Many years ago I was sitting in a religion class with a Protestant

                        Reformed friend when the religion professor, who was also a

                        minister, said concerning man and God’s grace, “What makes a

                        man different from all the other animals is that he can say ‘no’

                        to God.”   We glanced at each other with expressions of, “Did

                        he really say that?”

                             A Christian Reformed classmate then raised his hand and

                        asked, “I thought that God’s grace was irresistible.  Isn’t that

                        one of the five Points of Calvinism?”

                             The professor began to be quite ill at ease.  After all, this

                        was a religion class at Calvin College.  He stammered, “Of

                        course the concept of grace is quite complicated and complex.

                        We will discuss it again later.” It was no surprise that we never did.

The doctrine of irresistible grace is not complicated.  It is in accordance with the clear teaching of the Scriptures.  Also, the truth that God’s grace is irresistible is true to the experience of every child of God.

It is not the purpose of this article to offer proof that irresistible grace is indeed scriptural.  Others have already done this very well.  Rev. Van Baren wrote a book titled The Five Points of Calvinism.  Years ago a pamphlet by Rev. Harbach was published called Calvinism, the Truth.  Proof for the doctrine of irresistible grace is also found in the Canons of Dordt.

The purpose here is to show that this doctrine is not something dry, lifeless and dull.  It certainly is not true that this doctrine is of no importance to us.  Contrary to what I believed during my younger years, the doctrines of scripture are not meant to make catechism students’ lives miserable by making them memorize proof texts and long definitions of seemingly endless terms.  The doctrines of scripture profoundly affect our lives.  All of Scripture’s doctrines are important because they affect our daily walk on earth.  This is also true for irresistible grace.

I’m sure that you know what “irresistible” means.  However, here we mean something more than that particular tint of blue in a young woman’s eyes or a young man’s friendly smile.  We are speaking of the power of the Almighty God.  The Spirit of God seizes our hearts.  What was dead and cold is made alive and warm!  What found pleasure in sin now finds pleasure in being an obedient servant!  We, who are so easily self-righteous, are forced to confess our desperate need for the Savior!

When God moves so powerfully into our hearts, we cannot say “no” to Him.  Our salvation does not depend upon us opening the door to our hearts.  In His grace God takes away the foolish thought that we are able to save ourselves or do not need the Savior because we are “pretty good” or “better than others.” By the power of His irresistible grace, that old self-praising Pharisee , who so easily creeps into our hearts, is evicted and replaced with Paul’s “wretched man,” of Romans 7:24 who cries for God’s gracious deliverance, that “wretched man” who finds deliverance in Christ our Lord, then sings the glorious song of the redeemed which we read in Romans 8.

Why do we need such irresistible grace?  Why is this doctrine important in our lives?  Before we can answer these questions, we need to understand something else.  We must understand the seriousness of our sinful nature and our sins.

A knowledge of sin is lacking in our day.  In today’s world, what we call “sin” is very entertaining to many others.  We only have to look around us to see evidence of this.  The magazine Newsweek shows this while reporting on a wretched movie which shows what sinful man finds irresistible.  A rich businessman finds the sin of adultery with another man’s wife so appealing that he offers the couple a million dollars for a night of sin.  The young couple, finding such a sum of money irresistible, accepts the offer.  Sin isn’t sin to the wicked.  It’s entertainment.

Sin is not viewed as a violation of the perfect Law given by the holy God.  There are those who call themselves preachers who say that sin is ‘not reaching your highest level of self-fulfillment.’ Such preachers do not wish to speak of sin any more.  It makes people depressed.  They stop coming to church.  Revenues decrease.  Sin is given a sugar coating or ignored.

In the face of all this, we must see the depth of our depravity.  It is because I know the greatness of my sins and sinful nature that I need, desperately, for God’s grace to be irresistible.  I am corrupt to the core.  I am not able to choose what is good when left to myself.  Bible history even makes this plain.

Eve believes Satan’s lie.  Adam rejects God and follows his wife into sin.  Moses does not want to serve as the leader of Israel.  Israel does not want to leave what they believe to be the pleasures of slavery in Egypt.  Israel desires a king instead of God and chooses Saul.  David is rejected and Absalom is enthroned.  Israel turns against the house of David and follows Jeroboam and the golden calves.  Peter denies his Lord.  Yes, even Christ is rejected and Barabbas is desired.

It is the same for my sinful heart.  Apart from God’s grace, I would not even confess my sin.  I wouldn’t want the Jesus of the cross.  I would reject Him, and then foolishly believe that I could walk a path of ease and happiness on this earth.  Truly, I cannot be left to choose salvation.  God’s grace must be irresistible.

We cannot even imagine how offensive our sins and sinful natures are to our holy God.  “Holy” is not just some word we can use to describe God.  God IS holiness.  God IS perfection.  God IS righteousness.  Oh, how awful our sins must appear to such a God!  What an everlasting debt of gratitude we owe to Him for His irresistible grace!

Our salvation depends upon the fact that God’s grace is irresistible.  Having seen our sinfulness, we know that we would never choose to accept some gracious offer.  We could never begin to save ourselves or earn such a priceless blessing.

Knowing that God’s grace is irresistible, we must give ALL glory to our almighty God.  We see clearly that our salvation is not of ourselves.  Salvation is God’s work, completely, from the very beginning to the very end.  Because His grace is irresistible, we will stand humbly before Him in awe of how good He has been to such poor sinners.

Irresistible grace is not some irrelevant point of doctrine.  We cannot toss it into some grab bag of doctrine and then take it or leave it.  Every day we must be thankful for God’s irresistible grace.  Our everlasting joy depends upon it.  It is an irresistible need.