Haritha

The Nature Of Sinfulness

Before focusing on the primary point of disa Gospelgreement regarding sin between those in the Arminian and those in the Reformed camp, we will note the points of agreement.

The main point of agreement can be stated quite simply: Human beings are sinners.

Moreover, all who accept the testimony of Scripture would agree that sinfulness has been the lot of human beings since the time of the origin of the human race.

Although Adam and Eve were originally created without sin, they disobeyed the one command that God had explicitly given them.

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However, tempted by Satan in the form of a serpent, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. They sinned.

There has been ample speculation as to the nature of the first sin. Some would argue that it was pride, others that it was doubt. But this has never been the point that has separated Arminians from Calvinists.

Nor has the speculation that has taken place about just why the tree was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil been a bone of contention between these two camps.

For that matter, the two parties in the dispute regarding salvation and the sovereignty of God are in agreement that Adam’s sin affected all his posterity.

As they would endorse the comments of Paul and John that we have already quoted, they would also heartily agree with what Paul writes in Romans 5:17

Once again, there has been speculation and disagreement as to the way in which sin gets passed down from generation to generation. Some would argue that sin is passed to the next generation through the act of conception. This view is known as “traducianism.”

Others argue that Adam functioned as the “federal head” of the human race. By his act of disobedience, he chose sin not only for himself but for all his posterity. As with the question of the nature of the first sin, this issue is also not what separates Arminians from the Reformed when it comes to sin.

Finally, the two parties are seemingly in agreement on what they believe about “original sin.”

Both the Reformed and Arminians would agree with King David, when, after the prophet Nathan confronted him on his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and his attempt to cover it up through the murder of her lawful husband, Uriah the Hittite, he penned these words of true repentance

Human sinfulness is more than that which manifests itself in thoughts, words, and actions. It is a condition that is inherent in us, one with which we are born.

So, where lies the disagreement? The crux of the matter is whether we are merely exceedingly sick or dead in our trespasses and sins. A person who is ill can initiate various remedies.

A dead person can do nothing. Arminians would claim that our sinfulness, though great, has not caused us to be so comatose that we can do nothing to rectify the situation. The Reformed argues that we are not just comatose. We are dead.

This disagreement is not one of minor importance. If Arminians are correct in their assessment of the human condition, then human beings, of their own free will, apart from the antecedent work of God in making them alive, can initiate the work of salvation.

They can hear the call of the Gospel and respond to that call prior to the intervention of God in their lives.

However, if the Reformed are right, and apart from the work of God, we are dead in our sins, then we cannot choose to turn to Christ on our own. God must first of all work in us through His Holy Spirit. Only then can we respond to the call of the Gospel?

To put this another way, if the Arminian view is correct, then human beings are not totally depraved. If the Reformed view is correct, they are. (As to what “total depravity” does and does not mean is an issue that we will investigate shortly.)

As we will see, this belief has implications for the remaining issues of disagreement between Calvinists and Arminians. If we are by nature totally depraved, then God does not elect His chosen ones to salvation based on foreseen free choice on their part.

Rather, He elects them according to His sovereign good pleasure and will. If the election is unconditional, then Christ’s death need not be designed to make salvation possible for everyone, but rather it accomplishes the redemption of the elect.

If Christ died for the elect, then saving grace will always be effective and will not be and cannot be resisted. And if Christ’s atoning work accomplishes the salvation of the elect, then most assuredly God will preserve them in that salvation.

If, on the other hand, we have the capacity to initiate the process of salvation, the election is conditioned on our choice, and God elects us on the basis of foreseen free choice.

Christ’s atoning work, then, is designed to make salvation available to everyone to freely choose. God’s grace can be resisted simply by refusing to make that choice.

And, since we have the innate ability to choose to accept the Gospel apart from the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit, presumably we can freely choose to reject it at any time along the way.

As we will see in greater detail as we look at these disputed areas one by one, all these consequences follow from what we believe concerning our fallen state apart from Christ.

Are we merely extremely ill or are we dead in sin and totally depraved? We will now turn to this question.

What does the Bible tell us?

When our first parents ate of the tree they did not die immediately or soon thereafter. In fact, according to Genesis 5:5, Adam lived a total of 930 years.

In what sense, then, did they die when they ate the fruit of the tree? They died to their original goodness and to their intimate fellowship with God. In a word, they died spiritually. Physical death followed many years later as a consequence of spiritual death.

Adam’s sin did not just affect himself. It affected all of his posterity.

We are all born as sinners. And we are born not with spiritual life but spiritually dead. Our natural state is not fellowship with God but enmity toward Him.

As Paul reminds us a couple of verses earlier, our natural state is that of being God’s enemies (v. 10).

Paul speaks of this inborn condition of spiritual death in Ephesians 2:1-3

The death whereof Paul speaks is not physical death, for he says that we used to live in this condition. It is obvious that he is speaking of the state of spiritual death.

The prophet Isaiah says the following

(In Hebrew the term “filthy rags” is especially graphic. It refers to menstrual clothes.)

Although Isaiah does not specifically call our condition one of spiritual death, what he says makes it clear that our sinful condition is such as to make it quite unlikely that we possess the ability to turn to God apart from His enabling work.

The magnitude and all-pervasiveness of our sin is also portrayed in Romans 3:10-18, a passage in which Paul strings together several quotes from the Old Testament:

All have turned away, they have together become worthless;

There is no one who does good, not even one.

Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.

The poison of vipers is on their lips.

Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

But what about those passages that indicate that human beings have the ability to respond to the Gospel? Don’t they teach that humans have an inborn ability to freely choose to follow God?

Perhaps the most-quoted of all passages that seemingly support the Arminian contention at this point is Revelation 22:17

This is one of the “whosoever will” passages, so called because, in the King James Version, such passages contain the injunction, “Whosoever wills.” (Another such passage is Mark 8:34, which records Jesus as saying.

Arminians also quote Philippians 2:12

This passage also seems to indicate that we possess the ability to respond to the Gospel and follow Christ.)

If Paul so commands us, doesn’t this mean that we possess the ability to obey this command?

And so, on the one hand, the Bible tells us that we are dead in sin and apparently do not have the ability to respond to God’s call on our own. Yet, on the other hand, it commands us to do so. Does the Bible contradict itself?

Those who reject the idea that the Bible is the infallible Word of God have no trouble with the idea of contradictions within its pages.

But if we believe that the Bible is what it claims to be, the very Word of God, we cannot accept this conclusion. We must find a way to resolve the apparent contradiction.

The incontrovertible fact in all of this is that according to Scripture we are by nature dead in our trespasses and sins.

However, if we read on in Ephesians 2, we find that Paul writes, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions” (vv. 4-5). The sequence is clear: We were dead. God made us alive.

And having been made alive by the antecedent work of God through His Holy Spirit, we are now given the ability to respond.

The “whosoever will” passages rest on the assumption that God will give spiritual life to those whom He has chosen for salvation and that, having been made alive by the Spirit of God, they will have the ability to respond to God’s call on their lives.

Having been made willing, they will follow Christ and will drink the waters of life that He offers them.

Similarly what Paul says regarding our working out our salvation with fear and trembling. In fact, the next verse makes it clear that our ability to do this is the work of God.

That without God’s antecedent work we cannot respond to the Gospel is confirmed by the words of Jesus recorded in John 6:44

If we were not dead in our trespasses and sins, we could initiate the process of responding to the call of the Gospel. But if our natural state is that of spiritual death, then God must initiate the work of drawing us to the Son.

Total depravity and inability

Those who reject the doctrine of our total depravity apart from the regenerating work of the Spirit in our lives and our total inability to respond freely to the Gospel are quick to point out that this does not seem to correspond to what we know about human beings.

Many unbelievers lead moral, upright lives. Assuredly they are not totally depraved.

Moreover, when we respond to the Gospel, it certainly seems that we do so freely, which indicates that we have within us the ability to initiate the process of salvation.

In response to this, we must clarify what the doctrines of total depravity and inability do and do not imply.

First of all, total depravity does not mean that everyone is as depraved as possible. In fact, no one who has ever lived was or is depraved to this extent.

Even Hitler, though certainly an evil man, was not as bad in every way as he could be.

Similarly, it does not mean that every unregenerate human being will commit every form of sin. Each of us has areas of sin to which we are especially prone and each of us possesses relative immunity against certain forms of sin as well.

Nor does it mean that the sinner has no knowledge of the will of God or that he or she lacks the ability to distinguish between good and evil. In fact, the Bible tells us the opposite.

Even those who have never read or heard of the Ten Commandments have an innate sense of the difference between right and wrong.

Finally, it does not mean that sinful human beings are incapable of recognizing and even admiring virtue in others. Because of the innate sense of right and wrong with which God has created us, we have the ability to acknowledge the outwardly good acts we see performed as well as the ability to condemn other acts as evil.

For example, we are quick to applaud the compassionate response to those who are the victims of a natural disaster such as a hurricane or an earthquake, and we are equally quick to condemn the inherent evil displayed when a mass murder takes place.

What the concept of total depravity does imply is that the corruption that results from original sin applies to every part of our nature and that there is no spiritual good in the sinner.

Certainly, the litany of sins presented by Paul in the passage from Romans 3 quoted earlier bears out the fact that sin corrupts every part of us. Paul speaks of the deceitful tongue and of lips that contain the poison of vipers.

He calls the throat an open grave. He says of the feet that they are swift to shed blood.

Sin affects both the mind and the heart. And in another passage, Paul says of unbelievers that “both their minds and consciences are corrupted” (Titus 1:15).

Our conscience, that is, our sense of right and wrong, although not absent, is corrupted by sin.

We are also reminded of what Isaiah says of our so-called acts of righteousness. They are filthy rags, menstrual clothes if you would.

How is it that Scripture can describe our outward acts of righteousness, our random acts of kindness, our compassionate responses to tragedies, and so forth, as bloody, smelly cloths? It is because as sinners, even when we are doing what is outwardly commendable, we act from selfish motives.

Whether we are intentionally seeking the praise of other people, acting to relieve our sense of guilt, or simply doing something kind because it makes us feel good, we are doing it not for the glory of God but for human-centered motives.

According to the Bible, only what is done solely to please God is truly good. As sinners, apart from God’s regenerative work within us, we cannot act to please God.

This brings us to the second part of the equation, our total inability to do what is pleasing in God’s sight.

Once again, we must first state what this does not mean. It does not mean that we are unable to perform acts that are outwardly good. From a temporal perspective, it is important to encourage people to do good and refrain from doing evil.

Aiding the victims of a tornado, feeding the hungry, providing shelter for the homeless, acting honestly in business, and working hard as employees—all these are outwardly good acts and should be encouraged.

But they do not gain us favor in God’s sight. Because of our sinful nature, we are incapable of winning God’s favor through our works.

Those controlled by sinful nature cannot please God.

In sum, our sinful nature is such that without the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and our minds we have no ability to please God. We are dead and we must be made alive.

The Role of Grace in Salvation

Certainly, the most well-known passage that speaks to the subject of this chapter is Ephesians 2:8-9.

Arminians and Calvinists alike would endorse what the Apostle Paul says with a hearty “Amen.”

This does not mean that members of the two camps are in agreement when it comes to the role of grace in salvation. As we will soon see, they are not.

Arminians and those of the Reformed persuasion would also unequivocally accept the familiar words that Jesus spoke to Nicodemus: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3), as well as the clarifying remarks we find two verses later, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (v. 5).

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The words of Paul to Titus are also accepted without reservation by both camps: “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:4-5).

“Being born again,” “rebirth,” or, to give its theological name, “regeneration” (which means “to generate again”), is an idea that all orthodox Christians accept, for it is clearly and repeatedly taught in Scripture.

But this does not mean that Arminians and Reformed Christians are in agreement about regeneration. In particular, they have different views when it comes to whether or not regeneration must take place in the heart of the individual prior to that person’s response to the Gospel.

Reformed thinkers claim that because apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit we are all dead in sin, we have no ability to respond in faith unless we are first made alive by the Spirit.

Arminians argue that we have a natural ability to respond to the call of the Gospel, and only when we take that first step does the Holy Spirit begin the work of regeneration.

When discussing the primacy of God’s grace in the salvation of the individual, Reformed thinkers sometimes speak of “irresistible grace.” This term is misleading. If by “grace” we mean simply the proclamation of salvation by grace, then grace is certainly resistible.

The unbeliever continually resists the Good News that we are saved from our sins by the grace of God and the shed blood of Christ. Even those who will one day accept the Gospel and come to faith in Christ may resist for a time (perhaps even a very long time).

A better term is “efficacious grace.” By this, it means that God is the One who “affects” (or “brings about”) our salvation. It is not a cooperative effort between human beings and God.

Rather, the process whereby we are saved is a work of God from first to last. That view that God alone brings about our salvation (that is, makes it a reality) is sometimes called “monergism.”

(“Monergism” comes from the Greek words “Monos/’ which means “one/’ and “ergon/’ which means “work.” Hence, the work of salvation is “monergistic,” in that it is God’s work from the beginning to the end.)

Arminians generally deny efficacious grace. Although they may (and most of them do) argue that God’s work is primary, nevertheless in some sense they regard the work of salvation as a cooperative work.

Hence, God’s work alone does not bring about our salvation. Their view is known as “synergism.”

(This term derives from the Greek prefix “sun,” which means “with” or “together with” and “ergon.” Because the work of salvation is a cooperative effort between man and God, it is “synergistic.”)

Because Arminians and Reformed thinkers differ on whether salvation is monergistic or synergistic they differ on what is sometimes called “the order of salvation,” a term that refers to the steps in the process whereby our salvation is initiated, progresses, and is ultimately completed.

These steps include the external call, regeneration, the internal call, conversion, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

(Sometimes other steps are added to this list. For example, the “mystical union” between Christ and believers is frequently placed on this list, as is “repentance,” which some distinguish from conversion while others regard as part of the process of conversion.)

The main difference between the Arminian and the Reformed camp, when it comes to the order of salvation, is the placement of the step of regeneration.

Reformed thinkers generally place it immediately after the external call. Arminians see regeneration as following the internal call and possibly even conversion.

So that we have a better understanding of the issue, let’s briefly describe the first few steps. (Since Arminians and Calvinists generally agreed on the order of salvation after conversion, we won’t discuss these in this chapter.)

The external call

If sinners are to come to repentance and faith in Christ, they must hear the Gospel. And if they are to hear the Gospel, someone must present it to them.

In what is known as the Great Commission, Jesus, after His resurrection, commands His disciples as follows: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-19).

The presentation of the Gospel is part of this commission. Making disciples by teaching them to obey our Lord’s commands requires first of all that they hear the Good News of salvation by grace through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

This presentation, whereby sinners are called to repentance, is sometimes referred to as the external call.

The external call involves what is sometimes called the “free offer of the Gospel.” What this means above all is that the offer is genuine. Immediately before the above-quoted passage from Romans 10, Paul writes, “As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame’ [Isaiah 28:16].

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile- [Joel 2:32]” (v. 11-13).

When the good news is proclaimed that Jesus has died to save sinners and to redeem them from their sin and misery, it must be accompanied by the assurance that all those who by grace place their trust in His atoning work will be saved.

Regeneration

As already indicated, Reformed thinkers argue that regeneration comes next in the order of salvation. Why is this?

Above all else, it is because we are conceived and born in sin (Psalm 51:5) and are therefore dead in our transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Because we are dead, we have absolutely no ability to respond to the Gospel on our own.

If we were left to our own devices, the preaching of the Gospel would always fall on deaf ears. The external call would always be of no effect.

If we are to answer the call of the Gospel, God must step in. He must make us spiritually alive. He must regenerate us

Regeneration is described in the Bible in various ways. The most common way is through the use of the Greek verbs “gennao” and “anagennao.” The former of these means to be born, the latter to be born again.

As we have already seen, in His discussion with Nicodemus, Jesus tells him, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”.

When Nicodemus shows confusion regarding what it might be to be born a second time, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (v. 5).

The Apostle Peter speaks of believers as being born again (1 Peter 1:23), and John, in his first letter, frequently refers to those who have been saved as being “born of God” (1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18).

The Apostle Paul uses the verb “ktizo” (to create) and “ktisis” (creation) to describe this work of God. We are “created in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:10) and are “new creations” in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17).

It is clear from what Paul says that it is God Who has brought about this new creation in us. He has done so through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

That the work of regeneration is a work of God is also evident in what Paul says in Ephesians 2:4-5, where he uses a form of the verb “suzoopoieo” (“to make alive together with”) to describe this divine work.

Similarly, in Colossians 2:13

The act whereby God makes us spiritually alive, whereby we are born again, is an act that affects our entire being. As spiritual corpses, we are dead in every way. Our hearts are hearts of stone. Our minds are incapable of accepting the message of the Gospel.

Our will is bent toward sin. Regeneration breathes spiritual life into us. As new creations, everything about us undergoes a radical transformation. We are given a new heart, one that is spiritually alive.

Our minds are transformed so that we can accept the Gospel and put our trust in our salvation in Christ. And our will is changed so that we can begin to walk in the good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

It is clear from what Paul says in the above-quoted passages from Ephesians and Colossians and also from what Jesus says to Nicodemus that regeneration is a work of God that must take place before we are capable of responding to the Gospel message in faith. We were dead. God stepped in. Through His Holy Spirit, He made us alive.

The internal call

The internal call, also known as the effectual call, is closely connected to regeneration. When we are made alive by the Holy Spirit the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ makes sense.

It is persuasive. In a phrase, we hear the call of the Gospel upon our lives.

It is this internal call of which the Bible speaks when it refers to our being called, which it does frequently. Here are a few of the passages that talk about the internal call.

Moreover, the Greek word “eklektos,” from which the English word “elect” derives, means “a called out one.”

As these passages show, God is the One who calls. Just as He regenerates us through His Holy Spirit, He effectually calls us through His Word and through the preaching of that Word.

Thus, although our regenerated hearts and minds hear the call in a way that persuades us, the primary agent in the internal call is God Himself.

Although regeneration and calling are closely connected they are not the same. Regeneration takes place in the subconscious life. We are conscious of the internal calling. Regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit whereby we are brought from spiritual death to spiritual life.

The internal calling draws out the new life that has been created through regeneration and directs it toward God.

Conversion

According to the Reformed position, conversion, a process in which we are active, takes place only after regeneration and the internal call have done their work.

Since these are divine works, we are capable of acting only after God’s effective grace has changed our being by making us alive and giving us the willingness to respond in faith to God’s call upon our lives.

What is conversion?

The Heidelberg Catechism, in its answer to Question 88, “In how many things does true repentance or conversion consist?” replies, “In two things: The dying of the old man, and the quickening of the new.” The dying of the old man is then defined as “heartfelt sorrow for sin, causing us to hate and turn from it always more and more” (89).

The quickening of the new man is said to be “heartfelt joy in God through Christ, causing us to take delight in living according to the will of God in all good works” (90).

The two Greek words that are found in the New Testament to describe one or both of these aspects of conversion are “metanoia” and “epistrophe.” Metanoia means “a changing of the mind.” It is a word that is most commonly translated as “repentance.”

We must understand “mind” in this context as referring to more than just our intellect. It refers to our will and our emotional life as well. When we are converted, we experience, as the Catechism says, heartfelt sorrow for our former way of life.

We no longer want to live as we did before. We want to live in obedience to the commands of Christ.

Repentance must be distinguished from remorse. In 2 Corinthians 7:10, the Apostle Paul writes

What is the difference between godly and worldly sorrow? An example from the Old Testament will help. King Saul on two separate occasions expressed regret that he had pursued David with the intent of killing him.

However, Saul continued to have enmity toward David and a desire to see him dead. David, on the other hand, after committing adultery with Bathsheba and trying to cover it up through the murder of Uriah the Hittite, showed true repentance, as 2 Samuel 12:13 and Psalm 51 make clear.

Though on one level Saul felt sorry for what he had done, it was only remorse. His attitude never changed. David, however, experienced true metanoia. He acknowledged the sin and turned from it with his entire being. His repentance was genuine.

Epistrophe means “a turning around.” An apt illustration is of a person who is on a journey to a destination and along the way decides he doesn’t want to go where he is headed.

He makes a U-turn and heads in a different direction. When we are converted our old way of looking at reality doesn’t make sense any longer, and what at one time we could not comprehend becomes entirely believable. This change comes about because we have turned around and are seeing things from an entirely different perspective.

Certainly, the most astounding conversion recorded in Scripture was that of Saul on the road to Damascus. When Saul, who later became the Apostle Paul, saw the risen and glorified Christ, his heart and mind underwent a radical change.

He went from being an enemy of Christ and of the Gospel to being someone willing to endure hardship, persecution, and imprisonment for the sake of Jesus. His change was truly an epistrophe, a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn that radically altered his belief system and, indeed, his entire life.

Unlike regeneration, conversion takes place in our conscious experience. We are aware that a radical change has taken place.

Moreover, conversion involves consciously placing our trust in the atoning work of Jesus Christ for our salvation.

Realizing that we cannot save ourselves by our works or by our righteousness, we claim His work and His righteousness as our only hope for our salvation. We believe in the promise of the Gospel that all who put their trust in Him will be saved.

However, even though it takes place in our consciousness, true conversion is impossible without the antecedent work of regeneration.

It occurs only because God has already created a new heart and a new life within us through His Holy Spirit.

Whether regeneration precedes conversion in a person by a significant period of time, as it may when a person comes to faith in Christ only after a long spiritual and intellectual struggle, or whether it precedes conversion by minutes or even seconds, as it may well have when Saul of Tarsus was converted, it is always necessary to conversion.

If we are by nature dead in sin, we cannot possibly respond to the call of the Gospel without God’s regenerative work within us. Corpses cannot make themselves alive.

God must work first to draw us to Himself by making us alive through the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we will never respond. As Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews of His day:

The Arminian response

As already indicated, Arminians do not agree with this order of the process of salvation. Instead, they contend that human beings must have the ability to freely choose to accept or reject the offer of the Gospel apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. In this, they are consistent with their other doctrines.

Unlike the Reformed, who argue that spiritual death is the natural condition of human beings apart from the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit, Arminians reject total depravity and our total inability to turn to Christ apart from the Holy Spirit’s work.

Instead, they argue that although we are sinners we have a natural ability to make a decision for or against Christ.

Arminians generally do this for a noble reason. Working with a libertarian notion of free will, they assume that humans must have an unfettered ability to either accept or reject the Gospel apart from the antecedent work of the Holy Spirit.

For them, the idea that the Holy Spirit must first regenerate a person before that person has the ability to respond in faith is tantamount to denying that the person has any choice in the matter of salvation.

If God eternally ordains that some will be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and others will not be, then humans have no free will. Not surprisingly, as we have seen, Arminians also reject the doctrine of unconditional election.

Although done to preserve human free will, what Arminians assert regarding our ability to respond prior to regeneration is inconsistent with what the Bible teaches. First, it is a denial that we are spiritually dead apart from the work of God.

If we are spiritually dead, we simply cannot respond. We are dead—period. Second, this view goes against the explicit teaching of Scripture.

As we have seen, the Bible unequivocally tells us that God begins His regenerative work in us while we are still dead, not after we make the first move toward Him (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Efficacious grace and Arminian grace

If God brings us to Christ by first making us alive by the Holy Spirit and thereby enabling us to respond to Him in faith, then salvation is truly a matter of grace and grace alone.

Indeed, even our perseverance in salvation (as we will see in the next chapter) and our growth in sanctification is a result of the grace of the enabling work of God.

However, if as most Arminians would claim, free will implies that our free choices cannot be ordained by God, then our free response to the offer of the Gospel must be one that we make apart from the enabling work of the Holy Spirit and must precede that work.

For if it is a result of that enabling work, then it is caused by that work and is, by the libertarian definition of free will (which most Arminians accept), unfree.

Arminians are generally happy with this conclusion. But at what cost?

If the first step in the process of salvation is my response to the Gospel, uncaused by the antecedent work of the Holy Spirit, then the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith is destroyed.

At the very heart of my salvation lies my work. I am the one who initiates the process of salvation. And I can take credit for this, for it is my work.

Let us remind ourselves again of what Paul says: (Romans 11:6).

Even if this is the only step at which my salvation is not fully ordained by a sovereign, omniscient God, it is my work. And I have reason to boast. For I have chosen Christ on my own and not because of the enabling work of the Holy Spirit.

Perish the thought!

The Security Of Our Salvation

According to the Reformed view, God is sovereign in our salvation. Although since the fall of Adam and Eve, every one of us has been born dead in our trespasses and sins and therefore totally unable to initiate the process of salvation, God has fore-loved us and marked us out to be His own.

He has placed us in Christ from before the creation of the world and has redeemed us through the work of Christ accomplished for our sake on Calvary’s cross.

Because of Christ’s completed work on our behalf, God, through His Holy Spirit, regenerates us so that we may be converted and respond in faith to the call of the Gospel.

This work is effective and will not fail now or ever. Therefore, the work that God has begun in us He will most certainly bring to completion.

This is why the Apostle Paul can say that

Because the work of salvation is the work of an almighty and faithful God, whose word will never fail, we can rest in the knowledge and the assurance that He will complete His work and that we will never lose our salvation.

He will preserve us in that salvation even as He causes us to persevere until the day our mortal bodies die and our immortal souls enter into His presence, where they will be reunited with our perfected resurrection bodies at the end of earth’s history.

This doctrine is known as the preservation or perseverance of the saints. Preservation and perseverance are two sides of the same coin. Preservation refers to God’s activity in bringing us to the final state of glorification.

He will most assuredly preserve us in our salvation. Perseverance refers to our Spirit-enabled activity. We will most certainly persevere until our final glorification.

The Heidelberg Catechism puts all this beautifully in its response to its first question, “What is thy only comfort in life and in death?”

Here is what it says:

That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil, and so preserves me, that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must work together for my salvation.

Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready henceforth to live unto Him.

All the themes we have stressed are here. I “belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” Indeed, I have been placed in Him from before creation.

“He has fully satisfied for all my sins.” He has accomplished my salvation on Calvary’s cross, even as He has done so for all for whom He died. And He “preserves” me, for “all things must work together for my salvation.”

This is truly a wonderful source of comfort, one that, whether I am in the prime of life and in good health, or am hovering under the shadow of death, is grounds for full assurance in the power of my faithful Father to lead me to my eternal rest in Him.

The Arminian denies this. Though we may be greatly weakened by sin, we are not dead in our trespasses and sin. Therefore, we have the ability to respond to the Gospel apart from the antecedent work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

God has elected and predestined us only in the sense that He foresaw the choice that we made prior to the new birth within us. Christ died to make salvation possible for all, and it is up to us to accept or reject it.

In light of all this, it is not surprising that most Arminians argue that we can lose our salvation. In this they are consistent.

For if we are sovereign in our choice, then it would seem that at any time we could opt out, and the same God who has merely acknowledged our free choice to trust in Christ and apply His work to us will continue His hands-off policy and will let us perish if we choose. This is hardly a comforting thought.

In all fairness, it must be acknowledged that some Arminians part company with their brethren when it comes to the matter of the security of our salvation.

Living with a happy inconsistency, they accept what they refer to as the eternal security of the believer, or, as it is sometimes put, “once saved, always saved.”

While this is an inconsistency, it at least provides a measure of comfort to those who otherwise would live their lives on this earth in fear of losing their salvation.

But perhaps the Reformed doctrine of the preservation of the elect in their salvation is mistaken after all. Perhaps God, having begun a good work in us through the Holy Spirit for the sake of Christ, who died for our sins, will not complete that work after all.

Perhaps Paul did not really have grounds for his confidence. What reason do we have to suppose that our heavenly Father will work all things for our salvation? By way of answer to this question, let’s see what Scripture says about the remaining steps in the order of salvation.

Justification

In the partial list of the steps in the order of salvation that Paul gives in Romans 8:29-30, we read that those God called, “he also justified.”

What is it to justify?

In the Greek text of the New Testament the word translated into English as “justify” is “dikaioo.” This word means “put in a right relationship with” or “declare and treat as righteous.” When God justifies us, He declares us righteous in His sight.

Unlike regeneration and conversion, which take place in us, justification occurs outside of us in the tribunal of God.

Justification is a judicial act of God, whereby He declares, on the basis of Christ’s perfect righteousness, that all the claims of the law are satisfied with respect to us.

We are justified in God’s sight because He removes our sins from our record and credits to us the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul, quoting from Psalm 32:1-2, puts our justification in this way:

Or, as the Heidelberg Catechism says, in discussing my state of justification: “God, without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sin, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me” (60).

Justification includes first of all the remission of sins on the basis of the atoning work of Christ. Romans 5:19 points to this aspect, when it declares: “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”

Similarly, Romans 4:8, which we have just quoted, says, “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

Justification also includes our adoption as children of God and the right to eternal life. In the prologue to John’s gospel we read, “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13).

Finally, justification cannot be found in our own virtue or good works. Our best works in this life are polluted by sin and our own righteousness remains imperfect.

Only in Christ do we have the perfect righteousness that God demands and by which we are justified.

The relevance of this to the security of our salvation should be evident. Our justification does not depend on the strength of our faith or the righteousness of our works.

It is an act of God and depends on the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. Once we are justified, we are considered righteous, not because of our righteousness, but because of Christ’s righteousness.

That righteousness will never fail us nor will it ever be expunged from the record. Being justified, we now have the full rights as sons of God. And just as the Father will never disown His eternal and natural Son, He will never disown those who are sons by adoption. We may and will fail Him. He will never fail us.

Sanctification

The term “sanctification” derives from the Latin word “sanctus,” which means “holy.” The words in the Greek New Testament that convey the idea of sanctification are “hagiazo,” which means “to make holy,” “hagios,” which means “holy” or “morally pure,” and “hagiasmos,” which means “sanctification” or “holiness.”

The sanctification of believers is a continuous process whereby through the operation of the Holy Spirit they are more and more cleansed from the pollution of sin, renewed in their whole nature in the image of God, and enabled to do what is pleasing in God’s sight.

Sanctification consists of three aspects—definitive, progressive, and final sanctification. We are definitively sanctified at the time of our conversion and justification in that we are set apart as holy unto God.

We are numbered among the saints, the saints being all those whom God has called to be His own. (Like “sanctification,” the word “saint” derives from the word “sanctus.”)

We are progressively sanctified throughout our lives as God continues to work in us through His Holy Spirit to more and more conform us to His image. We are finally sanctified when, upon death, this body of sin is destroyed and we enter into the immediate presence of God.

Sanctification is a supernatural work of the triune God. However, it is especially the work of the Holy Spirit. As Peter says concerning the elect, they (1 Peter 1:2).

Sanctification manifests itself in progressively greater obedience to the commands of God and in the exhibition of the fruit of the Spirit, which, as Paul notes in Galatians 5:22-23

If our growth in obedience were dependent on our own strength, we would rightly fear for our salvation. But it is not. As these (and other passages make clear), our sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Just as we were chosen in Christ from before the creation of the world, just as God fore-loved us and marked us out from all eternity to be His own, just as Christ died to accomplish our salvation, so too the Holy Spirit, who applies Christ’s salvation to us through our salvation, will continue the work of our sanctification until it is completed when we are glorified.

In Colossians 3:1-3 we read the following: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

What is so interesting about what Paul says in this passage is that he begins by pointing to our standing—we have been raised with Christ. This echoes what he writes in Ephesians 2:6: “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”

Our being raised up with Christ is an accomplished fact. We are already seated with Him in the heavenly realms.

This is what we are in principle. And this is what we should become in practice. In the Colossians passage, Paul goes on to say, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry” (3:5).

What is most significant about this comment is that Paul assumes that because in principle we are already reigning with Christ in the heavenly realms, we have the power through the Holy Spirit to obey.

Even though we often fall far short and continue to sin, we are no longer defined by that sin. Therefore, we now have the Spirit-enabled power to become in practice what we are in principle.

Looking further in this passage we read, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (vv. 9-10).

And again, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (v. 12).

We have taken off the old self. We are God’s chosen people. Even though we do not measure up perfectly in this life (remember: sanctification is progressive throughout our lives), in principle we are righteous, holy, set apart from sin, and reigning with Christ.

Because from the time of our regeneration, we possess the Holy Spirit, we do not have to fear losing that salvation. The Holy Spirit, Who dwells in us, will never be taken from us. We will sin. Indeed, we will sin until the day of our glorification.

But the Holy Spirit will continue to work in us to turn us more and more from our sin and to cause us to abhor it more and more as well. Indeed, the One who has begun a good work in us will bring it to completion.

Just as we were chosen by the Father in Christ from before creation, just as Christ accomplished our salvation, just as the Holy Spirit made us alive, so the Triune God will preserve us and will cause us to persevere in our salvation to the end.

Glorification

We come now to the final stage and culmination of the order of salvation—glorification.

The Bible makes clear that this life is not all that there is, that at the end of this life, those whose trust is in Christ for their salvation will enter a realm of great glory, one that is so wonderful that we cannot even begin to comprehend it while we are living on this earth.

It is the hope of this future realm that sustains us and causes us to endure our present trials and sufferings. As Paul puts it: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17).

Paul goes on to say, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (v. 18).

Although Scripture gives us only the barest glimpse into this realm that awaits us, we know this much for sure: We will be in the presence of Christ and we will be clothed in glorified bodies. In Philippians 3:20-21 Paul writes, “Our citizenship is in heaven.

And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

First Corinthians 15, the great chapter that speaks throughout of our resurrection, tells us, “So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable.

It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (v. 42-44).

Several verses further in this chapter reach its climax: “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. The perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory’” (vv. 51-54).

Not only this but creation itself will be transformed: “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

What a wonderful reality is presented in the Bible. Those who are in Christ will be glorified.

But what guarantee do we have that we who are saved will most certainly reach this final state of great and unfathomable bliss? And the answer is, “None—if at any point we must depend on our own efforts for our perseverance in our salvation.”

For most certainly, given our own frailty, we would surely fall short, and we would fail to attain that for which we are striving. As Martin Luther puts it in his familiar song, “A Mighty Fortress,” “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.”

However, this verse does not end here. Its next words are, “Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing. Dost asks who that may be. Christ

Jesus, it is he, Lord Sabaoth, his Name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle.”

We are not dependent on our own efforts “to win the prize for which God has called [us] heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). God has guaranteed it.

Let us remind ourselves one more time that God has placed us in Christ from before the creation of the world. He has eternally loved us and has marked us out for salvation.

He has sent His Son to make full atonement for our sins at Calvary. That completed work has been applied by the Holy Spirit, who has made us alive, has united us to Christ, has sanctified, is sanctifying, and will sanctify us, and is preserving us in the salvation that Christ has won for us.

The triune God will never let us go.

He will be with us every step of the way. He will most certainly lead us to glory. Salvation is forever.

Preservation and perseverance

Having discussed the stages in the order of salvation as they bear on the question of the security of the believer, let us now look at some of the relevant passages of Scripture.

We will begin with a passage that we have already quoted, but which bears repeating: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).

The progression from our predestination and our internal calling, through our justification, to our glorification is inevitable. At no point does the Apostle Paul indicate that the chain could be broken.

He does not say, for instance, those He called, He might possibly glorify. No. The entire process is regarded as accomplished. If we have been chosen in Christ from before the creation of the world, we will be glorified.

According to Jesus, our sovereign God Himself ensures our perseverance.

Let us again remind ourselves that in Philippians 1:6 Paul writes that he is “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

The Apostle Paul is confident. Based on the promises of Scripture and all that we know about the process of salvation, we should be too.

Finally, in 2 Timothy 1:12 Paul tells us, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” Paul trusts Christ (not himself, by the way) to guard and protect him in his salvation.

In addition to these direct statements of Scripture, we may infer the doctrine of preservation and perseverance from the various aspects of salvation.

As we have already seen, the price paid by Christ once and for all on Calvary’s cross is sufficient for our eternal salvation. Therefore, it is impossible that those who have been justified by the payment of the perfect atoning work of Christ will ever fall under condemnation.

Moreover, Christ’s intercession for His people is constant and unceasing. The author of Hebrews writes, “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them” (7:25).

Because Christ’s intercession is continuous until the end of the earth’s history, we can have confidence that no one will separate us from God’s love.

Finally, we have these words of Jesus: “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). Here too we have a categorical statement. Jesus does not say “possibly.”

He says that if we believe in Him and in His Father, we will not be condemned. Again Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:54).

Once again, it is a categorical statement that clearly teaches that the salvation of those who are in Him is assured.

Objections

Even some Arminians believe in the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer. However, not all do. Why not?

One common objection is that belief in this doctrine leads to indifference when it comes to obedience to the commands of God. After all, if I know that I am going to heaven, what incentive do I have to do what is pleasing in God’s sight?

Why can’t my attitude be that of the old saying: “Free from the law, O blessed condition, I can sin all I want and still have remission”?

The Heidelberg Catechism, when discussing the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith alone without any merit on our part asks, “But does not this doctrine make men careless and profane?” Its answer is, “No, for it is impossible that those who are implanted into Christ by true faith, should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness” (64).

The doctrine of the preservation and perseverance of the saints should provide the comfort that if we do sin we do not need to worry about losing our salvation.

If anyone does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One”. Christ’s righteousness credited to us is what saves us.

It is what justifies us in God’s sight. Our righteous works will not and cannot save us. Conversely, our sin cannot cause us to lose our salvation.

At the same time, if we have been made alive by the Holy Spirit, then we will not be indifferent to our sins.

True repentance, which will inevitably come about if we are new creations in Christ, will, as the Heidelberg Catechism says, lead to “heartfelt sorrow for sin, causing us to hate and turn from it always more and more” (89).

If we sin and truly repent of our sin, we should thank God that He has given us new hearts that are tender to Him and seek to serve Him faithfully, and we should rejoice, knowing that we are secure in our salvation. If we sin and are utterly indifferent to our sin, we should question whether we have even been born again of the Spirit.

Either we are sinners saved by grace or we are reprobates who have experienced a false conversion. Either we have inherited a salvation that will last forever or we are not saved at all. Either way, we cannot lose our salvation.

But, it may be asked, what about those passages that seemingly teach that it is possible for us to lose our salvation? For example,

We must interpret these passages in light of the fact that it is quite possible to make a false profession of faith. Not all who claim to follow Christ have undergone a genuine transformation.

If a person deliberately goes on sinning or if someone falls away from the faith, this is not sufficient to show that this person has lost his salvation. Rather, in light of the assurance of salvation that Scripture gives to those who are truly saved, we must conclude that such a person has never been genuinely saved at any time.

What about the specific cases of apostasy mentioned in Scripture, particularly those Paul notes in 2 Timothy? For example, Hymenaeus and Philetus are said to “have wandered away from the truth” (2 Timothy 2:17-18).

Later on in the same letter (4:10), Paul writes, “Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.” Once again, unless it can be proved that the conversion of the aforementioned individuals to the faith was genuine (which it cannot be), we must let the overwhelming testimony of Scripture speak for itself.

Those whom God has elected from before the foundation of the world and for whom Christ has shed His blood, those whom God has regenerated and called through His Holy Spirit, those whom He has justified, He will most certainly glorify. He will preserve the saints for all eternity.