The 5 Points of Calvinism:

Total Depravity

Brief Historical Review

I. Augustine vs. Pelagius (early 400s AD): Dispute over original sin and free will. Augustine's prayer: "Grant what you command, and command what you do desire."

A. Pelagius: No original sin. Moral responsibility implies moral ability. Grace helpful, but not necessary for man to do God's will and to be right with God. Man has inherent power to believe and keep God's Law. Pelagianism condemned at Council of Carthage 418 AD.

B. Augustine: Original sin, depravity: man unable to believe/obey God; grace necessary.

C. Semi-Pelagianism: middle way: "It ismine to be willing to believe, and it is the part of God's grace to assist." Condemned at Council of Orange (525AD)

II. Protestant Reformation (1517 – 1564)

A. Luther vs. Erasmus:

1. Erasmus: man's will free/cooperates with grace. God/man work together (synergism) for salvation

2. Luther: Bondage of Will: Man's will in bondage to sin nature. Grace necessary/sufficient

B. Calvin (& other Reformers): united with Luther on nature of man, grace, election, etc

III. Arminians: Submitted 5 articles of disagreement with Reformed confessions of faith:

1. Free Will: Fallen man's will free/able to respond to Spirit.

2. Conditional Election: God elected whom He foresaw would believe.

3. General Atonement: Jesus atoned for all without exception.

4. Resistible Grace: Man can resist regenerating grace.

5. Falling from Grace: Man can lose his salvation.

IV. Synod of Dordt (1618-19): Responds to the 5 articles which, becomes known as the 5 points of Calvinism:

Total Depravity: whole nature corrupt/can't do spiritual good.

Unconditional Election: God chose many sinners to save on the basis of His grace alone, not on foreseen goodness.

Limited Atonement: Christ atoned for the sins of the elect, securing and guaranteeing their salvation.

Irresistible Grace: God raises spiritually dead sinners to spiritual life when He wants to enable them to believe.

Perseverance of the Saints: elect must/will persevere to the end, being preserved by God's power.

 

I. Total Depravity: Man’s whole nature is corrupted by sin so that He cannot do any spiritual good.

A. Original Sin: (Gen 3). WSC 18:

1. Guilt of Adam's first sin: Rom 5:12 "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned."

2. Want of original righteousness: Rom 3:10 "None is righteous, no, not one…"

3. Corruption of his whole nature…together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it."

*Born in sin - Psalm 51:5 "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."

* Spiritually death - Eph 2:1-4 "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath…"

* Committers of sin - Rom 3:23 "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

B. Darkened Minds/Corrupt hearts: "As a result of the fall, men are blind and deaf to spiritual truth. Their minds are darkened by sin; their hearts are evil and corrupt." (Steele and Thomas, p. 21)

*Gen 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

*Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

*John 3:19 …the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

*Eph 4:17-18 "…you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart."

C. Bondage to Sin and Satan (Read/Discuss)

*John 8:34;44 "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin…You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

*Titus 3:3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions…

*2 Tim 2:25-26 …God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil...

"Before sinners are born into God's kingdom through the regenerating power of the Spirit, they are children of the devil and under his control; they are slaves to sin."

D. Universal Bondage Read and Discuss):

Rom 3:9-12 9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."

"The reign of sin is universal; all men are under its power. Consequently, none is righteous—not even one!"

E. Inability to Change (Read and Discuss):*Jer 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

*Mat 7:18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

*Jn 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.

Rom 8:7-8 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

*1 Cor 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

"Man left in their dead state are unable of themselves to repent, believe, or come to Christ. They have no power within themselves to change their nature or to prepare themselves for salvation." Discuss.

II. Summing it up:

A. WCF 9.3 "Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation: so as, a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto."

B. "As a result of Adam's transgression, men are born in sin and by nature are spiritually dead; therefore, if they are to become God's children and enter His kingdom, they must be born anew of the Spirit."

1. Free Will (Human Ability)

Although human nature was seriously affected by the fall, man has not been left in a state of total spiritual helplessness. God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe, but He does so in such a manner as not to interfere with man's freedom. Each sinner possesses a free will, and his eternal destiny depends on how he uses it. Man's freedom consists of his ability to choose good over evil in spiritual matters; his will is not enslaved to his sinful nature. The sinner has the power to either cooperate with God's Spirit and be regenerated or resist God's grace and perish. The lost sinner needs the Spirit's assistance, but he does not have to be regenerated by the Spirit before he can believe, for faith is man's act and precedes the new birth. Faith is the sinner's gift to God; it is man's contribution to salvation.

1. Total Depravity (Inability)

Because of the fall, man is unable of himself to savingly believe the gospel. The sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God; his heart is deceitful a n d desperately corrupt. His will is not free, it is in bondage to his evil nature, therefore, he will not-indeed he cannot-choose good over evil in the spiritual realm. Consequently, it takes much more than the Spirit's assistance to bring a sinner to Christ-it takes regeneration by which the Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature. Faith is not something man contributes to salvation but is itself a part of God's gift of salvation-it is God's gift to the sinner, not the sinner's gift to God.

Unconditional Election

I. Definition: Before time, God chose many sinners to save on the basis of His sovereign will and grace alone, not on the basis of anything good or foreseen in them.

A. Unconditional: expression of free and sovereign grace, not merited by anything in us or about us.

B. Objection: "That’s not fair!" How do we respond?

-- J.I. Packer "God owes sinners no mercy, only condemnation; so it is a matter for praise, that he should choose to save any of us; doubly so when his choice involved the giving of his own Son to suffer for the elect."

II. Scriptural Evidence

A. God has an elect people, chosen by grace alone

Deut 7:6-8: 6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery…

*Rom 8:28-33 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 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. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

B. Election not based on foreseen responses: "Faith and good works are the result, not the cause, of God's choice."

1. God did the choosing: Mk 13:20 "But for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, he shortened the days."

2. God's choice made before time:

*John 6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me...

*Eph 1:3-6 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

3. God's chose particular individuals for salvation:

Rev 13:8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

4. God's choice not based on foreseen merit or good works.

2Ti 1:8-10 8…but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began…

Rom 9:11-16 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 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 depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

5. Good works the result, not ground, of predestination:

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

6. God's choice not based on foreseen faith.

Act 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

III. Election precedes salvation. "Election is not salvation, but is for salvation. Just as the president-elect does not become president until he is inaugurated, so those chose for salvation are not saved until regenerated by Spirit and justified by faith in Christ. (Rom 11:7; 2 Tm 2:10)

IV. Sovereign Mercy: "It was not man's will, but God's will that determined which sinners would be shown mercy." (Rom 9:10-25)

V. Pastoral value of doctrine of election:

A. Like every truth about God, involves mystery.

B. What are some practical ways it helps Christians?

1. Greatness of God’s grace. We will never understand U/E until we understand Total Depravity.

2. Humility, confidence, joy, praise, faithfulness, and holiness in response.

C. We do not know he has chosen among those who do not yet believe, nor why it was his good pleasure to choose us in particular. What we do know:

1. Had we not been chosen for life we would not be believers now. How do we know this?

-- deadness in sin; only elect are brought to faith (assurance!)

2. We rely on God to finish the good work that he started (Phil. 1:6). Beginning, middle, end.

3. Knowledge of one’s election thus brings comfort and joy. How so, why?

VI. How do you know you are elect?

A. Rom, 10:13 – If you believe!

B. Fruit (2 Pet 1:10).

VII. Reprobation:

A. God’s eternal decision to pass over non-elect and leave them to sin as they want, and judge them as they deserve for what they have done.

B. Hardening: God gives them over to sins (i.e., removes restraints on their doing the disobedient things they desire) more and more. This is the beginning of judgment (Rom. 9:18;), and leads to greater guilt.

C. Not for us to figure out who elect/reprobate are. What is our responsibility?

-- Preach the gospel knowing that anyone may be saved if he or she will but repent and put faith in Christ.

-- We should view all persons that we meet as possibly being numbered among the elect.

"Because of sin, men have cut themselves off from the Lord of heaven and have forfeited all rights to his love and favor. It would have been perfectly just for God to have left all men in their sin and misery and to have shown mercy to none. God was under no obligation whatsoever to provide salvation for anyone. It is in this context of the Bible sets forth the doctrine of election.

The doctrine of election declares that God, before the foundation of the world, chose certain individuals from among the fallen members of Adam’s race to be the objects of his undeserved favor. These, and these only, he purposed to save. God could have chosen to save all men…or he could have chosen to save none (for he was under no obligation to show mercy to any)--but he did neither.

"Instead, he chose to save some and to exclude others. His eternal choice of particular sinners for salvation was not based upon any foreseen act or response on the part of those selected, but was based solely on his own good pleasure and sovereign will. Thus, election was not determined by, or conditioned upon, anything that men would do, but resulted entirely from God's self-determined purpose. Those who are not chosen for salvation were passed by and left to their own evil devices and choices.

It is not within the creatures jurisdiction to call into question the justice of the creator for not choosing everyone for salvation. It is enough to know that the judge of the Earth has done right.

"It should however, be kept in mind that if God had not graciously chosen a people for himself and sovereignly determined to provide salvation for them and apply it to them, none would be saved. The fact that he did this for some, to the exclusion of others, is in no way unfair to the latter group, unless of course one maintains that God was under obligation to provide salvation for sinners––a position which the Bible utterly rejects.

 …The act of election itself saves no one; what it did was to mark out certain individuals for salvation. Consequently, the doctrine of election must not be divorced from the doctrines of human guilt, redemption, and regeneration, or else it will be distorted and misrepresented.

"In other words, if the Fathers act of election is to be kept in its proper biblical balance and correctly understood, it must be related to the redeeming work of the Son, who gave himself to save the elect, and to the renewing work of the Spirit, who brings the elect to faith in Christ."

- Steele, Thomas, Quinn, The Five Points of Calvinism, pp. 27-28.

2. Conditional Election

God's choice of certain individuals unto salvation before the foundation of the world was based upon His foreseeing that they would respond to His call. He selected only those whom He knew would of themselves freely believe the gospel. Election therefore was determined by or conditioned upon what man would do. The faith which God foresaw and upon which He based His choice was not given to the sinner by God (it was not created by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit) but resulted solely from man's will. It was left entirely up to man as to who would believe and therefore as to who would be elected unto salvation. God chose those whom He knew would, of their own free will, choose Christ. Thus the sinner's choice of Christ, not God's choice of the sinner, is the ultimate cause of salvation.

2. Unconditional Election

God's choice of certain individuals unto salvation before the foundation of the world rested solely in His own sovereign will. His choice of particular sinners was not based on any foreseen response or obedience on their part, such as faith, repentance, etc. On the contrary, God gives faith and repentance to each individual whom He selected. These acts are the result, not the cause of God's choice. Election therefore was not determined by or conditioned upon any virtuous quality or act foreseen in man. Those whom God sovereignly elected He brings through the power of the Spirit to a willing acceptance of Christ. Thus God's choice of the sinner, not the sinner's choice of Christ, is the ultimate cause of salvation.

1. Free Will (Human Ability)

Although human nature was seriously affected by the fall, man has not been left in a state of total spiritual helplessness. God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe, but He does so in such a manner as not to interfere with man's freedom. Each sinner possesses a free will, and his eternal destiny depends on how he uses it. Man's freedom consists of his ability to choose good over evil in spiritual matters; his will is not enslaved to his sinful nature. The sinner has the power to either cooperate with God's Spirit and be regenerated or resist God's grace and perish. The lost sinner needs the Spirit's assistance, but he does not have to be regenerated by the Spirit before he can believe, for faith is man's act and precedes the new birth. Faith is the sinner's gift to God; it is man's contribution to salvation.

1. Total Depravity (Inability)

Because of the fall, man is unable of himself to savingly believe the gospel. The sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God; his heart is deceitful a n d desperately corrupt. His will is not free, it is in bondage to his evil nature, therefore, he will not-indeed he cannot-choose good over evil in the spiritual realm. Consequently, it takes much more than the Spirit's assistance to bring a sinner to Christ-it takes regeneration by which the Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature. Faith is not something man contributes to salvation but is itself a part of God's gift of salvation-it is God's gift to the sinner, not the sinner's gift to God.

2. Conditional Election

God's choice of certain individuals unto salvation before the foundation of the world was based upon His foreseeing that they would respond to His call. He selected only those whom He knew would of themselves freely believe the gospel. Election therefore was determined by or conditioned upon what man would do. The faith which God foresaw and upon which He based His choice was not given to the sinner by God (it was not created by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit) but resulted solely from man's will. It was left entirely up to man as to who would believe and therefore as to who would be elected unto salvation. God chose those whom He knew would, of their own free will, choose Christ. Thus the sinner's choice of Christ, not God's choice of the sinner, is the ultimate cause of salvation.

2. Unconditional Election

God's choice of certain individuals unto salvation before the foundation of the world rested solely in His own sovereign will. His choice of particular sinners was not based on any foreseen response or obedience on their part, such as faith, repentance, etc. On the contrary, God gives faith and repentance to each individual whom He selected. These acts are the result, not the cause of God's choice. Election therefore was not determined by or conditioned upon any virtuous quality or act foreseen in man. Those whom God sovereignly elected He brings through the power of the Spirit to a willing acceptance of Christ. Thus God's choice of the sinner, not the sinner's choice of Christ, is the ultimate cause of salvation.

3. Universal Redemption/General Atonement

Christ's redeeming work made it possible for everyone to be saved but did not actually secure the salvation of anyone. Although Christ died for all men and for every man, only those who believe in Him are saved. His death enabled God to pardon sinners on the condition that they believe, but it did not actually put away anyone's sins. Christ's redemption becomes effective only if man chooses to accept it.

3. Particular Redemption/Limited Atonement

Christ's redeeming work was intended to save the elect only and actually secured salvation for them. His death was a substitutionary endurance of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners. In addition to putting away the sins of His people, Christ's redemption secured everything necessary for their salvation, including faith which unites them to Him. The gift of faith is infallibly applied by the Spirit to all for whom Christ died, thereby guaranteeing their salvation.

4. The Holy Spirit can be Effectually Resisted

The Spirit calls inwardly all those who are called outwardly by the gospel invitation; He does all that He can to bring every sinner to salvation. But inasmuch as man is free, he can successfully resist the Spirit's call. The Spirit cannot regenerate the sinner until he believes; faith (which is man's contribution) precedes and makes possible the new birth. Thus, man's free will limits the Spirit in the application of Christ's saving work. The Holy Spirit can only draw to Christ those who allow Him to have His way with them. Until the sinner responds, the Spirit cannot give life. God's grace, therefore, is not invincible; it can be, and often is, resisted and thwarted by man.

4. Efficacious Call of the Spirit/Irresistible Grace

In addition to the outward general call to salvation which is made to everyone who hears the gospel, the Holy Spirit extends to the elect a special inward call that inevitably brings them to salvation. The external call (which is made to all without distinction) can be, and often is, rejected; whereas the internal call (which is made only to the elect) cannot be rejected; it always results in conversion. By means of this special call the Spirit irresistibly draws sinners to Christ. He is not limited in His work of applying salvation by man's will, nor is He dependent upon man's cooperation for success. The Spirit graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ. God's grace, therefore, is invincible; it never fails to result in the salvation of those to whom it is extended.

5. Falling From Grace

Those who believe and are truly saved can lose their salvation by failing to keep up their faith, etc. All Arminians have not been agreed on this point; some have held that believers are eternally secure in Christ that once a sinner is regenerated, he can never be lost.

5. Perseverance of the Saints

All who were chosen by God, redeemed by Christ, and given faith by the Spirit are eternally saved. They are kept in faith by the p o w e r of Almighty God and thus persevere to the end.