In an agreed upon exchange concerning Arminianism and Calvinism, my good friend Scott Morgan (whom I previously studied with at App State) has written about grace, why he is a Calvinist, and the nature of faith from the Reformed perspective. His website is http://www.warrantedfaith.org/. My article on election and salvation will be posted soon as well as my own thoughts on his article
Grace is eternal (2 Tim. 1:9). Grace is immutable (Rom. 11:29). Grace is sovereign (Rom. 9:11-24). Grace is effectual (Eph. 2:8-9; John 6:37, 44, 63-65). Grace destroys all room for human boasting (1 Cor. 1:29-31; 4:7). Grace means that the Triune God gets all the praise, honor, and glory for our salvation. The Father has planned it, the Son has purchased it, and the Holy Spirit is applying and uniting us to it (Eph. 1:2-14).
Christ is not only necessary, but is alone sufficient for salvation (Heb. 9:12; 10:10). Our own merit or works righteousness can do nothing to either attain or maintain our justification. The assistance of grace does not even depend on the humility or obedience of man, either in performing certain actions, or even in making the decision to believe in Christ. Rather, it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, and thus even capable and willing to believe on Christ. As the Apostle says, “What have you that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7), and, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10).
Faith is, therefore, not a product of our unregenerated human nature (John 1:13; 6:63-65; Rom. 9:16), but is exercised as the infallible result of the work of the Holy Spirit opening our eyes and ears to the beauty of the gospel, turning our heart of stone to a heart of flesh and uniting us to Christ.
The reason I am not an Arminian (and I use the term very broadly here) is because Arminianism leaves room for human boasting. I need only give a brief illustration to make this point.
I am a Calvinist – I believe the Scriptures are clear in teaching that Christ’s death actually purchased salvation, and was thus applied only to the elect (evidenced by the fact that only some are being saved). The common reply to this point of view is that Christ died for everyone, but that His death simply made salvation possible to those who would take advantage of His offer.
One of the many problems with this point of view is that if Christ died for every single person with exactly the same intent, then we cannot possibly avoid the conclusion that the ultimate distinguishing mark between those who are saved and those who are not is their own actions.
There is no way around this. There are two types of human beings: The saved, and the lost. Either God has determined this distinction in His sovereign right to express grace to whom He will and withhold it from whom He will, or God has treated every man with equal grace and therefore man himself has determined the distinction in that some men have operated their free-will power appropriately while other men have failed to do the same. In other words, John is saved and Jack is lost (ultimately) because John did something with his grace that Jack didn’t do. John succeeded where Jack failed.
If Christ died for every man, then His death did not actually save anybody. It only made salvation possible, ultimately leaving it up to the works righteousness and/or choices of men to complete His work, by doing what is necessary to determine whether or not that atoning sacrifice would be applied to them. Arminianism’s understanding of the death of Christ is almost akin to saying that His sacrifice basically functioned as hardly more than an illustration of how much God loves us, as opposed to actually having the function of accomplishing something. But such a view does not give credence to anything we read in Scripture about the atonement, nor does it properly understand the gospel.
I have admittedly stated the matter somewhat crudely, but I have done so to make the point. The view that Christ has died for everyone cheapens grace, ironically limits the power of the atonement, and ultimately denies the biblical truth that Christ is sufficient to save.
