The Five Things Calvinism Does Not Say (Part 1)

I will be using the Westminster Confession of Faith as a standard of reference for representing Calvinism accurately. The Westminster Confession is by far the most predominant confessional statement of Calvinist theology in the Western world. With that established, I now present to you the Five things that most non-Calvinists assert about Calvinism, but which Calvinism does not teach.

1. Calvinism does not deny that we have free will.

The Westminster Confession has an entire chapter named “Of Free Will”. Here is the first complete section of that chapter:

God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor, byany absolute necessity of nature, determined to good, or evil. (WCF 9.1)

That’s as clear as you’ll ever get to the affirmation of free will. There’s also a chapter on God’s providential guiding of His creation earlier in the Confession in which the authors again affirm their belief in fee will:

God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will,  freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. (WCF 3.1)

When the Confession refers to “second causes”, human will is included in that category. Yet, asserting the liberty of “second causes” in general wasn’t enough for the authors of this Confession. They also insisted that in God’s providential control of events there is no “violence offered to the will of the creatures”. Section 3.1 of this Confession is not exclusive to Calvinism. The belief that God ordains everything that comes to pass is just Theism. Every Christian theological tradition agrees on this point. The differences come about when one confronts the following questions, like the relationship between God’s ordaining of events and his foreknowledge of them.

               Now, a lot more can be said about this topic, but that aside, the important point is that Calvinism clearly and unambiguously asserts that we have free will. If this is true, then why do so many people think Calvinism denies free will?

               Today, the phrase “free will” refers to moral responsibility. When one says people have free will, one means that they are not merely puppets of exterior natural forces such as one’s heredity and environment; one is in control of one’s own choices and is morally responsible for them. In modern-day language, the opposite of “free will” is “determined will”, that is to say, a will whose actions are naturally determined by things outside itself.

               However, in the 16^th century, when the Reformation first began, one of the central debates was over “free will” in a completely different sense. Back then, then question was whether the will is, by nature, enslaved by sin and in captivity to Satan. In this context, the opposite of “free” is not “determined” but “enslaved”. Believing in “free will” meant believing that human beings are not born as slaves of Satan. Denying “free will” meant believing that they are.

               Erasmus, one of Luther’s most insightful and influential critic, reinforced this use of the term “free will” in his book The Freedom of the Will. Erasmus reasoned that the crucial issue between Luther and Rome was whether we are born as slaves of Satan or born free to choose whether to serve God or Satan. Luther strongly agreed that this was in fact the crucial issue. He praised Erasmus for being the only proponent of Rome smart enough to comprehend this. Luther then replied to Erasmus’s book in his own book entitled The Slavery of the Will. Later, Calvin picked up on this theme, taking Luther’s position and entitled his own book on the subject The Slavery and Liberation of the Will. Denying “free will” in this particular sense was one of the earliest defining positions of both Lutheran and Calvinistic theology. It was an important element of the Protestant view.

               In these debates, no one was questioning that the will is “free” in the sense of self-controlled and morally responsible, as opposed to being determined by exterior forces. Everybody agreed that one has “free will” in this sense, but they didn’t call it “free will” because that phrase had a different meaning for them. Even Calvin called the slavery of the will to Satan “voluntary slavery”. Fallen man is a slave of Satan precisely because, when given a choice, he always chooses to love sin more than God. It is his own voluntary choice (his exercise of “free will” in the modern sense) that keeps him a slave to Satan (thus lacking “free will” in the 16^th century sense).

               Furthermore, in the Institutes of the Christian Religion, his theological masterwork, Calvin departs from his criticism of “free will” to make this very point. He notes that the term “free will” could also be used to refer to a morally responsible will that is not naturally determined by forces such as heredity and environment, and he says if “free will” means that, then he agrees that one has “free will”. Yet, he goes on to argue, that’s not what most people (at least in his day and age) would understand that term to mean, so it would be misleading for him to use it in that manner.

               The problem is that Calvinists who study the 16^th century debates frequently use its terms into the discussions and debates of today without adjusting for the change in meaning. Now, it’s natural and right for scholarly study of these theological issues to be molded by the great books that were written during the 16^th century Reformation debate. And yet, many times we don’t contemplate carefully enough how those books continue to form the English language, especially when one talks to an audience of people who don’t read 16^th century books on a normal basis. And now a days, the term “free will” has a completely different meaning from the one it had in the context of the 16^th century Reformation debate.

               Calvin said that he used the phrase “free will” the way he did because he desired not to cause a misunderstanding. But now a days when one uses it that same way, misunderstanding is precisely what one creates. One would do better to imitate Calvin in his desire to avoid misunderstanding rather than in his particular lexicographical choices.

JUSTIFICATION

The Bible’s teaching on justification is the very core of the gospel message because it answers the all-important question of how a sinner can become right with God. What is justification? Though the meaning of the word ‘justification’ may not be very familiar because we do not often use it in everyday speech, the concept is quite simple to understand. Justification is a legal term. It is the sentence pronounced by the judge in favour of the accused. To justify means to declare righteous, to pronounce not guilty. The justified person is freed from all punishment of the law. The opposite of justification, as one may suppose, is condemnation: the sentence meted against the accused when the judge declares him to be guilty, a law-breaker, and deserving punishment. The judge’s role, then, is to condemn the unrighteous and to justify the righteous (Deut 25:1; Prov 17:15). God would have justified us if we had been righteous. In that case we would not have needed a Saviour because Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. In reality we have all sinned, having broken the law of God. We are born sinners and throughout our lives we continued to pile up guilt upon guilt. ‘Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God’ (Rom 3:19). God’s just sentence is our condemnation because we are all guilty; we are all worthy of the punishment of hell. Since the Lord abhors him ‘who justifies the wicked’ how then can we ever escape divine judgment? It is precisely here that the gospel of God’s grace shines forth in all its splendour: God has revealed a way – the only way – whereby he himself may still be just and at the same time justify the wicked! There are two aspects to justification: negatively, God cancels out the sin record of the believer. ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.’ God does not impute sin, that is, he does not count the believer’s sins against him any longer. Positively, ‘God imputes righteousness apart from works’ (Romans 4:6-8). In other words, God counts and considers the believer as righteous! God imputes, or credits, righteousness to his account. At this point we must ask two important questions: (1) How is the blessing of justification received? (2) How can God justify a sinner without violating his own justice and holiness? Faith Alone  How is a sinner justified? A person is justified by faith, by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is the hand that receives God’s gift of righteousness. God does not justify the believer because of any personal righteousness that he has attained by obedience to God’s law. Scripture speaks unequivocally: ‘Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law’ (Rom 3:28). ‘Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified’ (Gal 2:16). ‘But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for ‘the just shall live by faith’’ (Gal 3:11). Man is justified by faith alone, that is, without any merit accruing from what he does during his lifetime. This does not imply that faith is alone or barren in the justified person. A true and living faith is always shown by the good works it produces, but the Christian does not perform good works in order to be justified before God, neither is he justified on account of his good deeds. ‘But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness’ (Rom 4:5). God justifies the ungodly! He does not say, ‘God justifies the righteous.’ That would have been perfectly understandable and just - and it would have spelled despair to all of us sinners. He does not even say, ‘God justifies the ungodly when he converts and starts doing good works.’ Paul insists that it is him ‘who does not work’ but ‘believes’ that God accounts as righteous. God justifies the ungodly by faith alone. Christ Alone  We now come to the second question. How can God justify a sinner without violating his own justice and holiness? How is it possible for God, who is holy and just, not to reckon sin? Can God be lax about it, or simply ignore it? How can he ‘credit righteousness’ to the believer if the believer does not work to gain it? What righteousness is this on account of which God accepts sinners? In a word, the answer is Jesus! The Bible explains how those who believe in Jesus are ‘justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith … to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus’ (Rom 3:24-26). God can be gracious towards sinners because of ‘the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’. Jesus bought our freedom by shedding his blood on the cross. In Christ ‘we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins’ (Eph 1:7). We were indebted to God’s justice; Jesus paid our debt in full. Our debt was cancelled. God presented Jesus as a propitiation. The word ‘propitiation’ means to placate, to pacify, and to appease. God is offended and angered by sin. ‘The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men’ (Rom 1:18). Jesus turned aside God's wrath against us who believe because he shed his blood on the cross as a sacrifice for sin. God is appeased because Christ fulfilled the demands of the Law. Moreover, in justification God does not only take away our sin and guilt; he also credits righteousness to our account. We are not only declared ‘not guilty’ – we are also declared ‘righteous’! Not guilty because our sins were taken away by Christ; righteous because we are clothed in Jesus’ righteousness. ‘Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous’ (Rom 5:17, 19). Adam’s sin brought down the human race with him to condemnation; Jesus’ perfect obedience to the Father merited righteousness and life for all who believe in him. In brief, God ‘made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him’ (2 Cor 5:21). Christ, the Lamb without spot or blemish, was made ‘sin for us’ – and suffered and died to satisfy divine justice. Furthermore, we have been made righteous ‘in him’. Believers are hid in Christ; when God looks at us, he sees us perfectly righteous – indeed, as righteous as his beloved Son himself. So, God is ‘just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus’ (Rom 3:26). God graciously declares believers righteous, and in so doing he remains perfectly just -- all because of Jesus’ obedience and sacrifice on the cross. Grace and justice are gloriously displayed at the cross of Calvary. Grace Alone  Why is it that the merits of Christ for our justification are applied to us by faith alone? Why doesn’t God allow us to contribute our merits too? The Bible answers: ‘Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace’ (Rom 4:16). God wants to exhibit the beauty of his grace – his unmerited favour, his goodness and kindness towards undeserving sinners. ‘Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness’ (Rom 4:4, 5). A worker deserves his salary because he has earned it by his labour, but a servant who hates his master and steals his property doesn’t deserve anything but chastisement. What if, instead of punishment, his master forgives him and enriches him with goods? That is grace! And that is exactly what God does to sinners who believe in His Son. Justification is not the wage, or payment, for our works. It was earned for us by an infinite price – the blood of the Son of God (Rom 5:9). God justifies us freely because the price was paid by his own Son! It is God’s gift to unworthy sinners. God justifies ‘freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’ (Rom 3:24). Freely! Without any payment! Without human merit! Whoever attempts to be reconciled to God by doing good works thereby denies and refuses grace (see Rom 11:6; Gal 5:4). This evangelical truth of justification is vital for the Christian church. If we are in error here, we lose the true and only gospel of God. With all our heart, we must embrace, uphold and defend the scriptural gospel of justification by faith alone, in Christ alone, and by the pure grace of God alone. © Dr Joseph Mizzi. 2008. Permission is given to reproduce and distribute this article in any format  provided that the wording is not altered and that no fee is charged. Please include the following  statement on distributed copies: Copyright Dr Joseph Mizzi. Website: www.justforcatholics.org.  Used by permission.