A Short Explanation of Irresistible Grace

Do you remember how last week’s explanation of total depravity ended? Here’s a hint: It was bad news. Doubly bad, really. We left things at an impasse with no hope of a way forward, at least humanly speaking.

Since the fall, every one of us is both naturally unable to submit to God’s commands and unable to come to Christ for salvation. Out of a natural hostility to God, we persistently refuse to do what pleases him, and we don’t have the will or the power to change ourselves. It’s obvious that any solution to the problem, if there is one, has to come from God’s action and not our own. And this is where irresistible grace comes in.

This is another name, by the way, that I’d change if I could, because like the term total depravity, the term irresistible grace confuses people. The grace half is okay, reminding us that this act of God does not happen to us because we merit it. We don’t do something to call out this work from God. But irresistible suggests a force causing people to act against their wills, and that is, I suspect, where the famous “kicking and screaming into the kingdom” caricature of the doctrine of irresistible grace originates. 

A better and more accurate name for this gracious solution to the problem of our natural inability is effective call. Effective because it gets the results, and call because that’s one of the words scripture uses for this work of God that overcomes our depravity.

For instance, call is what Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians 1:

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  (1 Cor. 1:22-24 ESV)

Paul’s message of the gospel is going out to Jews and Gentiles alike and there are two responses to it. Generally speaking, people reject it. The reasons for the rejection differ depending on the ethnic and religious background of the hearers, but the outcome is the same: They refuse to come to Christ for salvation. You probably recognize this as the second half of the double whammy of the inability of total depravity—the inability come to Christ for salvation.

But not everyone rejects the message of the gospel. There are some who welcome the message, because instead of being offended by it or thinking it silly, they see it for what it is—the power and wisdom of God. What is it that distinguished those who welcome the preaching of Christ crucified from those who reject it? Those who see the power and wisdom of the gospel are “those who are called.” It’s all in the call.

metonym: a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated.

This call is effective because it’s what makes the difference between a rejection of the gospel and acceptance of it. This is a call that always leads to salvation, so that Paul can even use called as a metonym for saved.1 The effective call is a call that saves.

Some call this an inner call to distinguish it from the outer call of the gospel. The outer call is the call of the gospel that goes out worldwide to all people. It’s there as the preaching of “Christ crucified” in the verses from 1 Corinthians 1 quoted above. This call is always rejected except when it is accompanied by the inner work of the Spirit that causes the message to be welcomed for the treasure that it is. It’s the inner call that overcomes our natural hostility to the outer call.

Scripture uses a few other terms to refer to this effective act of the Spirit. In parallel statements in John 6, for example, Jesus speaks of God’s drawing or granting as the solution for human inability.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day (v. 44).

64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (vs. 64-65).

No one can—inability—unless the Father draws. The drawing is effective, too, since those who are drawn will be raised on the last day. And again, in the second passage, no one can unless the Father grants, and this is a granting, if you follow the logic of the whole statement, that results in belief.

Or there’s the story of Lydia, where Luke tells us that “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” Opening hearts (or causing blinded eyes to see and deaf ears to hear) is just another way to talk about the call of God that is effective for salvation. I also believe that being regenerated—being made alive again or being born again—are equivalent terms, but this is a short explanation of irresistible grace so I’m leaving the evidence of that for another day.

We started this post at an impasse. No one can come, no one can believe, and yet the only hope for sinful people is coming and believing. It is God who solves the problem by calling people in a way that causes them to believe the gospel. It’s irresistible grace that turns people from their natural hostility to God so that they come to worship and love Him. The barrier to believing that results from the depravity that came through the fall is overcome only through an effective act of God on our hearts. This is the reason Paul can say at the end of 1 Corinthians 1, right after he’s explained the call of God that is effective for salvation, that it’s “by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption….”

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1 See 1 Corinthians 7, for instance, where Paul uses called as a metonym for saved several times.