Hello again, thank you for listening to Ask Pastor John, the game show where we try to stump John Piper into confused silence seven years in, and it hasn't happened yet. I'm your host, Tony Reike, trying to do it. Pastor John, today's question will, of course, prompt a lot of thoughts for you, namely about the distinction between Calvinism and Arminianism when it comes to the power of God's grace.

As listeners may know, you are hoping to finish up this summer writing a big new book on God's providence. So I know these questions about God's sovereignty are on the front of your mind already. Here's the email. "Hello, Pastor John. I'm a 26-year-old man in full-time ministry working primarily with collegiate golfers.

In a recent Bible study, one of the older men in our group brought up the topic of 'prevenient grace,' the idea that the Holy Spirit enables everyone to potentially believe if they choose to cooperate. I was unprepared in the moment to respond. I am Reformed and believe wholly in the sovereignty of God and salvation.

I believe we are saved by grace through faith, and this faith is not our own doing but is rather a gift of God coming to the elect from outside of us, all according to Ephesians 2.8. But I was really unprepared to respond in that moment. I'd love to hear your answer.

How do you address 'prevenient grace?'" There are two very different views of how God's grace functions in bringing people from spiritual darkness and deadness and unbelief into the light and life and faith which we call salvation and union with Christ. And if it helps, you can call the one view "Arminianism," because one of its early and foremost advocates was Jacob Arminius, and you can call the other view—the one I'm going to argue for—"Calvinism," because one of its foremost advocates was John Calvin.

But the names "Arminianism" and "Calvinism" are not important in comparison to what's really at stake, and that is one of them more biblical, is one of them more biblical than the other. Now, both of these views agree that until the grace of God is active and powerful in the human heart, there is only deadness and rebellion and unbelief, with no possibility of man bringing about the changes in his own heart that are necessary for salvation.

We need to get that clear, because sometimes Calvinists don't describe Arminianism correctly there. Historic Arminianism agrees with Calvinism that fallen man, apart from special grace, cannot give himself life or produce his own faith. The difference lies in what this divine grace does in the human heart and how it relates to the will of man.

So "prevenient grace," which is what we're being asked about, "prevenient grace" is a phrase used by Arminians usually to describe the work of God's grace prior to faith—hence the word "prevenient," coming before—and without which faith would not be possible. That's what an Arminian would say. So let me read some words from a prominent Arminian theologian, Roger Olson, from his book Against Calvinism, to make sure that I express the view fairly.

I want you to hear the very words of Dr. Olson as a historic, faithful, insightful Arminian, and here's what he says. Everything I say now is going to be a quote until I tell you otherwise. "If anyone comes to Christ with repentance and faith, it is only because they are enabled by God's prevenient grace to do so." Page 66.

Another quote. "Arminianism has always insisted that the initiative in salvation is God's. It is called 'prevenient grace' and is enabling but resistible." Page 169. Another quote. "Wesley affirmed original sin, including total depravity, in the sense of spiritual helplessness, but he also affirmed God's universal gift"—so everybody gets this—"universal gift of prevenient or enabling grace that restores freedom of the will." Page 129.

Another quote. "Classical Arminian theology attributes the sinner's ability to respond to the gospel with repentance and faith to 'prevenient grace.'" Now let me insert a comment here. Just to be clear, he says the ability to respond is given with prevenient grace, but it's an ability to believe or not to believe, and he'll make that really plain in just a minute.

Continuing the quote now. "The illuminating, convicting, calling, enabling power of the Holy Spirit working in the sinner's soul makes them free to choose saving grace or reject it." Page 67. So prevenient grace brings one out of bondage to the point where you can receive or reject the work of God in your heart.

Another quote. "So in Arminian theology, a partial regeneration"—now this is his phrase, I didn't know this phrase until I read this—"a partial regeneration does precede conversion, but it's not a complete regeneration. It is an awakening and enabling, but not an irresistible force. Prevenient grace is God's powerful, connecting, and persuading power that actually imparts free will to be saved or not." Page 171.

Now that's the end of my quotation, so that you could hear how a historic Arminian would describe their own understanding of prevenient grace. Those are all quotations. And the question is whether that understanding of how grace works to bring about our faith is biblical, or whether the Calvinist view is biblical, which says God's grace doesn't just bring us up to a point in a "partial regeneration"—that's his term—and then stop and leave the outcome to our ultimate self-determination.

Now that's my term, ultimate self-determination. Olson doesn't use that. I think it's fair, and I think it's right, in trying to get across the fact that man, not God, does the final and the ultimately decisive act. I know that the word "decisive" is a little slippery, and I'm trying to be clear and fair.

Ultimately decisive. The very final act that brings me into Christ is that decisive moment in conversion is one that I perform, not God. Now let me tell you, Calvinism says that God does more in our conversion. Namely, he overcomes all of our resistance and opens the eyes of our hearts to make Christ so real and so beautiful and so compelling that our will gladly embraces Christ as our Savior and Lord and treasure.

So the question is, which of those is the biblical view of how God's grace brings us to faith and salvation? Does it make us free to choose grace or reject it? Or does it overcome our rebellion and blindness so that we are drawn triumphantly by the beauty of Christ to embrace what is true and real?

Now, as you ponder which of these two views is biblical and you search the Scriptures, I would just point to one passage—and we could point to others, but just to save time, I'll point to one passage of Scripture that I think shows the complete saving effectiveness of God's grace and that God provides more than a partial regeneration in order to bring us to faith.

And that passage is Ephesians 2, verses 4 through 7. So let me read it. "God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses," and now comes two verbs of what God, being rich in mercy, does.

Number one, "made us alive together with Christ." That's what he does for dead sinners. He made us alive with Christ, not just alive to reject Christ, but alive with Christ. And then he adds this parenthetical phrase, "By grace you have been saved," in order to show, I think, what grace actually does.

It makes us alive with Christ. And then here's the second verb, "and raised us up with him." He made us alive together with Christ, and he raised us up. So he brings us alive out of the grave of our fallenness, and he raises us up with Christ, seats us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

I don't think that text can be fairly interpreted to mean that there is a split in regeneration or a split in making alive, and he does part of it, and then he waits to see what we will do with the rest of it if we will finish the making alive and bringing ourselves into union with Christ.

I don't think that will work. And so the difference between me—and I think I speak for virtually all Calvinists on this point, and Arminians—is not that one believes in total depravity and the other doesn't. No, that's not it. And it's not—the difference is not that one believes that grace must precede faith and the other doesn't.

No, no, that's not the difference either. Rather, that I believe what God's saving grace does is not merely restore a kind of free will that can accept or reject Christ, but rather opens our blind eyes, grants us to see the compelling truth and beauty and worth of Jesus in such a way that we find him irresistible, and so gladly and willingly embrace him as our Savior and Lord and treasurer.

He brings us all the way to the point of conversion so that we give him all the glory for our receiving of Jesus. Amen. Made alive in Christ, made alive to Christ, and all to the glory of his sovereign grace. Thank you, Pastor John, for outlining one of the key differences here.

And if this is all rather new to you and you want to better understand Calvinism in general, see Pastor John's book titled "Five Points." You can download the 100-page book free of charge right now. Go to DesiringGod.org/books and look for the title "Five Points." Spelled out F-I-V-E, five points, and you'll find it there.

Well, as you can imagine, we get a lot of questions about what it means to live as a child of God. How does God's disposition change towards us? And specifically, is God angry at his children when they sin? Is God angry at me when I sin? That's on Wednesday when we return.

It's a great question. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you then. 1. What is God's disposition towards us? 2. What is God's disposition towards us? 3. What is God's disposition towards us? 4. What is God's disposition towards us? 5. What is God's disposition towards us? 6. What is God's disposition towards us?

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