Chewing on Truth Part 3

Step Two: After we realize our need for salvation we then experience His irresistable grace leading us toward faith

It is clear in Scripture that the Holy Spirit can be resisted in many ways. In Acts 7:51 Stephen calls the Jewish leaders stiff necked and resisting the Spirit as their fathers had done. Paul talks throughout the Epistles of the grieving of the Spirit and the quenching as well (Ephesians 4:30 and 1 Thessalonians 5:19). Think of the nation of Israel and the consistent resistance they displayed throughout the Old Testament.

The grace that is irresistable however is the reality that God is sovereign and can overcome all resistance when He so wills. Psalm 115:3 says, "When God undertakes to fulfill His sovereign purpose, no one can successfully resist Him." The summation of this Truth is simply that the sovereign God can overcome the rebellion of our sinful hearts and bring us to faith in Christ for salvation. Piper says that "If a person becomes humble enough to submit to God it is because God has given that person a new and humble nature. If a person remains too hard hearted and proud to submit to God it is because that person has not been given such a willing spirit." John 6:64-65 says that "But there are some of you that do not believe".

Repentance is refered to as a "gift" (John 6:65) "He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him": that seems pretty clear that even the prereqs of salvation are also a gift. God however never forces anyone to believe against their will, in fact the whole idea of irresistable grace is "compatible with preaching and witnessing that tries to persuade people to do what is reasonable and what will accord with their best interests" (Piper).

1 Corinthians 1:23-24 "But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." Piper explains this passage well...the following is from a snipit of His writing:

Paul's call goes out to all, both Jews and Gentiles. This is a "general" Gospel call, offering salvation to all who will believe on the crucified Christ. It is mostly foolishness falling on unreceptive ears. Then Paul refers to a second call, the call that goes to the "called". This has to be the irresistable call of God out of darkness into light. If ALL who are called in this sense regard the cross as the power of God, the something in the call must effect the faith...irresistable grace. Since men are blinded to the worth of Christ, a miracle is needed in order for them to come to see and believe. The effectual call is the miracle of having our blindness removed, irresistable grace. Acts 16:14 says when referring to Lydia, "The Lord opened her heart to give heed to what was said by Paul". This new birth that one experiences as Nicodemus was bewildered by as being "born again", is the enablement of a formerly dead person to receive Christ and be saved. Faith is the evidence that God has begotten us a new. This birth isn't possible by the will of man, as all of Ephesians 2 talks about and what we explained in the previous blog is that man is dead. A dead person doesn't talk, breath, move, blink...nothing, they are dead. It was HE who woke us up.