Another key doctrine of the Reformed faith is that of irre­sistible grace. The salvation of sinners is a work of the Triune God. Each of the Three Persons of the Trinity participates in and contributes to that work. The Father, before the foun­dation of the world, marked out those who were to be saved and gave them to the Son to be His people. In the fulness of time the Son came into the world and bought them with the price of His blood. But these two great acts, election and redemption, do not complete the work of salvation. Included in God's plan for saving lost sinners is also the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, by which the redemption accomplished by Christ, is applied to the elect. It is with this aspect of salvation that the doctrine of irresistible or efficacious grace is concerned.

This doctrine is defined by the Westminster Confession as follows:

All those whom God has predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased, in His appointed time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation in Jesus Christ.

Here is spoken of effectual call. What is that, you may ask? Let me explain. When the Gospel is preached, a call to salvation is extended to everyone who hears the message. All men without distinction are invited to come and drink freely of the water of life. Salvation is promised to all who repent and believe.

But this outward, general call, extended to all people alike, will not bring sinners to Christ. Why not? Because men are by nature dead in sin and enslaved by the devil. They are of themselves unable and unwilling to turn from their wicked ways unto Christ. Consequently, the unregenerate will not respond to the Gospel call. No matter how persuasive the preacher, or how serious his message, blind, deaf, dead and rebellious sinners will not bow before Christ as Lord and look to Him alone for salvation.

For that, another call is necessary. The Holy Spirit, in order to bring sinners to salvation, must extend to them a special inward call in addition to the outward call contained in the Gospel message. Let me quote from Steele and Thomas' book, The Five Points of Calvinism.

Through this special call the Holy Spirit performs a work of grace within the sinner which inevitably brings him to faith in Christ. The inward change wrought in the elect sinner enables him to understand and believe spiritual truth ... The Spirit creates within him a new heart or a new nature  ... His will is re­newed through this process so that the sinner spontaneously comes to Christ of his own free choice... 

This efficacious or effectual call cannot be ultimately refused. The outward call of the Gospel can be and often is rejected. In fact, it will always be rejected until the effec­tual call is added. This happens only in the elect.

In Scripture this change, brought about in the elect sin­ner, is described by many different terms. In Titus 3:5, Paul refers to it as a regeneration, in Ephesians 1:19 and 20 the apostle calls it a spiritual resurrection. Peter, in his First Epistle 2:9, describes it as a calling out of darkness into God's marvelous light, while in John 5:24 Christ calls it a passing out of death into life. To Nicodemus it was explained in terms of a new birth (John 3).

However, the term usually employed to describe this change from death into life is regeneration. In regeneration the sinner is completely passive. He is regenerated; he undergoes it as an experience. He does not contribute anything to it. Charles Hodge puts it this way:

The soul is the subject, and not the agent of the change. The soul cooperates, or, is active in what precedes and in what follows the change, but the change itself is something experienced, and not something done. The blind and the lame who came to Christ may have undergone much labor in getting into His presence, and they joyfully exerted the new power imparted to them, but they were entirely passive in the moment of their healing. They in no way cooperated in the production of that effect.

The same is true in regeneration. Regeneration involves a radical change of character. The regenerated person, says Lorraine Boettner,

passes from unbelief to one of saving faith, not by any process of research or argument, but of inward experience. And as we had nothing to do with our physical birth, but received it as a sovereign gift of God, we likewise have nothing to do with our spiritual birth, but receive it also as a sovereign gift. Both take place without our cooperation and even without our permission being asked. We no more resist our second birth than we did our first.

To say that God's saving grace is irresistible, however, is to say the exact opposite of what is being preached and taught in our superficial age. The way the Gospel is presented today goes something like this. God has made salvation available by sending His Son to die on the cross. From that point on, however, the matter of salvation depends on man. Man must decide whether he wants to be saved. If he desires to be saved, if he will repent of his sins, and believe in Jesus Christ, God will save him.

What is wrong with this view? This: it is not Scriptural. It makes faith and repentance works of merit. God, according to this view, rewards man for repenting and believing, by giving him salvation. The presupposition is that man is able and willing to be saved. But man is not able, in himself, to receive God's salvation. Man is not willing, in himself, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen to what the Saviour Himself says in John 6:44. No man can come to me except the Father which sent me, draws him. Place the emphasis where it belongs, on the verb can. No man can or is able to come to Christ, unless the Father draws him.

And he cannot because he will not. Man, by nature, is not willing to come to Christ. In Romans 8:7 Paul says, The car­nal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Notice that Paul says, the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not just indifferent to God or cold or lukewarm, no, it says the carnal mind is enmity against God.

That means that man by nature hates God; he is not will­ing to be saved, he is at war with God. This being the case, if God had left it up to sinners to accept or reject the Gospel as they pleased, every one of them would have rejected it.

I challenge any believer to deny this truth. Look at your personal experience. Was there not a time when you were unwilling to come to Christ? There was! But you have come to Him since then, you know that. And who made you will­ing? Was it you or God who overcame the enmity of your mind? Are you not prepared to give all the credit to God? Do you not agree wholeheartedly with this hymn?

I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me.
It was not I that found, O Saviour true.
No, I was found of Thee.

Indeed, it was God Who with His sovereign power broke my rebellious will. He saved me when I would not be saved. He gave me faith when I had no faith and wanted no faith. I praise God that His grace is irresistible. If His grace were anything but irresistible, I would have resisted it till this very moment.

It is strange that this doctrine, which is so true to exper­ience, is yet so disliked by many. Or, maybe it is not so strange. The reason why so many dislike the idea of irresis­tible or efficacious grace is that it leaves man without any pride. It means that the believer cannot boast of his faith, for it was God Who gave him that faith. Nor can he boast of a decision which he made to believe in Christ, because he knows that God made that decision for him. Actually there is only one thing left for him to do: to fall on his knees and say, O Lord, miserable sinner that I am, I do not know why Thou hast saved me, but I know that Thou hast. It was only Thy free, unmerited and irresistible grace that did it. Free, because I did not pay for it. Unmerited, because I certainly did not deserve it. And irresistible, because it was necessary for Thee to break my hard heart before Thou couldst save me.

Is this also the language of your heart? Have you been drawn to Christ by the irresistible grace of God? Do you have the Holy Spirit? I am not asking whether you are relig­ious. You can be very religious, and yet be without the Holy Spirit. What you need is true religion. True religion means conviction of sin. The Holy Spirit must convict you of your lost condition. Then you come to see that you are on the way to hell in spite of all your outward religion. Thousands of peo­ple think they are going to heaven because they attend church. They trust all is well because they are members in good stand­ing. Yet, because they have never seen themselves the way God sees them, lost, hopeless and helpless sinners, they are deceiving themselves.

But true religion is different. It produces knowledge of God and knowledge of oneself. It leads to confession of sin and prayer for mercy. For such people there is hope. Because the same Holy Spirit Who shows them their miserable con­dition, also shows them the only way out. He reveals to them the Lord Jesus Christ. He opens the convicted sinner's eye for the Saviour Who came to seek and to save that which was lost. Then a desire is born in the heart to have Him as your personal Saviour. A voice is heard:

Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. It is Jesus; He invites, He beckons, He bids sinners trust in Him. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Then they come. Irresistibly they are drawn to the cross. There they kneel down, confessing their sins and they pray:

Nothing in my hands I bring;
Simply to Thy cross I cling.
Naked come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace.
Foul I to the fountain fly;
Wash me Saviour, or I die.

That is true religion. That is true faith: a looking to Christ and Him alone for salvation. Such faith is a gift of God. It is the fruit of irresistible grace. May God grant it to every one of you who read these words.