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Irresistible Grace in Sanctification?

Also, if you believe Calvin agrees with you, that sanctification is synergistic, you misunderstand him.
You may want to look in the institutes concerning santification. A good place to start, and you probably won't need to go any further is, Book 3 ch4, 9

Titled:
(Those who are regenerated, justified by faith alone, 9-11)
 
Also, if you believe Calvin agrees with you, that sanctification is synergistic, you misunderstand him.
You may want to look in the institutes concerning santification. A good place to start, and you probably won't need to go any further is, Book 3 ch4, 9-11

Titled:
(Those who are regenerated, justified by faith alone, 9-11)

Ephesians 2:10

Here's what Calvin wrote about that verse,

"For we are his work. By setting aside the contrary supposition, he proves his statement, that by grace we are saved, -- that we have no remaining works by which we can merit salvation; for all the good works which we possess are the fruit of regeneration. Hence it follows, that works themselves are a part of grace.
When he says, that "we are the work of God," this does not refer to ordinary creation, by which we are made men. We are declared to be new creatures, because, not by our own power, but by the Spirit of Christ, we have been formed to righteousness. This applies to none but believers. As the descendants of Adam, they were wicked and depraved; but by the grace of Christ, they are spiritually renewed, and become new men. Everything in us, therefore, that is good, is the supernatural gift of God. The context explains his meaning. We are his work, because we have been created, -- not in Adam, but in Christ Jesus, -- not to every kind of life, but to good works.
What remains now for free-will, if all the good works which proceed from us are acknowledged to have been the gifts of the Spirit of God? Let godly readers weigh carefully the apostle's words. He does not say that we are assisted by God. He does not say that the will is prepared, and is then left to run by its own strength. He does not say that the power of choosing aright is bestowed upon us, and that we are afterwards left to make our own choice. Such is the idle talk in which those persons who do their utmost to undervalue the grace of God are accustomed to indulge. But the apostle affirms that we are God's work, and that everything good in us is his creation; by which he means that the whole man is formed by his hand to be good. It is not the mere power of choosing aright, or some indescribable kind of preparation, or even assistance, but the right will itself, which is his workmanship; otherwise Paul's argument would have no force. He means to prove that man does not in any way procure salvation for himself, but obtains it as a free gift from God. The proof is, that man is nothing but by divine grace. Whoever, then, makes the very smallest claim for man, apart from the grace of God, allows him, to that extent, ability to procure salvation.
Created to good works. They err widely from Paul's intention, who torture this passage for the purpose of injuring the righteousness of faith. Ashamed to affirm in plain terms, and aware that they could gain nothing by affirming, that we are not justified by faith, they shelter themselves under this kind of subterfuge. 'We are justified by faith, because faith, by which we receive the grace of God, is the commencement of righteousness; but we are made righteous by regeneration, because, being renewed by the Spirit of God, we walk in good works.' In this manner they make faith the door by which we enter into righteousness, but imagine that we obtain it by our works, or, at least, they define righteousness to be that uprightness by which a man is formed anew to a holy life. I care not how old this error may be; but they err egregiously who endeavor to support it by this passage.
We must look to Paul's design. He intends to shew that we have brought nothing to God, by which he might be laid under obligations to us; and he shews that even the good works which we perform have come from God. Hence it follows, that we are nothing, except through the pure exercise of his kindness. Those men, on the other hand, infer that the half of our justification arises from works. But what has this to do with Paul's intention, or with the subject which he handles? It is one thing to inquire in what righteousness consists, and another thing to follow up the doctrine, that it is not from ourselves, by this argument, that we have no right to claim good works as our own, but have been formed by the Spirit of God, through the grace of Christ, to all that is good. When Paul lays down the cause of justification, he dwells chiefly on this point, that our consciences will never enjoy peace till they rely on the propitiation for sins. Nothing of this sort is even alluded to in the present instance. His whole object is to prove, that,
"by the grace of God, we are all that we are." (1 Corinthians 15:10)
Which God hath prepared Beware of applying this, as the Pelagians do, to the instruction of the law; as if Paul's meaning were, that God commands what is just, and lays down a proper rule of life. Instead of this, he follows up the doctrine which he had begun to illustrate, that salvation does not proceed from ourselves. He says, that, before we were born, the good works were prepared by God; meaning, that in our own strength we are not able to lead a holy life, but only so far as we are formed and adapted by the hand of God. Now, if the grace of God came before our performances, all ground of boasting has been taken away. Let us carefully observe the word prepared. On the simple ground of the order of events, Paul rests the proof that, with respect to good works, God owes us nothing. How so? Because they were drawn out of his treasures, in which they had long before been laid up; for whom he called, them he justifies and regenerates."

Nothing I posted should be construed to say anything other than what is found in this commentary. Once God does His work in us, we then work by the inspiration and empowerment of His Spirit to do His will, and one of His objectives in us, for us, is our post-monergistic-sanctification collaborative sanctification. That is the fruit He bears in us: faithfulness. Having gifted us with faith, faith begets faithfulness by the fruit of the Spirit, and it is we do work, not just the Spirit.
I have to ask you to point me to the book, chapter, and verse. As you are aware, we need to consider the context.
 
Scripture proves otherwise.

Acts 24:16
In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.

1 Timothy 5:21
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.

Similar precepts are found in the OT.

Psalm 112:5
It is well with the man who is gracious and lends; He will maintain his cause in judgment.

Either the words of Paul are wrong, or the words, "God knows better than to expect us to maintain anything," are wrong. If those words from Paul were inspired
Brother, remember one thing. You and I are not Apostles. .
 
Unh huh. :unsure::unsure::unsure:.

How is that supposed to be read?
I know we can argue these things all day. But, please take some time to read this:
You may want to look in the institutes concerning santification. A good place to start, and you probably won't need to go any further is, Book 3 ch4, 9-11

Titled:
(Those who are regenerated, justified by faith alone, 9-11)

This should put it to rest


Curious, do you have the institutes?
 
Salvation is by faith alone according to Eph 2:8, and salvation includes deliverance from the pollution of sin as well as from it's guilt.
Yep
I just don't know how a reformed believer can break up salvation and claim what parts of it are monergistic and what parts are synergistic.
First, I haven't broken up" salvation (that's a straw man) and second, I have explained it and done so with both scripture and Calvin's own words. I don't know how someone can read the scripture posted and not understand the differences occurring and expected between the still dead and enslaved unregenerate non-believer and the monergistically born anew regenerate believer's post salvation life in Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps the Reformed teacher W. Robert Godfrey can illuminate where I have failed.
Or perhaps the monergist D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones can make the matter understood better than I have.
R. C. Sproul?
Ligonier?

.
I guess man just wants to have a part of the glory.
Is that an adverse insinuation intended to apply to me? Please be forthcoming with a direct answer to that question.
 
Brother, remember one thing. You and I are not Apostles.
Never said we were and I do hope it is not being suggested a goal an apostle held for himself such as maintaining a blameless conscience both before God and before other people is not a standard to which we should aspire.


I suspect the appeals to "brother" are an effort to maintain fraternal congeniality, but they are not working. Just keep the posts about the posts and the posts about irresistible grace in sanctification and leave all mentions of me out. No problems will arise if that is practiced.
 
Yep

First, I haven't broken up" salvation (that's a straw man)
Well, I believe you have. But at the same time, I believe you are not aware.
and second, I have explained it and done so with both scripture and Calvin's own words.
Yes, you have, but from misunderstanding both scripture and Calvin according to sanctification.
I don't know how someone can read the scripture posted and not understand the differences occurring and expected between the still dead and enslaved unregenerate non-believer and the monergistically born anew regenerate believer's post salvation life in Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Yes, I agree. But why you you think I don't see the difference between a regenerate and an unregenerate? The unregenerate have no business being in a discussion about sanctification, as it doesn't apply to them in any way shape, or form.

Perhaps the Reformed teacher W. Robert Godfrey can illuminate where I have failed.
Or perhaps the monergist D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones can make the matter understood better than I have.
R. C. Sproul?
Ligonier?
:rolleyes: Really brother? So there is no way you can be wrong?
I believe you are. But what you are wrong about many believers share in.
If you seriously read into the Puritans, reformers, and many today, you will see that all agreed sanctification is monergistic, including Calvin. Yes, there are some also who believe it is synergistic.
Is that an adverse insinuation intended to apply to me? Please be forthcoming with a direct answer to that question.
Technically, I believe it applies to all men, as long as we are in the flesh. Do you think you are exempt?
 
Never said we were and I do hope it is not being suggested a goal an apostle held for himself such as maintaining a blameless conscience both before God and before other people is not a standard to which we should aspire.
They are teaching. And they are above us.
I suspect the appeals to "brother" are an effort to maintain fraternal congeniality, but they are not working. Just keep the posts about the posts and the posts about irresistible grace in sanctification and leave all mentions of me out. No problems will arise if that is practiced.
So, don't address you as a brother? Is it a problem?

I meant it to say, that though we may disagree, it's alright between us.


But if you feel differently? Okay.
 
I know we can argue these things all day. But, please take some time to read this: You may want to look in the institutes concerning santification. A good place to start, and you probably won't need to go any further is, Book 3 ch4, 9-11

Titled:
(Those who are regenerated, justified by faith alone, 9-11)

This should put it to rest


Curious, do you have the institutes?
I have read Calvin's "Institutes..." many times, along with many of his other writings. Calvin's Institutes started out as an early work and was specifically intended as an effort to reform the RCC, not establish sound doctrine outside of the RCC and Roman Catholic doctrine. Calvin's commentaries are always a better place to learn about Calvinism. That is why I did not appeal to "The Institutes" and instead 1) used scripture (which is always and everywhere more authoritative than "The Institutes," and showed what Calvin believed about those scriptures. In other words, an attempt to use a treatise specifically intended to reform Catholicism out of context is an abuse of that treatise. Lots' of Prots make that mistake. Furthermore, the appeal to chapters 3 and 4 create a false equivalence because Calvin is writing about God's work in salvation, not the life of the post-saved, post-sanctified believer. The Institutes is abused to say something it does not state with that appeal. It does not put the matter to rest. It shows a failure to correctly understand Calvin!

Calvin cannot (and should not) be made to contradict Calvin.

Try this: Use an electronic version of The Institutes and search for every mention of "yoursel" and "oursel." Doing so where more readily shows where Calvin excluded the self and where he held the regenerated believer active in his Spirit-fruited self. I have never once disputed the places Calvin held the individual incapable. I have stuck first to scripture and only afterwards shown where Calvin himself asserted out our own Spirit inspired and empowered work.
 
:rolleyes: Really brother? So there is no way you can be wrong?
I take my leave of this exchange because you are increasingly making this personal, and derisively so.

I could be wrong. If there is any specific place where I erred, then that should be demonstrated objectively with well-rendered scripture and that has not happened.
 
I have read Calvin's "Institutes..." many times, along with many of his other writings. Calvin's Institutes started out as an early work and was specifically intended as an effort to reform the RCC, not establish sound doctrine outside of the RCC and Roman Catholic doctrine. Calvin's commentaries are always a better place to learn about Calvinism. That is why I did not appeal to "The Institutes" and instead 1) used scripture (which is always and everywhere more authoritative than "The Institutes," and showed what Calvin believed about those scriptures. In other words, an attempt to use a treatise specifically intended to reform Catholicism out of context is an abuse of that treatise. Lots' of Prots make that mistake. Furthermore, the appeal to chapters 3 and 4 create a false equivalence because Calvin is writing about God's work in salvation, not the life of the post-saved, post-sanctified believer. The Institutes is abused to say something it does not state with that appeal. It does not put the matter to rest. It shows a failure to correctly understand Calvin!

Calvin cannot (and should not) be made to contradict Calvin.

Try this: Use an electronic version of The Institutes and search for every mention of "yoursel" and "oursel." Doing so where more readily shows where Calvin excluded the self and where he held the regenerated believer active in his Spirit-fruited self. I have never once disputed the places Calvin held the individual incapable. I have stuck first to scripture and only afterwards shown where Calvin himself asserted out our own Spirit inspired and empowered work.
So far everything I mentioned has issues. Darn, it's tough being wrong about everything. ;)

I have the institutes thank you.
 
Sanctification is the efficacious operation of God in the elect, called, regenerated, and justified sinners, purifying them by means of the Word from the pollution of sin, transforming them according to the image of God, and - by virtue of this inner principle of spiritual life - causing them to live according to His will as expressed in the law of the ten commandments.

Brakel
 
Hi prism,

I believe it is all of God as we obey His Holy Spirit. As we continually turn our compass heading to the Lord, the Head of the Body, we become partakers of the Divine nature, and the flesh loses its hold. The Spirit of God comes forth from our innermost being with our spirit, becoming the `ruler` over our selves.
Okay, so would you say, 'our turning our compass to the Lord' is the result of His irresistible Grace?
 
Not sure what or why you would ask if we all will be rewarded the same. But, sanctification is monergistic.
Do you have Scripture stating that we will all be rewarded the same?
 
Do you have Scripture stating that we will all be rewarded the same?
No. Mainly because you lost me here. What do you mean by rewards?
 
No. Mainly because you lost me here. What do you mean by rewards?
I dunno, I'm rather clueless when it comes to 'rewards'. Let's try this for starters..

1 Corinthians 3:14 NKJV
If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
 
I dunno, I'm rather clueless when it comes to 'rewards'. Let's try this for starters..

1 Corinthians 3:14 NKJV
If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
I really do not know what the rewards are. Or, whether they are in this life or the next.

What do you believe they are?
 
I really do not know what the rewards are. Or, whether they are in this life or the next.

What do you believe they are?
Clueless, it's a topic I haven't given much thought.
 
Clueless, it's [rewards] a topic I haven't given much thought.
THE SECOND HELVETIC CONFESSION CHAPTER XVI - THERE ARE NO MERITS OF MEN. Therefore, although we teach that God rewards our good deeds, yet at the same time we teach, with Augustine, that God does not crown in us our merits but his gifts. Accordingly we say that whatever reward we receive is also grace, and is more grace than reward, because the good we do, we do more through God than through ourselves, and because Paul says: "What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" (1 Corinthians 4:7). And this is what the blessed martyr Cyprian concluded from this verse: We are not to glory in anything in us, since nothing is our own. We therefore condemn those who defend the merits of men in such a way that they invalidate the grace of God.

Seemingly Contrary Verses:
"Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me." Again, "Hear the right, O Lord;" "Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing." Again "The Lord regarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God.” Those who use them have no wish that their whole life should be brought to trial, so that they may be acquitted or condemned according to its tenor; all they wish is, that a decision should be given on the particular case; and even here the righteousness which they claim is not with reference to the divine perfection, but only by comparison with the wicked and profane."

Proceeding to those passages which affirm that God will render to every one according to his deeds. Of this description are the following:

  • 2 Corinthians 5:10 We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad;
  • Romans 2:6 He will pay back to each person according to his deeds [justly, as his deeds deserve]: 7 to those who by persistence in doing good seek [unseen but certain heavenly] glory, honor, and immortality, [He will give the gift of] eternal life.
  • Romans 2:9 tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that does evil;
  • John 5:29 They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation;
  • Matthew 25:34 Come, ye blessed of my Father; For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink," &c.

To these we may add the passages which describe eternal life as the reward of works, such as the following:
  • Proverbs 12:14 The recompense of a man's hands shall be rendered unto him;" "He that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded;
  • Matthew 5:12 Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven;
  • 1 Corinthians 3:8 Every man shall receive his own rewards according to his own labor."

Rewards, which cannot be defined, are earned by works:
  • Mark 9:41 For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, I assure you and most solemnly say to you, he will not lose his reward.
  • Luke 10:17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’ [While not speaking directly of the judgement seat of Christ, it, nevertheless, implies that heavenly rewards are framed in terms of responsibilities]
  • Ephesians 6:8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.
  • 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Personally, I believe our sanctification is monergistic. God gives the members of the elect gifts like teaching or the desire to help the poor and then God rewards us for His grace/gifts. To think we do something independent of God is either deism and/or dualism. It's not like God monergistically causes our salvation and then gives us 'free will' to enable us to be on God's team and we become the 'first cause' of our works to some degree.
The verses that seem to support our doing "X" to be rewarded with "Y" do not address the cause of us doing "X". The cause is always God, not deism or dualism or free will or whatever.

There are verses suggesting the IMPUTATION of Sanctification by Christ
  • 1 Corinthians 1:30 But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God [revealing His plan of salvation], and righteousness [making us acceptable to God], and sanctification [making us holy and setting us apart for God], and redemption [providing our ransom from the penalty for sin],
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].
  • Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].
  • Hebrews 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
 
Regarding Rewards
Romans 11:34-35, where the Apostle brings to a close his long argument on salvation by pure and sovereign grace, he asks, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?” The force of this is, it is impossible to bring the Almighty under obligations to the creature; God gains nothing from us which harmonizes with His immutability. Job 35:7 “If you are righteous, what do you give God, Or what does He receive from your hand? 8 “Your wickedness affects only a man such as you, And your righteousness affects only a son of man [but it cannot affect God, who is sovereign]”, but it certainly cannot affect God, who is all-blessed in Himself. “When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants” (Luke 17:10—our obedience has profited God nothing. Nay, we go further; our Lord Jesus Christ added nothing to God in His essential being and glory, either by what He did or suffered. True, blessedly and gloriously true, Christ manifested the glory of God to us, but He added naught to God. Pink (1886-1952), A. W.. The Attributes of God Chapel Library. Kindle Edition.
 
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