Grace Can Be Resisted Until God Wills to Overcome Resistance
Irresistible grace is written off by a misunderstanding, and by pointing to texts that say you can resist God.
Acts 7:51
You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
Ephesians 4:30
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
1 Thessalonians 5:19
Do not quench the Spirit.
Romans 10:21
But as for Israel He says, “All the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
However, these texts do not ever say that God does not, will not, or cannot triumph over people’s resistance. There is no denying that God will sometimes allow us to resist for a season, but the question is does there come a point in time when God says “I’m done suffering this resistance, now I will triumph over this resistance. I’m through being grieved by this saint's recurring backsliding, I will now pour my spirit upon him afresh and lift him to a new level of sanctification and cause him to walk in my statutes.”? Is there a time after He holds out His hands to a person, He then reaches into their hearts to do more? There is nothing in these texts that contradict these possibilities. The question is does He? Look at the conversion of Lydia.
Acts 16:14
A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.
God overcame her resistance. He defeated it. He went under it and exploded it. He transformed it.
The doctrine of irresistible grace means that God is sovereign and can overcome all resistance when he wills. "He does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand!" (Daniel 4:35). "Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases" (Psalm 115:3). When God undertakes to fulfill his sovereign purpose, no one can successfully resist him.
Six Arguments for Irresistible Grace
Argument #1: Faith and repentance are a gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
What does this “that” refer to? In the Greek the word “that” is neuter, the words “salvation (saved)” “grace” and “faith”, as nouns, are feminine. The gift is either one of these or all of these. Since we know that grace and salvation are gifts, then we must realize that “that” is referring to all three.
Romans 12:3
For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
2 Timothy 2:24-26
The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
Acts 11:18
When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life."
Acts 16:14
A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.
2 Chronicles 30:6-12 (Hezekiah’s call for repentance)
O sons of Israel, return to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that He may return to those of you who escaped and are left from the hand of the kings of Assyria. Now do not stiffen your neck like your fathers, but yield to the LORD and enter His sanctuary which He has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you. For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.” So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD.
Argument #2: We cannot come to Christ unless God draws us.
John 6:44
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
John 6:63-65
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
An Arminian says a person who hears the Word is drawn by the Holy Spirit to begin to feel convicted of his/her sins and begin to feel like it’s simple, it would be a great thing to do, and then the Holy Spirit draws a line, because He doesn’t want to infringe upon self determination and free will, and backs off. At that point you, sovereign, self determining, and wooed, must finish it. The Calvinist does not stop there, but believes that the Holy Spirit does not back off, instead He convicts of sin, He opens the eyes of the blind, He opens the ears of the deaf, he awakens the dead, and He fills the person God draws with such enthusiasm that they push the door of their heart open. They must push it open…
Revelation 3:20
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”
…but behind the act of opening the door was a God who mercifully enabled it to happen.
John 12:32
"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."
The term “all men” refers to the sheep or those who God has chosen.
John 8:47
"He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God."
John 10:26
"But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.”
John 11:51-52
(Caiaphas) prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
Argument #3: God’s effectual calling overcomes resistance to the gospel.
1 Corinthians 1:22-24
Indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The effectual call and the general call are different. The general call such as the message of the gospel heard by those not drawn is what goes out to everyone, it reveals to the unbeliever the true blameworthiness of the heart, increasing accountability. Only those chosen receive the effectual call.
Argument #4: The new birth enables us to receive Christ.
1 John 5:1
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born [literally: perfect tense, “has been born”] of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.
John 1:11-13
He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe [= are believing] in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 3:3
Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Argument #5: The New Covenant promises a grace that will triumph over resistance.
Deuteronomy 29:2-4 (The problem with the Old Covenant)
And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.”
Deuteronomy 30:6
Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
Jeremiah 31:31-33
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Jeremiah 32:40
I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.
Ezekiel 11:19-20
And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
Argument # 6: Who then can resist his will?
Romans 9:14-23
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, though willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.
(References: John Piper and Desiring God)
We'll continue next Tuesday with what may be the most controversial section, Limited/Unlimited Atonement.
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