Rebecca Stark is the author of The Good Portion: Godthe second title in The Good Portion series.

The Good Portion: God explores what Scripture teaches about God in hopes that readers will see his perfection, worth, magnificence, and beauty as they study his triune nature, infinite attributes, and wondrous works. 

                     

Sunday
Dec042022

Sunday Hymn: All Poor Men and Humble

 

 

 

All poor men and humble,
all lame men who stumble.
Come haste ye, nor feel ye afraid.
For Jesus our treasure,
with love without measure,
in lowly poor manger is laid.

Though wise men who found him
laid rich gifts around him,
yet oxen they gave him their hay.
And Jesus in beauty
accepted their duty
(contented in manger he lay).

Then haste we to show him
the praises we owe him;
our service he ne’er can despise.
Whose love still is able
to show us that stable
where softly in manger he lies.
—Traditional Welsh Carol
Tuesday
Nov292022

Theological Term of the Week: Irresistible Grace

irresistible grace
God’s saving grace effectually applied to those he has chosen to save, causing their natural enmity toward him to disappear so that they willingly repent and believe in Jesus. See also effectual call.
  • From scripture:

    For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44 ESV)

    One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.  (Acts 16:14 ESV)

    And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:3-6 ESV)

  • From The Canons of Dordt, Head III-IV, Article 11

    [W]hen God … works true conversion in [his chosen ones], he not only sees to it that the gospel is proclaimed to them outwardly, and enlightens their minds powerfully by the Holy Spirit so that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God, but, by the effective operation of the same regenerating Spirit, he also penetrates into the inmost being of man, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised. He infuses new qualities into the will, making the dead will alive, the evil one good, the unwilling one willing, and the stubborn one compliant; he activates and strengthens the will so that, like a good tree, it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good deeds.What is the communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death?

  • From Living for God’s Glory by Joel Beeke:
    Unfortunately, the term irresistible can suggest capricious force or violence to a sinner’s will. To some, it conveys the picture of a mother sitting her child at the kitchen table with spinach and liver and saying, “Eat!” But that is not the meaning… Though the irresistible grace of God in calling sinners is forceful and compelling, it works in such a way that the sinner’s will is so renewed that he comes to Christ gladly and willingly. If you are a believer, you know that when grace took hold of you, it brought you willingly and lovingly to what God had predetermined for you. No one in history has ever done anything more willingly and more lovingly than those who receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Think of Lydia (Acts 16:14-15) and the Philippians jailor (Acts 16:30-34); they were not saved against their wills.

    On the other hand, God must work within the sinner to make him willing to come to Christ. John 6:44 says that unless the Father “draws” him, a sinner will not believe the gospel. The original word for draw implies a certain compelling force. Is is used in John 21:6-11 of fishermen dragging a net. Elsewhere, it is used of Paul and Silas’s being “dragged” by a mob. (Acts 16:19) and of the “dragging” of poor men into court by rich men (James 2:6). The idea is that a superiour force is so exerted upon an object or person the the one doing the dragging is successful.the intermediate state, believers are not simply in contemplative repose. Nor are they lost souls wandering throughout the realm of shadows or crossing back and forth over the river Styx ferried by Charon. Rather, they are made part of the company assembled at the true Zion, with “innumerable angels in festal gathering” and “the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Able” (Heb 12:22—24).

 

Learn more:

  1. Simply Put: Irresistible Grace
  2. Got Questions: Irresistible Grace - is it biblical? 
  3. R. C. Sproul: Irresistible Grace
  4. Sam Storms: 10 Things You Should Know About Irresistible Grace
  5. Joel Beeke: What Is Irresistible Grace?
  6. Matthew Barrett: Is Irresistible Grace Unbiblical?
  7. John Murray: Irresistible Grace

 

Related terms:

 

 Filed under Reformed Theology and Salvation


Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.

Sunday
Nov202022

Sunday Hymn: It Is Well With My Soul

 

 

 

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Refrain
It is well with my soul;
It is well, it is well with my soul.


Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And has shed his own blood for my soul.

My sin—O the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;
“Even so”—it is well with my soul.
—Horatio Spafford