Denominations are due to varieties of doctrine. Face it… somebody is wrong! The most divisive doctrines are Calvinism and Arminianism. Just to summarize those two doctrinal differences, Calvinism is sola gratia, by grace alone. Indeed, all things are by the grace of God from our pre-existences in heaven, our existence on Earth, and our destinies. Nothing cannot exist outside of God’s Will for us.
Grace is simply being blessed although we deserve nothing.
The fact that people feel that they deserve things is damning. Think on
that: Why did Adam and Eve think they deserved better things in the Garden
when they were already blessed with ample things? Just because they were them!
Face the facts: Jesus paid the price for all our sins; the
sins of everyone of all time. We did nothing at all which would redeem us in
the face of God. Jesus shed His blood and poured out His water; not us, to
redeem our flesh and immortal souls from perishing. What did “we” do as humans?
We did the dirty deed! We shed His blood. We thought we were
God Who is the Grantor and Taker of life. We are the problem; Jesus is the
solution. Sola gratia is a pure unadulterated doctrine in that we are
incapable of self-preservation and salvation.
On the other hand, faith in that is a gift from God and
faith is saving (Ephes 2:8). Faith must be maintained, to wit: “Beware less you
fall away from your own steadfastness” (2 Pet 3:17). How to do that? Faith
being a gift of high value, can be “grown” (2 Pet 3:18). If grace was a dollar,
it can be grown unto a million dollars. Let me give a real-life example:
In the late 1990s, President Bush returned to each person
$300 from taxes that we owed the government because of the services which it
provides. That was an act of grace on his part. His motive was to stimulate each
of us to stimulate the economy. Some paid bills with that money. However, I
knew its purpose was to stimulate the economy, and if I used the gift wisely, I
would make a profit and pay off the bills when the money grew. Over a period of
a few years, I invested wisely and grew $300 into more than $40,000. I never
squandered the gift but grew it steadfastly. I paid taxes on the profits. I grew the gift
and was able to return to the government much more than the $300.
God’s gift of faith is the same way. We can either keep it, return
it, spend it, or grow it. There is a parable about that very thing — The
Parable of the Talents (Mat 18). “Steadfast faith” is the patient growing of grace.
Steadfast faith is not merely keeping the grace but growing it as
the more growth the more optimism (hope) for the Great Reward.
Satan induces Christians to gamble with grace. Christian
liberty is God providing an “allowance” to spend some of His grace. Rather than
valuing the gift of faith, some Christians forget that it was a gift from the Father,
and like the prodigal son, waste the inheritance on things of the world (Luke
15). The son, in that story, could have grown the inheritance or waste it. He
chose to waste it, but because he still kept the faith of His father,
the father provided more grace because his desire was that his son not perish.
Those who do not grow grace have, in the words of Dietrich
Bonnhoeffer, “cheap grace.” They spend it with liberty on the things of the
world and forget that Jesus paid a hefty price. Growing the grace is obtaining
and “using the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18)
My investments made a profit. I grew the grace that the President
provided but understood that it was not his to give. Prosperity is taken for
granted, but that $300 was by the grace of God wherein President Bush was his inspired
“tool.”
I understood that it was God’s money and that I had an obligation
to be a good steward of his grace. With that understanding, God grew the grace,
and I was his helper. Of course, he could have merely taken coins out of fishes’
mouths, but then I would not have any input into working out my own
salvation (Phil 2:12).
I did not use the money as if it was mine to spend on things
in the world but treasured it and watched it grow! Someday, by grace, my heirs
will be recipients of my grace because of God’s grace. God intends for his
grace to trickle down, and it will unless the heirs take it for granted as the
prodigal son did for so long.
The prodigal son could have remained outside the father’s
estate. However, without pressure from the father, he returned home. The dutiful
son stayed home, and merely kept the estate. He did not grow the grace of his
father. The prodigal son, when he returned, garnered more grace because his
heart had changed. He no longer took prosperity for granted, and neither should
saints ever take their preservation for granted because preservation is by
steadfast faith.
That deals with sola gratia. That is the doctrine of
Christ and of both Calvinists and Arminians. “Growing the grace” is where they
contrast. Because of eternal security, Calvinists take grace for granted.
Rather than grow the grace they have the liberty to put it away and value it
little. In effect, some, not all Calvinists, feel free to “spend” grace on the
things of the world.
As an example, a friend of mine told a filthy joke. I responded,
“I thought you were a Christian.” He grinned and defended himself; “Jesus paid
for that sin 2000 years ago!” That is true, but saints are to value that
gift of grace and not take it vainly. In essence, the Third Tenet of God is not
to take His Name (Jesus) in vain. That saint did just that. That was “cheap grace”
which he spent foolishly!
What happens if faith is not grown? It stagnates. Satan
knows that. Even if you endeavor to grow in grace, Satan is there to spoil the “crop.”
Think on that — What if you fail to even tend the “garden” as Adam was assigned
to do? It just makes it easier for the Serpent to choke off the branches from
the Vine (John 15:5). God as the “Husbandman” works the “vineyard” but if the
blight is too severe, He allows it to lie dormant. Satan then steps in and cuts
off the blighted branches and they perish.
Indeed, the Husbandman preserves the “branches” but the
branches must never soak in the contaminants of the world. By grace God seeds
the “garden” but then if the “crop” is left on its own to grow without dressing
and keeping (Gen 2:15), then it becomes feral. The Word of God, since “Adams”
will not do it, does it for them. That must not be taken for granted, for if it
is, then grace will never grow and the “branch” will wither, just as with the
fig tree (Mat 21:19).
Peter was concerned about saints with cheap grace. He was
concerned with teachers of false doctrine. These were saints that he wrote
about, “They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of
Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness” (2 Pet 2:15)… “for
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (2 Pet 2:17).
The “right way” is the Way of Jesus, or the Doctrine of
Christ. “Forsaken” is renouncing what once was believed. It is turning away
from the Doctrine of Christ, in this case. It inevitably is the denial of
Jesus. “Gone astray” is not cast out of the “Garden” because of grace
but leaving the safety of the Garden as “free range” beasts who prefer
feral to domestic life. That “blackness” is Hell, whereto those who go the
wrong way are bound.
Peter wrote something that the author of Hebrews wrote as
well. You do the comparison:
20 If, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. (2 Pet 20-21)
If they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. (Heb 6:6)
The “Holy Commandment” is certainly the “Greatest Commandment” — to love Jesus
with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Having loved Jesus that way, to “turn
from” that, is worse than never loving Jesus from the start. You turn!
God never turns you away. That is Christian liberty to roam wherever you please.
Roaming too far displeases God and pleases Satan. Everyone must beware of
wondering so far away, that they can never find the Way back!
Remembering that Jesus paid the price, to waste grace in the world shames
Jesus. Liberty is willingly doing right things out of reverence for the grace.
It is placing high value on Jesus sacrificing Himself that we need not. Righteous
living is not “repayment” of the indebtedness to Jesus, but gratitude
for the grace on loan to you… to grow with no expectation of repayment, but
gratitude if it is!
…Be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless (2 Pet 3:14)… 16 Speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. (2 Pet 3:16-17)
Peter was speaking to the saints when he said that “beware lest you also
fall from your own steadfastness,” obviously from the faith you had given to
you by grace. The gift is free, but it must be worked to grow it, and the
stronger it grows the more secure the saint is.
The danger is falling away from what you once held dear. Your eternal security is indeed preservation
of the saints, but salvation comes with death. That is the “gain” to which Paul
referred (Phil 1:21). If Paradise is not gain, then what is? To be saved in Paradise
necessitates dying. Until that time, God does preserve His saints with a hedge
of safety (Job 1:10) but Satan endeavors to gradually overcome that hedge. He
cuts it down one limb at a time until the branch is gone. Only those who remain
steadfast in trusting the Lord will be saved from Satan and Hell.
In summary, Calvinism is a false doctrine wherein Christians feel as
if they are already saved when they are not. They have not been “regenerated”
but only given another opportunity with rebirth.
They are preserved in the Bosom of God until the “Great Day” when they are
finally saved. They often feel so secure that they fail to grow the grace that
was given to them. Some even ignore the Great Commission because they see
salvation as the “Great Lottery” conducted before they were ever born! It is
not grace if God damns those who He created without just cause. That would be sola
non gratia! God is graceful, and not a cruel God who would condemns people
to die just because they exist.
(picture credit: Pinterest; "God's Hedge of Protection")
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