Blogs

12 Pillars of Faith for Parents of Children with Disabilities | Paul Tautges
“As a father who lives in the world of special needs, there are 12 biblical truths that have become important for me to continually meditate upon.”

Earnings Boost from Major Not Choice of College | Alex Chediak
“If future earnings were the sole criterion (not recommended), your choice of major makes a bigger difference than your choice of college.”

How The New Testament Helps Us Teach The Old Testament Rightly | Nancy Guthrie and Lane Tipton

5 Steps for Making Time to Write | Barnabas Piper

Overcoming Pride in Ministry | Ligonier: Eric Watkins
“Few things are more dangerous in the life of the church than prideful leaders. Some of the most difficult issues many churches encounter revolve around men who feel entitled to the office of deacon, elder, or pastor.”

The Baby Given to Women who Miscarry | TGC
“I’ve been the one sitting in a doctor’s office staring at grainy black-and-white images of my dead baby, tears pouring down my cheeks. Twice now, as the cold news of an absent heartbeat met my ears, I’ve been plunged into the deep, wrenching grief reserved for mothers who’ve lost an unborn child. The sting of death is in no way lessened by the invisible nature of such loss. It is real, and it is horrible.”

The Pleasure of Pleasing God | Desiring God: Luke Humphrey
“How we live, day in and day out, affects our relationship with Almighty God. It’s a stunning truth the Bible teaches plainly. God so cares about us as a Father, that he finds happiness in our obedience and sadness in our disobedience.”

Kindle Books

Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page by Larry Osborne $6.99.

Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective $2.99.

Stopping Stress before It Stops You: A Game Plan for Every Mom $0.99.

As with every truth of God, the Devil has worked to deny or distort every single one of the doctrines of grace, resulting in various errors and imbalances, as the following distortions highlight:

Distortion 1: Heartless Calvinism

Some have used the doctrines of grace to excuse a lack of mission or evangelism. They say that if God has elected a certain number of people and that they will definitely be saved, what’s the point of doing evangelism or missions? Many who wouldn’t actually say that, effectively practice it by rarely witnessing and reaching out with the Gospel to those around about them. However Calvinism does not necessarily produce such heartlessness. In fact it has produced some of the biggest-hearted evangelists in church history.

In Does Calvinism Kill Missions?, Jason Helopoulos produced the following list of famous Calvinist missionaries and evangelists: John Calvin, John Eliot, David Brainerd, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, William Tennent,  Samuel Davies, William Carey, Robert Moffat, David Livingstone, Robert Morrison, Peter Parker,  Adoniram Judson, Charles Simeon, Henry Martyn, Samuel Zwemer, John Stott, Francis Schaeffer, D. James Kennedy. And there are many, many more Calvinists whose names are not so well-known but who have given up all to bring the Gospel to the lost.

Far from hindering evangelism, the doctrines of grace are our only hope in evangelism. Without God’s election, none would choose Christ.

If the doctrines of grace do not make us missionaries and evangelists of grace, it’s unlikely we have ever understood or embraced them rightly.

Distortion 2: Hyper-Calvinism

Similar to the above, some have taken the position that if not all will be saved, we cannot offer the Gospel to everyone in our preaching.

It’s true, we certainly cannot promise universal salvation to every hearer: we cannot promise all our hearers that God has planned their salvation, that Christ has died for their sins, and so on. However, we may and must give universal Gospel invitations to every hearer: we can promise them that if they repent and believe they will be saved. We don’t believe in universal salvation but we do believe in universal invitations.

Other hyper-Calvinists say that we cannot call men and women to be born again, to repent and believe, if they lack the ability to do so. However, this is to put human logic above biblical revelation which confirms our inability and yet commands us to be born again, to repent, and to believe in Christ. For example, Christ knew the man with the withered hand could not stretch it out and yet he commanded him to do so. Our responsibility is not limited by our inability. With the command comes enabling grace.

Distortion 3: Half-hearted Calvinism

Some don’t want to go all the way with all the five points. For many, the sticking point is limited or definite atonement. Others reject the idea that no believer can ultimately fall away from the faith. But as Steve Lawson points out, “compromising any one of the five points dilutes and diminishes the grace of God.” He went on:

To speak of a mere partial corruption of man, one in which the lost sinner is only spiritually sick in his sin, makes a misdiagnosis that grossly diminishes the grace of God. Likewise, to espouse a conditional election that is dependent upon God’s foresight of man’s faith corrupts the grace of God. To teach that Christ made a universal atonement, making salvation possible for all (though actual for none), cheapens the grace of God. To believe in a resistible call that allows for the free will of man compromises the grace of God. And to think of reversible grace, which would allow man to fall away from the faith, contaminates the pure grace of God. These views undermine the grace of God, and because of that, sad to say, they rob God of His glory… To whatever extent one deviates from any of the five doctrines of grace, one marginalizes the glory that is due to God alone for the salvation of sinners.

Distortion 4: Hateful Calvinism

Some Calvinists not only produce a reaction of hatred in their manner of communicating the doctrines of grace, they also seem to be full of hate towards those who differ from them.

Usually (hopefully) this is just an quick phase that some go through when they first embrace the doctrines of grace (see Early Warning Signs of Adult Onset Calvinism). Sadly, it sometimes seems to go on much longer. This has been called “cage-stage Calvinism” where the baby-Calvinist tries to ram the five points down everyone’s throat, making the points as sharp as possible, often writing off anyone who disagrees with the doctrines they had only recently discovered themselves. As somebody said, “We begin with a humbling doctrine, but we end as prideful jerks.” In Why Are Calvinists So Negative? John Piper wrote:

I love the doctrines of grace with all my heart, and I think they are pride-shattering, humbling, and love-producing doctrines. But I think there is an attractiveness about them to some people, in large matter, because of their intellectual rigor. They are powerfully coherent doctrines, and certain kinds of minds are drawn to that. And those kinds of minds tend to be argumentative. So the intellectual appeal of the system of Calvinism draws a certain kind of intellectual person, and that type of person doesn’t tend to be the most warm, fuzzy, and tender. Therefore this type of person has a greater danger of being hostile, gruff, abrupt, insensitive, or intellectualistic.

If Calvinism makes you proud, you’re not a Calvinist. The doctrines of grace should produce graciousness.

Distortion 5: Hollow Calvinism

The doctrines of grace should never be considered apart from Christ. To do so is to hollow out their core and just view their remaining shell. It’s like looking at clothes hanging in J. C. Penney racks rather than viewing them on a supermodel. Every doctrine looks so much better when it clothes Christ, when it is understood in connection with Christ. The doctrines of grace are the doctrines of Christ. Be warned, you can embrace this system of doctrines and fail to embrace Christ.

Previous Posts in this Series:

There’s More to Calvinism than the Five Points of Calvinism

There’s More to the Doctrines of Grace than THE Doctrines of Grace

Three Ways to Present the Doctrines of Grace

Blogs

That Stat That Says All Pastors are Miserable and Want to Quit | Ed Stetzer
“Are pastors really leaving ministry in droves? Not so fast…”

5 Misconceptions About the Pastor’s Wife | TGC
“Some churches have their own set of unwritten qualifications for the pastor’s wife, many of which create unrealistic expectations and abundant misconceptions. These can place undue pressure on the wife of a pastor.” See also 7 Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier About Being a Pastor’s Wife.

The Most Happily Multi-Ethnic Church I Know | Tim Challies
Tim is living my dream.

10 Pointers for Planning a Preaching Series | Biblical Preaching
“Well planned and well preached series can drive the life-changing impact of Bible books deep into the DNA of a local church!”

We Need to Chat | American Scholar
“How technology has changed the way we relate to one another.”

What’s Wrong with a Hug? | Leadership Journal
Salutary. “When a child in our church complained about an adult volunteer’s physical affection, we faced a difficult decision.”

Recommended New Book

The Forgotten Fear: Where Have All the God Fearers Gone? by Al Martin.

“Author Al Martin first establishes the theme of the fear of God in both the Old and New Testaments, and then he defines what fearing God means. Finally, he addresses the practical implications of fearing God, showing its expression in the lives of Abraham and Joseph and providing instruction for believers today to maintain their fear of God and even increase it.”

Kindle Books

Planting, Watering, Growing: Planting Confessionally Reformed Churches in the 21st Century by Danny Hyde $2.99.

True for You, But Not for Me: Overcoming Objections to Christian Faith by Paul Copan $2.99.

Growing in Christ by J I Packer $2.99.

Although there’s more to Calvinism than the five points of Calvinism, and there are more doctrines of grace than THE doctrines of grace, Calvinism is often limited to the five points and these are often called the doctrines of grace. So let’s just take that as is, and highlight three ways in which the five points have been presented.

TULIP
The most familiar way to present and remember the five points is using the acrostic TULIP. Here is each doctrine briefly stated and contrasted with Arminianism.

1. Total (Radical) Depravity: Though we are not as corrupted as we possibly could be, yet we are sufficiently corrupted in every part of our being and so enslaved to sin that we are unable to love God, believe in God, repent of our sins, or do any good work that is pleasing to God. Calvin used the phrase “totally depraved” but the Canons of Dort do not use this language, focusing instead on total inability.

Arminianism say that we remain able to take the initiative to believe in Christ without special divine assistance.

2. Unconditional (Sovereign) Election: In eternity past, before time and the world began, without any reference to the future condition of any person – their future good or evil or faith – God the Father, in great mercy chose to save innumerable number of people from sin, death, and hell.

Arminianism says that God foresaw those who would believe of their own free will and so chose them to salvation.

3. Limited (Definite) Atonement: In time, God the Son entered this world lived a life and died a death in place of the people God elected to save, suffering the full penalty for sin and fully satisfying the law in their place. If God had so chosen, the death of Christ could have atoned for the sins of the whole human race, but he chose to limit it to a multitude of people.

Arminianism says that Christ’s atonement was for everyone and only becomes effective for anyone by their free-will produced faith.

4. Irresistible Grace: Everyone God the Father has chosen and everyone God the Son has died for will be effectually and savingly called by the Holy Spirit, resulting in regeneration and faith in Jesus Christ.

Arminianism says that the new birth is in response to our faith.

5. Perseverance of the Saints: Everyone that the Father has elected, the Son has died for, and the Spirit has regenerated will persevere in the faith to the end and will not and cannot fall away.

Arminianism says that those who are born again can still end up in hell.

PROOF

Some have regarded this TULIP presentation as being too negatively stated, a defensive set of truths responding to the Arminian Remonstrants of the early 17th century. Attempts have therefore been made to formulate the doctrines of grace more positively. A recent example of that would be PROOF: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace where Daniel Montgomery and Timothy Paul Jones present the five points using the acrostic PROOF.

1. Planned Grace (Limited Atonement): God’s eternal plan to save His people through the substitutionary death of Christ.

2. Resurrecting Grace (Total Depravity): Although we are dead in our sins, God’s resurrecting power enters our lives and enables us to believe the Gospel.

3. Outrageous Grace (Unconditional Election): God chooses to save his people without any consideration of their merit, works or future faith.

4. Overcoming Grace (Irresistible Grace): God overcomes sinners’ resistance by making them willing to believe and repent.

5. Forever Grace (Perseverance of the Saints): God will preserve His elect enabling them to persevere in Christ to the end of their lives.

The Joy Project

The most recent re-presentation of the doctrines of grace is The Joy Project by Tony Reinke. Leaning on previous work by John Piper, Reinke basically presents the sovereignty of God in salvation as a plan to secure joy for sinners and defines the five points in reference to that joy:

1. The world’s joy tragedy (Total depravity): Not just badness, but blindness to beauty and deadness to joy.

2. The joy project designed (Unconditional election): How God planned, before we existed, to complete our joy in Christ.

3. The joy project purchased (Limited atonement): The assurance that indestructible joy in God is infallibly secured for us by the blood of Jesus.

4. The joy project breaks and enters (Irresistible grace): The sovereign commitment of God to make sure we hold on to superior delights instead of the false pleasures that will ultimately destroy us.

5. The joy project unwraps and unfolds (Perseverance of the saints): The almighty work of God to keep us, through all affliction and suffering, for an inheritance of pleasures at God’s right hand forever.

Dr. Kenneth Stewart and Dr. Richard Muller have shown convincingly that the best Reformed theologians have continually worked to re-present the doctrines of grace in fresh and compelling ways. Without losing the core of these truths, they were flexible and fresh in their descriptions and presentations of them. We shouldn’t feel limited or restricted to some early 20th century uninspired acronym.

What other ways have you heard the doctrines of grace presented?

Blogs

There’s a way to stop mass shootings and you won’t like it | Rob Myers

Mountaintop Theology | Nick Batzig

50 Books J I Packer Thinks You Should Read | Crossway

The Tolerance Jesus Will Not Tolerate | Kevin DeYoung

Tethered to Technology – Escaping the IT Trap | Center for Vision and Values

Kindle Books

Thatcher by Jacob Bannister $2.99. I was a Thatcher fanatic in my teens and early twenties, even campaigning for a hopeless Conservative candidate (one of Winston Churchill’s grandsons) in one general election.

A Portrait of Paul by Jeremy Walker $3.99. Here’s my review of this book.

What Is a Reformed Church? by Malcolm Watts $1.99.

How to Preach without Notes by Charles Koller $2.99.

Recommended Book

The Pastor and Counseling: The Basics of Shepherding Members in Need by Jeremy Pierre and Deepak Reju.

Video

Carly Fiorina’s Testimony

I’m not endorsing Carly either politically or spiritually but her story is truly fascinating.

Just as there’s more to Calvinism than the five points of Calvinism, so there’s more to the doctrines of grace than the doctrines of grace.  Or, to put it another way, there are many more doctrines of grace than just the five associated with the five points of Calvinism.

In fact, I would argue that every doctrine is a doctrine of grace; every truth of God is an expression and demonstration of the grace of God.

The doctrine of creation is a doctrine of grace. That God created the world is an act of sheer grace. The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it simply: “It pleased God” to create the world and everything in it (WCF 4.1). He didn’t need the world, He didn’t need us, and yet He made a world and He made us. And what a world He made, and what a humanity He made. The whole earth is full of His glory. Yes, but it is also full of His grace.

The doctrine of providence is a doctrine of grace. God could have made everything and then walked away. But He didn’t, not even after sin entered into the world. God not only made the world but graciously sustains it, provides for it, and governs it, and all His creatures. He makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. And He’s working all things together for the good of His people. Is that not a doctrine of grace?

The doctrine of revelation is a doctrine of grace. God has not only blessed us with general revelation but with special revelation. He could have hidden Himself and left us to grope in the dark. But, instead He has given us a full and sufficient a saving revelation of Himself in His inspired and inerrant Word. The Westminster Confession of Faith again traces it all back to “It pleased God…” (WCF 1.1).

I could go on and on: the grace of justification, the grace of adoption, the grace of sanctification, the grace of assurance, the grace of the sacraments, the grace of repentance, and so on. See how many doctrines of grace there are? And we haven’t yet touched the the doctrines of grace. There are way more doctrines of grace than the doctrines of grace.