Why the emphasis on Calvinism?

List of articles dealing with the doctrines of grace:

The apostle Matthew's teachings on the doctrines of grace
The apostle Mark's teachings on the doctrines of grace
The apostle Luke's teachings on the doctrines of grace
The apostle John's teachings on the doctrines of grace
The apostle Paul's teachings on the doctrines of grace
Jesus' teachings on the doctrines of grace

Why the emphasis on Calvinism? Page 6

To God Alone Be the Glory

Even this brief summary of the doctrines of grace is sufficient to reveal what is at stake in the conflict between Calvinism and Arminianism. Ultimately it is our view of God. Does he dispose everything—including everything that pertains to our salvation—for his own flowry, or not? The starting point for any system of doctrine ought to be the greater glory of God. This is why, in and of themselves, the Five Points are not the heart of Calvinism; they simply serve to explain distinctive aspects of Reformed soteriology (i.e., the theology of salvation). However, all five points do flow from the heart of Calvinism, which is a passion for God's glory. Each doctrine draws attention away from what human beings can accomplish, in order to declare, "Salvation is of the LORD" (Jonah 2:9).

With its emphasis on the glory of God in salvation, Calvinism can help evangelicalism mature by restoring a proper view of God's majesty. A large part of the problem in the church today is that our contemplation of God is not sufficiently or properly elevated. As Thomas Schreiner and Bruce Ware write in their book on divine sovereignty:

Ours is a culture in which the tendency is to exalt what is human and diminish what is divine. Even in evanglical circles, we find increasingly attractive a view of God in which God is one of us, as it were, a partner in the unfolding drama of life. But lost in much of this contemporary evanglical tehology is the full omniscience, omnipotence, splendor, greatness, supremacy, rulership, and unqualified lordship of God. In contrast, the vision of God affirmed in these pages is of One who reigns supreme over all, whose purposes are accompalished without fail, and who directs the course of human affairs, including the central drama of saving a peopole for the honor of his name, all with perfect holiness and matchless grace.

This is one place where the doctrines of grace can help us, because together they show that God really does save sinners. We are dead in our sins, and therefore can do nothing to save ourselves, but together the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have done and will continue to do everything that is necessary for our salvation: choosing, redeeming, calling, and preserving. Thus the one point of Calvinism that the Five Points aim to demonstrate (and which Arminianism tends to deny) is that every aspect of salvation is the absolutely gracious work of the totally sovereign God. To him by the glory forever!

Having a high view of God means something more than giving glory to God, however; it means giving glory to God alone. This is the difference between Calvinism and Arminianism. While the former declares that God alone saves sinners, the latter gives the impression that God enables sinners to have some part in saving themselves. Calvinism presents savlation as the work of the triun God—election by the Father, redemption in the Son, calling by the Spirit. Furthermore, each of these saving acts is directed toward the elect, thereby infallibly securing their salvation. By contrast, Arminianism views salvation as something that God makes possible but that man makes actual. This is because the saving acts of God are directed toward different persons: the Son's redemption is for humanity in general; the Spirit's calling is only for those who hear the gospel; narrower still, the Father's election is only for those who believe the gospel. Yet in none of these cases (redemption, calling, or election) does God actually secure the salvation of even one single sinner! The inevitable result is that rather than depending exclusively on divine grace, salvation depends partly on a human response. So although Arminianism is willing to give God the glory, when it comes to salvation, it is unwilling to give him all the glory. It divides the glory between heaven and earth, for if what ultimately makes the difference between being saved and being lost is man's ability to choose God, then to just that extent God is robbed of his glory. Yet God himself has said, "I will not yield my glory to another" (Isaiah 48:11).

Here many Arminians will wish to demur, protesting that they really do want to give God all the glory. And with good reason: every true Christian recoils at the thought of claiming any personal merit, and wants instead to give God all the praise. A striking illustration of this comes from an encounter between Charles Simeon and John Wesley. Simeon preached generally Calvinist doctrine at Cambridge. Wesley, of course, was a famous evangelist well known for his opposition to Calvinism. As Wesley indicates in his journal, the two men met on December 20, 1784. Simeon recorded their conversation, in which he began to question Wesley concerning his theology of salvation:

"Sir, I understand that you are called an Arminian; and I have been sometimes called a Calvinist; and therefore I suppose we are to draw daggers. But before I consent to begin the combat, with your permission I will ask you a few questions.... Pray, Sir, do you feel yourself a depraved creature, so depraved that you would never have thought of turning to God, if God had not first put it into your heart?"

"Yes," says [Wesley], "I do indeed."

"And do you utterly despair of recommending yourself to God by anything you can do; and look for salvation solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ?"

"Yes, solely through Christ."

"But, Sir, supposing you were at first saved by Christ, are you not somehow or other to save yourself afterwards by your own works?"

"No, I must be saved by Christ from first to last."

"Allowing, then, that you were first turned by the grace of God, are you not in some way or other to keep yourself by your own power?"

"No."

"What, then, are you to be upheld every hour and every moment by God, as much as an infant in its mother's arms?"

"Yes, altogether."

"And is all your hope in the grace and mercy of God to preserve you unto His heavenly kingdom?"

"Yes, I have no hope but in Him."

"Then, Sir, with your leave I will put up my dagger again; for this is all my Calvinism; this is my election, my justification by faith, my final perseverance: it is in substance all that I hold, and as I hold it; and therefore, if you please, instead of searching out terms and phrases to be a ground of contention between us, we will cordially unite in those things wherein we agree."

Wesley was hardly a Calvinist, but perhaps it may be said that he was a Calvinist at heart. He instinctively recognized the truth of a principle that he had not yet worked into his theology with complete consistency, namely, that sinners contribute nothing to their own salvation—it is God's work from beginning to end. He knew that in order for the gospel to be a gospel of grace it must be all of grace.

Is there anything that we can contribute to our salvation? Only the sin from which we neet to be saved, for we are the objects of divine grace. Yet the constant temptation is to slip the human element back into the equation. Theologians call this "synergism," a term that comes from the Greek words syn, meaning with, and ergos, meaning work. In theology, synergism is the belief that we work together with God to accomplish and apply our salvation. But this is fatal to any sound doctrine of salvation, for it has the inevitable result of increasing the place of man and thus diminishing the glory of God in salvation.

To prove this point, Arthur Custance rehearsed Martin Luther's debate with his friend and protagé Philip Melanchthon. Especially in his later years, Melancthon argued that even if a sinner cannot contribute anything positive to his salvation, at least he does not resist God's grace when it comes. This "non-resistance" may seem like a very small contribution, certnainly too small to make much difference. However, Luther warned that this "very little" was actually more dangerous than the "very much" that the Pelagians demanded when they argued that man was wholly capable of meriting God's grace. What made it dangerous was its subtlety. After all, what was the harm in adding just a little bit of huan effort to the work of God? But Luther recognized that this was tantamount to the error of Roman Catholicism, which insisted that the will of man is the decisive factor in salvation. He also recognized that the leaven of synergism evantually works its way through the entire loaf of soteriology.

What was at issue then—and what remains at issue today—was the Reformation principle of sola gratia, by grace alone. To add anything at all to God's grace is to destroy its graciousness, its very nature as a gift. This leads Custance to conclude,

The difference between a monergistic and synergistic faith, between a God only and a God and Gospel, is nothing less than the difference between the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the one hand, and all other religious systems of belief ... on the other. There are basically only two alternatives. If man contributes any essential part towards his salvation, he effectively becomes his own savior....

There is here a clear point of demarcation. It is all of God or it is not good news at all. If man is free to resist, God is not free to act, for He is bound by man's freedom. If God is to be free to act, man must be bound by the will of God.... But in a fallen world, God's grace must be irresistible or man's will can remain forever opposed to God, and the will of the creature overrides the will of the Creator.

In truth there is no "Gospel" that is not entirely rooted in the sovereignty of God's grace in salvation, which is the sum and substance of Calvinism.... The crucial issue is the sovereignty of God's grace....

The only defense against Synergism is an unqualified Calvinism ascribing all the glory to God by insisting upon the total spiritual impotence of man, an Election based solely upon the good pleasure of God, an Atonement intended only for the elect though sufficient for all men, a grace that can neither be resisted noer earned, and a security for th ebleiever that is as permanentas God Himself.

In other words, the only defense against a doctrine of savlation that exalts humanity—and thus the only hope for evanglicalism—is a thoroughgoing Calvinism. To receive the grace of the gospel as God's grace, we must recover the doctrines of grace.

Occoquan Bible Church