every possible respect—but with regard to spiritual things, they certainly are in a condition of death. For example, sinners can be physically alive while spiritually dead.

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph. 2:1–3).

We walked in accordance with the pattern of the world. The spirit at work in the children of disobedience worked in our conversation (that is, in our manner of living). So clearly we were moving about—all while dead in our trespasses and sins.

Spiritual Slavery

Another picture that excludes “free will” with regard to salvation is the picture of slavery. Dead men do not walk out of the grave, and slaves do not walk away from their masters.

“For when ye were the servants [douloi, slaves] of sin, ye were free from righteousness” (Romans 6:20).

This is a different image, but one that also communicates a sense of utter inability to break free from sin. Dead men can’t reach life. Slaves cannot reach liberty.

No Autonomous Seekers

Now we all know that people do not become Christians unless they seek the Lord. The debate between Christians on this point therefore is not over whether we need to seek the Lord. It is over why we seek the Lord, if and when we do. Men, left to themselves, relinquished to their own devices, will not seek after God. And this is what the Bible explicitly and expressly teaches.

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10–12).

How many are unrighteous? All. How many seek a way out of their unrighteousness? None.

An Important Qualification

This doctrine I am setting before you is sometimes called the doctrine of total depravity. This is a poor name for it because it makes people think you are maintaining a doctrine of absolute depravity. But we are not saying that unbelievers are the orcs, and we are the elves. It is not like that. We are saying that unbelievers are, apart from a gift of grace, on their way to Hell. We are not maintaining that they have already arrived there.

We are saying that because of Adam’s sin, and our complicity in it, our fall into helplessness was total. There is a total inability to save ourselves, to prepare ourselves for salvation, or to request salvation.

One other qualification. An unregenerate person can love the Lord, but only by radically misunderstanding and misconstruing Him. An unregenerate person can understand the Lord in His holiness, but this results in a simple recoil away from Him. The only way a sinner can understand who God is, and also love Him, is if the Spirit of God has granted him a new heart.

This basic point is seen in the Bible’s description of the minds of unbelievers. They are seen as hostile to God (that is, to God as He actually is).

“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7–8; cf. 1 Cor. 2:14).

Who Then Can Be Saved?

The problem with all this is that it leaves us without hope of salvation, right? No, it leaves us without hope of salvation from man. What is impossible for men is possible for God.

“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).

“And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father” (John 6:65).

If the Father does not do the drawing, if the Father does not give it, a man cannot come. Another translation for the word for draw (elkuo) is drag or haul. “How did you come to Christ?” “Oh, I was hauled.”

But does this mean that no one ever comes? No—it means that everyone who comes (and remember that the entire world will eventually come) has been hauled in by God.

“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

What man cannot do with any success, God can do with no failure. And what is that? The resurrection of the dead.

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Kirkers Read Podcast #1: Translating and Translations w/ Pastor Douglas Wilson

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In this first episode of the special Kirkers Read podcast, Pastor Wilson discusses some of the philosophy of translation styles and the various translations that result. He also offers some very practical advice and insight on what your strategy should be for daily Bible reading.

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Calvinism 4.0: The Liberty of the Creature

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Introduction

The theologians behind the Westminster Confession said something that was curious, and it was this: They did not want to say that God’s absolute sovereignty was merely consistent with the liberty of creaturely will, but rather that God’s sovereignty was what established the liberty of that will. God does not offer violence to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established (WCF 3.1).

In order to understand this rightly, we have to be careful to define our terms carefully. What do we mean by the freedom of the will exactly?

The Text

“Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (Matt. 12:33-35).

Summary of the Text

Jesus begins by noting that the nature of the tree determines the nature of the fruit. Good tree > good fruit. In the same way, if the tree is corrupt, then it follows that the fruit will be corrupt as well. Bad tree > bad fruit. Because this is the case, we are encouraged to reason from the fruit to the tree. The Lord then calls them a generation of vipers, poisonous snakes, and says that what comes out of their fangs will be venom and not sweet water. In this first comparison, the words a man speaks are the fruit, and the heart of that same man is the tree. The contents of the heart determine the contents of the speech. The Lord then switches to a third example. You can only take out of a chest that which was already in the chest. A good man has a good treasure chest for a heart, and consequently good choices come out. A bad man has evil treasure, and this is what determines what can be taken out.

Two Definitions

In evangelical circles, there are two differing definitions of freedom that are common. One definition says that free will is the “power of contrary choice.” In other words, take that moment when you were standing at the crossroads, deciding whether to go right or to go left. This definition says that at two different times, with all the antecedent circumstances being the identical, you had the full and complete ability to go either right or to go left.

The other view—and incidentally, the one the Lord was assuming in the text—is that a man is free to choose whatever his heart wants. He is free when he is not externally constrained. You choose what it was that you wanted, and what you wanted was determined by your nature. There are complicated examples of this principle, but there are also very simple examples.

If Smith points a gun at Jones and tells him to take the road to the right, then Jones is not free. But if Jones goes down that road because he loves the view that way, and detests the view on the other way, and has loved and detested them for as long as he can remember, his choice being constrained by nothing other than his desires, then we would say that his choice is unconstrained.

Now if you were to hold your breath right now, and were to do so for over a minute, would you want to breathe? Would the fact that God created your lungs and gave them to you keep that desire to breathe from being yours? Not a bit of it. You choose to breathe, and you choose to breathe because you want to. You want to because that innate desire was a gift to you from God. Some people reason that this desire couldn’t really be yours if it was given to you by God. Others, and we should be among them, should reason that if God gave it to us, then it must be ours.

The Metal Hand Will

So picture one of those games at the fair where a glass bin is full of not very expensive teddy bears, and there is a metal hand there, a metal grappling hook, that the carnie will let you manipulate for fifty cents. The human will is that grappling hook. It has no power to determine or alter the contents of the bin. Its only power is that of identifying “the largest teddy bear.”

Our choices do not decide for us. Our choices reveal us. If what they reveal is unsavory or unflattering, then we are driven to turn to the only one who can do anything to help us.

Think About It for Another Moment

Suppose the elders were to confront a straying member who was getting drunk every weekend. They asked him to explain his behavior, and suppose that he said that every weekend, his strongest desire was to read his Bible and go to church. Instead “mysterious forces” would land him in the bars. But he should not be faulted because what he really wanted to do was study Leviticus.

The reply would be that his will revealed what his strongest desire was. The ability to choose contrary to what you want is not liberty, but rather insanity. “Why did you throw the vase against the wall?” “Because I wanted to go for a walk in the garden.”

Transformation occurs when the contents of the heart are changed. Transformation across a series of decisions occurs when we do things that the Holy Spirit uses to alter the contents of our hearts. He alters it radically in conversion, and then steadily over the course of our sanctification through the various means of grace that He has appointed.

The Plain Necessity of the New Birth

If you could repent and believe with your old heart, then you would not really need a new heart. If you could love Jesus with your old heart, then you didn’t really need for Jesus to give you a new heart.

Our foundational problem, apart from Christ, is therefore not what we do, but rather what we are. What we do does matter, but in the sense that our actions reveal what we are. And this should drive us to adore God’s kindness, for we know that we have no control over our nature. Apart from Christ, we think we have full control over our actions, like the kid playing with a plastic steering wheel in the back of a shopping cart.

God gives us new eyes and then we see. God gives us ears, and it is then that we begin to hear. God gives us a heart that loves Him, and so we turn away from sin in disgust, and toward Him with true affection.

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