And how have Pelagians misunderstood the Gospel? They have done it by misunderstanding the bad news of humanity’s condition. For if good news is going to exist, bad news must go before it, and if extremely Good News is going to exist, extremely bad news must go before it.

It is for this reason that the apostle Paul, after he declares that he is not ashamed of the Gospel for in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith (Rm. 1:16, 17), immediately expounds upon the terrible state of humanity (vv. 1:18-3:20). This terrible state is summarized in that all men are by nature unrighteous and that all men actively and willfully suppress the truth of God in their unrighteousness, and therefore God’s wrath is being stored up for them (cf. v. 1:18). And because of this terrible state in which all men are, the apostle, at the climax of this section upon the bad news of men’s condition, declares, “None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one” (vv. 3:10-13).

Therefore, the bad news of man’s condition is this, namely that God is righteous, and men are unrighteous. And in order for men to stand before a pleased God, they must be righteous, they must understand, they must seek for God, they must repent, they must have worth, and they must do good. However, no man does these things. In his natural state, he is the opposite of what he must be, and he perpetuates his condition by his own will and works. Therefore, by himself, no man can stand righteous before God.

Therefore, after the apostle finishes his discourse on the terrible news of man’s condition, he reintroduces the Gospel using the same language by which he introduced it prior to his discourse, namely, “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (v. 1:17). He writes:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law … [namely] the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who have faith (or believe). For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as propitiation by his blood to be received by faith” (vv. 3:21-25).

In other words, the extremely Good News of Jesus Christ is that despite man’s terrible condition, men can now be made righteous through the gracious gift of Christ’s redemption by faith. But how are we to understand this faith by which we are made righteous? Is it an active seeking out and an active trusting in God by our own free volition? By no means! For by himself, no one understands and no one seeks for God (cf. v. 3:11). What is this faith then? This faith is the gift of Christ’s faith to us who could never have faith. It is imputed faith. How do we know this? We know this because the apostle expresses the Gospel in this way: “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (v. 1:17), expressly, “Through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who have faith” (v. 3:22). In other words, the faith that we have in Christ is not a meritorious work that we by our own choosing choose to have, but it is a gift granted by Jesus Christ to us–Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Therefore, it is no surprise that since the apostle is teaching in Rm. 3:21-26 the same thing that he teaches in Eph. 2:8-10, namely that faith is a gift of God not a work of man, he then makes the exact same conclusion in each passage, namely, “What then becomes of our boasting? It is excluded” (v. 3:27). For no man can boast in a salvation that is not his doing given to him through a faith that is not his own.

The Pelagian therefore misunderstands the Gospel in that he believes that all men are able in their natural condition to believe upon Jesus Christ despite the testimony of the apostle that no one can understand and no one can seek for God in his natural state. Therefore, for the Pelagian, the bad news of man’s condition is not as bad as Scripture declares, and the Good News of Jesus Christ is not as good as Scripture declares. In this way, the Pelagian misunderstands the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Such a charge is not a light charge, for when one takes that which is the Gospel and distorts it into a salvation that is based upon human merit and law-keeping, he does not merely tarnish the Gospel, but he destroys it in its entirety. The apostles, for this reason, speak very harshly concerning those who do thus to the Gospel and admonish the church over and over throughout their letters to watch out for those who distort the Gospel in this way and to cast them out of their fellowship. And to demonstrate this great passion of the apostles for the purity of the Gospel, the apostle Paul speaking to the Galatian church regarding the Judaizers (those who sought to add the work of circumcision to the Gospel), wrote:

You [Galatians] were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? [i.e. The Judaizers did.] This persuasion [of the Judaizers] is not from him [i.e. God] who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump [i.e. a little distortion ruins the whole Gospel]. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine [i.e. the Gospel that I have preached], and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who [Judaizers] who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! (Gal. 5:7-12).

Now, the apostle makes it very clear of how he feels about the Judaizers adding the work of circumcision to the Gospel. He says that their doing thus, first, leavens and destroys the whole Gospel, in that, second, it removes the offense of the cross of Christ thereby demonstrating that it is a false gospel, and, third, that, because of this false teaching, he wishes that they who did this to the Gospel would castrate themselves! In other words, he is saying in not so many words, “I wish that they who wish to cut off the foreskin of your flesh and by it destroy the Gospel would instead keep cutting on their own genitals and leave you and the Gospel alone.”

Was this an overreaction by the apostle? For it is not as though these Judaizers were not preaching Christ crucified for sinners through belief and repentance, but they were simply adding the practice of circumcision to the mix. We can understand this, can we not? Just imagine if you grew up a Jew around the time of Christ and that the sign that God had given to your people concerning his covenant was circumcision. Would it not be difficult for you to let go of that which you grew up practicing? In addition, what is wrong with preserving a tradition here and there even though you have now believed in Christ and the Gospel?

Well, the “innocent” tradition and requirement of the law became wrong, because it became more than a tradition (which traditions have a tendency to do). These Judaizers (who preached Christ, mind you) believed that their tradition was such a wonderful and valid tradition that they sought to impose it on those who had not been raised a Jew–viz. the Gentiles. Therefore, in doing thus–in taking that which was not the Gospel and adding it to the Gospel–they created a false gospel. For when any work of man, be it a work of tradition, deed, or volition, is added to the Gospel, it destroys the Gospel. Why? Because the heart of the Gospel is this: “For God has done, what men weakened by the flesh could not do, by and through and for Jesus Christ” (cf. Rm. 8:3, 4). Therefore, if any deed of fleshly men is added to that which God has done through Christ, then, as the apostle told those who accepted circumcision, “Christ will be no advantage to you” (Gal. 5:2), because in doing thus they forfeit the righteousness that comes from God by seeking a righteousness that they can call their own (cf. Rm. 10:2-4).

It is in this light that we come back to the claim of Spurgeon, namely, “The doctrine of justification itself, as preached by an Arminian, is nothing but the doctrine of salvation by works.” If this is indeed true what Spurgeon claims, viz. that a free will gospel is salvation by works, then such a gospel must be treated as harshly and with the same vehemence that the apostle Paul treated the gospel of the Judaizers. So then the question remains, “Is a free will gospel really salvation by works? Is a free will gospel truly a false gospel?”

However, before this question is addressed, we need to first understand what the Gospel is and what it is not. It is very often the case that when we speak of the Gospel and what it is, we confuse it with the Gospel Call. For the Gospel is not, “Believe on Christ, and you will be saved,” neither is it, “Take up your cross and follow Christ,” nor is it, “Accept Jesus as your personal Savior, and let him into your heart”–all of these statements, whether rightly or wrongly, are Gospel calls, not the Gospel itself. The Gospel, however, is the entire corpus of Redemption. It is the magnum opus of God played out through his creation and climaxing in his glory. Since, therefore, the Gospel is the glorious composition of God’s glory manifested through the history of men, it cannot be summarized in one-sentence phrases. And it is for this reason that the apostle Paul, after stating that he is eager to preach the Gospel to the saints at Rome, spends sixteen chapters of his letter teaching the Gospel to the saints at Rome.

Therefore, when it is supposed that those who preach free will and those who do not preach free will share the same Gospel because they may share the same Gospel Call, it is a presumptive conclusion. For, since the Gospel Call is by design simple–for it is the initial call of men through the power of the Holy Spirit to believe upon Christ–men who share different gospels can certainly share the same Gospel Call (or ones that sound similar). Indeed, even a man who believes a false gospel but preaches a biblical Gospel Call can observe men come to faith and repentance in Christ. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is not confined by men, as some think he is, but he blows where he wishes, and he can blow through a heretic to save his child if he so desires.

Then it will be asked, “If men can be saved through the preaching of the Gospel Call in spite of a preacher’s false gospel, what is the problem, for men are saved regardless?” The problem is inherent in the question, for its asking demonstrates that we believe that the confession of men is the end of the Gospel, and that the Gospel Call, when backed by a false gospel, has no consequence. Despite this belief of ours, Scripture demonstrates that God and his glory are the end of the Gospel (2Cor. 4:4), and that the preaching of the Gospel, when placed in the hands of those who believe otherwise, becomes the work of peddlers and swindlers not of prophets and priests (cf. 2Cor. 2:17; 4:2). For when men believe that the chief end of the Gospel is the salvation of souls and not the glory of God, they will tamper with God’s Word for the sake of getting results. Therefore, those who think thus will do things such as reword the Gospel Call so as to make it less offensive and more accessible. For example, instead of preaching as Christ and the apostles did, viz. “Believe and repent!” they will change the call to, “Accept Jesus as your personal Savior, and ask him to come into your heart.” In doing so, they rip from the Gospel Call the immediate requirement for repentance for the sake of conning men into praying a prayer. Now, while it is indeed true that men have, by grace, been saved through such a distorted call, how many have responded to such a call only to walk away having never repented? What good is such a call and response if men indeed are going to be judged according to their works? (cf. Rm. 2:6).

There, indeed, is no benefit in such distortion, and the results of such distortion are only detrimental to the Body. For the apostle testifies of the effect to Gospel distortion in the Galatian church, writing, “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion [i.e. distortion of the Gospel] is not from him who calls you” (Gal. 5:8). In other words, by accepting this distorted gospel, the Galatian church, though elect by God, was hindered in obeying the truth. Their view of the Gospel directly affected the way that they lived, the way that they preached, and, most importantly, the way that they worshiped God in Christ. For, by accepting a works-based gospel, they reduced Jesus Christ from the Savior of their soul to the One who shortened the stepladder to God. For in adding one, single work to the Gospel, they declared that salvation is not from the Lord alone, but it is from the Lord plus human effort. In doing thus, they vested salvation not in God but in man, and thereby gained for themselves a cause for boasting. The Lord God despises such Gospel-manipulations and will judge those who place the glory for salvation upon men, for he will not give the glory that is due to him to another (cf. Is. 48:11).

So again we come to the question, “Is a free will gospel a false gospel in that it, as Spurgeon claimed, makes the Gospel a gospel of works?” The free will gospel indeed is a false gospel, for it does precisely the same thing to the Gospel that the Judaizers did to the Gospel with circumcision. For it takes the Gospel that is based solely on the work of the Triune God alone (cf. Rm. 8:1-4), and makes it so that any man can make his way to God if he so chooses.

How does a free will gospel do this? It does this by taking the Gospel Call, “Believe in Christ,” and it makes belief a work of man rather than a work of God. Now, it should be noted that no one will claim that men do not believe or that men do not have a will, but it is a question of ability. Yes, men must believe in Christ, but do men have the ability to believe apart from the work of God? And, yes, men do have a will, but do men have the ability to will themselves to God apart from God’s work? The proponent of a free will gospel will say, “Yes, for men’s wills are free.” Therefore they believe that if any man is going to be saved, he must exercise his free will and accept Christ–he must work his free will. Therefore, to them, Christ has met all men halfway, and men merely need to freely extend out their hand and grasp his.

The problem with such a notion, other than the fact that he takes the burden of Salvation off of Christ and places it upon the backs of men, is that Scripture declares that men’s wills are not only not free but that they are bound in slavery to sin. Because of the curse wrought in us by our father Adam, we and our wills are bound in service to another slavemaster–sin. And since we are thus, we can no more choose God than an elephant can choose to fly. For the apostle Paul writes of all men, “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God” (Rm. 3:10, 11). For, since all men are in such a state that they are blind to Christ and deaf to the Gospel and dead in their trespasses, no one can understand, and no one can seek for God. It is for this reason that our Lord and Savior says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn. 6:44), and, “You must be born again [by the will of the Spirit]” (Jn. 3:7, 8). And it is for this reason that the apostle Paul concludes, “So then [salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy,” for, “He has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills” (Rm. 9:16, 18).

However, the proponent of human free will comes in and says, “Surely these things are not true, for I know that I have the ability and power to choose or to reject God.” What a terrible and haughty declaration! You believe against the testimonies of God that you are able by your own fleshly ability to ascend to him by your will so as to bring Christ down to yourself! (cf. Rm. 10:6). Yes, you are right in saying that faith comes from hearing, but where does your hearing come from? Do you have ears on your own volition? Do you somehow hear as you claim that all men hear though Christ cries out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”? (Lk. 9:44). Yes, faith indeed comes from hearing, but the ability to hear comes from the spoken and creative word of Christ (cf. Rm. 10:17). Just as seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ comes from God who says, “Let light shine out of darkness” (cf. 2Cor. 4:4-6), so too does hearing comes from him who calls it into existence.

For this very reason, the apostle John writes concerning those who did not believe in Christ, though they had heard him preach and witnessed his miracles:

When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

….“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
….….and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

….“He has blinded their eyes
……..and hardened their heart,
….lest they see with their eyes,
……..and understand with their heart, and turn,
……..and I would heal them” (Jn. 12:36-10)

Lest what the apostle writes be missed, he says of them, “They could not believe.” Why? Because Christ had hidden himself from them and did not grant them eyes to see him or ears to hear him.

Therefore, it must be concluded that even our faith in Christ is gift from God (cf. Eph. 2:8). For if men cannot see Christ’s glory in their natural state and if men cannot hear the Gospel apart from the work of Christ, then faith must come from God’s work in granting men eyes and ears. For this reason, no man can boast in his own salvation (cf. Eph. 2:9; Rm. 3:21). Why? Because Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith (cf. Heb. 12:2), so that in all things he might get the glory and that “no man might boast in the presence of God” (1Cor. 1:29), so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1Cor. 1:31).

Yet despite these declarations, the proponent of the free will of man persists. Why? Because of their hard-hearted ignorance and self-righteousness, so that what can be said of unbelieving Israel can be said of them: “For [they], being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Rm. 10:3). They persist in their false doctrines and godless philosophies, because they refuse to submit to the Gospel that declares that God has done what men could never do (cf. Rm. 8:3). Therefore they praise themselves, not God, and they lead others into their pit of ignorance. They instead choose to keep for themselves a portion of the glory due to God, and thus they ruin the whole Gospel, for, as it is written, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Gal. 5:9). Therefore God will judge them in their arrogance, for, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jm. 4:6).

Conclusions
If you are reading this and are by grace devastated that you have taken for yourself a portion of God’s glory for yourself, fear not, for as Spurgeon rightly said, “We are all born Arminians.” All men are born egocentric, and all presume that when they come to Christ they did so on their own accord. It is for this reason that the apostle Paul admonishes us, “Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rm. 12:2). Do not continue in worldly philosophies and what you in your ignorance and submission to false doctrine have believed, but repent from it and turn in praise to Christ who alone is the One who saves souls.

If you are a teacher of the church of God and have known these things and yet have remained obstinate, take heed lest you leave yourself with no room for repentance. Your doctrine of the free will of man is nothing but a works-based salvation with your will as the arm by which you pull yourself up to God. Are you so arrogant as to presume that God will have mercy on you in your works-based religion though he gave no mercy to Israel, his own people, who sought him by works? (cf. Rm. 9:31, 32). You, too, if you continue in your falsehood will stumble, as they did, over Christ the stumbling stone.

If you, by humility in grace, have already submitted yourself to these truths of God’s Gospel found in his Holy Scriptures, continue, dear brother or sister, in praising our Lord and Savior for the great Salvation which he alone has accomplished for us. Continue in this, and yet do not grow callous to the horrible distortion that is the free will gospel. It will be tempting (for tolerance has not wholly bypassed the church) to seek peace with those teachers who teach a free will since they may give a Gospel Call similar to your own, but do not be deceived, for this abomination is no more damning than that the distortion of the Judaizers. The free will gospel preaches justification by works, and it is an attack by the Adversary upon the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do not associate with those who are hardened in their free will distortion, and by no means presume that you can labor with them in the Gospel. For they preach a Gospel that is a false gospel, and their methods for preaching are the same as peddlers and swindlers. You will be wearied by their manipulation of souls, and you will see them turn the Gospel of our Lord into a sales pitch.

However, in spite of these hardened teachers, there are many of God’s people who have been deceived in their ignorance. These, unlike false teachers, do not need disassociation, but they need love in rebuke and knowledge. Show them with love and patience, as the apostle Paul did with the Galatians, the error of their beliefs, and admonish them to understand the greatness of the grace of God demonstrated in his Gospel so that they might be sanctified in truth. They may full well be sheep led astray by a vicious pastor, and they may need time, as we all have, to, by the Spirit, submit fully to the righteousness that comes from God alone.

May God be glorified and his people be sanctified by the pure and unadulterated proclamation of the Gospel of his glory and grace. Amen.

And thus, to jump to the point, you will find efforts in the Southern Baptist Convention to unite with one another within the denomination over issues such as Calvinist / Arminian understandings of the Gospel for the sake of what is being called the Great Commission Resurgence whose chief end is to get the Gospel out to the Nations. The problem with such an endeavor is that despite pious sounding mantras to “Just give the world the name of Jesus,” it neglects the very Gospel that is to be delivered to the Nations. Its practice would be tantamount to rounding up medicine and sending it to a country that is perishing from smallpox, when it is not merely medicine that the country needs, it is the particular medicine of a smallpox inoculation. Sending aspirin would not do, and neither would a measles vaccine, but they need the pure, unadulterated cure of a smallpox vaccine. Likewise, when we speak of a Great Commission Resurgence, we do not merely need to send to them the name of Jesus (for the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are just as well-equipped to do that), but we need to send to them the pure, unadulterated Gospel that was delivered to the prophets and apostles.

And so it will be asked, “What has all this to do with Calvinism and Arminianism? Do they not preach the same Gospel?” My answer is a resounding, “No!” for the Gospel is not something that can be merely assigned to a single phrase, but it is the whole corpus of the doctrines of what Christ has done for his people. And as a friend so rightly put it, “Doctrine is not something that can be neatly relegated into tiers, but its ramifications can be felt in all spheres of Faith.” In other words, doctrine directly affects and influences practice, and since the call of the Great Commission is not, “Go and make believers,” but it is, “Go and make disciples,” correct doctrine is not something that is merely an added bonus, but it is essential to the Great Commission.

Therefore, since proper doctrine is essential to discipleship, and discipleship is essential to the Great Commission, and we claim that our goal is to fulfill the Great Commission, the Calvinist / Arminian discussion cannot be something that is cast by the wayside. For the two understandings of the Gospel do not differ merely in semantics, but they differ in essence and substance. And since they differ so greatly, one or both of them is a wrong understanding of the Gospel. And while I could directly go into a discussion on why Calvinism is the Gospel and is called Calvinism by haters of the Gospel and why Arminianism is a false gospel, I shall instead address it indirectly by addressing the destructiveness of the Arminian heresy.

Arminianism Despises and Destroys the Word of God and the Gospel Given by our Lord Contained Therein
Arminianism at its core is a system of doctrines that is so enamored with the free ability of men to seek after God so that its adherents can claim that they are able by their own free ability to save themselves from destruction by accepting Jesus Christ. Its foundational doctrine is the free will of man, and it is a doctrine that is assumed by human reason before it ever encounters the Word of God. It says to itself, “In my experience, I know that I make free decisions every day, therefore my will must be free.” And thus it is through this sieve that they strain the Word of God, accepting that which seems to accord with their understanding of the will of man and explaining away and rejecting that which does not.

The problem with this assumption of man’s will is that the Scriptures tell a different story. They declare, “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God” (Rm. 3:10, 11). And, “So then, [salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy” (Rm. 9:16). And our Lord himself declares, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn. 6:43, 44). And he also declares to Nicodemus concerning those who are shall enter the Kingdom of God:

Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wills, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:8).

The problem with Arminian adherents is that they have no answer to these clear declarations of Holy Scripture. They, instead of expositing what these verses mean according to their contrived system of doctrine, explain them away by proof-texting. They will say, “Look at John 3:16, it says, ‘Whosoever believes in him will not perish,’ and thus it intimates that men have the ability to believe or not believe in Jesus.” The problem is that this is mere assumption of the text not the fact of the text. The simple fact of the text is that whosoever believes in Christ will not perish. It says nothing of men’s ability to believe in Christ in their natural state or that all men will be given the opportunity to believe, but it simply says that those who do believe will not perish.

Indeed we see elsewhere that this is consistent with the declaration of Romans 3, namely that “No one understands, no one seeks for God,” for it is God who gives men the ability to believe (cf. Eph. 2:8; Rm. 3:22). Men in their natural state cannot believe on Christ and live, for men in their natural state are blind to the Gospel (2Cor. 4:4). Therefore, a supernatural impartation of what the apostle Paul calls, “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2Cor. 4:6) must be granted to men before they can believe on Christ and be saved. God must call out, as he did at the Creation, “Let light shine out of darkness,” before any man can see Christ and live.

And we see this clearly in the life of Christ where he dwelt among the Israelites and performed many great and miraculous deeds, yet they still rejected and crucified him. The apostle John is so bold as to write:

When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

….“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
….….and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

….“He has blinded their eyes
……..and hardened their heart,
….lest they see with their eyes,
……..and understand with their heart, and turn,
……..and I would heal them” (Jn. 12:36-10)

And this disbelief and hardening of the Israelites by God is contrasted with the belief of the Gentiles (cf. Rm. 9:30-33). Luke writes:

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

…. “I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
……..that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed (Acts 13:47, 48).

And so, these things are not obscure teachings that are debatable issues, but they clear, undeniable truths. Arminians simply do not like these teachings by our Lord, the prophets, and the apostles, and they instead spit on them. They say, “I will never believe in a God like that. A God like that is unjust.” All the while, the apostle Paul declares, “Is there injustice on Gods 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’” (Rm. 9:14, 15). For God alone is the Dispenser of mercy, and man has only ever merited destruction for himself, therefore God can give his mercy to whomever he wills; he owes no man nothing.

And yet they cry out, “What of, ‘The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, now wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance’ (2Pet. 3:9), and, ‘This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1Tim. 2:3, 4)?” In these texts, these have only shown their disposition to proof-texting without expositing what these verses mean in their context so that they might cling to the filthy rags of their unrighteous doctrines. I have dealt with these texts thoroughly elsewhere (2Pet. 3:9, 1Tim. 2:4, see also Jn. 3:16), and it would add little to address them here.

Therefore, when it comes to laboring alongside an Arminian in the Great Commission, I refuse to do it, for no Arminian can stay faithful to the Scriptures upon which the Great Commission is built. They must distort them, they must twist them, they must spit in their venomous philosophies so as to rip and mangle that which the very Spirit of God has breathed forth. And for what? So that they might have their free will. Such a man does not love God and God’s Salvation, but he loves himself and his personal claim to righteousness.

Next: Why I Refuse to Labor beside an Arminian in the Great Commission, 2. Ramifications of a Distorted Gospel

However, despite these admirable and godly traits, this brother is a full-fledged Arminian and believes the very doctrines that the Synod of Dordt denounced. And while I am convinced that the Spirit of God dwells in this man, I have felt it my duty to share with him at least some differing views on his beliefs since this man aspires to one day be a full-time minister to God’s flock. Here are a few of my thoughts that I have shared with him.

The Problem with a Free Will
In our conversations, the topic that came up the most is that of the “free will of man.” This notion comes chiefly from the exhortations in Scripture to believe upon Christ and to repent by obeying his commandments. It is presumed from these exhortations that if something is commanded by God that it is by necessity possible for men to obey those commands by their own volition apart from any supernatural work of God. This is a natural presumption, and I am sure that most of us who have come to Christ have believed this very thing at one point in our walk with Christ.

The reason that it is such a natural presumption is because we by our nature are radically self-centered. We by nature presume that what is true can be surmised by our five senses, and if we do not detect these things by our senses, we naturally believe that they do not exist. And this is precisely how the doctrines of free will come about, because men in their self-centered state feel as though they are free to make their own decisions, and thus when one follows Christ, he believes that he came to Christ on his own accord not that Christ had by the Spirit drawn that person to himself.

We, therefore, should not be shocked or dismayed when those who come to Christ think that they did so by their own free volition, but we should understand how natural this is and understand that it is an opportunity for instruction and correction not for division and labeling heretics. Much too often we presume that men have received right doctrine and have railed against it, when in fact they may have never been posed with the right doctrine before and may have never been given opportunity to change their minds and hearts accordingly. We must assume this in love with those who are merely new acquaintances and therefore not be so quick to label them as heterodox when they might have never been confronted with the truth. Those who are leaders and teachers in the church are another matter entirely, for they profess to know the Scriptures and also lead and teach others, and therefore they must be dealt with as false, for they have either, one, understood the teachings of the Scriptures and railed against them, or, two, they have not understood the teachings of the Scriptures and therefore should not be in a position of leadership or instruction in the church.

When dealing with those who are not teachers in the church, I believe that it is fitting to deal with the false notion of free will in the same manner which the apostle Paul deals with it in his epistle to the Roman church. In the epistle, the apostle Paul begins by demonstrating the foul, natural state of men apart from God. He demonstrates this both with the Gentiles (Rm. 1:18-2:16) and the Jews (Rm. 2:17-3:8), so that the conclusion to which his reader comes is that neither group is better off than the other, for both are under the slavery of sin apart from God (v. 3:9), and that, “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God” (vv. 3:10, 11). Therefore, all men apart from God are foul and self-seeking, and thus no one is self-justified by the law, for all men are transgressors of the law and are condemned by it.

Since, therefore, men are in such a state under sin and the law that they cannot be righteous, they cannot understand the ways of God, and they cannot seek God, God must do a supernatural work in them before they can be righteous before him, understand him, and seek after him. This is the reason why the apostle begins the next section of his discourse, writing, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law … the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe” (vv. 3:21, 22; translation mine). This is the same concept with which the apostle begins his discourse in v. 1:17, namely that, “The righteousness of God has been revealed from faith for faith,” or, in other words, from the initiatory and perfect faith of Jesus Christ imputed to those who would have faith. This notion is seen elsewhere in the apostle’s writings that faith is gift (Eph. 2:8), and therefore it is concluded in both instances where this doctrine is shown that its purpose is so that all boasting is excluded (cf. Rm. 3:27; Eph. 2:8).

The problem with the doctrine of free will is that it does not view faith as gift from God, but it views faith as a personal decision about the Good News of Christ without any prompting or revelation from the Spirit of God. It believes that any man can hear the Gospel and believe it in his natural state, though the Scriptures declare that men are blind, dead, and enslaved to sin apart from the work of God (cf. 2Cor. 2:1-6). Therefore, since those who believe in the free will of man believe that any man can believe the Gospel on his own accord, personal boasting is not excluded, for a faith that is based solely upon the freedom of man is a faith that can be boasted in. Contrarily, a faith that comes from the work of the Spirit of God alone cannot be boasted in, for we who believe did not come to Christ, but Christ came to us and removed the veils from our eyes so that we could see Christ as he truly is and believe on him (cf. 2Cor. 3:12-18).

It is for this reason that Christ tells Nicodemus that he must be born again by the Spirit and that the Spirit blows and regenerates whomever he wishes, and why the New Birth by the Spirit of God precedes the declaration, “Whosoever believes on Christ will not perish” (Jn. 3:16). For new birth must precede faith so that, as the apostle declares later in his letter, “[Salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy” (Rm. 9:16).

The reality is that men do have a will, but it is not a free will. For because of our creaturely state and the ordinance of God, no man can be free. We, however, perceive that we are free, because we make decisions every day, however, in reality, every decision that we make is dependent upon our slavemaster. For the apostle declares that all men are slaves, and the matter is not whom you choose as your slavemaster, but which slavemaster has chosen you. For, as no earthly slave has subjected himself willingly to his master, so no man has subjected himself willingly to sin or to God. For all of us have been born into subjection to our slavemaster sin by the deed of our father Adam (Rm. 5:12-21), and the only way that we are released from our slavery to sin is to be redeemed (i.e. purchased from slavery) by Christ and brought under the slavery of God (cf. Rm. 6:22). And it matters not our religious background or our desire to keep the law of God for life (cf. Rm. 7:7-25), but it matters that what we could not do in our slavery to sin and fleshliness, God has done through the emancipating work of Christ and his Spirit (cf. Rm. 8:1-4).

However, we who understand these things must realize that this understanding of the work of God is not a part of justification, but it is a part of sanctification. For no man understands perfectly his state before he comes to Christ, but he merely knows the command, “Believe and repent.” However, this understanding of the will of man is a necessity in our sanctification, for through it the fruits of humility and gratefulness are produced, and our God is a jealous God, and he will not give his glory to another (cf. Is. 48:11). Therefore, I exhort you, brothers who understand these things, to realize that all are Arminians until they have been rightly sanctified, and to be patient and loving to your brothers who believe that their wills are free, and to instruct them in love as to the true nature of the Gospel.

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1Tim. 2:3, 4).

As promised, I am continuing my survey of texts that supposedly contradict the doctrines taught in Romans 8-11, et al. Several weeks ago, we dealt with the texts of John 3:16 and 2 Peter 3:9 and how those classic texts supposedly portray God as a God who is, respectively, desperately in love with the world and is wringing his hands at the thought that any person on this planet should have to perish. We demonstrated through these texts’ context and through biblical theology that this is not the God that is portrayed in these verses, but instead we find a God who is quite the opposite.

Despite this clarity in context, we must realize that we live in a reader response society and among Christians who use the Bible as a reference book rather than the meat upon which they feast daily. Thus we find not Christians who read the Scriptures through and thoroughly in its own context, but we find Christians who google, “Why Calvinism is evil,” and find a website of some other person who also only uses his Bible as reference book and then compiled a list of verses and spouted the infamous lie that Calvinists do not believe in evangelism and missions, despite the fact that the greatest preachers and evangelists (e.g. George Whitefield, C. H. Spurgeon, etc.), the leaders of great revivals (e.g. Jonathan Edwards), and the one who is called the father of modern missions–William Carey–were all Calvinists.

It is in this context that we teach the ignorant. Most people who fill our churches have not been, as the apostle commanded, “transformed by the renewal of their minds,” but instead attempt to conform Scripture to their minds. For this reason, people hold to such doctrines as free will, not because Scripture teaches that men are free, but because they believe that they are free because their experience teaches them that they are free. They have no categories for being dead in their trespasses, enslaved to sin and death, blind and deaf to the truth, etc.–all of which Scripture declares of those apart from Christ. Thus, people in our churches presumptuously believe that if men are commanded to do something by God that they by their nature and strength have the ability to do it, and they strive, like foolish Nicodemus, to crawl back into their mothers’ wombs because God commanded them to be born again.

Please forgive me for the lengthy introduction, but I believe that it is necessary to understand the nature of the beast with which we have to deal. And now we come to 1 Timothy 2:4, where the apostle writes, “[God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” This text seems to be straightforward on the surface, and it seems pretty safe by its declaration to do what Sunday School literature has done for decades, viz. cut out Romans 9-11 from their literature. But again, therein lies the assumption that we saw in John 3:16′s kosmos, namely that “all” means every person who has ever lived since Adam to the telos despite class, race, etc. But let us step back a couple of verses in 1 Timothy 2 just to make sure this interpretation is the apostle’s intention.

In 1 Timothy 2:1, the apostle writes, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.” Given that this verse is in the context of the “all people” in verse 2:4, it is probably safe to say and destructive not to say that Paul is speaking of the same persons in verse 1 as he is in verse 4. Now, let us add verse 2 to verse 1, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, etc. … be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” Did you see what the apostle did? He clarified all people with “kings and all who are in high positions.” Why? So that Christians might live peaceful and godly lives in the state where they live.

As in John 3:16, where Nicodemus the devout Jewish Pharisee was told that Jesus the Messiah came not merely for the Jews but for all the Nations, so the impoverished Christians who are being addressed through the apostle’s letter to young Timothy are learning that Jesus did not merely come for the poor, but he came for all classes of men, even for kings and those who are in authority. Here in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, we find reinforcement that the Gospel is not a social gospel, nor is it a racial Gospel as Nicodemus thought in John 3, but it is a universal Gospel. Jesus came to redeem men from all tribes, tongues, social classes, and skin colors. Indeed, we find that this is the apostle’s intentions in this text for he writes in v. 2:7, “For this I [a Pharisaical Jew] was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher to the Gentiles in faith and truth.” In other words, God appointed Paul, a Jew of Jews, to be the preacher to the Gentiles to demonstrate that God’s Gospel is not for a single people, but for the whole world.

Is not this a better understanding of the text than a cheap proof text? I implore you, no matter your theological tendencies, read God’s Word as God intended for it to be read. The devil knows the Scriptures much better than you or I do, and he has twisted them from the beginning of time to serve his purposes. Please do not be like him.

Before we come to any conclusions concerning this statement by the apostle, it would be beneficial for us to understand the context in which it is spoken. We have just finished studying God’s sovereign will over the selection of the Israel’s forefathers according to the Promise, which we have concluded from its context and from the fulfillment of the Promise in Christ that the apostle is speaking of the Eternal & Spiritual Israel, i.e. the children of God, not the physical Israel and its physical, covenant promises (cf. v. 9:8). The mercy of God of which the Apostle speaks is therefore not a mercy that affords physical prosperity for a particular nation and ethnic group but it is mercy unto eternal blessing.

The apostle makes this quite clear in the text following v. 9:16 when he speaks of God’s lack of mercy toward Pharaoh—a Gentile. Therefore God’s sovereign mercy and lack of mercy is universal—it extends to both Jew and Greek and bears with it eternal ramifications.

Now that it is clear that Paul makes our present statement in the context of eternity, we know that Paul is speaking of the salvation and the damnation of men’s souls. On this the apostle says, “It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.” First, God’s mercy, his granting of eternal salvation and escape from condemnation, does not depend on the human will. This is to say that man does not determine his fate by his desires and inclinations. Why? Because, one, God’s mercy is dependent only on him and his good and sovereign pleasure, and two, if it were based on human desire and inclination, no person would ever obtain mercy, for the apostle declares earlier, “None seeks for God; all have turned aside and have become worthless” (v. 3:11b, 12a).

Second, God’s mercy depends not human exertion. The New American Standard words it this way, “It does not depend on the man … who runs, but on God who has mercy.” Both versions highlight the chief idea that the apostle is trying to bring across, that a man cannot work for or achieve God’s mercy. There is no human deed or human righteousness that will commend or justify any soul to God. Our righteousness is filthiness in the holy light of Yahweh, so much so that the apostle writes in another part of the text we quoted earlier, “None is righteous, no, not one … no one does good, not even one” (v. 3:10b, 12b, cf. Is. 64:6).

Because of God’s decree and because of our state in Adam and our subsequent inability to do anything that resembles righteousness, if mercy is to be had, it must come from God and God alone, just as the prophet wrote, “Salvation is from the Lord” (cf. Jonah 2:9).

Next: It Depends Not on Human Will, etc. 3. God Hardens Whom He Wills

It is at this point that many interpreters of Romans 9 who do not like the doctrine of Divine Election point out that vv. 1-13 have dealt solely with God and the people of Israel. In spite of Paul’s design in using the examples of Isaac and Jacob to explain God’s Purpose in Election and thereby explain why God has not broken his promise to Israel though they were not believing in Jesus Christ and are therefore condemned, many interpreters see, “God’s dealing with Israel” stamped over the text and skip ahead to Romans 12. They argue, “This text does not deal with the Church, so let us move on.”

However, such an interpretation is completely absurd, for the apostle writes a few verses later:

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

Paul clearly states that God’s election is not about the physical descendents of Israel but it is about the children of the Promise—the true Israel, which is the Church (cf. Rom. 2:28, 29; Gal. 6:16).

Also, the “this is for Israelites” classification is absurd because in our text for this week, Romans 9:14-18, Paul uses the example of the Pharaoh of Exodus to make his present point, who is in fact a Gentile.

Romans 9:14-18
We come to v. 9:14 after Paul has made the extraordinary statement, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” After looking at this statement in the context of Romans 9 and in the context of Malachi 1 from where it is quoted by the apostle, we concluded in our earlier study that this act of loving and hating on God’s part had eternal consequences. One was given the right of the Promise and received eternal blessing and life and the other was given nothing pertaining to the Promise and received death and destruction.

And as our philosophically wise hands raise to object to the hard doctrine, the apostle writes to us, “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!” (v. 9:14). Paul assures his reader that Yahweh is a just God and has always dealt with his people justly and has always been faithful to his Promise. And though in our feeble minds we look at God’s hatred and subsequent condemnation of Esau before he was born as unjust, we must recognize that we are but a vapor and God is everlasting from everlasting. We might never comprehend the ways of God, and we should be humble and content with knowing this in light of who we are and who God is.

Paul recognizes our humble position, and instead of waxing eloquently with the latest Greek philosophy to explain God’s justice, he appeals to Scripture. He writes, “For [God] says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” Paul’s answer to the objection, “That is not fair!” is a humbling statement from the lips of God, “I have mercy on whom I desire.” Therefore, God’s mercy is not subject to anything in man or any other thing that is created, but it is subject only to God’s good pleasure.

Next: It Depends Not on Human Will or Exertion but on God, Pt. 2

Man comes out like a flower and withers;
….he flees like a shadow and continues not.
And do you open your eyes on such a one
….and bring me into judgment with you?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
….There is not one.
Since his days are determined,
….and the number of his months is with you,
……..and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass (Job 14:2-5).

There are few philosophies that are as ingrained in the human psyche as is the free will of man. It is as common to the natural man as the craving for food, the desire for companionship, and the drive for sex. Left to himself, the natural man would believe in his autonomy his entire life and would die thinking that he arrived at his end on his own accord.

We, however, cannot come to Romans 9 as the natural man does. Before we begin studying this chapter, we must approach it with minds and hearts that are teachable. We must be willing to question our natural philosophies and also be willing to replace them with the doctrines of Scripture. If we do not, we will either come out of Romans 9 hating it, or more likely, will come out of it with ridiculous interpretations. Our best guide for studying Romans 9 is Romans 1-8, which lays a foundation for the hard teachings of the chapter. Since Romans 9 deals with God’s sovereignty over all men, we will look at his sovereignty over natural man and then his sovereignty over his children in these chapters.

The Bondage of Natural Men
Our first encounter with natural men is in the first chapter of Romans. The chapter portrays men whose morality is in constant attrition. Their moral attrition is attributed to nothing–not to their lack of education, their poverty, etc., but it is portrayed as their natural course forged by their natural condition. Not even their knowledge of God sways their destructive course. The Apostle writes:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things (Romans 1:21-23).

Though they knew God through the natural law, they also knew a portion of the revealed law of God. Again the Apostle writes:

Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them (v. 1:32).

This is our first encounter in the letter with a will that knowingly fights against its soul’s own good. The Apostle writes that these natural men know their actions and their desserts, but they do them all the same. They know that they will ultimately answer for their wickedness, but they commend the wickedness that they see in others. They know that their good is not to do wicked acts, yet they continue to do them.

Lest we think that Paul is speaking only of the Gentiles apart from the law in chapter one, the Apostle clarifies this, writing, “Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin (v. 3:10).” Again he writes, “There is none who is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God (v. 3:11).” This universal “not doing good” speaks of the bondage of all men apart from God’s divine intervention. Apart from God, all men are bound to sin and can do no good. Though men might “will” to do things that resemble good, they are no more good than graven images are God. Regardless of how we explain or justify the “selfless” acts of good by natural men, the simple truth is that no man apart from God can do any that is truly good and is bound to do evil with every step he takes.

In that same chapter, the Apostle writes, “We know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God (v. 3:19).” As is implied in the first chapter, we find that the law exists over natural men, not to be a stepladder to God, but to demonstrate their guilt before a righteous Judge. In Romans 7, we see also that the law over natural man points to life to those who fulfill it. Since the natural man is bound to sin and unable to fulfill the law and thereby attain life, we find the natural narrator through the lens of the Apostle saying, “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me (v. 7:10).

In the next paragraph, we find the most vivid portrayal of the natural man’s bondage. In this paragraph, we find a narrative of man who recognizes that the law gives life to those who keep it, who desires that life, and, through the Apostle’s eyes, sees clearly his bondage to sin and his bondage to the flesh. Even in this most enlightened of natural men, we still find that his will is completely and utterly bound, for he laments, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to to do what is right [i.e. so that he might obtain life], but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I continually do (vv. 7:18, 19). Here we find that even the man who is enlightened by the law and its promises is powerless to keep it. Thus he needs a deliverer–one outside himself who is not bound by sin, death, and the flesh to keep the law on his behalf and to break his bonds. Hence we have Romans 8:1-4, but that is beyond our present scope.

Our point in looking at the utter bondage of natural men is so that when we read Romans 9:16, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy,” or v. 9:13, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” we will have categories for these declarations, and so that we will see that the declarations of Romans 9 are the same as those made in Romans 1-8. Tomorrow we will look at God’s sovereignty over redeemed men.