A Debated Doctrine
- John Calvin argued that our choices are simply the evidence of God’s election. In other words, we only choose to accept God’s salvation because God has already decided that we will.
- However, God invites everyone to accept His salvation (Jn. 3:16; Ro. 10:13). Each individual has the power to accept God’s invitation or reject His free gift (Rev. 3:20).
- When our power to choose is surrendered to God, sin’s power loses its hold on our lives. Through God’s power, we can be enabled to love Him with our choices.
All of Grace
- Calvin believed in irresistible grace: we cannot reject God if He intends for us to be saved. He feared that the doctrine of free will would emphasize man’s response over God’s grace.
- The Wesleyan doctrine of prevenient grace responds to this problem: God draws everyone to himself. “Grace is prior; the initiation is God’s and also the enabling.”
- Jesus said, “no man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (Jn. 6:44). His invitation precedes our acceptance.
- Free will does not mean that man is the captain of his own salvation! Without God sending His Son and first inviting us to receive His provision, we would be completely unable to reach Him. Man cannot come to God by his own initiative.
- Romans 2:4 states that God’s kindness leads us to repentance and Titus 2:11 reminds us that “the grace of God, that brings salvation, has appeared to all men” (Tit. 2:11).
- Sin and selfishness prevent us from embracing the truth. Romans 1:18 warns against those who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
Moral Responsibility
- Because man has the power to choose, he is ultimately accountable for his actions. Choices have consequences.
- Calvin believed that God has selected a certain number to be saved and a certain number to be eternally lost. If this is the case, free will has no role in our salvation. This definition is dangerous because it frees man from moral responsibility.
- Wesleyans define predestination, not in terms of an elected or select number, but rather as God's fixed purpose in bestowing salvation upon all men--both Jew and Gentile).
Exploring the Wesleyan Perspective
Man was created with the ability to choose between right and wrong and thus, made morally responsible. The condition of man since the Fall is such that he cannot prepare himself to meet God by his own natural strength and works of faith; and if left to himself would remain in his lost condition forever. But God employs the means of enlightening and awakening the mind of sinners to a sense of their poverty and wretchedness, and then extends the invitation, “Whosoever will may come and take of the water of life freely” (John 6:44, 65; Rev. 22:17).
Can We Turn Our Back On God After We Are Saved?
- Calvin’s doctrine of eternal security argues that once a person is saved he cannot lose or forfeit his salvation through his choices.
- However, the Bible refers to the conditional basis of our faith. It is possible to backslide.
- “Choose you this day whom ye will serve…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord…If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good” (Josh. 24:15, 20).
- We are responsible to walk in the light which God sheds on our pathway. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, [then] we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son purifies us from all sin”. (1Jn. 1:7)
- Clark writes, “Final perseverance implies final faithfulness—he that endures to the end shall be saved—he that is faithful unto death shall have a crown of life.”
Free Will and Salvation
- Philip S. Watson presents four Wesleyan propositions which can be understood in terms of free will:
- (1) All men need to be saved (because all men have sinned, i.e. chosen to disobey God’s law).
- (2) All men can be saved (because God has made salvation available by His Son and, through His prevenient grace, invited all men to embrace it).
- (3) All men can know they are saved (because God has clearly stated the conditions for being saved; therefore, man may be confident after meeting those conditions).
- (4) All men can be saved to the uttermost, i.e. all men can be free from sin (because God will empower us by His Spirit to love Him fully).
The Nature of Love
- The understanding is darkened (Eph. 4:18; I Cor. 2:14). Sinful man is unable to see the world as God sees it. He is self-minded instead of spiritually minded.
- The mind and conscience are defiled (Gen. 6:5; Titus 1:15). Man thinks evil, impure thoughts. His sensitivity to sin is weakened.
- The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). He is easily enticed by the temporary pleasure that sin brings.
- The will is enslaved by the power of sin (Rom. 7:18). He ultimately loses control of his life.
- The human race is in bondage to Satan, sin, and death (Jn. 8:31-36; Heb. 2:14-15).