God

Strong Calvinists assert that, because mankind is dead in trespasses and sins, that he cannot respond to the gospel in faith. Therefore, the sinner must be regenerated, through irresistible grace on the unwilling, before he can ever believe the gospel. This assertion amounts to the claim that we must be born again that we might believe, but it falls on both logical and biblical grounds.

First, this Strong Calvinist view effectively denies the omnibenevolence of God by claiming that God arbitrarily regenerates some while denying others. If God is all-good, why is He not good to all? Second, irresistible grace on the unwilling is no different from Divine rape, a deplorable view of God’s love. Third, not one verse of Scripture teaches that we must be regenerated prior to exercising faith. The view is simply the result of extreme and faulty anthropological and theistic presuppositions. Rather, Scripture teaches over and again that we must believe in order to be saved (e.g., Mk. 16:16; Jn. 1:12, 3:16, 20:31; Acts 16:31; Rom. 5:1, 10:9-10; Gal. 3:22). Though Scripture consistently teaches that man is sinful and estranged from God, it never intimates that man is therefore incapable of responding to an offer of salvation. It is God’s goodness that draws us to Him (Jn. 6:44; Rom. 2:4), but it is also God’s goodness that prevents Him from raping our souls with irresistible grace and forcing us, against our will, to believe in Him.

Ironically, if regeneration is truly prior to faith as Strong Calvinists claim, then the very principle of the Reformation, sola fide, is undermined. For if regeneration is prior to faith, then in reality there are no conditions for salvation. To be consistent, therefore, the Strong Calvinist must admit that faith is not a condition for salvation, but merely an evidence of it. 

Man’s free will is either determined by another, indetermined, or determined by self. These three options are logically exhaustive. 

Determinism, in both its naturalistic and supernaturalistic forms, is self-defeating. If complete determinism is true, then all who hold to non-deterministic views are determined to do so, and can not be expected to change their views. Further, humans could not be held responsible for their actions if those actions were not the result of their own self-determined free choice. 

Indeterminism, on the other hand, makes for an irrational world by its rejection of the principle of causality. And like determinism, indeterminism illegitimately releases man from his moral responsibility, since his moral actions are ultimately uncaused. 

Self-determinism is the only option left and the correct one. First, to answer a common charge, it should be noted that self-determinism is not the same as self-causation. The latter would indeed be a logical impossibility because a being cannot be the cause of its own being. But there is no contradiction in an action being self-caused. Self-determinism alone explains the moral responsibility that man has before God. While God is the cause of the fact of free will, man is responsible for the acts of free will. This is also true of Lucifer. If Lucifer’s fall was determined by another, then God would be responsible for sin and evil. If Lucifer’s fall was indetermined, then God, a Being of perfect rationality, created an irrational world, which is absurd. The correct view is that Lucifer’s fall was the result of his own free will decision to choose the finite good (himself) over and against the Infinite Good (God). God gave to angels and humans the good of self-deterministic free will. As free moral creatures, angels and humans are responsible for what is done with that free will. 

1 Peter 1:3-9

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,  so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:3-9

Peter’s first epistle could be given the tagline, “Reasons for a Living Hope.” Peter’s audience, exiled and dispersed Christians undergoing much suffering the world and bracer for even greater afflictions to come, lived in the tension between present suffering and future glory. Like all Christians who live as pilgrims in the world, these believers could say along with the writer of Hebrews: Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” The tension between present suffering and the promise of future glory is held in place by “hope.” “Hope” in the Bible is not wishful thinking, but a yet to be realized certainty. In the opening verses of this pastoral letter, Peter gives us four solid reasons that his readers, as well as any Christian today who finds him/herself in a similar situation, can and should entrust ourselves to God.

1 – Because of the mercy of God (1:3)

Mercy is singled out because of the condemnation every sinner is under and the full measure of God’s indignation we all justly deserve: “If you should mark iniquities, who could stand?” (Ps. 130:3) Jesus gave a remarkable illustration of our intractable indebtedness to God in a parable recorded in Matthew 18:23-27.

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.”

One talent is estimated to be the equivalent of twenty years wages for the average laborer. Ten thousand talents, therefore, is equal to 200,000 years of labor, or roughly 2,500 complete lifetimes even using today’s increased average lifespans! If the average person worked 50 years during his life, that would means 4000 lives trying to work off this debt. This is how Jesus illustrates our unfathomable (and unpayable) sin debt to a holy God. But it gets even worse: every life that a person lives, they incur more debt, thereby compounding the debt exponentially and nearly incalculably. No wonder the Bible warns us that the unrepentant sinner is “storing up wrath” for himself! Seen in this life, even death is a mercy, for it “closes the books” so to speak on the moral and spiritual debit ledger of one’s life.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:4-5

Pure justice would have demanded payment of the crushing debt, which could never be fully paid even in eternal hell. Instead, as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. We can entrust ourselves to God in the midst of suffering because He has already bestowed His unfathomable mercy on us in forgiving our unpayable debt. “Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Pet. 2:10).

2 – Because of Christ’s Resurrection (1:3-4)

If Christ was not raised from the dead, our sin debt remains (Rom. 4:24-25; 1 Cor. 15:17). Thankfully, the evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus is substantial. The value of our hope is inextricably bound to the veracity of the resurrection of Christ. The worthiness of the impershable, undefiled, unfading inheritance awaiting us is only as good as the truthfulness of the record that in space-time history God raised Jesus from the dead. Thanks be to God (!): that record is candid, reliable, and unimpeachable. And because God did raise Jesus, we can entrust our souls to God – he will surely one day also consummate our salvation.

3 – Because of God’s Power (1:5)

In verse 5, Peter uses a military term translated into English as “guarded” or “shielded.” This word would describe a garrison stationed within a city to protect it from its foes. The glory of our eternal inheritance profits us little if we or it can be easily plundered by our enemy. But, we are being guarded. That is, we are not doing the guarding, God is, and He is doing it presently.

We are, in fact, guarded by omnipotence, the infinite power of God to realize all that He wills to do. At the same time, we are guarded through faith. If it were solely up to us, we would all fall away. Yet, God’s loving omnipotence preserves and defends us. However, it is important to note that the divine power is marshaled to our defense through our faith. Thus, it is a “synergistic” endeavor, involving both God and the believer.

But what exactly are we being guarded from? Both life experience and the contents of this very epistle make it plain that God’s power does not necessarily shield us from trials and hardships. In many cases, faith does not eliminate or even minimize our afflictions. In fact, faith may even increase or intensify the trials of the believer (Heb. 11:35-37). Rather, while not protected from (every) present affliction, we are are being guarded for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. It is with an eschatological focus that Peter tell us we are guarded by the power of God. As it has been said: “while suffering stalks you, glory awaits you.”

4 – Because of the Authenticity of Tested Faith (1:6-9)

The fourth and final reason given here as to why we can and should entrust our selves to God is that even in our suffering, God purposes that our faith may be be proven to be authentic, enduring, having a divine origin. When we are assaulted by trials that result directly from a refusal to compromise our Christian witness and convictions, we might be tempted to wonder if our faith will remain intact through the fire: “Do I really believe this stuff?”

Peter ensures us that when tested, the genuine believer discovers a faith that tis deeper, sturdier, more profound, steadier, and stronger than it was before being tested. And such a tested, genuine faith yields three rewards (1:7-9):

1 – It will receive God’s commendation

2 – It fixes our present affections upon Christ

3 – It secures the consummation of our salvation

If that kind of faith is yours, you know that such faith has been wrought in God, you know that you are being guarded by His power, and you know that you can entrust your very soul to a Faithful Creator. These truths are so incredible, that Peter tells us into these things angels long to look. Angels, even as beings who don’t directly benefit from the gospel of our salvation, make a diligent examination of the wonder of God’s mercy bestowed upon ungodly sinners such as we. If angels marvel at the glory of the grace of God, should not we, the very recipients of that glorious grace?