-Jon Irenicus
As I understand the term, "Irresistible Grace" implies that when God has decreed something for the good of his elect, God will carry out that plan sovereignly by using every possible means of Grace in accordance to his own good pleasure (Eph. 1:4-5, 11). God's Grace then, is irresistible; not merely in the sense that man cannot resist the exertions of Grace or of the Holy Spirit (Act. 7:51). It means, rather, that Grace can overcome all resistance and make his influence irresistible (1 Cor. 15:10). After all, God is sovereign and can overcome all resistance when he wills (Pss. 115:3; Dan. 4:35).
Also, it does not mean that God makes his elect receptive and obedient by FORCING their will; instead, he do so by inspiring them inwardly by the Holy Spirit’s conviction (2 Cor. 3:18), and outwardly by making all things work together for the good of his people (Rom. 8:28-30; Eph. 1:11), to the point that they, by their own free choice, will obey God and grow in love through faith (Phil. 2:13). This will be further explained again later.
Is God's sovereignty artificial?
If in the end Grace can be overcome by the will of man, then the truth of God's sovereignty will be at stake. (*Arminians also agree that God is absolutely Sovereign over ALL things, but at the same time "not so" sovereign over the will of man, for man is sovereign over his own salvation). Would God plan something and at the end fail in fulfilling that decree? Is God that weak that he will let his eternal decree fall into pieces just because man's so called free-will stood against it? Who is more sovereign then? The Potter or the clay? The Bible tells us that God is totally and absolutely sovereign in fulfilling his decrees. In the book of Isaiah, God declares:
- "[I am God, and no other is God, even none like Me], declaring the end from the beginning, and from the past things which were not done, saying, My purpose shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure. . . . Yes, I have spoken, I will also cause it to come; I have formed; yes, I will do it." Isaiah 46:10-11 (MKJV)
Morever, the Bible says that God's ways are all perfect; meaning, when he use something as a means to carry out his plan, it will be effectual and efficacious (Ecc. 28:15; Isa. 55:11). James White once said,
"God is not a god who merely attempts to save those whom he wants to save..."More specifically irresistible grace refers to the sovereign work of God to overcome the rebellion of our heart and bring us to faith in Christ so that we can be saved (Eph 2:1-6). If our doctrine of total depravity is true, there can be no salvation without the reality of Irresistible Grace. If we are dead in our sins, totally unable to submit to God, then we will never believe in Christ unless God overcomes our rebellion; and God does, sovereignly, by his Irresistible Grace (Act. 16:14).
The Gospel of our Lord is offered to all men (in the sense that God calls everybody to repent and believe in him)--this is what we call the "universal invitation" or "outward calling." But since all men are desperately wicked and inclined only to doing evil, they will never respond unless they are first regenerated by God. Therefore, this outward call will have no effect to the sinner unless God grants him belief and repentance (Joh. 6:44, 65; Act. 18:27; Phil. 1:29).
When God calls an elect outwardly, he also extends that call inwardly by giving him a "new heart" and a "new spirit" to make it certain that the elect will receptively believe the Gospel (Ezek 36:27; Jer. 24:7). This is what we call "EFFECTUAL CALLING" which is a result of God's irresistible Grace. I must emphasize, however, that God never forces the will of the spiritually DEAD sinner. Try forcing a DEAD, ROTTEN person to labor for you and see if he would respond! Therefore, God does not merely assist the spiritually dead sinner; he actually quickens them (Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:13)!
The London Baptist Confession (1689) shares with the same idea with this Reformed view of Irresistible Grace. It states:
[10.1] Those whom God has predestinated to life, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time to effectually call by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death which they are in by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. He enlightens their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God. He takes away their heart of stone and gives to them a heart of flesh. He renews their wills, and by His almighty power, causes them to desire and pursue that which is good. He effectually draws them to Jesus Christ, yet in such a way that they come absolutely freely, being made willing by His grace.
[10.2] This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not on account of anything at all foreseen in man. It is not made because of any power or agency in the creature who is wholly passive in the matter. Man is dead in sins and trespasses until quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit. By this he is enabled to answer the call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed by it. This enabling power is no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead. (The London Baptist Confession 1689, Article X. 1-2)
Therefore, those whom by the Grace of God has chosen from eternity to be saved, when called by the Gospel, will surely respond in faith and repentance through the Holy Spirit's germination. Jesus Christ himself declares:
- "All that the Father gives me WILL COME TO ME, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." John 6:37 (ESV)
Those whom the Father "gives" to Christ are the elect, and according to our Lord, they will [surely] COME to him [ofcourse, by Faith]. This is irresistible grace. In the same chapter, Christ also says,
- "NO ONE can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." Joh 6:44 (ESV)
Notice how Christ emphatically declares that "NO ONE" [including the elect] can actually come to him [or have faith in him] unless he is drawn first by the Father. This reflects the total inability of man to have faith in Christ which I explained here. As long as a person is inclined only to evil, he chooses only evil (Rom 3:9-12). Therefore, the initiative must come from God, not from the will of man (as free-willers insist). It is God who enables the sinner so that he may willingly respond in faith and repentance:
- He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has ENABLED him." Joh 6:65 (NIV)
Implication of the doctrine: This doctrine actually gives way to the 5th petal of Calvinism which is Perseverance of the Saints. You cannot believe Perseverance of the Saints without accepting the reality of irresistible grace. Also, you cannot be consistent with the truth of Total Depravity if you reject the truth of irresistible grace. In the end, by God's sovereign Grace, all elect will be saved to the fullest and none of them will be finally lost nor totally fall away, that is, in accordance to what God has already planned even before the world began.
Here are some useful verses in the Bible with relevance to the doctrine of Irresistible Grace:
Gen. 20:6; Ezra. 1:5; Eze. 36:27; Pss. 139:16; Pro. 21:1; Hag; 1:14; Joh. 6:37, 45, 10:3-4, 27; Act. 13:48, 16:14; 1 Cor. 12:13, 15:10; Eph. 2:1-6, 3:7; Phil. 2:13; Jam. 4:15; Rom 8:33-39; Jer. 24:7.
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is what we mean when we use terms like sovereign grace or irresistible grace. We mean that the Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit, and therefore he is omnipotent and sovereign. And therefore, he is irresistible and infallibly effective in his regenerating work. Which doesn’t mean that we don’t resist him. We do. The Bible is plain about that (Acts 7:51). What the sovereignty of grace and the sovereignty of the Spirit mean is that when God chooses, he can overcome the rebellion and resistance of our wills. He can make Christ look so compelling that our resistance is broken and we freely come to him and receive him and believe him.” ~John Piper
