Calvin: "that we owe everything to God, and that we have nothing that is our own"

[Mark Quayle]

This is brought to mind upon reading Humble_Disciple's submission:
God chose YOU to bear fruit...

What the Holy Spirit does in us is something we could never do:

We do not know what we do when we 'give him our hearts'; we are weak, silly, ignorant of the horror that sin is, ignorant of the holiness of God, emotion driven, and selfish. Our faith is not based on our choice, but on God's choice. By contrast, the Spirit of God is not swayed, is reliable and consistent, able to keep us, KNOWS what is going on, and knows (and loves) all the players intimately —it is the power of God within us. Its motivation is God's eternal will. It does not depend on us to accomplish what God has set out to do.

We hear that the decision is not real if WE aren't the ones making it! But quite to the contrary it is ONLY IF GOD makes this decision that it can be real! Are we to suppose that God esteems our fortitude of thought and will worthy of his favor? That is not Grace. Our decision can only be a result—not an increase of his power and love.

No matter how small our faith, if it is the work of the Holy Spirit, it is TRUE faith. It is the real thing, and cannot be undone.

So it is that when God has begun his work in us, even before we are aware of the difference, we may not know that our first desires for holiness are his work, as are many other changes coming upon us. Though some of us have had watershed moments of change, of the heart's submission, we have no way to mark 'the moment' of regeneration, so tenderly and carefully does he work. Yet we are told that our theology shows a God that FORCES salvation, as though God is a tyrant!

The enormous little lie of synergism, as though our work increases the value and ability of what God alone can do, is not mere 'cooperation' as they like to call it, but a negation of the power of God, not to mention a diminishing of his love for us. It makes a ruin of the Gospel.

 

[Humble_Disciple]

The enormous little lie of synergism, as though our work increases the value and ability of what God alone can do, is not mere 'cooperation' as they like to call it, but a negation of the power of God, not to mention a diminishing of his love for us. It makes a ruin of the Gospel.

I think there is a difference between synergism and compatibilism. God is sovereign over salvation, and yet we are responsible for our actions.

Man is “free” to choose that which is determined by his nature or by the laws of nature. To illustrate, the laws of nature prohibit man from being able to fly, but this does not mean that man is not free. The agent, man, is only free to do that which his nature or the laws of nature allow him to do. Theologically speaking, though the natural man is unable to submit himself to the law of God (Romans 8:7-8) and unable to come to Christ unless the Father draws him to Him (John 6:44), the natural man still acts freely in respect to his nature. He freely and actively suppresses the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18) because his nature renders him unable to do otherwise (Job 15:14-16; Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Jeremiah 13:23; Romans 3:10-11). Two good examples of Jesus’ confirmation of this concept can be found in Matthew 7:16-27 and Matthew 12:34-37.

With the distinction between free agency and free will defined, compatibilism then addresses the nature of the free agency of man in respect to the theological proposition known as determinism and/or the biblical truth of the omniscient nature of God. The foundational issue is how man can be held accountable for his actions if his actions were always going to occur (i.e., the future is not subject to change) and could not have been anything other than that which occurred...

God is sovereign over all things (Psalm 115:3, Daniel 4:35, Matthew 10:29-30), God knows all things (Job 37:16; Psalm 147:5; 1 John 3:19-20), and man is held accountable for what he does (Genesis 18:25; Acts 17:31; Jude 1:15). Truly, His ways are unfathomable (Job 9:10; Romans 11:33), and so we should trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6).
What is compatibilism? | GotQuestions.org

While we are positionally holy (“set free from every sin” by the blood of Christ, Acts 13:39), we know that we still sin (1 John 1:10). That’s why the Bible also refers to sanctification as a practical experience of our separation unto God. “Progressive” or “experiential” sanctification, as it is sometimes called, is the effect of obedience to the Word of God in one’s life. It is the same as growing in the Lord (2 Peter 3:18) or spiritual maturity. God started the work of making us like Christ, and He is continuing it (Philippians 1:6). This type of sanctification is to be pursued by the believer earnestly (1 Peter 1:15; Hebrews 12:14) and is effected by the application of the Word (John 17:17). Progressive sanctification has in view the setting apart of believers for the purpose for which they are sent into the world: “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17:18–19). That Jesus set Himself apart for God’s purpose is both the basis and the condition of our being set apart (see John 10:36). We are sanctified and sent because Jesus was. Our Lord’s sanctification is the pattern of and power for our own. The sending and the sanctifying are inseparable. On this account we are called “saints” (hagioi in the Greek), or “sanctified ones.” Prior to salvation, our behavior bore witness to our standing in the world in separation from God, but now our behavior should bear witness to our standing before God in separation from the world. Little by little, every day, “those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14, ESV) are becoming more like Christ.
What is sanctification? What is the definition of Christian sanctification? | GotQuestions.org

 

[Mark Quayle]

I think there is a difference between synergism and compatibilism. God is sovereign over salvation, and yet we are responsible for our actions.

No doubt there is a difference. But 'free' will does not add to God's work. We are indeed responsible for our actions, because they are our works according to our individual will. If we do not repent, confess our sin, obey, cling to, love and pursue Christ we are none of his. What he has begun he will complete, and that by use of means, no doubt. But the Gospel is the work of God, from first to last. It is not by compatibilism that we are born again, born of the Spirit.

 

[Humble_Disciple]

No doubt there is a difference. But 'free' will does not add to God's work. We are indeed responsible for our actions, because they are our works according to our individual will. If we do not repent, confess our sin, obey, cling to, love and pursue Christ we are none of his. What he has begun he will complete, and that by use of means, no doubt. But the Gospel is the work of God, from first to last. It is not by compatibilism that we are born again, born of the Spirit.

 

[Mark Quayle]

Very good. Thank you.

 

[Humble_Disciple]

The joy and beauty of Calvinism is that salvation is of God’s grace from beginning to end. We didn’t initiate saving faith, and therefore we need not fear losing it:

I, John Piper, was dead in my trespasses and my sins. I was unable to change my life. I did not love God. I did not trust God. I did not want God. I found God boring. And, therefore, I was enslaved to my own sin. God was not beautiful and he wasn’t satisfying, and that is the condition of everybody until God moves.

And so, Reformed theology says: The only solution to this hopeless condition that I was in and that everybody is in, is that God is sovereign and by his free grace overcomes our blindness. He raises us from the dead. He gives us eyes to see the beauty of Christ so that we freely and joyfully embrace him as our supreme treasure.

For example, 2 Corinthians 4:6 says: “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’” — way back there in creation — “has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” That is how I got saved. My heart was dark. It was dead. It was rebellious. It had all the wrong preferences.

And God said: Let there be gospel light in John Piper’s heart. And by a miracle, in a moment, I saw Christ differently. He was compellingly true and beautiful and satisfying — and I was saved.
The Bible calls me now a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17) so that Ephesians 2:8–9 is true: “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works” or of anything we did. So, faith is a gift. We don’t create it with our free will.

Here is where it gets controversial — and I am just going to close with this statement — We don’t create it. We don’t create faith with our free will. If left to our free will, we will all choose the pleasures of the creation over the beauty of the Creator. Our free will is a slave to sin.

Just read Romans 6:16–17 and you will see that we were enslaved to sin, enslaved to unrighteousness. Only the sovereign grace of God can set us free so that we see Christ for who he really is and embrace him as our supreme treasure. That is what I mean by Reformed theology.
https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-is-calvinism

 

[Humble_Disciple]

At the same time, the Bible teaches that we are not chosen to salvation merely as an end unto itself, but also that we may be a blessing to others. (John 15:16, Ephesians 2:10, 2 Peter 1:10) John Calvin and Martin Luther believed wholeheartedly in unconditional election, which motivated them in gratitude to be of service to others.

 

[Mark Quayle]

At the same time, the Bible teaches that we are not chosen to salvation merely as an end unto itself, but also that we may be a blessing to others. (John 15:16, Ephesians 2:10, 2 Peter 1:10) John Calvin and Martin Luther believed wholeheartedly in unconditional election, which motivated them in gratitude to be of service to others.

But it is more than just gratitude that motivates us; the Spirit itself, I believe, causes us to will and to do of God's good pleasure; in my opinion, monergism continues throughout life. The believer, naturally, responds to the Spirit's motions.

 

[Humble_Disciple]

But it is more than just gratitude that motivates us; the Spirit itself, I believe, causes us to will and to do of God's good pleasure; in my opinion, monergism continues throughout life. The believer, naturally, responds to the Spirit's motions.

For sure, therefore we have nothing to boast about.