Mere Calvinism by Jim Scott Orrick

Author:Jim Scott Orrick [Orrick, Jim Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: P&R Publishing
Published: 2019-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

A tone of certain victory. A king of Syria once sent a threatening message to the king of Israel. In the message, the king of Syria adopted a boastful tone, sounding as if he had already won the battle that was yet to be fought. The king of Israel answered, “Tell him, ‘Let not him who straps on his armor boast himself as he who takes it off’” (1 Kings 20:11). The king of Israel was a bad man, but he spoke wisely. A person ought not to adopt a tone of certain victory before the battle has even started.

Christ, however, has already won the battle for the souls of his people, and he justly boasts as one who takes his armor off when he proclaims his victory over Satan, sin, and death. Because of the work of Christ, God cancelled “the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Col. 2:14–15).

It is no wonder then that when the Holy Spirit speaks in the New Testament about the atoning work of Christ, he speaks about it with a tone of certain, victorious accomplishment and not with a tone of uncertain potential. That is, the Holy Spirit consistently speaks as if the work of Christ actually secures the salvation of sinners. He does not speak about Christ’s work as if there were the slightest possibility that his work might be ineffective in saving sinners. But if Christ died for every human who has ever lived, then his death is, in fact, ineffective in the overwhelming majority of cases, for “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14). Christ himself proclaims, “The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:14). If Christ died for the purpose of taking away the penalty for the sins of every person who ever lived, he has not accomplished his purpose, and the confident tone of the Holy Spirit is unwarranted.

There are some who believe that Christ died for the sins of every human, but that because of God’s sovereign purpose, only the elect are effectually called. If this be true, it is the work of the Holy Spirit and not the work of Christ that distinguishes God’s elect from the rest of mankind. While I agree that the Holy Spirit effectually calls the elect alone, I do not believe that this explains the tone of victorious accomplishment that characterizes the New Testament teaching about the effectiveness of Christ’s work. Christ’s work (not the Holy Spirit’s) is consistently presented as the legal basis for the salvation of sinners. This tone of certain victorious accomplishment makes sense only if Christ’s work actually secured the salvation of his people. It does not make sense if his work made their salvation merely possible through the subsequent work of the Holy Spirit.

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