It’s been a good few days into the new year, so far. I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now and I have a short break before I have to go meet Meeky for lunch (I’m off from work today). (update: no lunch. pray for my sweetheart to have a less-stress day and that she has strength to get everything done that she needs to.)

Theology remains abstract thoughts and ideas until you put it all into practice and relate it to what goes on daily. Thoughts and meditations on things like election, particular redemption, the perseverance of the saints, the Trinity and any other major doctrine of the Christian faith have very practical applications and implications for the believer in his/her daily walk. The problem is usually that we’re at churches that either (a) leave theology strictly in the realm of theoretical, or suffice themselves to speak of such things only in spiritualesque, dry-sounding platitudes so that church seems more like a class than fellowship and worship or (b) the churches folk attend are so concerned with today that they minimize (or don’t teach at all) any type of systematic theological study so their members are running all around the place comparing the doctrine of the Trinity to a football game (true story!), yet spend hours and hundreds of dollars worrying about ‘Kingdom Conferences’, ‘Taking Authority’, ‘Living Their Best Life Now’ and a host of other man-centered pseudo-spiritual philosophies extant today.

There must be balance. I never want my preaching (when I get into the pulpit officially) or even my present day teaching to stress one over the other. The Puritans had a way of always presenting both – and a thorough and detailed study of scripture always produces this type of person. Concerned about truth and concerned about practical application equally. There is no either-or, but a both/and that needs to happen.

There is a logical order in which it needs to happen. FIRST, truth must come. Paul didn’t simply summarize Romans 1-11 in one neat paragraph and then do extensive exposition of how to live daily in Romans 12-16. All of the material in Romans 1-11 build a foundation for Romans 12-16. Yes, you do need it so that you can get the full measure of Paul’s teaching and the full range of implications for teachings found in chapters 12-16. There are NO shortcuts in the Christian life.

On the issue of foundations, one of the fundamental truths that I believe one should have well-established in his/her mind is the Sovereignty of God in all of human history. Those of you who’ve interacted with me know that even though I’m a Calvinist, I don’t like using the TULIP acronymn, historical or not. It’s attracted too much baggage and frankly, I don’t think it ‘nails’ everything as precisely as other acronyms could.

Yes, we want a nice neat acronym to remember everything by. That’s part of the western society way of thinking (hey, even the early church used ichthus) – and in the church, it’s been that way for millennia. In case you’ve ever seen this image and wondered what it meant, ichthus is the greek word for fish. Each letter in the word ichthus was used to form an acronym for Iesus Christos Theou Hiou Soter. In english – Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. Very ingenious and a nice way to remember who Jesus is, I’d say. I’d like to (and look forward to) meeting the saint who first thought that one up, since we’re still using it 2000 years later.

Likewise, since Calvinism is also called “The Doctrines of Grace”, I think it is best that we use a word (if we must) as closely related to the scriptures as possible AND that most fully expresses the teachings of scripture on the subject.

Dutch Calvinism was responsible for TULIP, since there’s plenty of those little flowers all over the Netherlands. You see a tulip, you’d remember the doctrines of grace. Cute.

So why not use the word grace ?

Not a new idea at all, of course. The folks at Cyrene Ministries have a short file that uses the same acronym. James White, admittedly, is my inspiration for the use of GRACE as an acronym for the doctrines of grace instead of TULIP.

So what would the letters stand for ?

God’s Sovereignty in human history.
Radical Depravity of humanity
Accomplishing Grace of God
Complete Atonement by Christ on the Cross for Those Who Would Believe
Enduring Preservation and Perseverance of the Saints of God

Foundational to any understanding of anything is the doctrine of the knowledge of God. If you don’t realize who God is, you will NOT have a right view of salvation, humanity, creation, etc….

So I begin there, just as the Bible does.

God’s Sovereignty in Human History. Sovereignty simply means the right and exercise of rule or power over a domain or sphere of influence.

All of it. Daniel 4:34-35 states the following:

34At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,

for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
35all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;

and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”

Jesus affirmed it in even the littlest of things:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31, ESV)

David spoke of it:

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there were none of them. (Psalm 139:16, ESV)

So did Isaiah:

8″Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9remember the former things of old;

for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11calling a bird of prey from the east,

the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it. (Isaiah 46:8-11, ESV)

and these passages could be multiplied by the thousands. The scriptures uniformly teach that God IS in control of all aspects of human history. From something as ‘small’ as “calling a bird of prey from the east” or “a sparrow falling to the ground” to something as ‘big’ as bringing a man of God’s counsel from a far off country. God controls it all. I spend time in this post on my message board discussing this, along with a fresh (at least to me) exposition of Isaiah 46-48.

Ideas have consequences. We now turn to the doctrine of salvation with the established foundation that God is Sovereign over human history.

Romans 8:28-30 and 9:1-23 (and really, 8:28-9:23 are all one block of thought) establish a very firm foundation and clearly teach that even in something as ‘big’ as Esau vs Jacob or the reign and destruction of Pharoah, God is Sovereign. It is God who raised Pharoah up – if for nothing else,than for the purpose of making him an example so that God’s name and fame would be established throughout the earth.

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. (Romans 9:14-18)

Both myself (and the apostle Paul) have anticipated your major objection to such a doctrine as God being completely Sovereign in all areas of human history, including salvation.

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? (verses 19-21)

There’s more to Paul’s argument, but the major point is that God, as God, has the right to do with His creation as He pleases. This includes choosing some for salvation.

If one holds to a theory of libertarian free will (that is, that we, as human beings, are free to make any decisions we’d like and God has NO control over them), we have effectively placed ourselves as ‘sovereign’ over God. D.L. Moody, though a good evangelist, made this mistake in discussing the doctrine of election back in 1882. He stated on the doctrine of election that it was “God cast his vote, the devil casts his vote against me and I have the final say when I cast my vote.” I’m sorry, but such a teaching is NOT found in scripture.

John Wesley, James Arminius, Chuck Smith (Calvary Chapel founder) and many other well-meaning believers all make this same error. They somehow suppose that (though this same problem has been addressed repeatedly throughout church history) the teaching of God’s absolute Sovereignty (including over man’s salvation) in human history will both kill the need or desire for evangelism and encourage licentious behavior.

I have have four short answers to these objections and then I need to move on to the practical application of this doctrine.

First, the command to evangelize is simply that – a command. Your first motivation for evangelism should not simply be to ‘save men’ or give them ‘a better life’ or ‘their best life now’ or even give their life a ‘driven purpose’ (yes, I keep making stabs at Osteen and Warren. More in another post), but because God commands it. Yeah, it sounds strange, but maybe that’s because you’ve been used to doing things according to how you feel you should be motivated rather than why scripture says you should do things. Maybe your thinking needs to change and fall in line with scripture.

Secondly, throughout the New Testament, men don’t get saved because ‘angels’ bring the gospel message, and neither are they saved through the appearance of visions and dreams containing the gospel message. God commissions men and women to spread the gospel message by the Word of God. This is the means by which men are freed from sin’s curse. So God uses the ‘ordinary’ (preaching of the gospel) to accomplish the ‘supernatural’ (men coming to faith in Christ).

Third should be the motivation of and concern for men’s souls. I put this third, simply because nowhere in scripture are we called to have an omnibenevolent love for everyone in existence. Love is not an emotional feeling that we’re called to magically muster up for everyone, but a verb (at least in the bulk of times it’s used in scripture regarding our interaction with those outside of the church) that we’re commanded to do to everyone we meet. We’re not required to ‘like’ everyone we meet. We are commanded to love them, though. We are commanded to be gracious – so the homosexual person who cusses you out because of ‘your Jesus’ does need to be shown mercy and grace. You’re not required to ‘like’ them or conjure up some feelings to make it seem like you genuinely like them as a person or something. You are required to show mercy , because if it wasn’t for God being gracious, you’d be on the same road to hell they are currently on.

Fourth, the doctrine of election is not “people will be saved no matter what they do or what I do”. To think this, is to set up a strawman of an argument. As mentioned above, God uses normal ways and means for folk to come to faith in Christ. I mentioned on my message board that although:

“God decrees the length of days of a man (Psalm 139), numbers the hairs on his head (Matthew 10) and so on, but not even a bird falls to the ground apart from the will of God. Jesus used the insignificant (because birds die all the time) to prove a greater point regarding the control of God over even these ‘mundane’ events. God still uses the rain falling causing food to grow for men to till, work for and eat as the normative means by which He keeps them alive up to the appointed day of their death.

Am I making a choice to freely type these words ? Yep. Did God ordain from eternity past that I would type them ? Yep. Am I still responsible for the content I put up here and have to give an answer to Him one day for every single letter in each word of this sentence ? Yep. And there’s nothing to ‘reconcile’. It simply is the consistent testimony of scripture.”

We equally affirm human responsibility for spreading and believing the gospel as we do God’s Sovereignty in election.

Finally, Fifth, the kind of faith that God gives for salvation is not the kind that leaves us in the same state we were prior to becoming Christians. The grace of God that brings salvation also teaches and instructs us to deny ungodliness and live holy and righteous lives (Titus 2:11-14). 1 John 3:9-10 bears this out well – those who are Christs’ cannot go on sinning as a practice because God’s Spirit dwells in them. Desires change as hearts are changed and new life comes in. God causes men to walk in His ways and obey His decrees when He saves them (Ezekiel 36:22-26). To believe that you can live any way you want as a believer or to claim that the Spirit of God does not change the heart of man upon conversion is both rank heresy and blasphemy. It’s also self-deception.

Practical Implications of God’s Sovereignty

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:28-31, ESV)

I actually could quote this all the way to verse 38, but I’m going to keep this short (since I’ve been typing for about 3 hours now with a few phone breaks and some eating).

1. All things work for GOOD for God’s elect. Joseph’s life expereience was, up until the time he was made second in command under Pharoah, horrid. His brothers beat him up, sold him into slavery, lied to his father about his death, he was falsely accused and thrown in jail, forgotten and left there for many years until finally, he was called to interpret a dream for Pharoah. And at the end of the day, he could tell his brothers plainly:

4So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. (Genesis 45:4-8, ESV)

Practically applied to you….. remember that car accident that made you late for work because you were stuck in the backup ? Or remember when you spent 30 minutes looking for your keys so you can get to work on time, and it turned out they were RIGHT in the living room in a spot you looked at over and over again, but missed seeing them there ? Well, if you’d have arrived at that point on the road 5-15 mins earlier, you might have been the one in the accident. That’s part of God’s protection for you, the believer.

You wonder why you got that flat tire on your way to the movies with no spare in the trunk ? Well, you don’t wonder anymore. See, that flat tire on your way to the movies got you a chance to talk with the suicidally-thinking tow truck driver and share the gospel with him. He’s now not only happily a member at your church, but a good brother in Christ and a close friend of yours and your family. God’s greatest glory, your greater good and the good of your brethren.

Dozens of folks have written about being late for work on the morning of September 11, 2001 for various reasons and until they found out about the attack, they were busy praying to God asking that He be merciful and not allow their late babysitter/gas tank/kids not ready for school/insert your situation here to keep from missing the important meeting they had scheduled that morning. According to God’s will (not man’s), they were spared an early trip into eternity. Protection and your best ‘good’.

God knows what He’s doing, folks.

So having my fate (or yours) in the hands of an all-wise God shouldn’t pose a moral problem for you, nor have you ‘on edge’. If anything, focus on the promises of God and know that He is more than able to carry them out (Phil. 1:6). Glean joy and peace (Phil. 4:6-7) from the fact that NOTHING in human history comes down your path other than through the will of God.

These are the practical implications of the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God. I have not even scratched the surface of this enormous topic (and won’t because my eyes need rest right now), but prayerfully, there’s enough here for you to snack and meditate on. I could’ve spent plenty of time on the meaning of ‘know’ and ‘foreknown’ in Romans 8 and how it does mean to’forelove’ or ‘set your love and affection and favor upon’, but
folk like Jim Harrison have already covered that ground repeatedly. I invite you to read up there.

There are many issues that I haven’t addressed here in relation to free will, exactly WHAT the will is free to do, God’s Sovereignty and this teaching allegedly making God the ‘author of evil’ and much more… and they’ll be addressed in time. Feel free to drop your objection off in the comments area. But for now, for the believer – these are truths you need to get into your head and believe. God is God. And He is not answerable to you or I. He gives and takes away (Job 1) and does no wrong in doing so.

I would challenge the believer to simply go through passages like John 6, Romans 9, 1 Chronicles 29, Proverbs 16 and others and study up on this subject. The most important thing you can learn and come to believe is that God is God. He is not wringing His hands in heaven because ‘puny humans are frustrating His will’. He did not simply ‘wind up the world’ and walk away, as the Deists propose. He is not ‘limited’ by human free will, as though a CREATION’S will were more sovereign than the CREATOR. Man-centered notions like these need to be tossed in the trash can and replaced and informed by what scripture teaches about God.

Yes, this is going to be a bit of a ‘series’. I’ll tackle the ‘R’ soon enough.