Calvinism According to Jesus

I once said I'd probably never write a post on Calvinism. I've implied heavily throughout my blog that I'm a Calvinist, but I've never really taken the time to explain why.

Until now.

I've decided to take up the challenge of explaining Calvinism from the perspective of Jesus Himself. That is to say, I want to use only verses that are the words that Jesus spoke while He was on earth in human form.

I know, I know, Jesus never spoke of Calvinism because it wasn't called that back in those days. But I think that Calvinism comes closest to the things that Jesus taught in His time on earth. So, here we go.

For review, I'll list the Five Points of Calvinism:

1. Total Depravity
2. Unconditional Election
3. Limited Atonement
4. Irresistible Grace
5. Perseverance of the Saints
   

This won't be a point-by-point discussion because the Five Points are all related to one another.

Now, John 14:6 is a verse that any Christian - Calvinist, Arminian or otherwise - will agree with. "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" This is pretty basic stuff. There is exactly one way to be reconciled to the Father, and that is through the saving life and work of Jesus. No Christian would ever dispute this fact. They also would fully agree with Jesus when He said, "No one is good except God alone" (Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19).

But if we look back at John 6, we start getting into some interesting territory. Jesus said to a crowd of people, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (v. 44). Wait, say that again? "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." So now we have that no one can come to the Father except through Jesus, and that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws a person to Jesus in the first place. This seems like a paradox, doesn't it? When I see these verses together - and they do fully correlate with one another - I see that we are not only incapable of going to the Father but through Christ, but that we are unwilling to come to Christ to get to the Father. But then the Father draws us anyway, inviting us to reconciliation, justification, and ultimate glorification.

Okay, that makes sense. But doesn't that leave it open to the possibility that the Father just draws everyone and leaves it up to everyone else to choose if they want to come? Well, maybe it does by itself. But there are other verses to consider.

The next verse we'll look at is John 6:37: "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out." ALL of them. Every person who the Father gives to Jesus will come to Him, and Jesus will never, ever throw them away. And why would the Father truly (the theologians use the word "effectually") draw anyone to Jesus without giving them to Him?

But then there's one last possibility. Jesus said He'll never cast out those the Father gives Him. But couldn't they just walk away by themselves? Not if you look at this statement from Jesus:

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:38-40)

It is the Father's will that Jesus will lose no one who He gives to Him. And if someone can just walk away, Jesus has lost that person. That's contradictory to Scripture.

Another point I feel must be made, because someone will probably bring this up, is that this passage says "that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life." Everyone who believes will have eternal life. And that's true, I don't dispute that at all. But another important part is that everyone who believes will have eternal life. Only everyone who believes will have eternal life. And if we are not good and completely incapable of getting to the Father or going to Christ on our own, but the Father draws people to Christ (all of whom will go to Him) and gives them to Him, who will ensure that they will never, ever be lost, how on earth can our belief be anything other than a gift from God?

That is why I am a Five-Point Calvinist. Trust me, it wasn't easy for me to accept this at first. It took a lot of research, and I'm not easily convinced of things with without some convincing proof. But the above, along with other verses in books other than the four Gospels, convinced me.