Doctrines of Grace

Order of Service

• Sermon
• Pastoral Prayer

---

Sermon Title: Doctrines of Grace — An Introduction

Scripture: No single passage; survey of church history and theology

I. The Doctrines of Grace Are an Ancient Debate

A. The New Testament era: grace under attack from the beginning

1. The Judaizers taught grace plus works — circumcision and the Law of Moses (Galatians, Romans)
2. Greek asceticism taught grace plus abstention from food, marriage, and sexual activity (Colossians, 1 Timothy 4:1-3)

B. The Pelagian Controversy (4th century)

1. Pelagius denied original sin — Adam's sin was self-contained, passing down only a bad example, not a sin nature
2. Pelagius taught that man retains the natural ability to believe and live perfectly
3. Augustine responded from Scripture, defending original sin and total corruption
4. Augustine argued that man cannot believe unless the Spirit regenerates the will, affections, and nature
5. Augustinianism is the historical forerunner of Calvinism — 16th-century Calvinists saw themselves as Augustinians

C. Semi-Pelagianism (6th–7th century onward)

1. Conceded Augustine's point on original sin and human inability, but introduced universal prevenient grace as a divine assistance
2. This grace does not save efficaciously; it merely enables every person to freely choose Christ by their own natural powers
3. Semi-Pelagianism is the theological root of both modern Arminianism and Roman Catholic sacramentalism
4. In Roman Catholicism, grace is infused at baptism to aid the individual in meriting justification by works
5. The Reformers recognized the danger: Arminian doctrine shared the same semi-Pelagian foundation as Roman Catholic sacramentology
6. William Ames (English Puritan) warned: "Arminianism is not properly a heresy but a dangerous error in the faith tending to heresy — a Pelagian heresy — because it denies the effectual operation of internal grace to be necessary for the effecting of conversion and faith"

D. Key distinction: efficacious grace vs. assisting grace

1. Calvinism: grace carries out its intended effect and secures the salvation of God's elect
2. Semi-Pelagianism/Arminianism: grace is merely a tool; the individual must use it by his own free will

II. The Five Points of Arminianism

A. Origin: Jacob Arminius (c. 1560–1610), Dutch theologian, professor at the University of Leiden

1. Arminius was deliberately vague; his students (the Remonstrants) codified his views explicitly

B. The five points of the Remonstrants

1. Man is never so completely corrupted by sin that he cannot savingly believe the gospel when presented with it
2. Man is never so completely controlled by God that he cannot reject the gospel
3. God's election of those who will be saved is based on His foreseeing that they will, of their own accord, believe
4. Christ's death did not ensure anyone's salvation; it created only a possibility of salvation for all who believe
5. Believers must keep themselves in a state of grace by maintaining their faith; those who fail fall away and are lost (loss of salvation)

III. The Five Points of Calvinism — The Canons of Dort

A. Background: The Synod of Dort (Dordrecht), 1618–1619

1. The only truly international Reformed synod — Reformed theologians gathered from across Europe
2. Convened specifically to respond to the five points of the Remonstrants
3. Parallels other church councils called to answer specific errors: Nicaea (325, against Arianism), Chalcedon (451, against Nestorianism and Eutychianism), and the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15)
4. Confessional documents serve the church by providing clarity on contested doctrines across generations

B. The five responses (TULIP in summary)

1. T — Man is so utterly lost in sin that without the regenerating grace of God, man cannot desire salvation, repent, believe, or do anything truly pleasing to God
2. U — God freely and sovereignly determined to save some lost sinners through the righteousness of Christ and to give His elect the gift of faith
3. L — God sent His Son to die as the substitute for His elect; Christ's death will certainly result in the salvation of His own
4. I — God's grace saves the sinner irresistibly, since only irresistible grace can overcome man's rebellion
5. P — God in mercy preserves the gift of faith in His elect to ensure that the good work He began in them will certainly come to completion in their salvation

C. Calvinism and evangelism

1. Hyper-Calvinism wrongly dismisses the means of grace; orthodox Calvinism insists God ordains both the ends and the means
2. The proclaimed gospel is the ordained means by which God brings the elect to salvation (cf. Acts 18:9-10)
3. The doctrine of election frees the evangelist to trust in God rather than in persuasive technique or human gimmicks
4. The 16th- and 17th-century Calvinists were among the greatest evangelists precisely because of, not in spite of, the doctrine of election