John Calvin-Life,Legacy and Theology

JOHN CALVIN : LIFE, LEGACY AND THEOLOGY -
PROF. M. M. NINAN
On Irresistible Grace and Synergy
[N]o man is saved mechanically or by force, but through faith, freely, by accepting the gift of God. This
implies the contrary power of rejecting the gift. To accept is no merit, to reject is ingratitude and guilt.
All Calvinistic preachers appeal to man’s responsibility. They pray as if everything depended on God;
and yet they preach and work as if everything depended on man. And the Church is directed to send
the gospel to every creature. We pray for the salvation of all men, but not for the loss of a single
human being. Christ interceded even for his murderers on the cross.
Here, then, is a practical difficulty. The decree of reprobation cannot be made an object of prayer or
preaching, and this is an argument against it. Experience confirms election, but repudiates
reprobation.
There is a logic of ethics as well as of metaphysics. God is holy as well as almighty and omniscient,
and therefore cannot be the author of sin. Man is a moral as well as an intellectual being, and the
claims of his moral constitution are equal to the claims of his intellectual constitution. Conscience is as
powerful a factor as reason. The most rigid believer in divine sovereignty, if he be a Christian, cannot
get rid of the sense of personal accountability, though he may be unable to reconcile the two. The
harmony lies in God and in the moral constitution of man. They are the two complementary sides of
one truth. Paul unites them in one sentence: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for
it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). The problem,
however, comes within the reach of possible solution, if we distinguish between sovereignty as an
inherent power, and the exercise of sovereignty. God may limit the exercise of his sovereignty to make
room for the free action of his creatures. It is by his sovereign decree that man is free. Without such
self-limitation he could not admonish men to repent and believe. Here, again, the Calvinistic logic
must either bend or break. Strictly carried out, it would turn the exhortations of God to the sinner into a
solemn mockery and cruel irony. (Philip Schaff -History of the Christian Church VIII The Theology of
Calvin § 114. Calvinism examined.)
On the Perseverance of the Saints
There is a paradox here. Do anyone know who is the elect and who is the non- elect. Because it is
determined by God even though it is done before the creation of the world. According to Augustine “it
is uncertain whether anyone has received this gift so long as he is still alive.” Augustine held that
God’s elect will certainly persevere but that one’s election could not be infallibly known in this life —
and that in fact one’s justification and baptismal regeneration could be rejected and lost through sin
and unbelief. Thus this understanding does not help us in any way unless we can be sure we are one
of the elect.
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