Canons of Dordt (7)

It is the clear teaching of God's Word that faith is a gift of God. It is not an accomplishment of man. Faith does not have a meritorious character as if it were a good work, but it is the empty hand of a beggar, a hand given by God. However, our unbelief is our own guilt. The message of salvation comes to all who live under the gospel, and we are responsible for what we do with it. God is the Giver and Author of faith. The question could be asked: Why do some believe and others not?

Our fathers speak then about God's eternal decree, His predestination. They confess in Article 6:

That some receive the gift of faith from God and others do not receive it proceeds from God's eternal decree, for “known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:18). “Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11). According to which decree, He graciously softens the heart of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines them to believe, while He leaves the non-elect in His just judgment to their own wickedness and obduracy. And herein is especially displayed the profound, the merciful, and at the same time the righteous discrimination between men, equally involved in ruin; or that decree of election and reprobation revealed in the Word of God, which though men of perverse, impure, and unstable minds wrest to their own destruction, yet to holy and pious souls affords unspeakable consolation.

God's decree

Predestination is God's eternal decree. God's decrees concern all things, great and small, both in heaven and on earth, the creation, preservation, and government of everything. They also concern the eternal state of rational creatures. These decrees are sovereign, eternal, independent, unchangeable, and unconditional.

As a child is in the womb of the mother before birth and then is born and comes forth, so it is also with God's decree. We read in Zephaniah 2:2, “Before the decree bring forth ….”

That God gives faith to some and not to others comes from God's eternal decree.

A stumbling block

This teaching has always been a stumbling block for man. The Jews were willing to listen to the Lord Jesus when He visited the synagogue in Nazareth. But when He spoke of God's sovereign work in choosing to bless a widow from another country and a leper, Naaman, who was a Syrian, passing by many lepers in Israel, they “were filled with wrath.” We read in Luke 4:29 that they rose up, thrust Him out of the city, and wanted to cast Him down headlong.

This anger and protest against God's sovereign good pleasure comes from the pride of man. For man wants to decide himself what should happen; he wants to be king. He does not want to be clay in the hands of the great Potter. However, what a great blessing it is if we may become clay in God's hands and He may do with us whatsoever pleases Him. This will only happen in the day of God's power manifested in our lives, when we may surrender unto Him.

God does everything according to His will, although man remains responsible for the use of the means of grace. Our fathers quoted from Acts 15:18, which speaks of the eternal decree, and from Ephesians 1:11, which says that God works all things after His eternal counsel. No, there is not one person who deserves this true faith. It is not that the one is better than the other. This will be the wonder for God's children—that the Lord had thoughts of peace, and that for people who never would have asked for Him.

Man is placed outside, and God alone should receive the honor. All hearts of men are evil, hostile, and sinful, also the hearts of God's chosen people, the elect. God makes a difference where there is no difference. He works in their hearts, softens them, and inclines them to believe. Then Manasseh bows his knees before the almighty God in prison. Then a Saul of Tarsus says, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”

Salvation: a gift of God

In regeneration God takes away the stony heart and gives a heart of flesh. The most serious preaching and the most sincere invitations will not break the hard heart of man; only a wonder of God's grace can do this.

Then the preaching of God's Word, by the power of the Spirit of Christ, will give knowledge of our sins, a humbling before God, supplication for His grace, and sorrow after Him. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, guilt, and curse, but He also draws the heart to Jesus Christ as the only and complete Savior when the gospel is opened to them and He allures them with the promises of it: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”

It is the Holy Spirit who makes the heart to flee to Christ, reveals Him as the Gift of the Father, teaches to believe in Him and to surrender to Him, so that He alone may save us and give eternal joy when we are restored into the fellowship of God.

Others, however, are left in their state of rebellion and enmity. This is their own fault. We are so inclined to blame God for our misery. Salvation is a gift of God, but we will perish because of our own guilt. When we are placed before God's judgment seat, we will not be able to blame God. All excuses, no matter how orthodox they may seem to be, will then be taken away. What a blessing it is if this may happen here in this life and we may agree with God.

The misuse of this doctrine

It is true that this doctrine is often misused. Our fathers knew that, too, when they spoke of men “of perverse, impure, and unstable minds who wrest this doctrine to their own destruction.” The Remonstrants said that God elected people because of a foreseen faith. They said that God saw from eternity who would and who would not believe. On the basis of this foreknowledge He elected and rejected. But if this would be true, the decision concerning salvation does not lie in the hands of God anymore, but in the hands of man. Then the firm foundation of the salvation of the church falls away.

Indeed, we can misuse this doctrine by saying, “If I am not chosen, then I will not be saved, and thus it does not make sense to go to church, to pray, or to read God's Word. It will not help me anyway, since God has decreed everything, also my eternal destination.”

However, we do not reason so in our daily life. Then we use the means. Boston gives the following example: When sailors suffer shipwreck, they cling to a broken board for safety, and do their utmost to escape drowning and perishing. This is also what we should seek to do. He also mentions the four lepers who sat at the gate of Samaria, who said, “Why sit we here until we die?” They knew the famine was in the city and people were dying there, and they said, “If we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore, come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.” And they rose up in the twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. And the Lord surprised them with bountiful gifts.

We must use the means

We are bound to the means. When Lydia went to the place “where prayer was wont to be made,” there the Lord opened her heart. That is what the Lord still does by the preaching of His Word.

Our boys and girls know that they have to prepare thoroughly for exams. They would not say, “God has decreed who will pass and who will not. If He has decreed I will pass, why should I study?”

Calvin says that there are some who, as it were, want to fly above the clouds and so directly look into the book of God's eternal counsel, but this is not possible.

It is true, we can misuse this doctrine. Our fathers did not begin this chapter by speaking about predestination, but they first spoke of man's deep fall in Adam, and then of the calling and preaching of the gospel. However, God's good pleasure is the only fountain and cause of salvation of the church.

What a blessing it is when we may be led back to the stillness of eternity and see that God has been first, that He has loved a people with an everlasting love. Therefore He asked for a Surety. He made a covenant. God's people are chosen in Christ. The electing love of God will only be revealed in and through Christ, never outside of the knowledge of Him. God does not begin in the life of His people by causing them to believe that they are chosen. No, it is the opposite; He makes them believe that they are guilty, lost, and worthy of eternal reprobation. They deserve His eternal wrath and punishment. Then by the preaching of the gospel He will also lift them up as wearied and heavy burdened ones. It is only in the way of the exercises of faith, and after He has led them to the knowledge of Christ, that He will bring them to the cause, the fountain of all these blessings of salvation, which lies in eternity, in His eternal good pleasure. Oh, how does this lead to adoration and worship of Him. It will also be a source of unspeakable comfort.

Election, a comfort

No, those who deny this eternal decree of God rob God's church of this comfort. The children of God know how weak they are in themselves, and wholeheartedly they acknowledge that God's judgments would be just, and that He has shown mercy to unworthy, undeserving sinners.

We read in Romans 9:16, “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” If salvation depended upon man's choice, no one would ever be saved. It is foolish to misuse this doctrine by trying to hide behind our inability. The true reason of this misuse is that by nature we do not want to repent and break with sin, that we are enemies of God and of King Jesus.

However, the unchangeable decree of God is so rich for a weak and changeable people. It is as in Malachi 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

Many years ago, when we were visiting the old country, we heard that the husband of a dear child of God had suddenly been taken away. We visited her a day after the funeral. She told how the Lord had comforted her in the past night with that word from Malachi 3, and with adoration and humility she added, “And that for such a one, who is so worthy to be consumed.”

Do we know this place, my friends? There will be rest and comfort in all circumstances, and they may trust in Him who is faithful for an unfaithful people.

— to be continued —

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen