After covering man’s depravity, the topic expected to follow is election since the U (Unconditional Election) comes after the T in TULIP. I’m of the opinion, however, that it’s beneficial to first cover the I (Irresistible Grace) before moving on to the topic of election.
As stated earlier, a few of the headings behind the letters of TULIP can be somewhat misleading. Irresistible Grace is certainly one of those. Many Bible passages as well as general experience show us that God’s grace is very often resisted. Can the Calvinists not see this? Of course we do. We see where Stephen rebukes his persecutors, who were a “stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears,…”, they who “always resist the Holy Spirit,…”, just “as [their] fathers did…” (Acts 7:51 ESV). As Stephen made reference to here, we too see Israel’s almost continual resistance of God’s Spirit and His work among them in Egypt, in the wilderness, in the promised land, in their dealings with the prophets and the priests, and especially in their rejection of Messiah Jesus. As if these were not enough, we constantly see people in the Church struggling against the Spirit’s moving, feeling convicted and then running away, church-kids experiencing God’s grace often only to grow up and rebel. Furthermore, honest Christians will admit that he or she resists the inner workings of the Spirit in their personal lives far more than they see it in others. So what is this “irresistible” grace that the Calvinists speak of?
A better label for this doctrine would be Effectual Calling, but, as one of the great Reformed theologians of our time, Dr. R.C. Sproul, has noted, more appropriate terms would ruin our great acronym! TULEP just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Nonetheless, Irresistible Grace or Effectual Calling teaches that because man is so fallen (in the ways presented in the past 2 blog posts on Total Depravity), man needs a special work of grace performed within himself in order that he can come willingly to Christ for salvation. When God performs this specific work on a man’s heart, it is effectual or irresistable, hence the I in TULIP. What is this work? Conviction, Repentance, and ultimately Regeneration.
Like in the doctrine discussed previously, there are aspects of this one that all Christians should agree on. We all believe that man “must be born again” (John 3:7 ESV), and that it is God who does the regenerating. The question at hand is when does God regenerate a person. Specifically, does God regenerate those who believe, or, does man believe because he has been regenerated? Calvinists hold to the latter; non-Calvinists generally hold to the former.
This doctrine logically follows the teachings of Total Depravity. If you believe the first —that fallen man is in such a condition where they will not and cannot come to God due to their indwelling sin— and yet we see some people come to Christ to be saved, then it follows that something must have happened to that person to enable them to come. We call this regeneration. They who were “dead in their sins” were “made alive”. Paul lays this out directly in the second chapter of his letter to the Ephesians. We’ve looked at the first 3 verses in which he states our fallen condition in clear, precise terms. Then, we read:
Ephesians 2:4–5 (ESV): “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—“
“…when we were dead…”, “[God] made us alive…”
God does this work of “making alive” or regenerating through the preached Word and by the Spirit. This is where the drawing comes in that we discussed in the last blog. Another term for this drawing is calling (hence, the Effectual Call). The Reformed camp recognizes a distinction Scripture makes between a General and an Effectual call.
General Call- call to the whole world to repent and believe in Christ to be saved. However, this call falls on deaf ears due to the depravity of man. “The outward call”. Can be, and usually is, rejected.
Effectual Call- a special call by the Spirit of God to some through the preaching of the Gospel to believe in Christ. “The inward call”. Will not be refused.
We’ve already talked about why the General or outward call is rejected: man in sin loves the darkness more than the light. They cannot come to God in faith unless they are given by the Father to the Son. Therefore, regardless of how many times the gospel is preached to them, they will not humble themselves and become obedient to the gospel call unless their wills are changed, unless they are “made alive”, unless they are given “eyes to see and ears to hear”. These are done, however, by the Spirit through the Effectual or inward call. Lest you think I’m just making this up out of thin air, let us turn now to the Scriptures and show how we’ve come to this conviction. We can look closely at 2 passages in particular to make the point and then finish by providing other Scriptures for you to dig into in your own time.
1.) 1 Corinthians 1:9-31: Paul provides key insight into this and other important aspects of our faith in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians.
— Concluding his introduction in verse 9 he says: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:9 ESV). Note: Paul says it was God who “called” these believers into the fellowship of Christ (ie. The Church). This is uncontroversial because both Calvinists and non-Calvinists believe that everyone within the Church is called. Let us go on.
— Vs. 17 starts a section on the preaching of the gospel and the message of the cross of Christ.
— Vs. 18-31 are extremely relevant. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18 ESV). There are 2 groups identified here: “those who are perishing” and “us who are being saved”. These groups have very different evaluations of the message of the cross (Christ crucified); the former view the message as folly or “foolishness” (KJV), the latter see the message as “the power of God”.
— Vs. 21: “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (1 Cor. 1:21 ESV). God saves those who believe this message. This message of Christ crucified is “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, BUT TO THOSE WHO ARE CALLED, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (Vs. 23,24 ESV emphasis added). Who are they, then. who believe? Those called. Now, if called only means the general call of the gospel (the call to all men everywhere to repent and believe), then ALL would be saved. For verse 24 says that Christ is the power and wisdom of God to those “who are called.” We know this is not everyone to whom the call of the gospel goes out to. In fact, most who hear the gospel call view it as foolishness or a stumbling block. But to whomever this call goes out to, they believe.
— Vs. 26-30 make it clear that this calling was of specific people and not the calling that we see being made to the whole world. Instead, we see this calling as those who were: “not many of you were wise,…not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” (Vs. 26 ESV). Vs. 27 and 28 connects those called with those “chosen”: “the foolish”, “the weak”, “the low and despised”, “the things that are not”. Why these? “So that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (Vs. 29 ESV). Those called and chosen cannot boast because it wasn’t their doing that caused them to not view the message of Christ’s cross as foolishness… it was “because of him (God) you are in Christ Jesus,…” (Vs. 30 ESV).
2.) Romans 8:28-30: Here is another passage that identifies a “calling” that cannot possibly be referring to the general call of the gospel.
Romans 8:28–30 (ESV): And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Vs. 28 speaks of “those who are called”. Here would be a good place to prove the reality of different “calls”; ALL are called by the Gospel to believe, but ALL do not come. But this verse connects “those who love God” and “those who are called”.
They are called “according to His purpose”. This purpose will not be unfulfilled based on the next few verses.
Moving to vs 29 and 30: First, those who are “called”, God “foreknew”, and the same were “predestined”. (Here it could be said that their predestination was to the conformity of Christ, which is true, but this verse and the next goes further than just that.)
This is the chain of those who are called later “God’s Elect” (vs 33): they were foreknown, predestinated, *called*, Justified, and then Glorified. Whoever these who were “called” are, are the same as those who will be glorified one day.
This shows the process of the life of a Christian. This certainly couldn’t be speaking about all of humanity, because we know only those who believe will be saved. Therefore, the calling in the middle of this chain cannot be a calling that hinges on whether the person accepts or rejects the calling.
To insert (as some do) that those who go on to be justified and glorified are those who are called AND THEN “accept the offer” would be to add to the Word of God in a very serious way. All 5 of these are works of God. God foreknew, He predestined, He calls, He justifies, and He will glorify.
Let’s walk through an example of an unbeliever (person A) and see if this passage could be said of them: 1. “Person A was foreknown to God” — we could say yes because God knows all of His creation, ✔️. 2. “Person A was predestined” (Here let’s assume predestined means conformity into Christ’s image) — let’s say yes and assume that what’s being said here is that all are directed to live like Christ, ✔️. 3. “Person A is called”— this could be said based on the general Call of the gospel, ✔️. (But here, we insert the fact that he does not accept the call since our example is of an unbeliever). 4. “Person A is justified”- No, only those who believe will be justified ❌. 5. “Person A is glorified” No. ❌.
In this passage, the Scriptures specifically talk about a group that God foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. The same ones He predestined, are the same ones who will be glorified; the same ones called are the same ones who are justified.
Whatever the “calling” is Paul is referencing in these 2 passages is something different than the general call of the gospel; this calling (which we call “the Effectual Call”, or Irresistible Grace) accomplishes the very thing God sends it out to do: that is, to bring His elect people to Christ, convicting them of their sins, showing them their desperate need for salvation, and making them alive and willing to come to Him. Without this grace, man would never come to God. They would always resist His genuine offer of salvation in the gospel. But when God gives a man a new heart, a willing heart, He comes running to Christ for salvation. Christ becomes irresistible to him. This is why we believe regeneration comes before faith. We come to faith because God has made us alive and willing to respond. The next question that arises is: why doesn’t God give everyone this Irresistible Grace? This will lead us to our next subject — God’s gracious election.
Soli Deo Gloria.
For further reading on this topic, consider these passages in their own contexts:
To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep *hear his voice*, and *he calls his own sheep* by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the *sheep follow him because they know his voice*. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
— John 10:3-5 NASB
What if God, although 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, *even us, whom He also called*, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
— Romans 9:22-24 NASB
But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has *chosen you* from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this *He called you through our gospel*, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
— 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 NASB
For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, *those who have been called* may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
— Hebrews 9:15 NASB
But *you are a chosen race*, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has *called you* out of darkness into His marvelous light;
— 1 Peter 2:9 NASB
not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for *you were called for the very purpose* that you might inherit a blessing.
— 1 Peter 3:9 NASB
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