The two theological systems known as Calvinism and Arminianism disagree about many things. Their greatest agreement comes in their understanding of the human condition. In the Calvinist “TULIP”, T stands for Total Depravity. Both sides agree that sin impacts every aspect of life, and leaves human beings completely unable to contribute anything to their own salvation. The difference between the two approaches has to do with how God acts to remedy the human problem. 

How Bad Is It?Both sides of the debate agree how desperate, sinful and corrupt the fallen human condition is. 

One Calvinist author writes, “[Calvin] taught that man, who once enjoyed perfect fellowship and communion with God, had his very nature changed through the fall into sin…. Man’s nature became so wholly corrupt as to leave him unable to choose against his nature. A fallen man is able to choose to do what he wants, but is unable to want God. Because man does not want God, he can never choose Him….” 

An Arminian source says something quite similar: “Humanity was created in the image of God, good and upright, but fell from its original sinless state through willful disobedience, leaving humanity in the state of total depravity, sinful, separated from God, and under the sentence of divine condemnation. Sin impacts every part of a person’s being and people now have a sinful nature with a natural inclination toward sin. Human beings are fundamentally corrupt at heart. As Scripture tells us, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick’ (Jer 17:9;). Indeed, human beings are spiritually dead in sins and are slaves to sin.… In their natural state, human beings are hostile toward God and cannot submit to his Law nor please him. Thus, human beings are not able to think, will, nor do anything good in and of themselves. We are unable to do anything that merits favor from God and we cannot do anything to save ourselves from the judgment and condemnation of God that we deserve for our sin. We cannot even believe the gospel on our own…”

• Genesis 6:5 (NLT) The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.
• Romans 3:23 (NLT) For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
• Ephesians 2:1-3 (NLT) Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil – the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
• Romans 8:7-8 (NLT) For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
• John 6:44 (NLT) For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me.

Human Beings Can Pursue God Because God Assists the Human Will

Arminians believe that God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe – if he or she chooses – but does not interfere with human freedom. They believe that God has given humans free will in all areas, and for free will to exist, a person must be able to choose or reject God or his or her own accord.

One writer explains, “Arminius taught that man’s fall into sin has not completely removed his ability to make a choice for or against God…. In salvation, then, the Spirit draws people sufficiently and enlightens them enough that they can, of their own free will, choose salvation. However, He does not draw or enlighten them enough to force them into a decision.” 

As seriously as human nature was affected by the fall, Arminians do not believe that human beings are left in a state of total spiritual helplessness, because God provides a kind of grace to all humanity which enables a sinner to choose to repent and believe – if he or she chooses. This kind of grace is called prevenient grace. Each sinner has the ability to either cooperate with God’s Spirit and be regenerated, or to resist God’s grace and perish. 

Thus Arminians believe that faith comes before regeneration. While lost sinners need the Spirit’s assistance, they do not have to be made spiritually alive first, by the Spirit, before they can believe. Once they do believe, then they are made spiritually alive.

Arminians look to biblical passages that emphasize the spiritual choices people are called to make:

• Matthew 23:37 (NLT) Jesus says: “How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.”
• John 3:16 (NLT) “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
• John 5:39-40 (NLT) Jesus says: “The Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.”
• John 7:17 (NLT) Jesus says: “Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.”
• Acts 16:31 (NLT) They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”
• Pelagius

Human Beings Can Pursue God Only If God Changes Their Very Nature

Calvinists believe that human nature is so corrupt that the only way God can bring anyone to believe the gospel is to completely change his or her very nature. If humans are spiritually dead, they must first be made alive before they can respond to God.

As one writer says, “Man’s will is in complete bondage to his nature. Man is free to choose according to the way his nature dictates, but his nature is so wholly corrupt that he could never choose for good…”

It’s not that Calvinists do not believe in human free will, but that a person’s will is a slave to his or her own nature. Therefore human beings cannot choose good over evil in the spiritual realm.  Consider this illustration: if you put a pile of grass and a slab of red meat in front of a lion, which will the lion choose to eat? The lion is free to choose either food. But the lion will never choose to eat the grass, because that would be contrary to its nature as a carnivore. Does the lion have free will? Yes. Can the lion make either of two choices? Theoretically, it can. But in reality it simply won’t.

Calvinists believe that it takes much more than God’s assistance to bring a sinner to Christ. It takes a divine act of regeneration. The Spirit has to make the sinner alive and give him or her a new nature. It makes sense to Calvinists that because human beings are spiritually dead, regeneration must come before faith. No one can exercise faith unless they have first been “born of the Spirit” (John 3:6-8).

Calvinists emphasize biblical passages that underscore the impossibility of human beings to overcome their old nature and to choose God, apart from a radical work of God:

• Ephesians 2:4-6 (NLT) But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 
• Isaiah 64:6-7 (NLT) We are all infected and impure with sin…. Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy.
• John 3:19 (NLT) God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
• Romans 3:10-12 (NLT) As the Scriptures say,“No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”
• 2 Timothy 2:25,26 (NLT) Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.

The Takeaway

Human depravity is real. People are lost apart from God’s grace. Everyone is corrupted by sin and will not pursue God on their own, apart from God’s provision. Whichever view of God’s action you hold, both sides of the debate agree that lost people, far from God, need to hear the gospel. No one can be forgiven of their sins or made eternally alive without hearing about Jesus and his atoning work. When we declare the gospel, we can trust that God is at work.

The word “election” refers to the process of choosing. The Bible teaches that God chooses those who believe. But is God’s choice unconditional, based only on his own will? Or is God’s choice conditional, based on some quality or action of the person who is saved? Calvinists hold that God’s choice to save people has nothing to do with them. To Arminians, God chooses people because he knows in advance that they will have faith in Jesus. 

Unconditional Election

Because of our fallen human condition, we are completely dependent on God to initiate salvation for us. Calvinists believe that God did this in eternity past by choosing to save some, without any condition, work, or effort on their part. Those whom he has chosen (called “the elect”) will eventually be made alive spiritually by the power of the Holy Spirit. As a result they will come willingly to put their faith in Christ. Does God’s choice of some and not others make him arbitrary? No, because God chooses people for reasons we don’t know or understand. 

The choice to save some and not others rests solely in God’s own sovereign plan and purpose. God is the absolute king over his entire creation, with complete and absolute rule over all things. So in the end, his choice of the sinner – not the sinner’s choice of Jesus – is the ultimate cause of that person’s salvation. 

Related to this is the idea of “predestination” where God pre-determines a person’s final destiny. Some Calvinists believe in “double predestination” – meaning that God chooses certain individuals to save and chooses others to condemn. But all human beings are already under God’s condemnation, not because of his decision, but because of their sin. God doesn’t have to save anyone. He can righteously condemn all sinners for their sin. But thankfully God graciously does select some for eternal life.

Calvinists point out that unconditional election preserves the glory of God in salvation, assuring that salvation is 100% a work of God. God does not provide something essential while humans also provide something essential (faith). According to Ephesians 2:8-9: “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” If salvation is based on a person’s faith decision, that person has something to take credit for. If one person has something another person doesn’t have, which allows him or her to exercise faith, then salvation ultimately depends on something meritorious about them – not on the merits of Christ alone.

Calvinists have been criticized for not engaging in evangelism. But God’s plan is that the elect come to faith through the preaching of the gospel. In fact, election provides great encouragement when we tell others about Jesus, knowing that some will, in fact, accept the message we share. This gives us confidence to cast our lines in the water, knowing that some fish – God’s elect – will bite. 

Calvinists tend to emphasize biblical texts that speak about God’s choice and God’s action in salvation:

• Luke 10:21,22 (NLT) My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
• John 5:21 (NLT) “For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants.”
• John 6:44 (NLT) “For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me…..” 
• Acts 13:48 (NLT) When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers.
• Ephesians 1:4-5 (NLT) Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 (NLT) As for us, we can’t help but thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation—a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth.”

Conditional Election

For election to be conditional means that God’s choice of those he will save has something to do with them. While Arminians agree that election to salvation is not based on works or merit, it is conditional because it is based on God’s choice to have mercy on those people who believe the gospel. Election is conditional on faith in Christ.

This involves the foreknowledge of God. As an infinite being, God sees all events across all time. He can know in advance who would choose Christ, and in response to this act of human free will, God in turn chose them and called them the elect.

In the Five Articles of Remonstrance (1610), Arminian theologians suggested five corrections to Calvinism. Article 1 reflects Arminius’ belief that predestination is “the foundation of Christianity.” Arminians believe that predestination is God’s purpose, before the foundation of the world, to save believers in Christ and to condemn unbelievers outside of Christ. But because God desires all people to repent and be saved, and is not willing that any should perish, God does not limit salvation to just some. He wills all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, but the fulfillment of his will depends on each person’s choice.

It follows that God has equal and impartial love for all individuals. God does not have some sort of particular love that actually secures a person’s redemption in advance. 

One Arminian view of election is known as corporate election. Mirroring the election of Israel in the Old Testament, this view holds that election to salvation is primarily of the Church as a group. Just as God’s people in the Old Covenant were chosen in Jacob/Israel, so God’s people in the New Covenant are chosen in Christ.

Arminians tend to bring up Bible passages that stress God’s desire to save all people, and faith as the human cause of salvation.

• John 3:16-18 (NLT) or God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
• Romans 10:9-13 (NLT)  If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
• Romans 8:29 (NLT) 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 Timothy 2:3-4 (NLT) This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:13 (NLT) But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
• 1 Peter 1:1,2 (NLT) To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 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.
• 2 Peter 3:9 (NLT) The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Takeaway

Both sides of the debate will underscore God’s gracious initiative in salvation towards sinful people who absolutely do not deserve it. This encourages humility before the amazing grace of God, and worship to him who sacrificed his own Son to provide for our salvation. All praise and glory to God alone for the great cost paid by Jesus, who died so that we could be chosen by God.

God has acted to redeem fallen humanity. He sent his Son to make the ultimate sacrifice on the cross to give his life to pay the price for sins and to reconcile sinners to a holy God. But for whom did Jesus actually die? Did he die on the cross for every human being (universal atonement), or only for those who are specifically chosen to believe (limited atonement)?

What Is the Atonement?

The Bible’s central message is atonement. From the first stories in Genesis to the last visions of Revelation it is everywhere apparent that God seeks to reconcile his people to himself and that he has provided a way to do so.

God’s act of atonement is necessary because all people are sinners. We are universally alienated from and hostile to God. We are dead in our sins. We are subject to God’s hostility toward evil, and to his righteous judgment.

The New Testament presents the person and work of Christ as God’s ultimate provision for atonement. The atonement of Christ is the sacrificial work of Jesus for sinners. In his death on the cross, Christ atoned for the sins of humanity such that God is satisfied and reconciliation is accomplished for all who will be redeemed. The obedience and death of Christ on behalf of sinners is the ground of redemption.

The death of God’s Son is the only perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sins. It is of infinite value, more than enough to cover the sins of the whole world. This death is of such great worth because the person who submitted to it is not only a true and perfectly holy man, but also the only-begotten Son of God. He is of the same eternal and infinite essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit. These qualifications were necessary for him to be our Savior. 

The atonement is described in many ways in the New Testament. Here are a few aspects of Christ’s atonement:

• 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NLT) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
• 1 John 4:10 (NLT) This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 
• Matthew 20:28 (NLT) “…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
• Matthew 26:28 (NLT) “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

With this in mind, the question remains: for whom did Jesus die on the cross to accomplish this atonement?

Universal Atonement

Arminians believe that when Christ died he took upon himself every sin for every human being throughout time. Since God’s predestined purpose is to save believers in Christ, he sent Christ to die for all, so that whoever believes in him might be saved. The work of Christ is not limited to some particular or predestined group; it is for the whole world. 

Thus the atonement is seen as a universally effective payment for sins. But Christ’s sacrifice does not actually save individuals. It only provides the potential for every individual to be saved, and so provides the basis for a universal offer of salvation. But the benefits of Christ’s death are applied when a human being responds to the offer of salvation by faith. Humans are able to freely choose or reject the atonement Jesus made on the cross. While Jesus, by his death on the cross, obtained redemption and forgiveness of sins for all, no one actually enjoys this forgiveness of sins except the believer.

In Exodus 12, the Passover Lamb was slain and the blood was applied to the doorposts of people’s homes to deliver Israel from God’s judgment on Egypt. Likewise Arminians distinguish between Christ’s death and the application of his blood to believers. Christ’s death makes salvation possible for all, and God desires all to believe and be saved through His blood, but only those who apply the atonement to themselves, by faith, are actually cleansed by Christ’s blood.

Many passages say that Christ died for the world or for all people. While “world” has a broad range of meanings, that range does not include any definition that would deny the conclusion that Christ died for everyone. 

Arminians emphasize Bible passages that describe the universal scope of Jesus’ saving work:

• John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
• John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
• John 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
• 1 Timothy 2:3-6 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. 
• Hebrews 2:9  But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
• 1 John 2:2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
• 1 John 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

Limited Atonement

So for Arminians, Christ’s redeeming work made it possible for everyone to be saved, but it did not actually secure the salvation of anyone. Christ’s redemption becomes effective only if a person chooses to accept it. Calvinists believe, however, that Jesus fulfilled his atoning work only for the elect. In order to accomplish the salvation of those God has previously chosen, God sent Jesus, his Son, to die specifically for the sins of his chosen, so that they can receive eternal life. 

Calvinists celebrate the real efficacy of what Jesus accomplished. When he took the sins of the elect upon himself on the cross, he actually provided a full atonement for their sins, which definitely secured salvation for them. Christ’s atonement was not merely a potential saving work, but effectively accomplished everything necessary for their salvation, including the faith which they exercise. Faith is itself a gift of God, which the Spirit applies to the lives of the elect. Thus one Calvinist writer said: “Were Christ to sacrifice and die for someone and then that person did not choose to be saved, it would make Christ’s work a failure.” 

The Puritan theologian John Owen argued that if, as Arminians believe, Christ died for all people’s sins, then why isn’t everyone free from God’s punishment? He imagines that Arminians will respond, “Because they did not believe.” Owen asks, “Isn’t unbelief a sin?” He argues that if it is, then on the cross, Christ suffered the punishment for that sin. Then why would unbelief prevent a person from being saved, if the sin of unbelief was paid for just as all their other sins were?

Calvinists tend to cite Bible passages that point to a more definite focus of Jesus’ saving work:

• Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
• Matthew 20:28 “…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
• John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
• John 13:1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
• Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
• Ephesians 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
• Revelation 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

The Takeaway

Arminians and Calvinists both believe in God’s initiative in salvation, and that forgiveness of sin and eternal life is ours through Jesus Christ alone. No one becomes saved by professing belief in limited atonement or in universal atonement. Both sides emphasize the need for faith in the person and work of Jesus. Both sides of the debate should appreciate the emphasis of the other part on who Jesus is, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the grave. All believers affirm the glory of Christ’s atonement when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, when we baptize new believers, and when we celebrate Christmas and Easter. Christ did certainly die for all of his true followers. We may debate whether or not he died for others as well, but those of us who belong to him can worship together, side by side, our wonderful, gracious Savior.

Both Arminians and Calvinists agree that because human beings are fallen and sinful, they are not able to think, will, nor do anything good in and of themselves, including believe the gospel of Christ. Unaided by God’s grace, no one can choose to please God or to believe the promise of salvation held out in the gospel. But how does grace work? 

Does God give grace to allow sinners the ability to choose whether or not to accept or reject the message of salvation? Or does God apply grace to actually accomplish salvation for those sinners whom he has already chosen?

Irresistible Grace

Calvinists believe that because God’s grace is only applied to the elect, that grace cannot be resisted. They explain that there are two ways God calls people to repentance. The first is the outer call, which is extended to anyone who hears the gospel. This can be and often is rejected. By contrast, the internal call is extended only to the elect and can never be rejected. This internal call always results in conversion. They argue that people are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). Physically dead persons are incapable of responding to any external message or stimulus. Likewise, spiritually dead people must be given spiritual life before they can respond to God’s call. The Holy Spirit, in cooperation with the will of the Father, gives the gift of salvation to the elect. God then bestows to them the faith which Christ secured for them at the cross. Finally, the Spirit leads these spiritually regenerated sinners to cooperate with God and repent, which leads to their conversion. The Spirit graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ.

In this view, God’s grace never fails to result in the salvation of those to whom it is applied. As a result, God’s grace is never thwarted. Calvinists believe that if the Spirit’s regenerating work does not come before both faith and repentance, these responses become human works. But the Spirit, they say, is not limited in his work of salvation by human will, nor is he dependent on human cooperation. Thus salvation is entirely and only a work of God. 

Followers of Calvinism focus on Bible texts that emphasize the impossibility of a human sinner’s response to God, the priority of God’s will over human will, and the effectiveness of God’s grace.

• John 6:37-39 – “Those the Father has given to me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day.”
  • Jesus says that those given to him by the Father WILL come. He doesn’t say “maybe” of “if.” Based on God’s will, not one of them will be lost.
• John 6:44 – “For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up.”
  • God doesn’t seem to draw everyone to Jesus, but only those who will actually come to him.
• John 1:12-13 – But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn – not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
  • Spiritual birth does not come from human decision or action, but from God. As the NIV puts it: “Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” 
• Romans 8:8 – That is why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
  • Unbelievers are under the control of the sinful nature and thus can never do anything pleases God, including repentance and faith. This is true in spite of prevenient grace, which suggests that regeneration must precede faith and repentance.

Prevenient Grace

Arminians agree with Calvinists that salvation is entirely of grace. But they believe that the grace of God, which regenerates and saves sinners, is not an irresistible force. While both groups agree that people often do resist God’s grace, Arminians teach that this resistance is not conquered by God in any way that would violate any person’s unlimited free will.

Although the Holy Spirit is instrumental in salvation, he does not force anyone into repentance. The Spirit merely attracts and enlightens people. If any of them, in their free will, choose to believe in Christ, those people then begin to exercise repentance and saving faith. In response, the Holy Spirit then regenerates then. If the Calvinist order of salvation is regeneration, then faith and repentance, leading to conversion, the order for Arminians is faith and repentance, leading to regeneration and conversion. Faith is the cause, not the result, of regeneration. Faith is what allows the Holy Spirit to do His regenerating work in the new believer. 

Considering the call of God to sinners, the Spirit calls inwardly all those who are also called outwardly by the gospel invitation. He does all that he can to bring every sinner to salvation. But as a free being, a human can successfully resist the Spirit’s call. Until the sinner responds, the Spirit cannot give life. God’s grace, therefore, is not invincible. It can be – and often is – thwarted by human beings.

Arminians often refer to the grace of God, which invites human beings to salvation, as “prevenient grace” (often called assisting grace, awakening grace, or cooperative grace.) Because fallen human beings are not capable, in their sinful condition, to respond to the gospel on their own, God’s prevenient grace comes before conversion and enables us to believe. Prevenient grace is said to restore man’s free will, which was impaired by the effects of original sin. This grace is extended to all human beings to make it possible for them to choose or refuse the salvation God offers in Jesus Christ. Those who resist God’s grace will be lost, but those who do not resist will be able to accept the gift of salvation. So because God dispenses his calling, drawing, and convicting grace in such a way that people may reject it, saving grace is resistible.

Arminians emphasize passages in the Bible that provide examples of people spurning God’s grace, and of belief coming before regeneration.

• Matthew 23:37 – “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her sings, and you were not willing.”
  • Jesus’ desire to gather the people of Jerusalem was thwarted, because he allowed for people to determine their own relationship with him.
• Luke 7:30 – But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.
  • It is possible for people to reject God’s purpose or what God wills.
• John 12:32, 37 – “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”… Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.
  • Jesus draws ALL people to himself, but many choose not to believe.
• Titus 2:11 – For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people.
  • Grace brings salvation to ALL people. Arminians don’t mean universal salvation, but the universal offer of salvation.

The Takeaway

To summarize, for Calvinists, salvation is accomplished by the almighty power of God. The entire process is the work of God and is by grace alone. God, not man, determines who will be the recipients of the gift of salvation. For Arminians, salvation is accomplished through the combined efforts of God (who takes the initiative) and man (who must respond). Since a human response is the determining factor, God does not ultimately determine who will receive the gift of salvation.

For Calvinists, the sovereignty of God is at stake. Is God really in charge of the universe? Can the will of a truly sovereign God ever be thwarted? For Arminians, human free will is at stake. If the human will is not free, can people really be held accountable for their choices?

In spite of these two very different perspectives, ultimately, the experience of the Christian life is no different whether you believe in irresistible grace or prevenient grace. Regardless of the order of factors involved in salvation (whether faith precedes regeneration, or vice versa), once you have been born again, everything the Bible says about who you are in Christ, and how you live to honor God, is true whichever approach you take. This is why the best Calvinists and the best Arminians look very much alike when it comes to living the Christian life. Regardless of how we understand God’s saving grace, we all are still called to honor God with how we live, and to make disciples who will likewise honor him.

Will a Christian, once saved, stay saved? Or do people have the capacity to reject the salvation they once chose? Can they turn from Jesus after having embraced Jesus? Calvinists do not believe so. If a person has truly been regenerated by an act of God, then they will continue in salvation to the very end of their lives. This is called “perseverance of the saints.” Arminians believe that Christians can persevere, but don’t believe they are guaranteed to never fall away.

The Real Question

We’ve talked about the Calvinist T-U-L-I-P, an acronym that summarizes the main points of Calvinist theology. Calvinists like to joke that the Arminian flower is not a tulip, but a daisy. They imagine someone picking the petals off a daisy, saying, “He loves me. He loves me not.” This uncertainty about salvation is a misrepresentation of Arminian thinking. If a Christian is to lose their salvation, it is not because God is fickle or withholds his love. 

Like in so many other areas of this debate, at the heart of this issue is human choice. If a person initially chose to respond to God’s invitation, what would prevent that person from changing their mind and rejecting God’s invitation, at a later date? 

The question is not: “Can Christians lose their salvation because they sin?” Some people wonder if they can fall out of God’s grace by living a worldly life, or by committing some kind of unpardonable sin. But generally, neither Calvinists nor Arminians believe that a genuine Christian will ever be disqualified by God from salvation based on how well he or she lived up to God’s law or lived a holy life.

The real question is whether a person, once saved, can choose to not be saved. Having embraced Jesus Christ by faith, can a person later choose to reject Jesus Christ and thus be eternally lost?

Absolute Security in Christ

The Calvinist view is that perseverance to the end is a promise of God. Because God is the author and finisher of our faith, we cannot fall away from salvation. Since God’s will cannot be changed or influenced, not a single one whom God has chosen, for whom Christ died, and who were drawn and transformed by God’s irresistible pull of grace, can ultimately be lost. All of them will be glorified when Christ returns. Based on the direct gift of grace from God in their lives, all those who are delivered by God’s grace in this way will show evidence of it by living a life of perseverance in faith and obedience to the Word. They may have ups and downs in their intimacy with and obedience to God. They may have times of wandering. But because believers are kept in faith by the power of God, the elect will ultimately persevere in righteousness and will never lose their salvation.

Calvinists argue this conclusion from the sovereign nature of God. If God is king of the universe, his will cannot be successfully opposed. What God chooses will come to pass. Thus those whom he has called to be saved will never fall away.( John 6:39; 10:28).

Some also argue for the perseverance of believers based on the essential nature of salvation. The New Testament describes salvation as much more than just a transaction between two parties. A mere transaction could become void if either party backs out. But salvation is based on a covenant, ratified by the blood of Jesus, which God will always keep even if we don’t (2 Timothy 2:13). 

More to the point, salvation involves the transformation of a believer’s nature. Someone who was spiritually dead is made alive (Ephesians 2:5). Is that act of God to grant life reversible? Likewise, a Christian is someone who has died with Christ (Romans 7:4). Anyone in Christ is a new creation. “The old is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Christians have a new nature, created after the likeness of God as truly righteous and holy (Ephesians 4:22-24). Consider this illustration. A butterfly can never go back to being a caterpillar again. Why not? Because its fundamental nature has been changed. It is no longer what it once was. This kind of change seems irrevocable. A child, once born, cannot enter its mother’s womb again. Human beings, once born again of the Spirit, cannot revert to their previous existence, because their new condition is based on the transformative work of God.

Calvinists tend to emphasize Bible passages that focus on the power of God and the eternal nature of his work in a believer’s life:

• Matthew 24:24 – For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.
  • It seems that it is not possible to deceive the elect in a way that nullifies their salvation.
• Luke 15:11-32 – “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!’ I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and you…”’
  • The prodigal son falls away for a time, but not permanently. He never stops being a child of his father.
• John 4:14 – “But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring with them, giving them eternal life.”
  • This is an unconditional promise. Those who drink the water of salvation will never be thirsty again.
• John 6:39 – “And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day.”
  • God’s will is that of all he gives Christ, none should perish. So perseverance is based on the success of Jesus to accomplish the Father’s will.
• John 10:28 – “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me…”
  • Jesus gives believers eternal life and they shall never perish.
• Romans 8:29-30 – For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that this Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
  • Those whom God calls he also justifies and glorifies. Glorification is a future event. Those called by God and justified will make it to that point.
• 1 Corinthians 1:8 – He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.
  • The verse doesn’t say that in the future, when Christ returns, believers MAY still be free from all blame, but they WILL be.
• Philippians 1:6 – I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
  • Christians are assured that God will complete what he began in them.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 – Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.
  • The final verse gives the assurance that “God will make this happen”. So perseverance is based on God’s faithfulness, not ours.
• 1 John 2:19 – These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
  • Apostasy reveals that a person “never really belonged with us.” When people leave the faith, it proves that they were never truly regenerated.

Conditional Security in Christ

Generally, Arminians hold that true believers can forsake faith in Christ and perish as unbelievers. Because people have free will, and in the process of salvation can choose for or against God, it must then be possible to fall away from this grace. God can never impose his will upon us in a way that we lose our free will. If salvation is conditional upon faith, it follows that an individual can recant their faith and reject God’s grace at any time. If someone goes from being an unbeliever to a believer, that person will be saved. If he or she goes from a believer to an unbeliever, that person will be lost.

Calvinists respond: if someone who once professed Christ no longer appears to have faith, one of two things must be true. Either that person is still a believer and has fallen away from following God for a time (though not from salvation). Or that individual was never saved in the first place. They are always weeds among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-230), which are not easily distinguished from the real thing. They may have even been convinced that their faith was real, when it was not. Arminians, in turn, bring up the many examples of people who have impressive track records of loving, trusting, and serving Christ, often for years, but who ultimately fall away from him. During those years of bearing fruit, their self-awareness was of fully being a follower of Jesus. Did they really never trust Jesus, or have the Holy Spirit?

Early Arminians left the question of absolute security in Christ open, as did Arminius himself. However, they expressed doubt about whether the doctrine of perseverance is taught in Scripture, and emphasized an individual’s personal responsibility. But the Wesleyan branch of Arminians would later conclude that it is indeed possible to be truly regenerated and yet fall away and ultimately perish. Arminians in general thus deny three of the five points of Calvinism (unconditional election, limited atonement, and irresistible grace), while Wesleyan Arminians deny four of the five (the three above, and perseverance of the saints).

The Arminian approach to perseverance is that God’s grace is absolutely all a Christian needs to be able to persevere. Upon conversion, a believer receives the life-giving Holy Spirit, and thus has every ability to win the spiritual battle against Satan, sin and the world. A person will persevere in salvation as long as he or she remains in Christ. This security is grounded in the ongoing work of Christ and in the promises of his word, rather than in some unknowable divine decree. A person who wants to persevere in faith can always do so because of God’s provision.

Arminians emphasize Bible texts that suggest believers can forsake their faith and forfeit salvation:

• Matthew 5:13 – “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as useless.”
  • It is possible for salt to lose its flavor, in which case it will not be kept.
• John 15:6 – “Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.”
  • Vines can be cut off and burned if they don’t bear fruit.
• Romans 11:22 – Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.
  • It is possible to be cut off “if you stop trusting.”
• 2 Corinthians 11:4 – You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.
  • The context of this verse is that people have fallen away, and Paul is trying to bring them back.
• Galatians 5:4 – For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
  • People in the Galatian church have fallen from grace and are cut off from Christ.
• Hebrews 6:4-6 – For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened – those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come – and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance…
  • People who have experienced the Christian life can turn away irrevocably from God.
• 2 Peter 1:10 – So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away.
  • The implication is that those God called and chose can fall away, and there are actions to take to prevent it.
• 2 Peter 2:20-21 – And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way of righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life.
  • People who know the way of righteousness can turn from it.
• Revelation 2:5 – “Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.”
  • God threatens to remove the church’s lampstand if they do not repent.

Assurance of Being Saved

The question of perseverance raises a practical issue for Christians: how can we know with assurance that we are saved? What confidence do we have that we are, in fact, children of God, right with him, and forgiven of our sin?

Arminians often argue that if salvation is based on some unknowable decree of God, no one can know before the end of this life whether or not they are among the elect. They can never be sure that their faith will endure to the end until it actually does endure to the end. Only then will it be proven to have been genuine. So the security of salvation, they say, does not actually contribute to a person’s sense of confidence in their salvation. 

Calvinists say that if one cannot be sure whether or not they will indeed persevere in the faith, then that person cannot possibly have any assurance of salvation along the way. Arminians reply that the Bible gives assurance of present salvation only, which is based on present faith in the work of Christ. Based on the promises of God, as long as one trusts in Christ, he or she can have assurance of salvation.

Both groups have much common ground when it comes to assurance of salvation. In practice, both experience assurance by the same means. This includes subjective experiences like a personal sense of belief (1 John 5:12-13), a changed life (1 John 3:9,14) and the inner witness of the Spirit (Romans 8:16). It also includes confidence in objective truths, including the promises, love, mercy of God, and in the merits of Christ’s blood. 

Both Calvinists and Arminians appeal to the same verses to give believers confidence in their relationship with God: 

• Romans 8:16 – For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
  • The Spirit works to confirm to our spirit that we are truly God’s children.
• Galatians 4:6-7 – And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”
  • Our heart’s approach to God as a father is evidence of the Spirit’s work.
• 1 John 3:9 – Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.
  • One proof that we are children of God is that we don’t keep on habitually sinning. Our motives and behavior change.
• 1 John 5:11-13 – And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.
  • Objectively, if you have the Son, you have eternal life. John writes to give believers confidence about their eternal standing: “so that you may know….” Who are the ones who have the Son? The ones “who believe in the name of the Son of God.”

The Takeaway

How do our doctrines about perseverance affect our discipleship? Consider this illustration: we’re riding in the back of a pick-up truck. The tailgate may be open or it may not. If you don’t want to fall out, then you will stay as close to the cab as possible. In the same way, whether it is possible for Christians to lose their salvation or not, the lesson is to stay as close to Jesus as you can. Someone who is staying close to Jesus will not fall away.

In the end, both the ones who believe in perseverance and the ones who don’t will live the same way. They will seek to honor God. They will live for God’s purposes, adopting his mission in the world. They will bear the fruit of an obedient life.