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Tulip and Reformed Theology: Irresistible Grace: R.C. S A

The document discusses the concept of "irresistible grace" in Reformed theology. It makes three key points: 1) In Reformed theology, regeneration (being born again by the Holy Spirit) precedes and enables faith, rather than the other way around. Regeneration is the work of God alone through His grace. 2) When God exercises His grace, He brings about the intended effect - He regenerates and converts individuals so that they come to faith. God's grace is powerful enough to overcome natural human resistance. 3) While grace can be resisted, God's effectual grace changes people's dispositions so they willingly come to Christ, rather than being dragged against their will.

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54 views3 pages

Tulip and Reformed Theology: Irresistible Grace: R.C. S A

The document discusses the concept of "irresistible grace" in Reformed theology. It makes three key points: 1) In Reformed theology, regeneration (being born again by the Holy Spirit) precedes and enables faith, rather than the other way around. Regeneration is the work of God alone through His grace. 2) When God exercises His grace, He brings about the intended effect - He regenerates and converts individuals so that they come to faith. God's grace is powerful enough to overcome natural human resistance. 3) While grace can be resisted, God's effectual grace changes people's dispositions so they willingly come to Christ, rather than being dragged against their will.

Uploaded by

T. JHON
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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TULIP and Reformed Theology:

Irresistible Grace
FROM  R.C. S PROUL   A PR 15, 2017   C ATEGORY :  A RTICLES
\ HTTPS :// WWW . LIGONIER . ORG / BLOG / TULIP - AND - REFORMED - THEOLOGY - IRRESISTIBLE -
GRACE /

In historic Reformation thought, the notion is this: regeneration precedes faith.


We also believe that regeneration is monergistic. Now that’s a three-dollar word.
It means essentially that the divine operation called rebirth or regeneration is the
work of God alone. An erg is a unit of labor, a unit of work. The
word energy comes from that idea. The prefix mono- means “one.”
So monergism means “one working.” It means that the work of regeneration in
the human heart is something that God does by His power alone—not by 50
percent His power and 50 percent man’s power, or even 99 percent His power
and 1 percent man’s power. It is 100 percent the work of God. He, and He alone,
has the power to change the disposition of the soul and the human heart to bring
us to faith.
In addition, when He exercises this grace in the soul, He brings about the effect
that He intends to bring about. When God created you, He brought you into
existence. You didn’t help Him. It was His sovereign work that brought you to life
biologically. Likewise, it is His work, and His alone, that brings you into the state
of rebirth and of renewed creation. Hence, we call this irresistible grace. It’s grace
that works. It’s grace that brings about what God wants it to bring about. If,
indeed, we are dead in sins and trespasses, if, indeed, our wills are held captive by
the lusts of our flesh and we need to be liberated from our flesh in order to be
saved, then in the final analysis, salvation must be something that God does in us
and for us, not something that we in any way do for ourselves.

Tweet  this
GOD’S GRACE IS SO POWERFUL THAT IT HAS THE
CAPACITY TO OVERCOME OUR NATURAL
RESISTANCE TO IT. —R.C. SPROUL
However, the idea of irresistibility conjures up the idea that one cannot possibly
offer any resistance to the grace of God. However, the history of the human race
is the history of relentless resistance to the sweetness of the grace of God.
Irresistible grace does not mean that God’s grace is incapable of being resisted.
Indeed, we are capable of resisting God’s grace, and we do resist it. The idea is
that God’s grace is so powerful that it has the capacity to overcome our natural
resistance to it. It is not that the Holy Spirit drags people kicking and screaming
to Christ against their wills. The Holy Spirit changes the inclination and
disposition of our wills, so that whereas we were previously unwilling to embrace
Christ, now we are willing, and more than willing. Indeed, we aren’t dragged to
Christ, we run to Christ, and we embrace Him joyfully because the Spirit has
changed our hearts. They are no longer hearts of stone that are impervious to the
commands of God and to the invitations of the gospel. God melts the hardness of
our hearts when He makes us new creatures. The Holy Spirit resurrects us from
spiritual death, so that we come to Christ because we want to come to Christ. The
reason we want to come to Christ is because God has already done a work of
grace in our souls. Without that work, we would never have any desire to come to
Christ. That’s why we say that regeneration precedes faith.

I have a little bit of a problem using the term irresistible grace, not because I


don’t believe this classical doctrine, but because it is misleading to many people.
Therefore, I prefer the term effectual grace, because the irresistible grace of God
effects what God intends it to effect.
In the final post, we will conclude by considering the P in TULIP, perseverance of
the saints.

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