The
Divine Chain of Salvation (Romans 8:29-30)
“Not long ago I received a call from an editor of a
Christian paper, who receives our Believers Bible Bulletins from a member of
the church here. The editor is a member of a denomination that believes in a
generally Arminian approach to biblical teaching. For example, he does not
accept the doctrine of unconditional election, or election grounded in the
sovereign good pleasure of God, just as we have been expounding it in this
article. Nor does he believe in the perseverance of the saints, or the security
of the believer in Christ. And yet, in spite of this, he occasionally prints
our studies in his paper, apparently thinking that they might do his readers
good, even though free grace is stressed. It was on a Saturday afternoon when
he called me, and I was in our family room without a Bible before me. He
introduced himself over the telephone and explained what he did with the
studies. But he had a bit of a problem, he said. In the study on John 6:34–40,
which he wanted to use in his paper, there were some strong words on sovereign
grace and divine election. He told me that there was one particular paragraph
that, if I did not mind, he would like to eliminate from the study, because it
might be offensive to his readers. It was a paragraph in which I had cited John
Calvin and had added some words myself. I asked him to read the paragraph to
me, which he did, and it had to do with God’s gift of us to His Son. We
discussed it for a few minutes, and then I suggested that it would be
satisfactory to me for him to print the paragraph, but add a footnote to the
effect that he, the editor, did not necessarily endorse all said in the
paragraph. I thought that might satisfy both of us, and he agreed to do that.
But then he added that He believed that those given to the Son would come, as
John 6:37 says, but that there were other things that might be said about it.
“I believe that those given will come to the Son,” he affirmed, but he added,
“but we believe that others might also come, who had not been given.” I said to
him that I did not have a Bible with me and, therefore, would he read John 6:65
over the telephone. And he read, “Therefore said I unto you, that no man can
come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.” And he was wise
enough to put together John 6:37, “All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me,” the sufficient condition for
salvation, the divine giving, with John 6:65, “no man can come unto me, except
it were given unto him of my Father,” the necessary condition for salvation,
the divine giving, and then confess, “Well, that looks like an iron-clad case!”
I said, “Yes, it is.” We must be given to come to Christ, and all of the given
shall come. That is the divine chain of salvation.”
Article by S. Lewis Johnson (1998). Emmaus Journal, 7(2), 210–211
