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The Last Word

One key ramification to the doctrine of Total Depravity is actually three ideas wrapped up as one. Based on the true idea that we can contribute nothing to our eternal life, it is taught that we cannot even contribute faith, because faith would then be a good thing, a good action, or a good work which we were performing. Yet since we must have faith in order to receive eternal life, it is taught that God must give us faith as a gift. This, however, can only be done if God first regenerates a person so that they can exercise the faith He gives.

In the conclusion to this chapter, I want to look briefly at each of these concepts one last time and summarize what I believe about each one. Though we have looked at several of the key biblical passages above, and I have often stated what Calvinists believe about these texts, I want to state as clearly as I can what I believe the Bible teaches about Total Depravity and its related doctrines. Please note that since these concepts are all so closely related, there will be some overlap and repetition of ideas in the discussion below.

Total Inability

But our complete inability to contribute to our eternal life is quite different from our inability to receive the free gift of eternal life by faith. Believing in Jesus for eternal life is the polar opposite of trying to gain, keep, or prove eternal life by our own good works. As such, there is no boasting in faith or merit to faith. If someone freely offered $1 million to a homeless person—or even to another millionaire—it would be ludicrous to say that the recipient of that gift somehow earned the $1 million because they received it with gratitude and joy. Imagine if there was a reword ceremony for this generous gift, and as the giver wrote out the check for $1 million, the receiver said, “I deserve this $1 million because when it was offered to me, I said yes. I earned this money!” The idea is preposterous. There is no merit or effort of any sort involved in receiving a free gift. “Who would accuse a beggar of working by holding out his hand to receive a dollar bill? No one!”⁰

Nowhere does Scripture teach the inability of individuals to respond to God’s drawing. In fact one finds just the opposite.⁰

Some might say that there is merit or effort involved in understanding that a free gift is being offered. In the case of the offer of eternal life, some argue that unbelievers are unable to even understand their condition of being unregenerate sinners, or understand their need of eternal life as a free gift from God, and so while the reception of the free gift of eternal life by faith might not be meritorious, the “work” of understanding the need for that free gift is meritorious. Returning once again to the analogy of the free gift of the $1 million, the Calvinist would say that when the person is offered the $1 million, they either cannot even understand what is being offered, or they deny that they even need it.

In terms of eternal life, before a person can believe in Jesus, they first need to understand that there is a God, that God is righteous, that we are unrighteous, and that God offers His righteousness to those who will believe in Jesus for it. Many people must also understand that Jesus is God incarnate, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead. It is these sorts of truths that a Calvinist says an unregenerate person is unable to understand and believe on their own.

And I would agree. But thankfully, God has not left us on our own. He has sent Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). He has sent the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). He has given us Scripture, by which we can learn more about God’s ways in history and the revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. He has given us other believers, who may share the truth of the Gospel with us. He has given us creation, which is a visual testimony of His character and power. He has given us a conscience, wisdom, reason, feelings, and desires, all of which may lead us to the truth. God may even use angels, visions, and dreams to impress upon someone the necessity and importance of believing in Jesus for eternal life.

Based on what the Scripture teaches, it seems that all of the things God has given to humanity are sufficient to persuade and convince a person to believe in Jesus for eternal life. While I may disagree that regeneration precedes faith, I wholeheartedly defend the truth that revelation precedes faith. People are able to believe because God has revealed Himself to humanity in numerous ways. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom 10:17). And the Word of God comes, not just through the pages of Scripture, but through the self-revelation of God in all its forms. God enables people to believe because He has reveals Himself to them. The following discussions of free will, sin, faith, and regeneration will explain this in more detail.

Free Will

Even God, I would argue, does not have a completely “free” will, for He too is influenced by the Trinitarian Godhead, by His creation, by His goal to glorify Himself, and by His own character. Though God is the most free being, even His will is not completely free to do anything. For example, He cannot sin, as this would be contrary to His nature. Nor can He do that which is logically impossible, such as make a round square or create a rock too heavy to lift. Also, God cannot break the rules He has set up for Himself regarding the governance of His creation. For example, if He has given humans the freedom to make choices, He cannot stop them from choosing things He does not like.

So rather than “free will,” it might be best to talk about “true will.” That is, can a person make genuine decisions, or are all decisions subject to something like fate or divine predetermination? We will talk more about predetermination and foreordination in the chapters about Unconditional Election and the Sovereignty of God, so I don’t want to use a lot of room to discuss these issues here, except to say that Scripture, reason, and experience all seem to point pretty clearly to the fact that God expects us to make wise choices and holds us accountable for the choices and decisions we make. If our decisions were fated or predetermined by God, then God could no more hold us accountable for the decisions we make than we could hold accountable a wind-up toy car for driving off a table if we are the ones who wound it up, put it on the table, and sent it driving off toward the edge. Or to use a more complex example, though most modern people have had the experience of yelling at our computers in frustration for what they do, we all know that the fault is never with the computer, for it is simply doing what we (or some computer programmer) have told it to do.

I would argue further that sin is the greatest proof for the existence of human true will (or free will, if you prefer that term). Why? To begin with, given the facts that God has a will and that sin exists, we are only left with a few options as the origin of sin and evil: We must say either that God willed sin into existence or He did not. We will see in the chapter on the Sovereignty of God that Calvinists are divided on this issue. Most Christians, however, agree that God did not will sin into existence. And if He did not will sin into existence, then it had to have come from some other will—a will outside of God’s will. Sin cannot have come from God’s will, for sin is contrary to and opposed to God’s will. Therefore, sin must have its origination in a will that is separate from God, or else God would be divided against Himself. Since all people sin, the will of an individual person must be one such will that is separate from God. Curiously then, the sinfulness of mankind does not disprove the existence of the will of man, but proves it! Self-caused actions founded in the wills of men are the best explanation for the origin of evil.

If, therefore, self-caused actions help account for the origin of evil, then the origin of evil helps prove the existence and reality of self-caused actions. In other words, if there is no true will, we would have no way to explain the origin of evil unless it were attributed to God. But since evil cannot have its origin in God, the origin of evil must be explained through the real decisions of God’s creatures. He created beings with true wills, knowing that they might misuse and abuse this amazing gift for the purpose of rebellion, but also knowing that without such a gift, there could be no way for Him to receive the goal and purpose of a true will, namely, true love. God knew that without a true will there could be no true love; and God, desiring to have loving relationships with His creation, decided that the gift of a true will to His creatures was worth the risk.

When Adam and Eve misused their wills in the Garden of Eden by eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin entered into the world, and with it came death, decay, and destruction. Earlier in this chapter, in the discussion on Romans 7:15-20, we saw that when Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually and sin corrupted their body, which also began to die.⁰ But what about the soul? Was it corrupted by sin? Did the soul also begin to die? Scripture seems to indicate that the death which affected the bodies and spirits of people, does not affect the soul in the same way. We cannot speak of soulish death the same way we can speak of physical or spiritual death. The reason is because the soul is the “life” of a person. It is the breath of life, the animating principle of a human being (cf. Gen 2:7). To speak of soul death would be to speak of life death, which makes no sense. Though the Bible occasionally speaks of the death of the soul (cf. Ezek 18:4; Matt 16:25-26; Jas 1:21; 5:20; 1 Pet 1:9) these texts do not refer to the death of the soul itself, but to the separation of the body from the soul, which results in physical death.⁰ When there is no “life” (soul) in the body, the body is dead. Though the soul can live without the body, the body cannot live without the soul.

All this is to say that the faculties of the soul, which include imagination, memory, reason, and emotions, were not themselves damaged by sin. Certainly, since these faculties of the soul are dependent upon the health of the physical brain, and the brain is dying as a result of being part of the physical body, our imagination, memory, reason, and emotions are not used to their full capabilities. Nevertheless, the soul is able to utilize its capacity to imagine, create, remember, reason, and feel emotions. The will, being an interplay of all of these soulish capacities, is therefore also able to function. It interesting that those who teach the inability of the human will to function almost never teach the inability to function of the imagination, memory, reason, and emotions. Just as these are able to function, so also is the will.

Therefore, it is no surprise that Scripture contains frequent calls for people to exercise their wills in the practice of obedience and righteousness. From the very beginning with Cain, God wanted him to turn from His sin so that He might escape the disastrous consequences of it (Gen 4:7). Through the periods of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Twelve Patriarchs, and into to the days of Moses and the Judges, and into the times of the Kings and the Prophets, God constantly and unceasingly calls on all people to turn from their wicked ways and follow Him (Deut 30:19-20a; Josh 24:15; 1 Kings 18:21; Isa 1:18-19; etc.). Even Jesus, during His ministry, constantly pled with people to leave their sin and follow Him (John 5:39-40; 7:17, 37-38; Matt 11:2-8; 22:3; 23:37-38). The preaching of Peter, Paul, and the other apostles all contained the same message. Even the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11).

Yet note that although the practice of obedience and righteousness is called for in Scripture, this in no way means that such practices result in eternal life. Even if someone was as good as Mother Theresa or Gandhi, they could not earn their eternal life by their good works any more than could Hitler or Pol Pot by their evil works. I point out the biblical call for people to respond to God, not to say that people can contribute to the reception of eternal life, but only to show that if God expects people to hear His truth and respond, who are we to teach that they cannot do so? Furthermore, if humans do not have free will and are unable to respond to the call of God, then all the calls of God in Scripture are little more than farcical games in which God taunts humans to do something they cannot actually do.

Here then is where we arrive at the point: Just as God calls people to respond to His Word with obedience and righteousness through the exercise of their choices (non-meritorious though they might be) and fully expects them to be able to do so, in the same way, God calls people to believe in Jesus for eternal life, and fully expects them to be able to do so (cf. John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47).

The difference between faith and works, of course, is that while the latter are “works” and no one can have enough works to earn or merit eternal life, faith is not a work, is not meritorious, and does not help a person earn or gain eternal life. Faith is the simple reception of a gift freely offered. Yes, faith is a function of the will, but since the will has the ability to function, it is not unreasonable for God to invite people to believe in Jesus for eternal life. And if it is not unreasonable for God, it is not unreasonable for evangelists and missionaries, as they go about loving others and proclaiming the gospel, to invite people to believe in Jesus for eternal life.

If this is the case about the true will of mankind, then how can God guarantee that anyone will actually believe? Is God up in heaven wringing His hands with worry saying to Himself, “I hope they believe and this all works out”? Is God’s plan of salvation threatened when He gave mankind the freedom to believe?

To ask this question is to answer it. If God’s plan of salvation were threatened by giving mankind the freedom to believe, God never would have done it! God is not so impotent and foolish as to put Himself and His plan of redemption at risk due to the simple and rebellious wills of mankind. No, like the perfect chess player, God knows that no matter what move His creatures make, He has a wide variety of moves which can direct His creation in the direction He wants it to go. God is so supremely and infinitely wise, He can give genuine freedom to His creatures without any threat or risk whatsoever to His ultimate goals and plans. It is only a foolish god who must control every though, action, word, and deed in order for his plans to not be thwarted. But our God is not foolish. He is wise, loving, kind, merciful, and gracious. He wants everyone to come to a knowledge of the truth, and calls everyone to believe in Jesus for eternal life, which is possible through the will.

The primary objection to this, of course, is that it seems to make eternal life at least somewhat dependent upon humans. In other words, if people do not receive eternal life unless they believe in Jesus for it, and their belief is a function of their own will, then are not humans in some way responsible for their own eternal life, even if faith itself is not meritorious? The answer, of course, is “Yes!” God has given us responsibility. As free beings, we are responsible. He holds us responsible. If we were not responsible, God would not be just in giving eternal life only to a few and sending the rest away into eternal separation from Him. The only way God can avoid the charge of being unjust is to give the responsibility of receiving the free gift of eternal life from Him by faith. But again—and I cannot emphasize this enough!—faith is not a work. Faith is not meritorious. Being responsible to believe in Jesus for eternal life is not at all the same thing as working to gain, prove, or keep eternal life. Faith is not a work, but since God cannot and does not force eternal life upon all people whether they want it or not, He gives to humans the responsibility to believe in Jesus for the free gift of eternal life. This is not eternal life by works; this is eternal life by grace along through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

Why then do some believe and others not? Can those who believe in Jesus for eternal life somehow take credit that they were good enough, wise enough, or smart enough to understand the free offer of eternal life and respond by believing in Jesus for it? Can Christians after all give themselves a pat on the back and congratulate each other for being better and smarter than the rest of the humanity? Never! While much of it remains a mystery and I do not know how it will all work out in God’s economy or in eternity, we know from Scripture that each person on earth is given enough revelation from God to respond positively to Him, even if this revelation is only through creation and conscience. This does not mean that what is revealed through creation and conscience is sufficient in itself to grant eternal life to those who believe in what is revealed to them. No, it means that God calls people to respond by faith to the revelation that they have been given, and when they do, God makes sure that they receive further revelation. Romans 1 and other biblical texts state that God has revealed certain truths about Himself in nature so that men are without excuse. I think that as people respond to the revelation they have received, God obligates Himself to provide more revelation to them, so that they receive enough revelation from God to either accept the offer of eternal life by faith alone, or to reject such an offer.⁰

So why does one person believe and another not? If two people hear the same exact gospel presentation, and one believes while the other does not, was there something in the person who believed which made them better or smarter than the one who did not believe?⁰ I do not have an answer to this any more than the Calvinist has an answer for why God chooses to regenerate some and not others.

Nevertheless, an answer to this question can be attempted. First, even if two people heard the exact same gospel presentation, this does not mean that they both have lived the exact same lives. No two lives are identical. So while one believed and the other did not, this does not make one person better or smarter than the other, but simply means that something about the course of events which led up to hearing that gospel presentation allowed that person to become persuaded of the truth that God gives eternal life to anyone who believes in Jesus for it. Furthermore, simply because one person believes upon hearing a gospel presentation while a second person does not, this in no way means that the second person will never believe. In God’s infinite resourcefulness, this second person also may come to the place where they believe in Jesus for eternal life. Faith has nothing to do with one person being better or smarter than someone else, but everything to do with timing, opportunity, life history, and a whole host of other factors out of our personal control.

If I were to look into my own life, I am tempted to say that I believed in Jesus, not because of anything good in me, but due to a variety of circumstances and situations which include a combination of (1) the Holy Spirit convicting me of sin, pointing me toward righteousness, and warning me of coming judgment, just as He does with everybody in the world; (2) common grace which is shown to all; (3) being born in a “Christian” nation; (4) Godly parenting; and (5) natural and divine revelation being impressed upon me by God and others in my life.

Note that I was not responsible for a single one of these. All of them were out of my control. They all “happened” to me. Other than the first two, which God gives to all people, it could be argued that the people who were not “lucky” enough to have the final three circumstances in their lives are at a distinct disadvantage to being able to believe in Jesus. I would agree. But I also believe that God knows where each person is at, and He knows what circumstances each person is in, and God will hold each person accountable for the revelation they have received (Luke 12:48). Also, as stated above, I believe that God obligates Himself to make more revelation available to those who believe and follow the revelation they have been given.

An extended quote from Robert Wilkin provides further insight into why some believe in Jesus and others do not, and also what God is doing to help all people believe in Jesus for eternal life:

Unbelievers are capable of responding to God. However, no unbeliever would seek God on his own initiative (Rom 3:11, “There is none who seeks after God”). God is drawing all people to Himself (John 12:32, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself”). Because of that, they can respond.

… Unbelievers … are not incapable of seeking God. And, as we have already seen, God’s work in the life of unbelievers does not wait until He opens their hearts. He is continually drawing people everywhere to Himself.

God has determined that anyone who diligently seeks Him will ultimately find Him: “He has made from one blood every nation ... so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27); “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb 11:6); “In every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him” (Acts 10:35).

… God has given enough information for us to know both that God is sovereign and that we are capable of responding to Him. No one is saved apart from God's drawing him and opening his heart. Yet God doesn’t force anyone to be saved and He doesn’t hold anyone responsible for something which he can’t possibly do. All who are born again have freely responded to God’s drawing and have trusted in Christ and Him alone for eternal life.⁰

All people have the ability to respond to the light of revelation that they have received, and if people respond, God has obligated Himself to make sure that they receive more light so that they too may believe in Jesus for eternal life. This function of the will, though it is the responsibility of a person, is not meritorious in any way, for faith is not a work (Rom 4:5), but is simply being persuaded or convinced about what is true, which, in the case of eternal life, is being persuaded that eternal life is the free gift of God to all who believe in Jesus for it.

Dead in Sin

Most Calvinists believe that when Adam and Eve sinned, their entire beings became completely corrupted and depraved. This is what they mean by “Total Depravity.” Whether Calvinists believe in three parts (body, soul, and spirit) or two (body and soul/spirit), they believe that every part in its entirety was affected by sin and became incapable of responding in any meaningful way to God. We will see in just a bit, however, that although this is what Calvinist’s teach, such an idea is impossible to apply biblically or evangelistically. Along with God, even Calvinists call upon unregenerate people to respond to God.

One alternative view to Calvinism (which has been presented in this chapter) is that when Adam sinned, death came upon both the flesh and the spirit. The soul, which is the life of the person, is immortal and does not die. One cannot speak of “soulish death” any more than one can speak of “life death.” The two words are, by definition, logically incompatible and mutually exclusive. So while we can say that since the soul operates through the body and the spirit and depends upon the proper functioning of the brain, the soul too was affected by sin, it is not theologically accurate to say that the soul is “dead” or “dying.” The soul is not “dead in sin” in the same way as the human body and human spirit.

Nevertheless, due to the deadness of the human body and human spirit, the soul is severely handicapped and limited in what it can do. The soul is where the will resides and as such, the soul (or mind) makes the decisions about what a person believes and how a person acts. It can choose to act through two realms or spheres: the fleshly sphere or the spiritual sphere. Due to spiritual deadness, or separation, the soul is unable to act through the human spirit. The soul can, however, function through the body, but since death and corruption has also entered the body as a result of sin, everything the soul does through the body is tainted and depraved. As a result, the soul can do nothing but sin through the body. This does not mean that every action or behavior is as evil as it possibly can be, but rather, that everything a person does is polluted, stained, and corrupted by sin. Such actions, as good as they might be, have no merit or righteousness before God. On this, Calvinists are absolutely correct.

But to say that all works are tainted and blemished by sin is not the same thing as saying that people are unable to believe what God says about sin, righteousness, judgment, and the free offer of eternal life. Faith is not an act of the either the flesh or the spirit, but is something that happens within the mind (or soul). Faith, therefore, is not disabled by sin. The human soul can believe. Since faith is not a work, but is the opposite of works (Rom 4:5), the soul can respond to the revelation which it has received from God. And since God offers eternal life to any person who believes in Jesus for it, the soul of a person is able to believe in Jesus for eternal life.

So while being “dead in sin” does mean that people are unable to obey God, reform their lives, or do anything meritorious regarding salvation, it does not mean that they cannot believe in Jesus for eternal life, for faith, being an aspect of the will which resides in the human soul, is the opposite of works and is the means by which humans received the free gift of eternal life from God.

Spiritual death in the Bible means fallen people are totally separated from God, not completely obliterated by Him. They lack spiritual life, but they’re still humans with all their God-given faculties. Isaiah put it this way: ‘Your iniquities have separated you from your God’ (59:2). In brief, it does not mean a total destruction of all ability to hear and respond to God but a complete separation of the whole person from God.⁰

This is exactly what was seen earlier when it was suggested that the word “dead” is best understood in Scripture as referring to “separation.” Those who are dead in sin are not unable to act; they are simply separated from God, from each other, and from being whole human beings. Furthermore, the Bible speaks frequently of what those who are dead in sin are able to do. Along with some of the sinful tendencies—such as walking in trespasses and sins, following the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air, living in the passions of the flesh, and carrying out the desires of the body and mind (Eph 2:2-3)—unbelievers can also do some positive things—such as act in accordance with their conscience, hear and respond to God (Gen 3:5-13), know the truth about God and understand his invisible attributes (Rom 1:18-20), repent of sins (Luke 15:18-19), seek God (John 3), fear God (Acts 10:2), and even pray to God (Acts 10:2). None of these positive behaviors are meritorious, of course, but they are good actions which can be committed by unregenerate people, and some of these actions may even be used by God to bring the person to the place where they can believe in Jesus for eternal life. In fact, Jesus Himself says in John 5:25 that the dead can “hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.”

Calvinists, of course, still want to say that if faith is something we “do” or is the human “response” to God’s free offer of eternal life, then humans are still contributing to their eternal life. They argue further that to be dead in sin means that humans cannot do anything to move themselves closer to God (which I agree with), including believe in God or God’s offer of eternal life.

I understand the concern, but if we remove “faith” as the proper response of humans to God’s offer of eternal life, what then can we say when people ask, “What must I do to receive eternal life?” In other words, since, according to Calvinists an unregenerate person cannot respond to God in any meaningful way, and cannot even believe in Jesus for eternal life, how then do Calvinists go about presenting the offer of eternal life to those who want to receive it?

Surprisingly, the Calvinist will often give people a whole host of good works to participate in, none of which involve belief! Calvinists typically do not call upon unbelievers to believe in Jesus for eternal life, for according to the Calvinistic teachings on total inability, the unregenerate person is unable to believe. So instead, the Calvinist invites the unbeliever to wait upon God for the gift of faith, and as they wait, the unregenerate person is invited to participate in a wide variety of religious activities. William Shedd, for example, writes that since sinners cannot believe the gospel, they should engage in other religious activities while they wait for God to grant them the gift of faith. These spiritual activities include reading the Bible, giving serious application to the truth, and praying for the conviction and regeneration of the Holy Spirit.⁰ This is a far cry from “Believe in Jesus for eternal life” (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47).

Calvinistic author J. I. Packer writes in the same vein:

And to the further question still “How am I to go about believing on Christ and repenting, if I have no natural ability to do these things?” it answers: look to Christ, speak to Christ, cry to Christ, just as you are; confess your sin, your impenitence, your unbelief, and cast yourself on His mercy; ask Him to give you a new heart, working in you true repentance and firm faith; ask Him to take away your evil heart of unbelief and to write His law within you, that you may never henceforth stray from Him. Turn to Him and trust Him as best you can, and pray for grace to turn and trust more thoroughly; use the means of grace expectantly, looking to Christ to draw near to you as you seek to draw near to Him; watch, pray, read, and hear God’s Word, worship and commune with God’s people, and so continue till you know in yourself beyond doubt that you are indeed a changed being, a penitent believer, and the new heart which you desired has been put within you.⁰

So while the Calvinist criticizes the non-Calvinist for calling people to “contribute to their own salvation” by believing in Jesus for eternal life, it is they who tell people that if they want eternal life, they need to look to Christ, speak to Christ, cry out to Christ, confess their sin, cast themselves upon the mercy of Christ, ask Him to grant a new heart, true repentance, firm faith, pray for grace, read the Scripture, worship with God’s people, and continue in such actions and behaviors until God grants “the gift of faith.”

In such a scenario, who really has “contributed” to their salvation? Is it the person who simply and only believes that Jesus has given them eternal life as an absolutely free and gracious gift? Or is it the person who engages in a whole host of spiritual and religious activities in the hopes of gaining the so-called “gift of faith”?

To put it another way, the Calvinist criticizes the non-Calvinist by saying, “If you can believe in Jesus, you are working for eternal life,” but meanwhile, in answer the question, “How can I receive eternal life?” the Calvinist answers, “I prayed, I pled, I read, I turned, I trusted, I repented, I confessed, I worshiped, and I continued in all these actions until God granted me the faith to believe.” Who truly is undermining the free gift of eternal life by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone? I agree with Roy Aldrich who wrote:

A doctrine of total depravity that excludes the possibility of faith must also exclude the possibilities of ‘hearing the word,’ ‘giving serious application to divine truth,’ and ‘praying for the Holy Spirit for conviction and regeneration.’ The extreme Calvinist deals with a rather lively spiritual corpse after all.⁰

Maybe the better question is to ask how Jesus invited people to receive the free gift of eternal life? The Gospel of John was written with the purpose of informing people how they might receive eternal life (John 20:31), and over and over in this Gospel, Jesus says that whosoever believes in Him has everlasting life (cf. John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47, etc.). The same message is also found in the preaching and teaching of the Apostles in the Book of Acts, and throughout the Pauline Epistles and General Letters. Nowhere is any person ever told that in order to receive eternal life, they must pray, trust, wait, cry out, confess, worship, commune, and hope. Instead, the clear and consistent invitation is that whoever wants eternal life may receive it by believing in Jesus Christ for it.

Though people truly are “dead in sin,” this condition does not stop them or hinder them from believing in Jesus. Quite to the contrary, believing in Jesus is the only proper response to hearing the gospel, and is the only response which an unregenerate person is able to have, and thankfully, is the only response which God looks for and desires. Those who are dead in sin cannot do anything to merit or earn eternal life, but they can believe in Jesus, which is the exact opposite of meritorious works, and which enables God to raise the person up so that they are no longer dead in sin, but alive in Jesus Christ.

Faith is Not a Work

With this definition of faith in mind, we see that it is absolutely true what most Calvinists say, that God must take the first step. In fact, God has taken more than just the first step; He has taken the first billion steps. He provides revelation through creation, conscience, Scripture, dreams, visions, and angelic messengers. He sends prophets, missionaries, pastors, teachers, and evangelists to share the Gospel. He sent Jesus to fully reveal His character and nature to humanity. He sends the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and uses the Holy Spirit to draw all people to Himself (John 6:44; 12: 32; 16:7-11; Acts 16:14, 29-30; 24:25). He sends forth His grace and mercy upon all people (John 1:9; Titus 2:11). He forgives all sin, and is patient, loving, and kind to all. These steps, and countless more specific steps in the life of each and every person, are the sorts of things God has done on our behalf to call each of us to believe in Jesus for eternal life. Human faith, then, is not the first step, or even the millionth step, in the process of coming to God or believing in Jesus for eternal life. People are able to believe in Jesus for eternal life because God has first done absolutely everything that is within His power, made everything available to us by His grace, and flung open the door to eternal life by His will. It is only because of this multitude of “first steps” by God toward us that anyone and everyone who wants to receive God’s offer of eternal life may do so by simply and only believing in Jesus Christ for it.

Once we have believed in Jesus for eternal life, this does not mean that faith has no more place in the life of the believer. Just as we have received Jesus Christ Jesus, so also we must continue to walk with Him (Col 2:6). And how is it that we received Jesus? By faith. Future faith builds upon our former faith. Believing simple and elementary things allows us to later believe more difficult and hard things. This is what the Bible means when it talks about going from “faith to faith” (cf. Rom 1:17). But even this ongoing, sanctifying faith is not a work. In order to move from believing one truth to believing another truth, it is true that we must act upon the faith we already have, and pursue the truth that follows. But even this sort of ongoing, sanctifying faith is not meritorious (Rom 4:16). It is simply faith at work; faith that energizes our life. We will talk more about James 2 in the chapter on Perseverance of the Saints, but as a bit of a preview, James has been widely misunderstood to be saying that an inactive faith is a non-existent faith, when in reality he is saying that an inactive faith still exists; it is simply unproductive. James does not want unproductive faith. He wants us to act upon our beliefs. James is not saying that faith is a work, nor is he saying the true faith always reveals itself through works. James and Paul are in full agreement: faith is the opposite of works (Rom 4:5), but faith energizes our works (Jas 2:14-26) and leads us on toward greater faith.

So no matter what stage of faith we are talking about, faith is not a work. There are different things people can believe which lead to different results. But no matter what is believed, the faith involved in that belief is not a good work. It is simply being persuaded and convinced about what we have been told. When we believing in Jesus for eternal life, we have become persuaded that Jesus, as the author and finisher of our faith, loves us, forgives us, and freely grants eternal life to us, not because of anything we have done but simply and only because of God’s grace toward us.

Some people object that John 6:28-29 teaches that faith is a work. John MacArthur, for example, uses John 6:29 in The Gospel According to Jesus to teach that faith is a work, and therefore, not something human beings can accomplish. He says that since faith is a work, it cannot be “merely a human work, but a gracious work of God in us.”⁰ Several things can be said against this, beginning with what Jesus was actually saying in John 6:29.

In this text, Jesus says “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” From a cursory reading of this text, it certainly seems that Jesus is equating faith with a work. But when the verse is read in context, it shows the opposite. In the immediately preceded context, Jesus has told some of His followers that they should “not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life” (6:27). In response, some of the Jewish people who were listening to Him ask, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” (6:27). Jesus answers by telling them that the work of God is to believe in Him, that is, in Jesus (6:28).

Jesus says this, not because He is trying to say that faith is a work, but because He is pointing out to the Jewish people that God was not looking for works, but was looking for faith. Many Jewish people of that day (like many Christians today) were overly focused on pleasing God through the works of the law. By saying that the work God wants is for people to believe in Jesus, Jesus was saying that the work that God desires is not work at all, but the opposite of works, which is faith. God does not want us to “do” anything for Him, for He has already done everything for us. He simply wants people to believe in Jesus for eternal life, thereby recognizing that everything which needs to be done has been done in Jesus.

Beyond even this, however, the idea that faith is a work, and therefore a work of God in the heart of the unbeliever is “a theological fiction which cannot be supported from Scripture.”⁰ The Bible everywhere contrasts faith and works so that if one attempts to accomplish something by faith, it cannot be said to have been done by works, and vice versa.

Faith involves the abandonment of any attempt to justify oneself and an openness to God which is willing to accept what he has done in Christ. The same applies here in regard to salvation. Faith is a human activity but a specific kind of activity, a response which allows salvation to become operative, which receives what has already been accomplished by God in Christ.⁰

So faith is not a special sort of human work, nor is it a divine work in the heart of the unbeliever. Rather, faith is not a work at all. Faith is the opposite of works. Just as we do not receive eternal life by faith and works, so also, we do not receive eternal life by faith that is a work. Just as faith cannot be part of the definition of works, so also, works cannot be part of the definition of faith. The two are not related in any way, but are polar opposites. Both faith and works, by definition, are mutually exclusive. Grant Hawley, in his book The Guts of Grace, says this:

Phrases like, “For by grace you have been saved through faith … not of works …” (Eph 2:8-9), and, “to him who does not work but believes” (Rom 4:5), are complete nonsense, if works are part of the definition of the words faith and believe. If a woman at a wedding reception said, “The one who does not move, but dances, enjoys the reception,” you would wonder if she had had too much to drink because moving is part of the definition of the word dances.⁰

Faith is being persuaded or convinced that what God says is true. One of the things God says is that He gives eternal life to anyone who believe in Jesus for it. Because of all that God has done in history, through various forms of revelation, and by His Holy Spirit, people are able to believe in Jesus for eternal life. This faith is not a work, but is the opposite of works, and as such, faith is in no way meritorious.

A few words from Clark Pinnock appropriately close out this section:

God’s grace may be genuinely extended to people, but unless it meets the response of faith … it has no saving effect…

The standard criticism leveled against a theology of this kind is synergism. It is supposed to bring into the event of salvation a decisive human work, and thereby destroy its purely gracious character. But this is simply not the case. Faith is not a work at all (Rom 4:16). It is not an achievement and has no merit attaching to it. It is simply the surrender of the will to God, the stretching out of an empty hand to receive the gift of grace. In the act of faith, we renounce all our works, and repudiate completely every claim to self-righteousness. Far from encouraging conceit and self-esteem, faith utterly excludes them (Rom 3:27). … Faith not the condition of grace, which originates in the counsels of eternity. Faith is rather the response to grace God calls for through which salvation becomes a reality in the individual concerned. WE are saved by God’s grace through faith.⁰

Faith is Not a Gift

The second reason some people teach that faith is a gift is because they think that faith is a meritorious work. If faith is a good work, and people are the ones who believe, then it logically follows that people contribute some sort of good work to the reception of eternal life. But again, as we have seen in numerous ways above, this problem is easily solved by recognizing that faith is not a work, but is instead the opposite of works. And since faith is not a work, faith is also not meritorious. Therefore, those who are dead in sin can believe, and since faith is not work, all of the arguments for the idea that faith is a gift become logically unnecessary.

Nevertheless, in a vain attempt to defend a doctrine which is required by faulty theology, various Scriptures are referenced as evidence that faith is a work (Acts 5:31; 11:18; 13:48; 16:14; 18:23; Eph 2:8-9; Php 1:29; 2 Tim 2:25; Rom 12:3; 1 Cor 12:8-9; 2 Pet 1:1). However, a careful analysis of these texts reveals that each one has been pulled out of context and does not teach that faith is the gift of God.⁰

But aside from not being logical or Scriptural, the idea that faith is a gift of God creates numerous practical problems for the thinking theologian. For example, how could demonic activity restrict the faith of some (Luke 8:12; 2 Cor 4:4)? Why is it harder for some people to believe than others (cf. Titus 1:12-13)? What would be the point of the drawing work of the Holy Spirit (John 6:44; 12:32), or of evangelism and missions? Why was Jesus sometimes amazed at people’s lack of faith (Matt 8:26; 14:31; 16:8)? Why are there so many Christian in Europe and America, and so few in North Africa and the Middle East? On this last question, missiologist C. Gordon Olson writes that if the Calvinists are right about faith being a gift of God, then “one if forced to the conclusion that God is partial and loves Americans more than others.”⁰

In his excellent article, “Is Faith a Gift from God or a Human Exercise?” René Lopez lists several other theological problems with the idea that faith is a gift from God.⁰ First, he writes that the idea of faith being a gift from God resembles the sacramentalism of the Roman Catholic Church, in that faith is transmitted from God to men. He correctly points out that this confuses the gift of eternal life from God with the instrumentality of faith, whereby that gift is received.

Second, Lopez says that “if God divinely imparts faith, then human responsibility is nullified.”⁰ There would be no reason to hold people responsible for believing or failing to believe in Jesus if the unregenerate person cannot actually believe. If God is the one who imparts faith to the unbeliever, then the responsibility to believe lies not with man but with God, and therefore, God can have no basis on which to judge people for failing to believe.

Third, although the Bible calls people to believe in Jesus for eternal life, Lopez points out that if faith is a gift that comes as a result of regeneration, then people should not be called to believe in Jesus (for they cannot), but should instead be called to hope and pray to God that He might regenerate them. Yet although there are numerous calls throughout Scripture for people to believe in Jesus for eternal life (John 3:16, 36; 5:24; 6:47; etc.), there is not only place in Scripture where people are invited to hope and pray to God for regeneration.

The final reason faith is not a gift from God is related to sanctification. If faith is the automatic gift of God to those whom He sovereignly regenerates, then it only makes sense that God also automatically and sovereignly would make sure that they are sanctified in holiness and obedience. And in fact, this is what Calvinists teach in their doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints. But as we will see in the discussion of this point, such a belief cannot be defended from Scripture, reason, or experience.

If faith is a gift, then many commands in Scripture that exhort, command, prompt, and warn believers to live obediently become superfluous because the ultimate end of infused faith guarantees the sanctification of believers without their involvement.⁰

So for biblical, theological, and practical reasons, we conclude that faith is not automatic, nor is faith the gift of God. Faith comes through hearing the Word of God, through the convicting and drawing work of the Holy Spirit, and through responding to the revelation that one has already received from God.

Regeneration Follows Faith

The final theological ramification of Total Depravity is the idea that regeneration precedes faith. As stated in various ways earlier in this chapter, this idea is the necessary result of the logic of Total Depravity. If people are totally depraved, dead in sin, and have no free will to believe in Jesus for eternal life, then God must give them the faith so that they can believe. But this gift of faith could not be received by someone unless they were first regenerated by God. So the Calvinist argues that regeneration precedes faith.

And while we cannot disagree that this is the logical result of consistent Calvinism, it is exactly this logical result which shows one and for all that Total Depravity is not taught in Scripture. Total Depravity leads to the belief that people are regenerated by God before they believe in Jesus; but the Bible repeatedly says that faith results in regeneration (John 1:11-13; 20:31; Gal 3:26; 1 Pet 1:23-25). When forced to choose between the logical result of a theological position or the clear teaching of Scripture, we must choose Scripture every time. And of course, if faith precedes regeneration, as Scripture states, then this also calls into question the theological premises which led up to this idea, namely, that people are unable to believe and so God must give them the gift of faith. The Bible teaches that people are able to believe. Faith therefore, is not a work, is not a gift, and results in regeneration, just as Scripture says.

At least 150 times faith is made the single condition of salvation, thus stressing the fact that all the benefits of Calvary’s completed work are withheld until men believe. … Scripture does not teach that faith follows regeneration as some Calvinists would have it. Always in the Bible men are exhorted to believe in order that they might receive eternal life.⁰

One caveat, of course, is that although regeneration follows faith, faith is preceded by revelation. Without revelation, there would be no faith. Faith is a response to the multi-faceted revelation of God. While revelation precedes faith; regeneration follows. This was discussed above, and so nothing more needs to be said here.

Some point to Acts 16:14 as evidence that God regenerates people before they can believe. In this text, Paul and Silas met a woman named Lydia on the banks of a river outside of town, and as they explain the gospel message to her, the text says that “the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.” We will talk about this text more in the chapter on Irresistible Grace, but for now, it is enough to note that the phrase “opened her heart” is an idiomatic way of saying “helped her understand.” Acts 16:14 is not talking about God regenerating an unbeliever so that she can believe, nor is there any mention anywhere about God giving her the gift of faith. Instead, Acts 16:14 is a verse which shows the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of other people.

John 3 is one of the many texts which clearly reveals that regeneration follows faith. In speaking to Nicodemus, Jesus talks about being born again, and being born of water and spirit (John 3:3, 5). When Nicodemus asks how he can enter again into his mother’s womb to be born a second time (John 3:4, 9), Jesus states that anyone who believes in Him will have everlasting life (John 3:15-16). According to Jesus, believing in Him has the result of receiving regeneration unto eternal life.

You Can Believe!

One of the main reasons Calvinists object to the idea that people can believe in Jesus for eternal life is that if we make faith a human responsibility, then this seems to make eternal life somewhat dependent upon a human effort. But as we have seen over and over in this chapter, faith is not a work. So when God calls us to believe in Jesus for eternal life, this is something that everyone and anyone can do. Besides, if faith is not something we can do, then eternal life is no longer by grace alone through faith alone, but is simply and only be grace alone. While it is appealing to say that eternal life is by grace alone and nothing else, the cry of the Reformation and the center of the Gospel message in the Bible is that eternal life is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

So yes, you can believe! You should believe. God wants you to believe. God calls you to believe. This is just as true for you as it for anyone else on earth.

And by asking people to believe in Jesus, God is not asking people to regenerate themselves, save themselves, or contribute to their own eternal life. No, God has done everything that needs doing when it comes to the free offer of eternal life. He paid the full price so that it might be a free gift to us. When we freely proclaim the gospel as Jesus offered it to His hearers, the compelling nature of the free gift of God to all who simply and only believe in Jesus for it is recognizable to all as something that no religion on earth has offered, and hence, is no religion at all but is a message that can have its origin only in God. Internationally recognized author and evangelist Ravi Zacharias put it this way:

I have found that if you build a proper foundation for what the Christian faith is all about, as you lead up to the cross, the listeners sit in stunned silence. They immediately recognize that Christianity stands in stark contrast to everything that other worldviews affirm and assert. They know that true power is being expressed in the cross …⁰

As Jesus went about preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and inviting people to believe in Him, thousands responded. In Acts, we read about Cornelius, a God-fearing Gentile, who heard the message of eternal life and believed in Jesus for it (Acts 10:22, 44-48). After Paul and Silas saved the Philippian jailor from committing suicide, they told him and his family about God’s free offer of eternal life, and they all believed (Acts 16:25-34). These sorts of examples are found all over the place in the Bible, and the consistent message and expectation of biblical authors is that anyone and everyone can hear and understand the Gospel, and having heard, believe in Jesus for eternal life. While sin is a universal problem, people are not so depraved that they cannot respond to the call of the Gospel and believe in Jesus for eternal life.



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