Grace Resistible

Last week, In a favorite class of mine, something to the effect of, "You can refuse the grace of God" was said. The I in TULIP screamed out from with in me and I raised my hand.
"Luke."
"Are you saying God's grace is resistible?"
"Yes. Absolutely. That's what we're talking about." My face must have betrayed me because my professor asked for my thoughts on the matter. Though this is more than I said in class, it is a more complete argument in favor of Irresistible Grace. What I actually said was confined to point 2.

1. The Bible says "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" Philippians 1:6. The Author of Hebrews says so matter-of-fact, "...and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..." Hebrews 12:1c,2a. Both these passages speak of two parts of our salvation--Initiation and Completion. Our God is credited explicitly with both components. Our God is the Alpha and Omega. As my friend Clint says, "God is obsessed with His own Glory." He will get all the credit and glory for our salvation. It is because of this that God cannot allow man to refuse His Grace. If that were possible Philippians 1:6 would have to read, "He who began a good work in you will wait for you to except His grace so He can perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." The Bible does not leave space for man to screw up the Perfect will of God.

2. If my salvation is dependent upon my acceptance of God's grace, it puts the power in my hands and suddenly I am my own savior. This is not only Humanism. It is works righteousness. And it is also Idolatry. If we put on Grace and Faith ourselves, we can thank Jesus for doing His little work on the Cross and say, "It's ok God, I got it from here."

3. "Yes, God is sovereign, but we still have Free Will!" you say. In this line of thought, man is nothing less than a little god. Proponents of the glorification of man's will point to Genesis where God told man to take dominion of the earth. "After all," they say, "man is made in the image of God." And presto! Man's will is no longer bound by the will of God.

Ultimately these word of faith folks have actually taken their faith away from God and put it in their own works of faith. It is a sick cycle that my friend Brent calls "Faith in faith." And if your trust is in your level of faith, you will inevitably be without God. You may call Him Lord, but He is not your Lord. You may call Him savior, but He has not saved you. You did. Remember. It was your "acceptance" of His Grace. Your lightweight Jesus thanks you for not resisting his weak grace. He probably looks at you without fire in his eyes because you like a God you can stare down. His word probably don't cut like a double edged sword because your words have creative power and you don't need His. And He probably doesn't sit on a throne in Heaven judging the nations that are his inheritance because you have claimed the kingdoms of the earth for your own glory.

If I sound bitingly sarcastic, I am. I hate this kind of false gospel. It brings God low so I can be High. It is a self exalting doctrine from the pit of hell and I squirm every time I hear it proclaimed from the pulpit.

"Prophetic" Arrogance

If you haven't read Dutch's Response to the US Presidential Election read it first before hearing what I say. This is a response to a forward I received late last week.

I'm glad that I'm not included under "Dutch's stream" of Christians. Where does he get off that he can say that God's will didn't happen last week during elections. That is absurdly unbiblical and it is arrogant. How does Dutch "prophetically" proclaim that God did not appoint Obama when in Romans 13:1 it says "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God." And don't let anyone say that this verse is out of context, because in context, Paul is writing this while Nero is the Cesar in Rome. How dare we as Christians live defiantly against the man that God established as OUR leader. 1st Timothy 2:2 says we are to pray for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Not a life of repaying the Democrats for the ridicule they paid the Republicans for the last 8 years.

I'm not saying the new president stands for everything we as Christians believe. But God has a purpose for everything. And as my Hess grandparents are so faithful to remind me, God is Sovereign and can take any evil and turn it into something that will Glorify him. Our Faith is in God, not in our government. We serve a God is much bigger than American politics. The Beautiful thing about God is that when the man who we would rather lead us isn't elected, we can lean that much more on His goodness regardless of what the circumstance makes us feel. We are not led by feelings we led by the Word of God.

I love God's Goodness. And unborn babies being aborted does not convince me otherwise. God is still Good. This is not a denial of the colossal waste of life and the grisliness of the abortion. But it is a refusal to let an evil world dictate how I interpret what the Bible speaks of God's attributes. I feel sorry for those who think they are always out of God's will as if there is alternate realities of time and space. As if what was true for one reality was not true for another. This a postmodern man's idea of God. It is a God who is weak like Baal and false like a golden calf. Come on, God is bigger than that.