“Therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do” (Col. 3:12-13).
In this passage, Paul does not just tell the Colossians to act in a particular fashion. He tells them to do so as the elect of God. The foundation of our behavior is God’s electing love for us in Christ; as recipients of that love, we are instructed to live in a certain way.
Nothing is more incongruous , therefore, than to see individuals who affirm the doctrine of election, but whose lives are characterized by harshness. We are taught here that the uniform of those who understand election is tender mercies.
But after God has initially brought believers into an understanding of the preciousness of sovereign election, they frequently enter what a friend of mine has called the “cage” stage—the time when the newly convinced “Calvinist” ought to be locked into a cage, and not let out until he stabilizes. This is because coming to a “Calvinistic” understanding of Scripture is not a second experience that removes one from temptation and sin. And obviously, our new temptations are tailored and adjusted to our new understanding. So I have listed below some of the more common temptations and sins of those who hold to the doctrine of efficacious grace.
Exasperation: One of the benefits of having one’s eyes opened is that one can now see. The temptation associated with this is forgetting what it was like not to be able to see. Everything is now so clear to us that anyone who does not immediately assent to what we see in the Word seems either theologically perverse or a chucklehead. But what does the Bible say? “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth . . .” (2 Tim. 2:24-25).
These verse are talking about a confrontation with unbelieving false teachers. That being the case, what should our attitude be toward brothers who are entangled in error? How much more must we love our mistaken brothers with kindness and humility! Unfortunately, this passage has commonly been used in debate by an exasperated “Calvinist” to prove that GOD DOES TOO give repentance. But is the passage being used or obeyed? To obey a passage is better than to beat someone else over the head with it.
Arrogance: There is a particular kind of vainglory which loves being correct—“being right.” We live in an evangelical culture which has debauched the truth, and “Calvinists,” by contrast, hold to a pure gospel. What fine fellows we are! But Scripture comes to us again—“For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you glory as if you had not received it? (1 Cor. 4:7).
Paul teaches us this in the context of his rebuke to those who glory in human teachers—it doesn’t matter whether it is Paul, Apollos, Luther, or Calvin. Of all people, those who profess to believe in the sovereignty of grace should understand this. If God had not been pleased to teach us what we now understand so clearly, we would still be saying all the things we used to say. So we need to maintain doctrinal humility before the Lord.
Imbalance: The Bible teaches both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man for his sin. There is a temptation to emphasize the “sovereignty” passages, and let the Arminians bring up those which teach the responsibility of man. So we have to take care that we affirm everything that the Bible affirms—and not just when we are forced to affirm it in a discussion or a debate.
This is something that must be done before the Lord. You will not get accurate feedback from your Arminian friends on this one. You can affirm, with perfect balance, every passage under debate, and as long as it includes Romans 9, you will be thought imbalanced. At the same time, it is possible that you are a bit wobbly on it, so keep it before the Lord.
Lack of proportionality: The Lord is God, and all of His Word should be precious to us. But not all of His Word is of equal importance. The Lord taught us that the law contains “weightier matters” and Paul tells us that certain gospel truths are of “first importance.”
In “Calvinistic” circles, the divine prerogatives of the sovereign God are strongly emphasized. If His Word commands it, then it must not ever be considered “little.” This is quite true; no part of God’s Word may be set aside deliberately. The temptation here, however, is to set aside the central truths of God’s Word for the sake of tithing out of one’s spice rack. So if a church is torn apart over a controversy over singing psalms with our vocal chords or through the nose, the greater is sacrificed on the altar of the lesser. But as the Lord taught, both the central and lesser truths should be maintained—with the greater given the seat of honor.
When a sense of proportion is lost, minds and attitudes are seized up in a kind of theological vapor lock. This results in a literary genre common among the “Truly Reformed”—single-spaced, typewritten, nasty-gram letters, with typing up the margins.
Frustration: One time a friend joked with me that there was one thing that a sovereign God cannot do—change an Arminian’s mind. The resistance that many Christians have to the teaching of Scripture on the sovereignty of God is great. After this resistance is experienced for any length of time the temptation is to give up all hope of our brothers ever coming to understand it. But when we do this, we are not just giving up on our friends, we are giving up our theology. Is God in control or not? Is He in control of this or not? And how can we ask our family and friends to affirm with their lips what we deny with our attitudes?
So there is a deeper right than “being right.” If we affirm the letter of Scripture, but do not live according to the Spirit who gave it, then we betray the cause of truth.
Of course this is not said to justify setting aside the plain teaching of Scripture through an appeal to the “deeper” truths it contains. As always, we must affirm only what the Bible teaches and all of what the Bible teaches. And affirming is not enough; we are to adorn these truths with tender mercies.
Volume 5/Volume 2