Chapter 13
Final Thoughts
Which grace is more amazing, a grace we get for doing something or a grace we get for doing nothing? Free grace salvation exalts the will of God. Free will salvation exalts the will of the spiritually dead unsaved sinner. Free grace is a God centered salvation and free will is a man centered salvation. Free grace is a God caused salvation. Free will is a man caused salvation. In free grace, the difference in our salvation is God. In free will, the difference in our salvation is the spiritually dead, unsaved sinner. Free grace is grace salvation. Free will is reward salvation.
Which view of God seems correct? (1) A God who is “trying” to save everyone yet only saves a few. (2) A God who saves every single person He planned to save. The biblical view of our sovereign, omnipotent God is the latter view, not the former. (John 6:37-39)
But More Christians Believe in Free Will Salvation
I have said several times in this book that the free grace view is the minority view in Christianity today. Does this admission in some way mean that free grace salvation cannot be correct since more Christians believe in free will salvation? Is this a majority rules type of issue? Let me remind the reader that with regard to the Bible, the minority was usually right or chosen by God.
The chosen people of God, Israel, were small in number in relation to all the other peoples of the world who were heathen and lost. When Moses sent the twelve spies into the Promised Land, only two, Joshua and Caleb, had faith to go in and take the land. God chose only 300 men from all of Israel to stand with Gideon to fight the Midianites. Also, remember what was said in Rom. 11:5. God always has His remnant or smaller number of His chosen people among the many.
5Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. (Rom. 11:5)
Let us not forget that it is the minority that will be in heaven. The majority will have been wrong about Christ and will suffer in hell for all eternity because of their rejection of our Lord.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matt. 7:13-15)
The gospel is given out to vast multitudes but only those chosen few will receive it and be saved.
14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:14)
Common Objections
Not a Sincere Offer
It is thought by some that, if the free grace view is correct, then the offer of salvation by God is not a sincere offer because God is only going to save His elect. However, we just saw in Matt. 22:14 that many are called, but few are chosen. God calls many to salvation but only His chosen few will believe. Since no one believes because they are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, God graciously gives faith to His elect. That is God’s plan in the Bible. Who are we to criticize God for His free salvation plan? We must be very careful not to do that as we will have to give an account to God on judgment day if we do.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” (Rom. 9:14-15)
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” (Rom. 9:18-20)
God has the sovereign right as the Creator to give mercy to whomever He wants (His elect) and to harden whomever He wants (the non-elect). We must never criticize or question His fairness, righteousness, or sincerity. We must always trust God to do that which is right. We might not understand what He does, but that is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to trust and obey Him.
This objection really goes back to the complaint of the fairness of God which was dealt with in chapter 10. God could have fairly damned everyone because of sin. Is He unfair to save some by grace? Isn’t that what grace is, the unmerited favor and mercy of God? The purpose of this book is to prove that the free grace view of salvation is the only view that makes salvation a free gift and not a reward.
The free will view raises the objection of how the offer of salvation from God could be sincere if the free grace view is correct. However, the free will view also believes in the foreknowledge of God. This means God foreknows all future events and happenings. God foreknew who would believe in Him and who would reject Him. Even though God foreknew in eternity past who would reject Him, He still sent out the gospel to “many” of them. (Matt. 22:14) So, this objection of the sincerity of God’s offer could also be made against the free will view.
Does Election Make God a Respecter of Persons?
Is God a respecter of persons or one who shows partiality if He elects some to salvation and not others?
34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 35 But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. 36 The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all— (Acts 10:34-36)
The answer is no, God is not a respecter of persons and does not show partiality with regard to election. God did not consider personal characteristics in His choice to elect one and not another. He didn’t consider whether people were good looking or not, whether they were male or female, what their social class was, what country they live in, or whether they were rich or poor. His choice was based on the good pleasure and purpose of His secret will before the foundation of the world. Those He has chosen will have a reverential fear of God and produce fruit for the kingdom of Christ.
What About Man’s Responsibility?
It is certainly true that a mystery exists between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. God is in control of all things, yet man is responsible to God for his actions. We see other mysteries beyond our ability to fully understand such as the Trinity, the dual nature of Christ who is both God and man, and the eternal preexistence of God. Our finite minds can only go so far into such mysteries. We realize that they are not totally understandable in this life. The Bible teaches both divine sovereignty and man’s responsibility. They are both true.
We see in Scripture that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart or will to not let the children of Israel go out of Egypt (Ex. 4:21), yet God still held Pharaoh responsible for the fact that he didn’t let them go (Rom. 9:17-19). God decided to allow Satan to enter Judas (John 13:27) knowing Judas would be influenced to betray Christ, yet Judas, the son of perdition, is damned by God for that decision and action. (John 17:12) We see that God judged David for numbering Israel, yet Scripture declares that both God (2 Sam. 24:1) and Satan (1 Chron. 21:1) moved David’s will to number the people.
God’s sovereign will always over rules the wills and decisions of men to work out all things according to His purpose and glory. (Rom. 8:28)
The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. (Prov. 21:1)
If God can turn the wills of kings, governors, and presidents, He certainly can turn the wills of those below these powerful rulers.
A man’s steps are of the LORD; how then can a man understand his own way? (Prov. 20:24)
We may respond that it is not fair or right of God to hold men responsible if God gives mercy to some but hardens the wills of others to further His will, but we will always get this same response from God.
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Without Free Will We Are Reduced to Puppets or Robots
This, of course, is a ridiculous charge. Puppets and robots are created by man and have no soul or spirit. They also don’t have the ability to make free choices. As mentioned previously the unsaved man is a free agent. He makes choices freely doing what he wants to do. However, he no longer is a free spiritual agent since the fall of man. He will not, nor cannot, do anything of spiritual value toward God because he thinks such things are foolishness. (1 Cor. 2:14) He can’t understand spiritual matters. (Rom. 3:11) He has lost the free will ability to make good, spiritual choices. So, the unsaved man is free to choose what he wants. What he wants is to do those things that please him, not God. The Bible is clear on this. Although the unsaved man may do some worldly good deeds, they are not good in the sight of God (Rom. 3:12) unless they are done with a motive to please the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pride or Humility?
Some have charged those who believe in the free grace view with pride saying that if they believe God chose them before time as His elect, they must think they are really something special. Some have even referred to those who believe in free grace as the “frozen chosen”. Of course this is all unfair and unkind. The elect are special but not because of anything they did to deserve that election.
Unconditional election, if understood properly, humbles us. This is true as God, who could rightly have damned us for our sin, has chosen to save us even though there is nothing in our lives to warrant such action on His part. He simply loved us before time, not according to what we did in our lives, but according to His grace and mercy which He bestowed on us before time. Now that is amazing grace!
Blotted Out of the Book of Life
Some have objected to the free grace view by raising the fact that people can be blotted out of the Book of Life. This would mean, in their view, the elect or Christians could be blotted out later. If people can be blotted out of the Book of Life, they can be saved and subsequently lose their salvation. Some people make the incorrect assumption that everyone’s names all started out in the Book of Life.
Only the names of Christians, the saved, or God’s elect were written in the Book of Life. The unsaved who will suffer in hell never had their names written in the Book of Life.
8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him [the beast], whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Rev. 13:8)
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is, (Rev. 17:8)
When did God write the names of His chosen people in the Book of Life? According to Rev. 17:8 they were written in that book before the foundation of the world. Names written in the Book of Life can never be blotted out since only Christians are named in that book. They are kept eternally secure by God the Holy Spirit as we have seen already. Jesus will not lose one of those given to Him by the Father. No one can remove a believer from the hand of God.
5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. (Rev. 3:5)
Rev. 3:5 does not prove or even imply that names can be blotted out of the Book of Life. It simply states that the name of the Christian who overcomes will not be blotted out of this book. Christians are saved and kept saved by the grace of God. They overcame, not by their own abilities, but by the grace of God working in them. If they overcame by their own efforts, then salvation is according to merit and not by grace.
Let’s put this in an eternal perspective. God chose His elect before the foundation of the world. God, in His omniscience, knows everything before it happens. What sense would it make for God to elect people, put them in His Book of Life, to later blot them out? Doesn’t God know the beginning from the end? Of course He does. The non-elect were excluded by God from the Book of Life and in that sense they are blotted out of this book.
Why Pray?
Some also object and ask why pray for someone’s salvation if the free grace view is correct? God is going to save or not save based on His election, so why even pray for someone to get saved? God commands us to pray for others. He uses us to bring His chosen ones to Himself. In the free will view isn’t God being asked to save people? God is being asked through prayer to intervene so that the person in question will believe and become saved. God is being asked to impose His will over the unsaved person’s will so that they will believe and be saved. Isn’t this tampering with that person’s will?
Why Witness?
Some have also said that if the free grace view is true, why witness to others because God is going to save His elect anyway. It is true that God is going to save His elect regardless. Why? It is because God’s plans are not dependent on human beings. If God’s plans depended on sinful human beings and their dead wills, God’s plans would certainly fail and Satan would get the victory. When we witness to others we can be assured that as we are planting or watering seeds, those God wants to save will be saved as He alone gives the increase. The purpose of our witnessing is to be obedient to the commands of God to spread the gospel. God uses us as His instruments to bring others to Himself.
Is This Fatalism?
Some charge that the free grace view is nothing more than fatalism or the belief that all events are fixed. There is a major difference between fatalism and biblical predestination. Fatalism is a superstitious belief, and it is controlled by no one. Fatalism is much like its brother luck. They are both nothing. No one controls either of these mythological forces. A Christian should not believe in either of these falsehoods because they exclude God who is in control of all things. (Eph. 1:11)
However, predestination or God’s foreordination is a biblical doctrine of the Word of God. (Eph. 1:5,11; Rom. 8:29-30) Predestination is the plan of God for all things. God is in control and predestination proves that. God, in His predestination promises to work out all things for the believer’s good. (Rom. 8:28) Who is in control of the universe? Is it an all-knowing, personal God Who plans out all things that will happen or an impersonal, false god called fate that has no purpose or plan? The answer is clear for the Christian.
Ending Considerations
An Improper Understanding of Evangelism
What we have here is a basic misunderstanding of the purpose of witnessing or evangelism. The purpose of our witnessing is not for us to try to save people. I know that sounds strange, but it is true. When we try to save people we often use approaches or tactics to pressure or bend the will of someone to get a quick conversion experience. That can consist of using extreme pressure or guilt to get someone to walk down a church aisle or to get them to say a prayer which then “causes” them to be born again. Walking down a church aisle or saying a rote prayer does not save a person. There is nothing wrong with an invitation for spiritual counseling or to pray for salvation. However, using extreme pressure or guilt to get a quick conversion will often result in a false conversion.
The purpose of evangelism is to be obedient to God’s command to spread the seed of the Word of God and to water it. It is God who saves people, not us. See what the Apostle Paul has to say about this.
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. (1 Cor. 3:5-8)
Here Paul is telling us not to be proud when we are used by God to bring a lost sinner to Christ. Some plant the seed of Christ in the hearts of hearers and others come along and water that seed with more of the message of Christ. Can a person receive Christ by the use of his will before God gives the increase? No. It is only by God giving the increase, opening the will of the sinner to believe, that a person can receive Christ.
God, the Holy Spirit, is the key in opening the wills of mankind to be able to see, hear, understand and enter the kingdom by the new birth. Only God can cause a lost sinner to be quickened from spiritual death to spiritual life, and that only happens with the new birth by the sovereign grace of God. Paul even tells us in verse 7 that the person who plants or waters is nothing. It is God who gives the increase that makes the unsaved person understand spiritual truth. So, the purpose of our witnessing is to be obedient to God in planting and watering the gospel seed. God uses our efforts to evangelize the “many” that are called to bring to saving faith by the work of the Holy Spirit the “few” who are chosen by the Lord. (Matt. 22:14) We don’t know who God’s elect are, so we are commanded to spread the gospel seed to all people.
Who Gets the Credit for Our Faith and Salvation?
The free will salvation view keeps God from getting all the credit in our salvation. It gives the most important credit to the spiritually dead unsaved sinner. How is that true? Yes, the free will view believes that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins. However, the sinner still has to come to faith for salvation. It is how that person comes to faith where the free will view takes from God. It changes the biblical view of God’s free grace whereby the Holy Spirit graciously causes faith in the chosen sinner to the sinner getting this credit by virtue of a free will ability to choose Christ. The unsaved person does not have this spiritual ability.
It is not until the Holy Spirit opens the heart of the unsaved person (Acts 16:14) that a person will believe and then choose Christ. The Holy Spirit opens the wills of those the Father chose before time and gave to the Son. Then the sinner, by virtue of this God given gift of faith, chooses Christ. The free will view says that spiritually dead unsaved sinners are the ultimate cause or reason for their salvation. The free grace view says that it is God who is the ultimate cause or reason for their salvation as He alone gives the increase of faith to those according to His will not theirs.
When We See Him Face to Face
When we as Christians die and see Jesus Christ for the first time, we will immediately know the truth of His free grace as described in this book. We will be like Isaiah who said:
“Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.” (Isa. 6:5)
We will know for the first time how really sinful, evil, totally depraved and spiritually impotent we were before being given the free grace of God. We will know how lost we were and how unable to come to Him. It will be so clear and evident when we see His wonderful holiness and perfect purity that we will fall prostrate before Him thanking Him for His wonderful free grace in our salvation to us, men and women of unclean lips, deeds, and thoughts.
Removing Election From Grace Damages Grace
Notice again what the Apostle Paul says in Rom. 11:5.
5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work...
Paul is telling us here that God’s election and His grace are bound together. That is why he calls it the “election of grace”. You can’t have one without the other. If election is removed from grace, then grace is severely damaged. Let us never deny God’s unconditional election called free grace, for, if we do, we are damaging the truth of the grace of God and turning it into a reward.
In writing this book, I am either presenting the truth of the Scriptures or error. I believe with all my being I have presented the truth of God. If I am in error, I would much rather error in favor of giving God all the credit, honor, and glory in my salvation than to give any credit, honor, or glory to my own will. I would also rather error in favor of exalting His sovereignty in my salvation than in favor of exalting my will. My will cannot accuse me on judgment day or do me harm, but I must stand before an awesome God one day and give an account to Him on this issue.
Do You Really Believe God Is Sovereign Over Everything?
Let me ask you a few questions before this book ends. Do you believe that God is sovereign over everything? Most Christians would quickly reply yes. However, do they really mean it? Do they instead really mean God is sovereign over everything except the salvation of man? What about you? Do you believe that God is totally sovereign over man’s salvation? Either God is the determining factor or the unsaved, spiritually dead sinner is. These are important questions to answer. Every Christian should be able to answer these questions correctly.
God would never transfer any part of His sovereignty or control over this universe to the wills of spiritually dead, unsaved sinners who are ruled and deceived by Satan.
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. (Eph. 2:1-3)
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Rev. 12:9)
The purpose of this book is to help demonstrate that God is sovereign over all things, especially the salvation of His human creatures. This is extremely important because how we answer these key questions will determine our view and understanding of God. Is He a God who is “trying” to save everyone but only saves a few? Is He a God who successfully saves every single person He planned to save from all eternity? Does the spiritually dead unsaved man have veto power over God? God wants us to have a correct and proper understanding of Him and all His holy attributes. We have a responsibility as believers before God to know Him as He is and how Scripture describes His free salvation plan. The whole purpose in God having an election or choosing an elect people is to show the world that He is sovereign over the salvation of man.
Do Not Walk Away From the Truth of Jesus
In John 6, Jesus made a number of statements to the Jews, upsetting them. The following verses are especially important regarding free grace.
65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
In verse 65, Jesus said that no one can come to Him unless the Father grants him access to the Son. Not one single person can come to Jesus without the Father’s direct permission. The word can denotes power or ability. The unsaved man has no free will ability or power to come to Christ without God causing it to happen individually. The Father chooses who will get to come to Jesus. This verse clearly shows the electing role of the Father in salvation.
Verse 66 is a key verse. Notice the reaction of some of the Lord’s disciples upon hearing this. These were not the original twelve disciples but other disciples who had been traveling with Jesus. The Scripture says many of these disciples walked away from Jesus. Why? They were offended at some of His comments in chapter 6, and this final comment in verse 65 was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Why were they so upset? They were offended because they did not like Jesus saying that it was God who was in control of man’s salvation and not man, so they walked away from Him. Jesus then turned to the twelve and asked if they too were going to leave Him.
It is a fact that most Christians are offended at the thought of the Father unconditionally electing some people to salvation and not others. In a sense, they too walk away from Jesus on this issue by rejecting the truth of God’s sovereign right to choose whom He wants to save. It is my hope that you will not walk away from Jesus’ truth of the electing free grace of God in the salvation of man.
I would also like to say about this passage that Jesus, who is omniscient, knew before He made this controversial statement that many of His disciples would be offended and leave Him. Yet He made the statement anyway. He did it because it was important to tell the truth on this matter even though He would be criticized, rejected, or thought evil of. It is important for us to also speak the truth on this issue regarding free grace even though it might offend others. We too may be criticized or rejected by some for sharing this salvation truth.