I have long wanted to use Calvin to illustrate Calvin in a meme. Here are those scripture references and some things to ponder. This is by no means an exhaustive list ...
Romans
8:28-29
28 And
we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who
have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he
also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
1) Who was
called by whom?
2) Why were
they called?
3) Foreknew
is relational – God sets his sight on us in order to have a relationship with
us and in order to bring this about He predestines us to be changed so that through
Jesus we might be part of a super family.
Romans 9:11-16
11 Yet,
before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s
purpose in election might stand:
12 not
by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”
13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What
then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,
“I will have
mercy on whom I have mercy,
and
I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 It
does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
1) who were
the twins and how did God favour one and despise the other?
2) was the
favoured twin a better person than the unfavoured one?
3) who
decides to show mercy and compassion where he wants to? Does this match with an
idea of generally offered grace to all who choose freely to take it?
4) does
salvation depend on our desire or effort or does it depend on God’s mercy and
choice (meditate on V16 on context)?
Romans
9:19-20
19 One
of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to
resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?
“Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like
this?’”
1) All humans
when presented with sovereign grace or more commonly called “Calvinism”
eventually ask this question (v19).
2) do you
feel Paul’s response in v20 is harsh?
Matthew 11:27
27 “All
things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the
Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son
chooses to reveal him.
1) this “revealing”
– is it referring to the revelation of scripture? But then everyone can read
the Bible so this must be a different sort of revelation, right?
2)Could this
revealing be a revelation God chooses to give to some but not all?
Ephesians 1:5
5 he
predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with
his pleasure and will—
1) who
predestined who? Does predestined mean chosen?
2) is the “us”
in view here all humans? is Paul writing to all humanity or only the church (in
this case in Ephesus)?
Ephesians
1:11
11 In
him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him
who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,
1) whose
plan? Will he leave his plan to chance or does he actively choose and predestinate
people in accordance with it?
Ephesians
2:1-3
2 As for
you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to
live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom
of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of
our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by
nature deserving of wrath.
1) can
someone who is dead and an enslaved follower of the “ruler of the kingdom of
the air” suddenly get – of their own volition – holy longings for God?
Ephesians 2:8
8 For it
is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God—
1) where does
the faith that saves come from? Is it a volitional choice or is it a gift that
has nothing to do with ourselves?
2) Are you
really – if you believe that you chose to follow Christ – are you really going
to stand before the throne of God with even the smallest conceit that you got
there because you made a wise choice. Will you be able to brag that you
developed feelings of searching for truth or that you co-operated with God’s
pleading you to come?
John 3:8
8 The
wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where
it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
1) Can anyone
control the wind? All we can see is its effects.
2) Sometimes the
wind blows from the north and we get cold weather and sometimes from the west
and we get warm. God chooses whom he breathes life into. Some will be in the
valley of dry bones and come to life others will be dry bones elsewhere and no
wind will come to give them life.
2
Thessalonians 2:13
13 But
we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord,
because God chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work
of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
1) who
chooses here?
2) we are
saved through which two things? Who is in control of how these are dealt out?
1 Peter 1:2
2 who
have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the
sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled
with his blood:
Grace and
peace be yours in abundance.
1) and again
who chooses?
Now the
challenge – find me one straight scripture that teaches freewill and carries
the weight of any sort of doctrine other than the sovereign grace of God as he rescues
some and leaves others in their perishing state.
