Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Questions about grace and faith: Is God’s grace irresistible and is belief a choice? If faith isn’t a choice, do we really have free will? A great discussion ahead, thank you for joining us today on Grace and Focus. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society and our website is faithalone.org. We also have a free online seminary where you can earn an MDiv degree. Go through the application process now, we’ll soon be doing registration for the spring semester. Also, take a look at our annual national conference coming up in May 18th through 21st. You’ll find it under Events at our website, faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here’s Bob Wilkin, along with Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, Bob, we have a couple questions that we’re going to combine into one because they’re related, but I’m going to start with Buck’s question. His first big question is, does Free Grace, or GES specifically, promote irresistible grace? 

BOB: No. 

SAM: All right, thank you everybody for coming. We’ll see you tomorrow. That’s the opening question, but he has a lot of reasons why he’s asking that. It’s not exactly what you think. The way he broke it down in his email, he’s viewing, we say belief is being convinced that something is true. And this is where Grant’s question comes in, which is, is faith a choice is the relevant part of his question or belief—is belief a choice? 

BOB: And the answer there is no. 

SAM: Exactly, but then when we combine them, the question that arises is, let’s say I’m talking to an atheist or probably an agnostic would be better someone who’s just

BOB: They’re uncertain. 

SAM: Yeah, they’re uncertain. If I’m talking to them and I present John 3:16 and other evangelistic verses from the Gospel of John and they’re convinced, it clicks for them. Wow. Okay. This Jesus guy, Son of God, He gives everlasting life to everyone who believes in Him for it. And they’re convinced, but then they don’t want that. Then at that point is the grace irresistible is what Buck’s question is. And then for Grant, the question is, they didn’t choose to believe that. They just believed it. So does man have free will?

BOB: Yes, people have free will. So it gets a little complicated. But first of all, irresistible grace is the fourth point of Calvinism. People remember with the T-U-L-I-P tulip. And the Calvinist position, Christ only died for the elect. And if you’re not elect, there’s no chance for you to be born again. But if He did die for you, then you’re irresistibly drawn to Christ. And you’re going to be given the gift of faith after you’re born again. So regeneration precedes faith and you don’t believe—God gives you the gift of faith. So that’s all irresistible because God just causes you to be born again and then gives you the gift of faith. Most Calvinists would say the gift of faith comes a nanosecond after you’re born again. But [Stephen] Smallman wrote a book and he talked about one guy that was born again 60 years before he believed. So he was an unbelieving born again person for 60 years. And then he finally believed when he was given the gift of faith. 

So that’s the first point. It’s the fourth point of Calvinism and basically according to this, if you are irresistibly drawn, you’re going to persevere in faith in good works until you die. And that’s your basis of assurance. You look at your works and you go, well, I hope I stay on this trajectory because if I get mad, now I doubt my salvation. If I get road rage, I doubt my salvation. If I get in the fight with my spouse, I doubt my salvation. So that’s the first thing. 

In terms of, if the agnostic believed. John 3:16, he’s no longer an agnostic because now he believes God exists. Let’s say he doesn’t want it. This is the old issue used to be it was a question raised at Florida Bible College, which is a historic Free Grace school. They would ask this question, what about the person who believes the promise of everlasting life, but doesn’t want it because their parents died as unbelievers or something. If you think you have to want it to get it, then you don’t believe John 3:16, because John 3:16 doesn’t say, for God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in him and wants everlasting life will never perish, but has everlasting life. If the person believed it, they would know they had it and they might go, shucks, I’ve got it, but I don’t want it, but they would know they had it. 

Now, I don’t believe there’s been a person in the history of mankind that they got it and they didn’t want, but if there were such a person and they believed it, they would know they had it. 

SAM: So then the question, the decision-making side is, if it’s not a decision, it’s a thing you’re convinced of, then how do we say man has free will because if I just convince someone, God has given them everlasting life against their will because they didn’t want it. The question is where does man’s free will come into it if it’s not a decision, if it’s just a connection?

BOB: So the way I like to say it, I’m going to give you a couple of three different passages that you can look at, but the way I explain it is unbelief is a choice, belief isn’t. If you don’t believe, you can choose to be closed to the evidence. You cannot look at the sky and say the heavens declare the glory of the Lord. If a Christian wants to talk to you about Christ, you can say I’m not interested. You can close yourself off. 

ANNOUNCER: Did you know that the Grace Evangelical Society offers an MDiv degree through our online seminary and tuition is free to those who maintain a 3.0 grade average? It is a three-year degree program and you could submit your application now to gain acceptance. Then stay apprised of our registration periods for upcoming semester terms. Program and application details can be found at GESSeminary.org. Have a look at our MDiv degree. Become an approved workman. Find out how GESSeminary.org.

BOB: Let me give you three Scriptures to talk about this: Act 17:27. God has granted to all peoples, including the Gentiles, that they can search after God or grope after God and find Him, and He’s not far from all of us. What that verse is saying is, people can seek Him and they will find Him. 

Another verse that specifically says that is Matthew 7:7-11. Ask, seek, knock. It’s not just asking Him for eternal life. It’s anything, asking Him for any revelation, for blessings in life, or whatever. If you ask, it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and it will be opened to you, right? So that’s a general principle. 

And the third verse, which is even more powerful than the other two, because it is a salvific verse, is John 5:39-40. It’s Jesus talking to some very legalistic Jews. And He’s talking to them about searching the Scriptures.

SAM: “You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of Me, but you’re not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

BOB: So unbelief is a choice. You’re not willing to come to me that you may have life. Same thing with “ask, seek, knock”, same thing with “groping after God” or searching after God. Even Hebrews 11:6, “God’s a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” 

So my answer to both Grant and Buck would be, no, God’s grace is definitely resistible. Look at John 5:39-40. You’re not willing to come to Me that you may have life. They’re resisting it. And Jesus called them a stiff-necked people, uncircumcised of heart. That’s resisting, right? 

He even told, remember what He told Saul on the road to Damascus. It’s hard when you kicked against the goads. God has been moving him. Jesus had been moving him toward faith. Every time he would arrest a Christian, the Christian will be talking to him about Jesus. And he’d been resisting, resisting, resisting. So Jesus says, well, I’m going to turn up the heat a little bit. I’m going to appear to him face to face. And guess what? Saul came to faith at that moment. Was that forced upon him? No, he believed. 

There are lots of people who have said, you know, I wouldn’t care if Jesus appeared to me or God appeared to me. I wouldn’t believe. And I think there are people like that. I’m not convinced that the Damascus road experience would lead 100% of mankind to faith in Christ. I think it would lead most people. 

SAM: I mean, he could have said if he was so hard of heart and closed off, he could have said it was just a ghost. It was a, you know, something bad I had for lunch. Well, you know, he didn’t have to, he didn’t have to be open to it, but it convinced him and he believed, because—

BOB: it seems to me hypothetically, he might not even have come to faith then. And there’s another verse you might look at, which Calvinists love, but it’s Acts 16 when it’s talking about Lydia, maybe you can turn there. Acts 16, I believe it’s verse 14, where it says God opened Lydia’s heart. 

SAM: Yeah. “Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshiped God and the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.” 

BOB: Now what Calvinists say is that his regeneration preceding faith. That makes no sense. He didn’t—opening a heart is never in the New Testament spoken of as regeneration. The closest we have to that is opening understanding of people so that they might believe something. For example, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He opened their understanding to the Old Testament Scriptures and their hearts burned within them as they came to believe all these Old Testament Scriptures. I think what that verse is clearly saying is God opened her heart so that she might believe what Paul and Silas were saying. And when she did, she was born again. 

And I think that happened for you, Sam, and for me, and for every one of you listening. At the moment of faith, God opened our heart, we saw this as true and we were convinced. But before that, we were like Lydia. She wasn’t just at any old place. She was at the place of prayer. She was seeking God. She was a God-fearing Gentile who had been worshiping at this place of prayer for a long time. And Cornelius is another example in Acts 10. He was a God-fearing Gentile who was seeking God and God sent an angel and said said for Simon Peter and he came and evangelized him. 

So no, God’s grace is definitely not irresistible. It’s resistible and faith is not a choice, no, but unbelief is. So what anyone should do, if you have an unbelieving loved one, pray for them to become a seeker. Pray for them to be open. And if you get a chance to talk with them, challenge them to read the Gospel of John and to ask God, is this really true? It’s pretty simple, really. It comes down to, are people willing to look at the evidence. 

SAM: I think so. The willingness is the choice. That’s the free will of man to be open to God or to not be open. And how awful would it be if someone believed and then changed their mind later and God rejected them because that is them being snatched out of His hand, if the world turns them away from belief. And if He just let them go, then He broke His promise. 

BOB: Oh, yeah, you’re right. And of course that’s a whole other. But the point is, once you believe, you’re stuck with it. You’re never going to lose it. Even if later on, you stop believing, even if you were to become an atheist or even if you were to become a Buddhist or a Muslim or an opponent of Christianity, you still would have everlasting life. Because once you’re saved, you’re always saved. That’s what John 3:16 says, you’ll never perish. You’ll never hunger. You’ll never thirst. You’ll never die. You’ll never be cast out, the verse you’re talking about. 

SAM: And that’s good news. 

BOB: That’s good news. Well, thanks y’all. And what are we going to do? 

SAM: Keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: Be our guest and subscribe to our 48-page magazine, 6 issues per year also called Grace in Focus, by emailing your name and snail mail address to GES@faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org. On this program, we keep our requests for financial partners to a minimum. But if you’re interested in becoming a financial partner with Grace in Focus, you can find out how to do that at faithalone.org.

On our next episode: Can you find repentance in the Gospel of John? Please join us for that and in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.