Calvin's Trail - Why Free Will Matters

A couple weeks ago at Bible Study we were discussing the hard problem of human freedom and God's grace.  We began by asking:

What happens if you completely deny any role of human freedom in salvation?  What happens if you say God rescues a person like a puppet on strings - with no ability to assent or resist?

Today we'll be walking down that trail of logic.  

Step 1: The Headwaters:

Let's begin with the following proposition:  

"When God gives the person the grace to be saved, there is no way to resist it.  God's will shall infallibly be done."

That is essentially the position of John Calvin, who says in his Institutes:

"The grace offered by the Lord is not merely one which every individual has full liberty of choosing to receive or reject, but a grace which produces in the heart both choice and will: so that all the good works which follow after are its fruit and effect; the only will which yields obedience being the will which grace itself has made." - Calvin's Institutes, Book II, Chapter 3, Section 13

This is a doctrine called "Irresistible Grace" - and let's assume that is an accurate description of reality.  Now what?

Step 2: Why are People Saved? (and not)

Well... let's ask a question.  At the end of time there will be people in Heaven and people in Hell.  Regarding the people who are in Heaven, why are they there?

The only possible answer is that God chose to give them grace and they were infallibly brought to salvation.

OK... but what of the people who are in Hell.  Why are they there?

Well, one could say they're in hell because they sinned and God showed his justice upon them.  And that'd be true.  But it's also true that the people in Heaven were once sinners.  So what's the difference?

The difference is that God chose to not give them grace.  Because if God had given them grace, they would have been 100% guaranteed salvation. 

So one could say also say that the reason folks are in hell is because God preferred they go there. He made these people but never offered them grace.  God made these people for the purpose of damning them.

As Calvin said:

“We say, then, that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his desire one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his desire to doom to destruction. We maintain that this counsel, as regards the elect, is founded on his free mercy, without any respect to human worth, while those whom he dooms to destruction are excluded from access to life by a just and blameless, but at the same time incomprehensible judgment.” – Calvin Institutes, Book III, Chapter 21, Section 7

This is called the doctrine of "Double Predestination".

Step 3:  For Whom Did Jesus Die?

Now let's ask another question.  Why did Jesus die?  Well, Jesus died to merit for us the grace of salvation.

But wait... what about the people in Hell?  They didn't receive the grace of salvation, nor did God ever intend to give it to them.

If Jesus had died for those who end up being damned, it would mean God desired their salvation.  And if God desired their salvation, they wouldn't have ended up in hell.

So did Jesus die for them?  It would seem the answer has to be:  No.

That is why the Calvinist Synod of Dort (1619) gave the following decree:

"For it was the entirely free plan and very gracious will and intention of God the Father that the enlivening and saving effectiveness of his Son’s costly death should work itself out in all the elect, in order that God might grant justifying faith to them only and thereby lead them without fail to salvation." - Canons of Dort, Article 8

This is called the doctrine of the "Limited Atonement".

Real World Effects:

So what we've seen here is how denying the role of free-will in salvation leads inexorably to the belief that God doesn't desire the salvation of some folks, and Jesus didn't die for everyone.

That means, if someone believes this and wishes to be honest, this person couldn't walk up to a stranger and say, "God loves you and wants you in Heaven.  He sent his Son to die for you."

The best this person could do is say: "God might love you, might want you in Heaven.  And there's a chance that Jesus died for you."

All that because of the denial of free-will.

Running it in Reverse:

The Calvinist logic on this progression of doctrines is pretty airtight.  However, there's one problem:  The New Testament could hardly be clearer in its teaching that Jesus died for everyone.

This means there was a problem along the way.  And next time we'll be attacking this train of thought at its source.  See you then.