Distinctives (1): The Absolute Sovereignty of God

Église Connexion

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Every year we take a break before the summer to do a short series on whatever topics have been weighing most heavily on the church over the past year. This year, based on discussions we’ve had with a good number of new people in the church, particularly those who have gone through our members’ class, we’ve decided to take the month of June to go through our church’s theological distinctives.

Plus, we’re starting to run out of seats, so this is our opportunity to make some people mad and free up some space. (Just kidding.)

This year, based on discussions we’ve had with a good number of new people in the church, particularly those who have gone through our members’ class, we’ve decided to take the month of June to go through our church’s theological distinctives.

Story: George Whitefield, John Wesley—best friends, but Whitefield = Calvinist, Wesley = Arminian

What do we mean by “theological distictives”?

Our church has a lengthy confession of faith, which we made very detailed because we wanted to new members to know exactly what they were getting into. And most of the points on that confession of faith are points of doctrine about which nearly all Christians would agree. They are issues that go to the heart of the gospel—points like the Trinity, the inerrancy of the Bible, justification by faith alone, substitutionary atonement, and so on.

One of Whitefield’s churchgoers asked in a church gathering, “Will we see Wesley in heaven?”

But it didn’t seem sufficient to stop there, because there are a handful of topics which are of secondary importance, but which nevertheless have a massive impact on our understanding of the gospel, on our ecclesiology, on the way we will live the gospel out in the context of the church. They are not points of division—you can be a faithful, biblical Christian and not agree with these things—but it is our conviction that these points of doctrine, although not primary, are still of profound importance, because they will have a very strong impact on the way we do church. They are theological distinctives—subjects which distinctively shape the teaching and the life of our church.

They are not points of division—you can be a faithful, biblical Christian and not agree with these things—but it is our conviction that these points of doctrine, although not primary, are still of great importance, because they will have a very strong impact on the way we live out the gospel together.

They are theological distinctives—subjects which distinctively shape the teaching and the life of our church.

If you were here in the first years of our church, you heard us speak a lot on these topics. We were still in the beginning stages of planting the church, and we wanted to be very clear about where we landed and how we were going to preach here. But if you’ve only come in the last two years or so, you may not have heard us speak quite so often about these, because we’ve been in the gospel of Luke since 2017, and Luke doesn’t directly address most of these topics; he has a different goal in mind.

So after lots of discussions we’ve had with new and potential members, we decided to take the month of June to walk you through our convictions on these subjects. You don’t have to agree with them to be a member here, but you do have to know that this is where we land, and this is what we’ll preach and teach, because we believe that they are biblically faithful, and we believe that they are very important.

Whitefield responded, “No. We won’t see Wesley in heaven.”

Now I need to tell a funny story before we get started. I was talking to Loanne about this at dinner on Sunday night, after I had made the announcement. And she very casually looked up and said, “You know ‘distinctive’ is an adjective, right?”

So real quickly, let me just read our list of theological distinctives—there are five of them. They are:

The absolute sovereignty of God;

Dependance on the Holy Spirit for all of life;

The complementary roles of men and women in the church and at home;

The baptism of believers by immersion;

The relationship between the glory of God and the joy of man.

So that’s what we’ll be talking about during the month of June—that’s why we’ve titled this series, simply, “Distinctives”. I understand that some of these subjects are going to make some people uncomfortable—I call them the liposuction doctrines: those subjects which almost instantly empty out some seats—but I hope you’ll hear our intention, and God’s intention, behind them as we go.

So we’re going to hit the ground running, and talk this week about the absolute sovereignty of God.

Let me read to you our description of this doctrine out of our confession of faith, and then we’ll get into it.

“We believe that God is absolutely sovereign over all things, including the salvation of men and women, events in the world, suffering and sin. His sovereigny does not annul the responsibility of human beings for our own actions. Scripture affirms both the sovereignty of God and human responsibiity; therefore we accept the truth of these two affirmations, without necessarily understanding how they relate to one another.”

In a nutshell, that’s it. So we’re going to take the rest of our time this morning to unpack that. We could do this in a number of ways, but we’re going to concentrate this morning on God’s sovereignty over salvation in particular, because it gives us the foundation we need to understand his sovereignty over everything else.

Nous croyons que Dieu est absolument souverain sur toutes choses, y compris le salut des hommes et des femmes, les événements de ce monde, la souffrance et le péché. Sa souveraineté n'annule pas la responsabilité de l'homme sur ses propres actes — l'Écriture affirme à la fois la souveraineté de Dieu et la responsabilité humaine, alors nous acceptons la vérité des deux affirmations sans pour autant comprendre comment elles fonctionnent l'une avec l'autre.

Here’s the basic idea: God’s sovereignty over salvation means that if we are saved, it is God who worked that salvation in us, from beginning to end; and that it is God who chose from before the foundation of the world in whom he would work his salvation.

And to see this truth, we’re going to a text that is almost never preached in church, because it is a difficult text, and it is an offensive text to many—today we’re going to be in Paul’s letter to the Romans, in chapter 9, verses 6 to 24.

Long pause, gasps.

“Yeah, of course,” I said.

He continued, “Because John will be so near the throne, and I’ll be so far in the back, that I won’t be able to see him.”

In a nutshell, that’s it. So we’re going to take the rest of our time this morning to unpack that.

“No, but…it’s not a noun. You can’t say ‘a distinctive.’”

I opened my mouth to object, and realized: “Yeah, you’re right.” We’ve been using this term for five years, and it never occurred to me to think of the grammar of it.

So just in case any of you sticklers (like my wife) are wondering, what we mean by “theological distinctives” is those points of doctrine to which the church holds which makes us distinctive. (Which is why I’ve left the title the way it is. That word “distinctifs” you see on the screen, that’s the adjective, and it’s talking about us.)

What do we mean by “theological distictives”?

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. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Now, before we start reading, two quick things.

Some of you, even as we read the passage together, are going to start feeling really disturbed. I’m with you. I remember the first time I ever heard anyone teach on this text, the first time I read it seriously. I was profoundly disturbed, and it lasted a good while following that experience.

But here’s what I noticed. This is one of those subjects where once you see it, you can’t un-see it. I started re-reading my Bible, from beginning to end, and once I had seen God’s sovereignty over salvation in , could suddenly see it everywhere: on nearly every page, I could see God affirming his sovereignty over things I had always thought he had nothing to do with. I started marking a little triangle in the margins of the Bible next to any passage like that, and when I finished, there were triangles all over my Bible, on practically every page. This is not the only text that talks about this; this truth is affirmed all throughout the Bible.

3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Second thing. As we go through, you may have a lot of questions come to mind. “But if that’s true, what does that mean for _____?” “If that’s true, what about _____?”

But we’re not going to go about it in the way many of you might expect.

It’s good to ask those questions, and the Bible probably has answers for a lot of them. But it’s really important—just in general—to remember that the Bible’s not there to answer all of our questions. That’s not why this book exists.

We don’t come to the Bible for answers to our questions; we come to the Bible to find out what the questions are. It’s really dangerous to mine the Bible looking for answers to a specific set of questions that arise uniquely in the modern era. The questions we ask of the biblical text determine the kinds of answers we will get.

It is dangerous to mine through the Bible looking for answers to a specific set of questions that arise uniquely in the modern era. The questions we ask of the biblical text determine the kinds of answers we will get.

So rather than thinking first and foremost about our own questions, we need to try and see what questions the Bible itself is trying to address. (And Paul is helpful in this text: he explicitly asks the right questions for us before answering them.)

All that being said, let’s get to it.

Is God Unjust? (v. 6-18)

Now there are dozens of ways we could go about doing this. But I’d like to attack head-on what is probably the most divisive implication of this idea, and then talk about what we do wrong with it.

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Often when we talk about the sovereignty of God, our minds immediately go to the Five Points of Calvinism. For those of you who aren’t familiar with what that is, it’s basically a very simple way of explaining biblical soteriology—that is, what the Bible says about how God saves us. The Five Points were developed following the Protestant Reformation.

If you’ve got your Bibles, I’ll invite you to go to Paul’s letter to the Romans, to chapter 9.

The Five Points can be summarized under the acronym TULIP:

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 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— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’

T: Total Depravity. Human beings are by nature unable to do anything but sin. (That is not to say they are as bad as they could possibly be, but rather that everything they do, whether “good” or “bad”, is marred by sin.)

and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”

26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’

U: Unconditional Election. ccording to his own sovereign will, God chose whom he would save before the foundation of the world. (That is why Christians are often referred to in the Bible as “the elect.”)

there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

L: Limited Atonement. That’s a misleading title. Limited Atonement states that Jesus’s death on the cross was not a kind of generalized, blanket salvation for all mankind (because if it was, then his work has been horribly ineffective); but rather, his death on the cross actually and effectively purchased the atonement of his elect. His life, death, and resurrection were sufficient and efficient to pay the penalty for our sins and grant us life in him.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

I: Irresistible Grace. At a time of God’s choosing, he sends his Holy Spirit to awaken the hearts and minds of his elect, giving them a new will, which desires to follow him. Through the gospel, he draws his elect to Christ; and because the Holy Spirit has made us want to follow Christ, his grace in drawing us is irresistible—anyone whom God draws to the Son will come to the Son.

P: Perseverance of the Saints. If God has done this work in us, he will keep us from leaving the faith and falling away from him indefinitely. We may drift away into sin for a time, but anyone whom God truly saves will come back to him. He will make sure his saints persevere in their faith until the very end—if we are truly saved, we cannot lose that salvation.

That’s Calvinism in a nutshell. And let me say it loud and clear: I love the Five Points. I have affirmed them ever since I have seen them in the Bible, and I have taught them ever since the beginning of this church. We as a church hold to Reformed, Calvinist doctrine, and we do so with great joy, because we believe it is absolutely and profoundly biblical.

But there is a “but.”

There is something that often happens in people when they discover Calvinist doctrine for the first time; people jokingly refer to it as the “cage stage.” Every Calvinist has the same experience at the beginning, when they see these truths so clearly taught in the Bible that they can’t understand how anyone could not see them. (Even though they themselves didn’t see it until five minutes ago.)

And so young Calvinists often adopt an attitude, a kind of pride, about their understanding of Scripture. People in our church culture tend to create a profoundly toxic environment because of these truths—an environment in which it is not okay to not believe these things.

Do I really have to say it? This is not okay. It is not humble, it is not healthy, it has nothing to do with biblical Christianity.

The Five Points of Calvinism, while I love them and affirm them and teach them, are not the end-all, be-all of the Christian faith. Our faith is bigger than these five points of doctrine, and our God won’t be reduced to an acronym.

So rather than talk about the Five Points, we’re going to broaden our horizons a bit. Because after all, the thological distinctive we are talking about here is the absolute sovereigny of God, over all things, not just salvation.

Simply put, this distinctive is not simply about Calvinism, but more broadly describes what theologians call “Providence.” (Providence in the biblical sense, not in the literal definition of the English word.)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines “Providence” in this way:

“God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.”

There are literally dozens of texts we could go to in order to see this truth on display, but today we’re going to camp out in one which is particularly comprehensive: . And the reason we’re going here will be clear in a minute.

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace...

God Is Wise and All-Knowing.

…8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

God Is All-Knowing (He has a plan according to his knowledge.)

9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

God Is Purposeful and Glorious.

God’s Attributes at Work

So the first thing our eyes are immediately drawn to, if we’re thinking about this subject, is the end of verse 11: the truth that God works all things according to the counsel of his will. ALL THINGS. Not just salvation. Not just things that have nothing to do with us. ALL THINGS.

Jesus himself says that God makes the sun rise, and makes the rain fall (); he feeds the birds (); he clothes the lilies (6.28-30); he ordains the lifespan of every sparrow, and the number of every hair on our head (, ).

He teaches us that our heavenly Father not only makes the sun rise and sends rain (), but also feeds all the birds (6:26–27), clothes the lilies (6:28–30), and accounts for the falling of the sparrows and the number of our hairs (; ). And he demonstrates his unity with the Father by calming the sea, by his own command (; ; ).

The book of Proverbs tells us that God is in control even of seemingly random events. :

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

God works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Now if you’re like me, you see that verse and you think, “That’s terrifying.” If God works all things according to the counsel of his will, then what hope could we possibly have if he got mad at us? If he was a tyrant?

That’s why the rest of the text is so important.

God Is Good and Gracious.

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace...

God Is Wise and All-Knowing.

God Is Purposeful and Glorious.

God declar[es] the end from the beginning

and from ancient times things not yet done,

saying, “My counsel shall stand,

and I will accomplish all my purpose.” ()

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,

and he does according to his will among the host of heaven

and among the inhabitants of the earth;

and none can stay his hand

or say to him, “What have you done?” ()

At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” ()

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (; cf. v. 9)

: Even seemingly random things...

Jesus emphasizes that this divine control extends to the smallest details. He teaches us that our heavenly Father not only makes the sun rise and sends rain (), but also feeds all the birds (6:26–27), clothes the lilies (6:28–30), and accounts for the falling of the sparrows and the number of our hairs (; ). And he demonstrates his unity with the Father by calming the sea, by his own command (; ; ).

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. ()

This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. (; cf. 3:18; 4:27–28; 13:27)

Frame, J.M., 2013. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief, Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

And to have that conversation, we have to aim much higher than just salvation. We have to start with the person of God.

The Person of God

Our understanding of God’s sovereignty

The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines “Providence” in this way:

“God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.”

Edwards: "If the sun were the proper cause of cold and darkness," he says, "it would be the fountain of these things, as it is the fountain of light and heat: and then something might be argued from the nature of cold and darkness, to a likeness of nature in the sun." In other words, "sin is not the fruit of any positive agency or influence of the most High, but on the contrary, arises from the withholding of his action and energy, and under certain circumstances, necessarily follows on the want of his influence."

They are theological distinctives—subjects which distinctively shape the teaching and the life of our church.

Edwards: “If it were not right that God should decree and permit and punish sin, there could be no manifestation of God's holiness in hatred of sin, or in showing any preference, in his providence, of godliness before it. There would be no manifestation of God's grace or true goodness, if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from. How much happiness soever he bestowed, his goodness would not be so much prized and admired. . . .

So evil is necessary, in order to the highest happiness of the creature, and the completeness of that communication of God, for which he made the world; because the creature's happiness consists in the knowledge of God, and the sense of his love. And if the knowledge of him be imperfect, the happiness of the creature must be proportionably imperfect.”

So real quickly, let me just read our list of theological distinctives—there are five of them. They are:

The absolute sovereignty of God;

Our dependance on the Holy Spirit for every aspect of life and ministry;

The complementary roles of men and women in the church and at home;

Our dependance on the Holy Spirit for every aspect of life and ministry;

The baptism of believers;

The relationship between the glory of God and the joy of man.

So if you’re in that second group—if anything we’re talking about makes you uncomfortable, or even angry—let me encourage you for a moment. There will be all kinds of objections that come to your mind when we talk about these things. “But what about

(If you’re one of those latter people, who are uncomfortable with these things, I’ll just ask that you hold your tomatoes until the end. We’re going to try to show not only this church’s heart behind these things, and mine; but God’s. So even if you still have a hard time with these things at the end, at the very least you should be able to see where we’re coming from.)

So we’re going to hit the ground running, and talk this week about the absolute sovereignty of God.

Let me read to you our description of this doctrine out of our confession of faith, and then we’ll get into it.

The basic goal of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is to show the churches in Ephesus (which he knew well, because he planted the first one) how God saves us, and what impact that knowledge should have on the life of the church.

He lays the foundation of our salvation in all of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2, but today we’re going to concentrate on the densest part, verses 1 to 14.

He Chose Us (v. 1-6)

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

I grew up in a church context which framed salvation in a radically different way. Basically, the idea is that Christ’s death on the cross made salvation possible. In essence, he opened the door to salvation on the cross, but it was entirely up to us to walk through that door, and stay in the room once we’ve come in. And that’s all I’d ever really considered, because that’s all I’d ever heard.

In a nutshell, that’s it.

OK, so

L, U

In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

L, U

Okay, so let’s get the hard part out of the way. The thing that bothers most people about texts like this centers around two words “chose” in v. 4, and “predestined” in v. 5.

We need to be very clear about this: when Paul says that God “chose” us, that he “predestined” us to be his children, he means exactly what he says. The word “predestined” means “decided ahead of time,” and the word “chose” is even simpler—it means what it means.

This shouldn’t surprise us if we’ve read the Bible. In the Old Testament, we see God do this multiple times.

He chose Abraham to be the father of his covenant people.

He chose Jacob to be the son through whom the covenant would be brought forward (even though he was the younger son, and logically that privilege would have gone to his older brother, Esau).

Israel, God’s people, is repeatedly referred to as God’s chosen nation or God’s chosen people.

He chose David to be the king of Israel, whose descendant would be the Messiah, after the people suffered the consequences of their error in wanting a king like the other nations.

God has always brought his grace through covenants he made with people who didn’t deserve it. At every step, God chose his people, regardless of any merit of lack of merit they might have had. It wasn’t because of them, but because of his own sovereign will that God chose whom he chose to be the vehicles for his grace.

And here we see two things: firstly, we see that with his sons and daughters in the church, his free, unconditional election functions the same way it always has—v. 5: he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.

Secondly (and this is where Paul really starts blowing our minds, v. 4), he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

Think about that for a moment. Think about the day, or the moment, or the period of time, in which you came to Christ. You heard the gospel, you understood the gospel, and suddenly the gospel wasn’t nonsense to you, but truth.

God had that moment, that date, marked in his calendar before he created the world. Before , where we read In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth—BEFORE that “beginning,” God had the exact moment of your conversion not just in his mind, but planned. He didn’t just see us; he didn’t just know what we would do; he CHOSE us in him before the foundation of the world.

And he didn’t just choose that something would happen; he made it happen.

He Saved Us (v. 7-10)

T, L

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace...

Okay, let’s stop there for a minute. We need to explain v. 7 a bit before moving on.

Paul says that in Christ we have redemption. Redemption from what?

He tells us a bit in the next phrase, the forgiveness of our trespasses, but if we stopped there, we may not realize the full extent in what he’s saying.

Everyone who was at the concert last week heard Steve’s testimony; and one part in particular makes this point well. He talked about the way he saw himself, and the way he saw everyone else: as basically good. Some people are better than others, and some people worse; but for the most part, he saw most everybody as more good than bad.

That’s the way most of us naturally think. So when we heard that in Christ we have the forgiveness of our trespasses, we may not see this as such a big deal.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

A little bit later, in , Paul tells us exactly what our “trespasses” mean for us. Let your eyes go down just a little, to chapter 2, verse 1. He says:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

So the first thing we need to understand is the state we were in, because inevitably talk of predestination brings up questions of freedom—do we have free will? How can we choose God if he chose us?

It’s not exactly the question Paul’s trying to answer in this book, but it is a good question. And one way to explain the Bible’s answer is this: Yes, we are free, but it’s a specific kind of freedom; we are free to act in accordance with our nature. (For example, I’m not free to choose to be a dragon.)

And this question of our nature is the question Paul is getting at here: we were DEAD. Spiritually speaking, we were completely and 100% dead: we could not choose the things that would bring us life, because dead men can’t choose to be alive. The only things the dead can choose are those things which are in accordance with their nature.

We were DEAD.

And these “dead things” that the dead can choose, the Bible calls them “sin.”

Because we were born in Adam, who rebelled against God, we were all born in sin—we were born already dead. We could not choose anything but sin, because that’s what we were. That’s not to say that we were as bad as we could possibly be, but even the so-called “good things” we did were stained with sin from the very beginning. We followed the ways of our master, Satan; we were free to do what we wanted, but all we wanted was to live (as Paul says) “in the passions of our flesh,” to fulfill “the desires of our bodies and mind.”

And as a result, we deserved God’s wrath, because every sinful desire is an insult and an offense to his holy character.

That’s the state we were in.

But he continues in chapter 2, verse 4:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, MADE US ALIVE together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…

So when Paul says in 1.7 that in Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, he’s talking about a RESURRECTION—on the cross, the people we were died through the shedding of his blood; and at his resurrection, WE were raised with him.

God took the dead people we were, and made us alive.

The question is, Why did he do it?

V. 7 again:

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Why did he do it? Why did he save us?

He did it because he planned to do it. His plan was established before the world was created, as one of many examples of this simple truth: God restores what was broken.

My own personal salvation (and yours) is a foretaste of the restoration he will bring on this whole world, uniting all things in him. One day, Christ will return and do for the earth what he did for us: he will take what was broken, and fix it. He will take what was wrong, and make it right.

This was his plan from the beginning—from before the first man sinned, this was his plan.

He Promised We Would Make It to the End (v. 11-12)

P, U, I

And then I became a Christian, and started reading the Bible seriously for the first time. I started listening to teaching which exposed the biblical texts (and didn’t simply use them as springboards to talk about something else).

What is this “inheritance”? You could spend all day answering just this question; most of the New Testament serves to give us answers to that question.

But broadly speaking, our inheritance is eternal life with Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. Our inheritance is the glory that is to be revealed to us (cf. ). Our inheritance is God himself: we will be his people, and he will be our God (cf. ). And we will be able to enjoy all of that because we will be living in a redeemed world, free from sin and suffering and death and everything else that makes life unbearable for us today.

And why have we received this inheritance? Again, because God chose to give it to us. We were predestined, Paul says, according to the purpose of him who works all things—not just our salvation, but ALL things—according to the counsel of his will.

So this “inheritance”, we have to see, is something we have. TODAY. When you receive an inheritance in our country, usually it’s because someone has died. And when your relative dies, you get called in before a notary, who reads the final will and testament of the dead relative aloud, and gives you a copy, showing that you have received something from them.

But there is always a period of time—sometimes brief, sometimes long—during which you’re waiting to take possession of it. You have the inheritance—the will is in your hands, and validated by the notary—but you haven’t yet come into possession of the inheritance that is yours.

ALL THINGS.

We are in much the same position—the only difference is that our dead relative has been raised from the dead. Our brother Christ died to give us an inheritance. We have received that inheritance. Christ was raised, and he ascended to heaven to take possession of that inheritance, and now he is holding it for us, until we take possession of it along with him, to be co-heirs with him.

The question is, how do we know we will make it? How do we know that we will indeed take possession of our inheritance?

On every inheritance, the notary gives us the document, and puts his seal on the bottom; that seal is the proof that the document of inheritance is legitimate. It is the proof that the promised inheritance will come to us.

In our case, the seal of our inheritance is the Holy Spirit.

V. 13:

P, U, I

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

I LOVE these verses, because they are, in my opinion, the most inarguable.

He says that when we heard the gospel, when we heard the word of truth, something happened in us. We heard the gospel, and what was just words before hit us differently this time; we didn’t hear them as just words, but as truth. We heard the good news of the gospel, and we believed the message. We believed in Christ.

What made us believe? What made us see the gospel differently?

We’ve already seen that, in what Paul said in chapter 2—what made us not just understand the gospel, but believe the gospel, was that the Holy Spirit of God took the dead people we were and made us alive together with Christ.

Your faith is not your doing; it’s the Holy Spirit’s doing. He is the one who brought you from death to life. He is the one who opened your eyes to the truth of the gospel, who caused you to believe in Christ.

So if you ever ask yourself that question, “How do I know I’m going to persevere in my faith until the end?” God’s answer is, “Look to your faith. My Holy Spirit did that in you, and he is the guarantee of your inheritance. He will cause you to persevere until the end.”

So often Christians say they are Christians because one day they chose to follow Christ. And they did. But they only chose to follow Christ because the Holy Spirit gave them the will to choose Christ, and the ability to choose Christ: he caused us to desire Christ above all else, and then set us free to do exactly what we desired.

Humility and Assurance

Now, why is this stuff worth knowing? Why is all of this so important?

In Christ, you can choose righteousness.

The obvious answer is, “Because the Bible says it,” but we need to go a little further than that, because these truths will, if we take them to heart, radically change the kind of Christian you are, and the kind of church we are.

So with that in mind, I’d like to speak to two different groups of people for a moment.

Humble Calvinism

First of all, let me talk to those of you for whom none of this is new, and who, like me, love these truths and accept these truths and embrace these truths.

These truths are referred to in a number of ways: Calvinism, the Five Points of Calvinism (commonly known under the acronym TULIP: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints). They’re called the Doctrines of Grace. They’re called the major tenants of Reformed Theology.

And those who hold to these doctrines, like me, are often referred to as Calvinists, because these points of doctrine were formulated in responses to objections to what John Calvin wrote about in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin didn’t come up with the Five Points, and frankly he would be appalled to hear what many people who label themselves after his name have done with what he believed.

And that’s what we need to get at here.

Young Christians who hear about these things for the first time often go through what people call the “cage stage.” They begin to discover all kinds of amazing things in the Bible that they’d never seen before, and they are so amped up by what they find that they become brutal, arrogant monsters.

When I started discovering these things, I read my entire Bible, cover to cover, in a couple months. And every time I found a text showing God exercising his sovereignty, doing something that we usually imagine God has no part in, I marked a little triangle in the margin.

At the end, there were triangles everywhere.

I still love that, and I still do that triangle-marking thing. But I’ll never forget a conversation I had with our pastor at the time, who was horrified to discover that I wasn’t just making mistakes when I talked about God’s sovereignty, but that I actually believed these things.

At one point the conversation got so contentious that I ripped out my Bible, flung it open to a random page, and said, “LOOK!” I thumbed through, pointing out all the triangles, citing verses left and right.

The

It was appalling.

Calvinists' "cage stage"—

I love the Five Points. But the culture that surrounds discussions on this subject is so often simply toxic—it has nothing to do with biblical Christianity.

There is a truth that is glaringly obvious in this text, which should put up some massive guardrails around your heart.

And the truth is this: YOU DID NOT DO THIS.

Take a look at these verses, and see how many times Paul refers to something you did to contribute to your salvation. The answer is easy: ZERO. The only times he says you did anything, in fact, he always attributes what you did to the work of God in you.

If that isn’t convincing enough, look at all the times here Paul says the words “in Christ,” or “in him.”

V. 3: he has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.

V. 4: he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

V. 7: In him we have redemption through his blood.

V. 9: He set forth his purpose for us in Christ.

V. 10: His plan is to unite all things in him.

V. 11: In him we have obtained our inheritance.

V. 12: Our hope is in Christ.

V. 13: In him we believed, and in him we were sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Guys, your salvation is not found in Calvinism. Your salvation is not found in the Five Points. Your salvation is, from beginning to end, IN CHRIST.

If we love Calvinism more than Christ himself, we are idolators.

Paul is telling all of this to the Ephesians to produce specific results in the life of the church. Keep reading the letter: Paul tells us what these things should produce in us:

Unity (2.11-22, 4.1-16)

Loving honesty (4.15-16)

Holiness (4.20-28, 5.3-5)

Profound care in how we speak and listen (4.29-32, 5.6-20)

Mutual submission (5.21-6.9)

Strength for spiritual struggle (6.10-20)

As much as this text (and others like it) hammer the Doctrines of Grace home to us, they should first and foremost create in us holiness and humility—traits of character which should make us horrified at the way so many Calvinists talk.

And as much as this text (and others like it) hammer the Doctrines of Grace home to us, they should first and foremost create in us a deep-seated humility, which would be horrified at the way so many Calvinists talk.

I promise that I’m not thinking of anyone in particular, so don’t feel targeted. But if this is you, and you tend to react like I did at the beginning, then I implore you, with all the love I have for you: KNOCK IT OFF.

Think about the way you speak. Think about the memes you post on social media. Think about the topics on which you plant your flag and get ready for battle. And stop. Lay down your arms.

Because for all of our grand-standing on the topic, none of this is our doing. We were dead, and he made us alive. We were guilty, and he chose us in Christ. We are constantly struggling with our sin, and he is the guarantee of our inheritance.

I firmly believe that a church which holds to these doctrines rightly will be the most welcoming, the most humble church imaginable. Because that church will know that nothing it is, and nothing it has, is sourced in its members, but only in Christ.

Assurance

Now, to those of you who are not in that camp, who don’t feel comfortable with this subject, let me give you some assurance.

If you’re uneasy about these things, believe me, I understand. I grew up hearing that Christ’s death made salvation possible—that Jesus opened the door to salvation, but that it was up to me to walk through, and to make sure I stayed in the room once I did.

The first time I heard these truths explained, I was profoundly uneasy. I had a really bad week that week.

Trust me, I understand.

You don’t have to agree with what I’ve said this morning to be a member of this church; you don’t even have to agree with what I’ve said to be a biblically faithful Christian.

Or you might be fine with these things, but you’re wondering, Why do we need these labels? Why do I need to “find a camp”? Calvinist, Reformed, Doctrines of Grace, TULIP… Why do we need any of these things?

Let me reassure you: YOU DON’T.

Labels are helpful insofar as they give us a shorthand to make ourselves understood more easily, but in the end no one Paul is speaking to here is a “Calvinist.” We are disciples of Jesus Christ, full stop.

But if you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, then you need to be able to explain, as Peter says, the reason for the hope that is in you. If you hope in Christ, you need to have a foundation for that hope.

And what I’ve found is that if my hope is simply rooted in the fact that Jesus made salvation possible for me, that hope tends to be pretty flimsy. It depends on how strong I happen to feel at any given moment. Because if Jesus only made salvation possible for me, what will make it happen? And the only answer that I can see is our own ability to stay faithful.

I don’t know about you, but I have proven again and again in my own life that I am woefully unable to stay faithful. As Charles Spurgeon famously quoted,

"If ever it should come to pass, That sheep of Christ might fall away, My fickle, feeble soul, alas! Would fall a thousand times a day."

Again, if you’re uncomfortable with these things, I understand. But my experience has been that these truths, which made me so uncomfortable at first, are the truths that give me the most comfort and assurance now; they are the only sure foundation I have found for the hope in me. Since I know that none of my salvation depends on my ability to be a good Christian, but on God’s sovereign will and promises, I can be absolutely, 100% sure that what Christ began in me, he will be faithful to finish.

And I’ll never forget it: I was listening to a sermon on my mp3 player (so this was post-mp3, but pre-iPhone) while ironing. The sermon was a sermon by John Piper on . As he preached, he simply and very clearly walked us through the text. And as I listened, my ironing got slower and slower, until I finally stopped altogether, and sat down on the bed, and stared at the wall for about an hour.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Now there are dozens of ways we could go about doing this. We could talk about God’s sovereignty over creation, over human events, over everything—and I was tempted to do so. But I decided to look at one aspect in particular, because it’s one of perhaps two of the most divisive implications of this idea, and it’s the one that young Christians in our circles tend to use the most aggressively (and wrongly) when talking about it.

We see here:

all the points explained

The fact that I DID NOT DO THIS!!! (Humble Calvinism)all the « in him » statements: not IN US! we have been BROUGHT INTO this salvation. We did not shove the door open by brute force.

What about funny Calvinist memes...?

Why do we need labels? (Calvinism, Reformed, TULIP, Doctrines of grace...) YOU DON’T.

Two main results: assurance and humility

HUMBLE CALVINISM: What impact should this have on the life of the church?

These truths form our assurance in failure; our comfort in suffering; our hope in temptation; and our humility in victory.

Unity (2.11-22, 4.1-16)

So we will continue to joyfully and unashamedly preach these things, and encourage one another with them, to give us joy in our salvation, and strength to obey his commands.

Loving honesty (4.15-16)

Holiness (4.20-28, 5.3-5)

Care in how we speak and listen (4.29-32, 5.6-20)

Mutual submission (5.21-6.9)

Strength for spiritual struggle (6.10-20)

I’d like to attack head-on what is probably the most divisive implication of this idea, and then talk about what we do wrong with it.

We’re going to concentrate this morning on God’s sovereignty over salvation.

If you’ve got your Bibles, I’ll invite you to go to Paul’s letter to the Romans, to chapter 9. (Yep, you heard me right.)

Now, there are a couple of things we need to keep in mind before we start reading. The first is that Paul is going to say some things about God which we find very counter-intuitive, or even wrong: we’re not used to hearing God spoken of in these terms. So we need to keep in mind everything else the Bible says about God.

Talk of God’s sovereignty will automatically be divisive if we forget his other attributes. God’s sovereignty means that not only can God do anything he please; he actually will do whatever he pleases. And the reason why that’s okay—and not, say tyrannical and terrifying—is because God is all-pure, all-good, all-holy, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing, all-wise. What he pleases is by definition the best possible thing, because God only ever wants what is pure, holy, good, and wise.

He is omnipotent; he is omniscient; he is holy; he is good; he is self-existing and self-sufficient.

God’s sovereignty means that not only can God do anything he please; he actually will do whatever he pleases. And the reason why that’s okay—and not, say tyrannical and terrifying—is because God is all pure, all good, all holy, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing, and all-wise. What he pleases is by definition the best possible thing: God only ever wants what is pure, holy, good, and wise.

Which is true about everything we see in as well.

And the reason why that’s okay—and not, say tyrannical and terrifying—is because what he pleases is by definition the best possible thing: God only ever wants what is pure, holy, good, and wise.

The second thing we need to keep in mind is that this text isn’t fundamentally about God’s sovereignty, but about God’s faithfulness to his covenant people, Israel, the descendants of Abraham. Paul is trying to show that despite what some people are suggesting at the time, God hasn’t been unfaithful to his people by letting Gentiles into the family. That is the accusation some people are leveling against Paul’s gospel, because Paul is an apostle to the Gentiles. And he’s trying to show why that accusation is false.

But in doing that, he says some things about the way God acts in salvation that are of profound importance to us.

The last thing we need to keep in mind is so important. A lot of the talk around this subject flies off the rails really quickly when we in the 21st-century West talk about it, because we have some philosophical presuppositions that we’re bringing to the table.

When we read texts like this, the big question in our mind is this: “What about free will?” If God is sovereign, then is man free? And while the Bible does provide—or at least suggest—some answers to that question, that’s not what Paul is doing here.

We have to know that the Bible’s goal is never to provide answers to all of our questions. We don’t come to the Bible to get answers to our questions; we come to the Bible to find out what the questions are.

And Paul’s going to do that particularly well in this text: he’s going to help us ask the right questions.

And he’s going to do it by asking those questions outright.

So here’s what we’ll do. We’re going to go through the text, to see what questions it asks and answers; and then we’re going to take a step back and talk about what this text should DO in us. In other words, we’re going to talk about the text itself, and then talk about how we apply this text wrongly in many of our Christian circles. And lastly, we’re going to talk about why this is good news.

Is God Faithful? (v. 6-13)

So just to set this up, Paul begins by expressing his profound sadness that many of his Jewish brothers and sisters—who have the Law, who have the Prophets, who should understand these things—are denying faith in God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ. And then he’s going to speak about the fact that God made promises to his people—promises that seem to not be coming true for them.

So he’s going to ask the question, “How can we still say that God is faithful, if his promises to his people seem to not be coming true?”

And then he’s going to try Let’s begin reading in v. 6.

Let’s begin reading in v. 6.

So the fundamental thing Paul is trying to show is that the people have misunderstood what his promise to Abraham meant. In , God promises Abraham that through his family, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Abraham’s descendants were the Jews.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

But they were not his only descendants. In chapter 4 Paul explains that the “offspring of Abraham” are not fundamentally those who share in his blood, but those who share his faith. Abraham didn’t know precisely how God would bring about his promise, but he believed that God would do it; and the means by which he did it (Paul explains in chapter 3) is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us.

So anyone who has faith in Christ, Paul says, are the children of the promise, the descendants through whom God will bless the nations.

And we see this lineage of faith even in the children and grandchildren Abraham had. God promised that he would have a son, and although Abraham and his wife Sarah were very old, he had faith that God would keep his promise: so when they had a son, Isaac, that son was a child of the promise.

Then Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob, and God wanted Isaac to trust in his promises as well, and not in cultural norms of the time. Cultural norms dictated that Esau would receive the bulk of Isaac’s inheritance, because he was firstborn. But God said, “No, I’m going to do it another way; you’re going to have to trust me.” So he promised that Jacob, the younger son, would receive what the older son should have received.

And it wasn’t because of anything either son did; before they were ever born, God made his promise, and wanted to show that he would keep his promise to Abraham not through any cultural mandate, but through his own power to decide.

Paul’s point here is to show that God has always acted in this way: he will not be manipulated into doing things our way. He has a plan, and his plan is the right plan, and so if that includes bringing the Gentiles into the family, if that includes making “the children of the promise” not Abraham’s physical descendants, but those who share in his faith, then that was the right thing to do.

God was faithful to keep his promise, and he had the power, the authority, and the wisdom to decide how he would do it.

Is God Just? (v. 14-18)

Okay, so here’s how it starts getting tricky. In v. 13, Paul quotes , in which God says just that: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. Jacob is my child, but Esau is not. And he didn’t do it because of anything good or bad they would do, but because of his own will and plan.

That sounds unfair to us moderners, and it sounded unfair in Paul’s day as well. So he asks the question for us: Is God just?

V. 14:

Paul’s argument here is difficult for us to grasp; we need some backstory, which his readers would have had already in mind.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

After asking the question, Is there any injustice on God’s part?, Paul gives two examples to show why the answer is a resounding No. And his examples are going to sound counterintuitive to us.

The first example is what God said to Moses. In v. 15 he quotes . If you remember the story, Moses is on the mountain, and he asks God to show him his glory.

And God responds (),

“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”

So God agrees to show Moses his goodness, and tell him his name, The Lord. He’s going to show Moses the essence of who he is.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

And what is the essence of God? It is his right to be gracious to whom he will, and to show mercy on whom he will. God’s right and authority to show mercy as he sees fit is who he is. And it cannot be separated from his goodness, because he is God—everything he does is good and right and just.

The second example is what God said to the Pharaoh; here Paul quotes . At this point, the Hebrews are slaves in Egypt, and they have cried out to God to free them. So God responds by sending Moses to do just that. Moses comes, and Pharaoh refuses to let the people go, and God punishes him with ten plagues which infest the land, until the Pharaoh finally relents and lets the people go.

And God warns Pharaoh explicitly that he raised him to power, put him in a position where he could enslave the Hebrews, so that God could show his power and his name in all the earth.

God wants to display to the whole world that he has the authority to punish sin, and that he is right to punish sin, because he is holy, and he is good, and sin is an offense to his nature.

In other words, Paul is showing in these two examples that both God’s mercy and God’s judgment have specific goals: his mercy is given to show his compassion and goodness and grace; and his judgment is given to show his power and his hatred of sin.

That is why, as Paul says in v. 18, he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. In both cases, God is showing different aspects of his character, and because he is God, he has the right and authority to do so. In both cases, he remains just.

he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Who Are You? (v. 20-26)

Now, at this point, Paul anticipates a question from his readers: he knows that what he’s just said isn’t going to satisfy them. He anticipates, in fact, the very question most of us today ask when we hear about these things.

V. 19:

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

That’s our question too. But it’s the wrong question. Again, we don’t come to the Bible to find answers to our questions, but rather to find out what the questions are. If that’s the wrong question, then what’s the right one?

Paul gives us the right question in v. 20:

20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’

and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”

26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

In other words, “You want to know why God still blames us for our sin, if he is sovereign over us? Who are you to even ask that question? God is the one who made you. God is the one who made everything. And the Creator has the right to do what he wants with what he has created.”

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

It’s a devastating response, because it puts us where we don’t want to be. We don’t want to think of ourselves as less than. We want to be the center of our lives. We want to be fully autonomous and entirely free from constraint.

But we are created creatures, and there is One who stands over us, who can do with us what he pleases: our Creator.

God has bigger goals than the personal happiness and fulfillment of his creatures. He wants to show the world his glory, his power, and his name, just like he said to Pharaoh. That includes his mercy, absolutely; but it also includes his wrath against sin.

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’

and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”

26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

The 17th-century theologian Jonathan Edwards explained it in this way:

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

“Thus it is necessary, that God's awful majesty, his authority and dreadful greatness, justice, and holiness, should be manifested. But this could not be, unless sin and punishment had been decreed; so that the shining forth of God's glory would be very imperfect, both because these parts of divine glory would not shine forth as the others do, and also the glory of his goodness, love, and holiness would be faint without them; nay, they could scarcely shine forth at all.

“If it were not right that God should decree and permit and punish sin, there could be no manifestation of God's holiness in hatred of sin, or in showing any preference, in his providence, of godliness before it. There would be no manifestation of God's grace or true goodness, if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from. How much happiness soever he bestowed, his goodness would not be so much prized and admired.” (Concerning the Divine Decrees in General, and Election in Particular)

So I hope you see the heart of what Paul is getting at here. God wants us to see all of his glory, all of his character—his wrath and his mercy, his justice and his grace. And he doesn’t want anyone to be able to look at themselves and say they had a part to play in it; he doesn’t want anyone to imagine that “God saved me because I did the right thing,” or because I prayed the right prayer, or because I made the choice to be baptized or follow Christ.

He wants us to see that anything wrong we deserved, we deserved it; and anything right we do, he did in us. As Paul said, in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls.

in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls

The obvious question people ask when they hear these things is, Why didn’t God save everyone? But that’s the wrong question. The right question is, Why DID God save ANYONE?

None of us deserve his mercy. We all deserve his wrath, because we are all sinners. What should shock us in this passage—and what Paul is rebuking his readers for thinking—is not that God shows wrath, but rather that he shows mercy. He created us, and we rebelled against him. He would have been absolutely right and just to destroy us all and start over, because we all deserve that.

But he didn’t. He does desire to show his wrath against sin, because he is just; but God isn’t only just. He is also merciful and gracious. So in his own perfect wisdom and will, he decided to not only show his wrath against sin, but his mercy against sinners. This is a simply astounding truth that should drive us to our knees in worship.

How Do We Apply This Doctrine Wrongly?

One of Whitefield’s churchgoers asked in a church gathering, “Will we see Wesley in heaven?”

Whitefield responded, “No. We won’t see Wesley in heaven.”

Long pause, gasps.

He continued, “Because John will be so near the throne, and I’ll be so far in the back, that I won’t be able to see him.”

You may have heard of the Five Points of Calvinism, or the Doctrines of Grace. Basically, they are a distillation of these truths for easy access. The Five Points say that human beings are totally sinful; that free from any exterior condition, God chose whom he would save; that Christ’s death on the cross effectively and sufficiently purchased our salvation; that if the Father draws us to Christ we will come to Christ; and that if he saved us, he will make sure we persevere in our faith until the end of our lives.

Let me say it loud and clear: I love the Five Points. I have affirmed them ever since I have seen them in the Bible, and I have taught them ever since the beginning of this church. We as a church hold to Reformed, Calvinist doctrine (however you may feel about those labels), and we do so with great joy, because we believe it is absolutely and profoundly biblical.

But there is a “but.”

And so young Calvinists often adopt an attitude, a kind of pride, about their understanding of Scripture.

(The visceral pleasure of telling someone something that will shock them....)

(The pride of seeing something someone else doesn’t see......)

People in our church culture tend to create a profoundly toxic environment because of these truths—an environment in which it is not okay to not believe these things.

Do I really have to say it? This is not okay.

It is not humble, it is not healthy, it has nothing to do with biblical Christianity. (As one man put it, “John Calvin’s beard would curl if he knew there was a theological system named after him that was dividing the church.” When asked what the top three characteristics of a Christian were, his response was, “Charity, charity, and charity.”)

Story: George Whitefield, John Wesley—best friends, but Whitefield = Calvinist, Wesley = Arminian

It is biblically faithful.

One of Whitefield’s churchgoers asked in a church gathering, “Will we see Wesley in heaven?”

Whitefield responded, “No. We won’t see Wesley in heaven.”

It maintains the Bible’s high view of God.

Long pause, gasps.

It makes us humble.

He continued, “Because John will be so near the throne, and I’ll be so far in the back, that I won’t be able to see him.”

The visceral pleasure of telling someone something that will shock them.

The pride of seeing something someone else doesn’t see

This doctrine should create a deep-seated humility in us, because of all the different soteriological systems, this is perhaps the one which shows us the most clearly that we did not save ourselves. If there is anything good in us, it came from him, not us, and it still does.

These truths should make us the most humble Christians in the world.

The only thing we contributed to this scenario is our sin.

So the idea that we are somehow better—or even more fundamentally faithful—because we believe in these doctrines is a travesty. These truths should make us the most humble Christians in the world.

There’s a story about George Whitefield, the famous evangelist, who was asked a question concerning John Wesley. Wesley was Whitefield’s best friend, and they held two distinctly different theological convictions: Whitefield was a Calvinist, and Wesley was an Arminian (Arminians reject the Doctrines of Grace).

After Whitefield gave a profound exposition of one of these doctrines, someone in the church gathering asked him a question. He asked, “Will we see John Wesley in heaven?”

And Whitefield shocked everyone by responding, “No. We won’t see him in heaven.”

There were many gasps, and a long pause followed.

Finally, Whitefield said, “I won’t see John in heaven, because he will be so near the throne, and I’ll be so far in the back, that I won’t be able to see him.”

Story: George Whitefield, John Wesley—best friends, but Whitefield = Calvinist, Wesley = Arminian

One of Whitefield’s churchgoers asked in a church gathering, “Will we see Wesley in heaven?”

The idea that Calvinists are by default more faithful Christians than the rest is simply laughable, and we should recognize that. If our doctrine doesn’t direct our attention to Christ; if we know the Five Points better than we know Christ, then our theology is nothing more than idolatry.

Whitefield responded, “No. We won’t see Wesley in heaven.”

Long pause, gasps.

We can be Calvinists, sure—even passionate Calvinists. But above all, we must be humble Calvinists, because that’s what knowing Jesus does, and if we claim to be his, we should be like him.

He continued, “Because John will be so near the throne, and I’ll be so far in the back, that I won’t be able to see him.”

Why Is This Doctrine Good News?

It keeps us from despair over our unbelieving friends.

Now, one last point. Today we’ve only touched on one aspect of God’s sovereignty; we need to be aware that it’s far bigger than just a question of salvation. God is sovereign over every aspect of his creation.

And I know some of you may hear that and wonder, Why is this good news?

There are a lot of reasons, but there are four main reasons.

Firstly, it is good news because it is, we believe, what the Bible teaches. Again, we need to be humble here, but no one can argue that God’s sovereignty over his creation is not biblical. And if we believe that the Bible is God’s Word, we should rejoice that he has revealed it to us (even if what he says there makes us uncomfortable).

Secondly, these truths protect us from despair—over our unbelieving friends, over suffering in our life or in the lives of others, in persecution, in misunderstanding. If God is only sovereign, this would be no comfort at all. But since he is also omniscient, and wise, and holy, and good, we can know that nothing escapes his grasp, and nothing is out of his good control.

Part of the reason why it’s hard to see this is because we always think of God’s sovereignty, of his providence, at work in the present tense: he’s sovereign over what’s happening to me now. And that’s true.

But how much comfort would it be to tell someone whose loved one has just died, or who has just received a cancer diagnosis, to say to them, “Don’t worry; God is sovereign over this”?

That almost never sounds like good news in the present tense, unless you’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about God’s sovereignty in the future tense. If your heart is trained to understand that God is sovereign, and will always be in control, the instinct of panic and grief which kicks in when something terrible happens is lessened somewhat. We may not understand the why of it, but our hearts have been trained to believe and trust that nothing is outside of God’s good and sovereign will, and we find rest in that.

Thirdly, these truths give us the assurance that if God has saved us, he will keep us. If he is truly sovereign, and he truly intends to save us, he will save us.

this truth also should be held in our minds in the future tense. I don’t know any better

In Ephesians chapter 1 (a text I could have chosen for today’s message), Paul tells us that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (). He said that in Christ, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the GUARANTEE of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it () He didn’t say, “God made salvation possible, maybe, for us.”

These truths give us the assurance that if God saved us, he will keep us.

Lastly, these truths let us see what we were created to see. Again, says that:

(the glory of God). (It’s good news even for unbelievers—not in the sense of their own personal well-being, but in the sense that they too will see God.)

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will—WHY?—12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

He created us to see his glory, and by celebrating these truths, we have a foretaste of that glory. Because God’s glory is the display of all of his attributes—his omniscience and his humility; his grace and his wrath; his power and his wisdom; his goodness and his justice.

The goal of these things is to help us see God as clearly as possible in this life, that we might celebrate him when we see him face to face.

So let’s celebrate these truths; I know of no better perspective for Bible reading, no better comfort in suffering, and no better assurance in doubt.

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