Reformed Theology and the Doctrines of Grace — Unit 10: Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility: Prayer, Evangelism and Assurance

Key Verse

"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain how the Reformed churches hold God's sovereignty and human responsibility together, without fatalism.

2. Explain why the doctrines of grace lead to prayer, and answer the objection that prayer is pointless if God has decreed all things.

3. Explain why the doctrines of grace support evangelism, and describe the error called hyper-Calvinism.

4. Explain the teaching of the Westminster Confession on assurance and its three grounds.

5. Give a pastoral answer to a believer who doubts whether he is chosen.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and confessional. We hold the Bible to be the inspired and inerrant Word of God, and we confess the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort, or the Westminster Standards. We state the objections of other Christians fairly and then answer them. This last unit gathers the doctrines of the course into the practice of the pastor: how we pray, how we preach, and how we comfort. Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Two Truths Held Together

Units 1 to 9 taught that God rules over all things, that He chose a people, and that He saves them by grace alone. Scripture also teaches that human beings are responsible. They are commanded to repent, to believe, to pray and to obey, and they are guilty when they do not. The Reformed churches teach both truths and do not weaken either one.

The Bible places them side by side without apology. Peter told the crowd at Pentecost that Jesus was "delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God," and that "you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death" (Acts 2:23). God's plan was sure, and the guilt of the crucifiers was real. Joseph said to his brothers, "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). Solomon writes, "A man's heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). In our key verse, Paul tells the believers to work out their salvation, and in the same sentence says that it is God who works in them.

The Westminster Confession, chapter 3, states the balance. God from all eternity ordained whatever comes to pass, yet He is not the author of sin, no violence is offered to the will of the creatures, and the liberty or contingency of second causes is not taken away. Chapter 9 teaches that man has a will that is neither forced nor determined by any absolute necessity of nature. We do not claim to see how these fit in God's mind. Moses tells us that "the secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us" (Deuteronomy 29:29). Paul cries, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33). A Reformed pastor lives on the revealed side of that line. He teaches what God has said, and he rests in what God has kept secret.

Not Fatalism: God Ordains the Means

The first objection is that our teaching is fatalism: what will be will be, so why act? Sincere Arminian and Wesleyan Christians often feel that a decreed future empties human choices of meaning.

The Reformed answer is that fatalism and the biblical doctrine differ at a vital point. The fatalist believes that events happen with no personal God and that human action changes nothing. The Bible teaches that God ordains the ends and also the means. He ordains that the harvest comes through sowing, and that sinners are saved through the preaching of the Word.

Paul's voyage in Acts 27 shows this. God promised through an angel that no life on the ship would be lost (Acts 27:22-24). Yet when the sailors tried to escape, Paul told the centurion, "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved" (Acts 27:31). The promise was sure, and the means were needed. The sailors stayed, and all were saved. God's decree does not remove our duty. It is the reason our duty is not in vain.

Prayer

If God has decreed all things, why pray? Arminian friends often feel that prayer needs an open future. Stated at full strength: if God's plan is fixed, prayer cannot change it, and asking seems pointless.

Our answer begins with the Bible's own command. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done" (Matthew 6:10). He did not teach them to pray in this way because the kingdom was uncertain, but because God has appointed prayer as the means by which His kingdom comes. Paul, who taught the election of Israel's remnant, also wrote that his heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel was that they might be saved (Romans 10:1). He did not see election as a reason to stop praying.

Several things follow.

First, prayer is a means God ordained. The God who ordains the end ordains the prayers that lead to it. When God's people ask, He often gives because they asked. The Heidelberg Catechism, in Lord's Day 45, teaches that prayer is the chief part of the thankfulness God requires, and that God gives His grace and Spirit only to those who ask Him continually and thank Him.

Second, prayer is the child's trust in the Father. It does not inform God, as though He needed to learn something. It brings our hearts into line with what He has promised. The Westminster Confession, chapter 21, teaches that prayer is a part of the worship God requires.

Third, the doctrine of sovereignty gives prayer its confidence. If God were unable to carry out His plan, there would be no reason to ask for anything. We can pray boldly for the salvation of the lost, because the God who hears is able to open hearts, as He opened Lydia's. A person who denies God's power to save has less reason to pray than one who believes it.

Some sincere Christians teach that God does not know the future in every detail, so that prayer may shape what He does not yet know. We answer that the Bible shows God declaring the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), and prayer needs the God who is able, not one who is still waiting to find out.

Evangelism

The second practical objection is the claim that Reformed teaching kills evangelism: if God has already chosen, why preach? Many sincere Arminian and Wesleyan believers, who rightly burn with love for the lost, make this charge. It is also true that some who have used the Calvinist name have let their zeal grow cold. We take the charge seriously.

The answer begins again with the command. Christ commissioned the church to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). Paul asked, "How shall they hear without a preacher?" (Romans 10:14). Election does not cancel this command. It guarantees its result. Jesus told Paul in Corinth in a vision that He had many people in that city (Acts 18:9-10), and Paul stayed to preach. The Lord's promise was the encouragement for him to stay and speak.

The Canons of Dort, in the Second Head, teach that the promise of the gospel, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be announced and declared to all nations and persons without distinction. The offer is sincere, as Unit 5 explained. Reformed pastors preach to everyone, call everyone, and plead with everyone.

Three guides help us in preaching.

First, we do not tell a congregation that "God has chosen you." We do not know whom God has chosen. We say that Christ calls every sinner to come, that all who come will be received, and that whoever refuses refuses by his own fault.

Second, we depend on God and not on our methods. Paul planted and Apollos watered, "but God gave the increase" (1 Corinthians 3:6). This takes away both pride and despair. The preacher who has no results is not a failure, and the preacher who has many does not take the credit.

Third, we preach with urgency. The doctrines of grace are not an excuse for slowness. Course 1, Unit 9 and Course 5, Unit 7 describe the Reformed missions. A pastor who loves election longs to see the elect gathered in.

The error of hyper-Calvinism

Some who have claimed Reformed teaching have gone beyond the Bible. This error is called hyper-Calvinism. It teaches that the gospel should not be offered freely to all, that sinners should not be commanded to repent and believe, or that only those who already feel themselves to be elect may be invited. Reformed churches reject this. It contradicts the Canons of Dort, which command the indiscriminate announcement of the gospel, and the practice of Christ and the apostles. Charles Spurgeon, a Reformed Baptist, is remembered as an opponent of that error.

Assurance of Salvation

Can a believer know he is saved? This is perhaps the most important question for ordinary Christians, and the Reformed tradition gives a careful answer.

The Westminster Confession, chapter 18, teaches that hypocrites and unregenerate men may deceive themselves with false hopes, but that those who truly believe, love Christ and walk in good conscience may be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. It names the grounds of assurance, and we can list them as three.

The promises of the gospel. The foundation is the divine truth of the promises of salvation. "He who believes in Him is not condemned," Jesus says (John 3:18). A believer looks first to Christ and the promise, not to himself.

The evidence of grace in the life. Believers see in themselves the signs of new life: love for Christ, love for other believers, repentance, a hatred of sin and a desire to obey. John writes his first letter that believers may know that they have eternal life (1 John 5:13). These signs are not the ground of our acceptance, which is Christ alone, but they are evidence that the new birth has taken place.

The witness of the Spirit. Paul writes, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16). The Spirit assures the believer, through the Word, that he belongs to the Father.

The confession adds three further points of pastoral care. First, this assurance is not of the essence of faith. A true believer may wait long before he has it, and may struggle with doubts. Second, he is able, without any special revelation, to attain it in the right use of ordinary means. Third, it is the duty of everyone to give diligence to make his calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10). Here again the doctrine does not lead to carelessness. A person grows in assurance as he grows in obedience, prayer and use of the Word and sacraments.

Objections on assurance

The Roman Catholic objection. At the Council of Trent, the Roman church rejected the idea that believers can have certainty of their justification, and warned that it could produce pride. We answer that Scripture speaks of the "full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:22), and that an assurance resting on Christ's promise, and not on our own merits, produces humility and not pride.

The Wesleyan view. John Wesley taught the assurance of present pardon through the witness of the Spirit as the privilege of every believer. In this the Wesleyan tradition shares much with us, and we rejoice in it. But Arminian and Wesleyan teachers also teach that a believer may lose his salvation, so their assurance concerns present standing. We answer that our assurance reaches to the end because the Father is faithful to keep us, as Unit 8 explained.

The worry about election. A troubled believer asks, "How do I know I am among the elect?" The Canons of Dort teach in the First Head that the elect, in due time and in different measures, attain assurance of their eternal election, not by searching the hidden counsels of God, but by observing in themselves the sure fruits of election, such as true faith in Christ, filial fear, godly sorrow for sin, and hunger and thirst after righteousness. We are not told to look into the decree. We are told to look at Christ and at the fruits He produces.

An Honest Note on Historians' Debates

Historians have discussed whether Calvin and the later Reformed writers differed about assurance. Some have said that Calvin treated assurance as belonging to the very nature of faith, while the later Puritans and the Westminster divines made it a separate and later gift, which led to anxious self-examination. Other historians reply that the difference is one of emphasis and pastoral setting, and that Calvin also spoke of the struggles of believers. Our confessions are clear on the pastoral point: assurance is a privilege to be sought, and the weak believer is to be encouraged, not condemned.

Pastoral Application

A young woman in your church, a faithful member for five years, comes to you in tears. She says, "I read about election, and now I cannot sleep. What if I am not chosen? I do not feel that I truly believe."

First, you do not argue about the decree. You take her to Christ. You ask whether she trusts Him as her only hope today, and you open John 6:37 with her: whoever comes to Him He will never cast out.

Second, you help her look at the fruits you can see in her: her sorrow for sin, her hunger for the Word, her love for the brothers. These are what the Canons point to.

Third, you remind her that assurance can grow, and that some believers wait long. She is to use the means: the Word, prayer, the Lord's Supper and fellowship.

Fourth, you pray with her and arrange to see her again.

Summary

The Reformed churches hold God's sovereignty and human responsibility together, as Scripture does, and they distinguish their teaching from fatalism because God ordains the means as well as the ends. Prayer is a means that God ordains, and sovereignty gives prayer its confidence. Evangelism is commanded, the offer is free and sincere, and election guarantees the result; hyper-Calvinism, which withholds the free offer, is rejected. Assurance rests on the promises of the gospel, the evidence of grace in the life and the witness of the Spirit. It is not of the essence of faith, but it is attainable and is the duty of every believer to seek. The troubled believer is directed to Christ and to the fruits of election, not to the hidden decree. Arminian, Wesleyan and Roman Catholic Christians raise objections here, and we answer them with respect and with Scripture.

Further Reading

• Westminster Confession of Faith (1646-47), chapters 3, 9, 18 and 21.

• Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Lord's Day 45 on prayer.

• Canons of Dort (1619), First Head, articles on assurance of election; Second Head on the preaching of the gospel.

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Beveridge translation, 1845), Book III, chapter 20 on prayer.

• Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (1656), for the pastor's work among his people.

• Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1872-73), the sections on providence and on assurance.

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