From my friend Moose Parks (5-10 minute read): TULIP “Salvation is of Jehovah” (Jonah 2:9). TULIP is here used as an acrostic for the so-called “Doctrines of Grace” associated with the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace: Total Depravity Unconditional Election Limited Atonement Irresistible Grace Perseverance of the Saints. Each of these five points is here briefly explained in the context of the premise “Salvation is of Jehovah” (Jonah 2:9). I. Total Depravity – Salvation is not of man (Romans 3:9-18) “9 ... all are under sin. 10 As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all gone out of the way; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.’ 13 ‘Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit’; ‘the poison of asps is under their lips’; 14 ‘whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.’ 15 ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 and the way of peace they have not known.’ 18 ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’” Mankind universally in its native state is under sin’s power, guilt, and sentence of condemnation (v.9). All are devoid of righteousness (v.10), ability to understand their plight or the gospel (v.11a), ability or desire to seek God and salvation (v.11b). All have turned away from God and His precepts (v.12a). All together are devoid of merit or virtue worthy of God’s consideration (v.12b). None does good in God’s sight (v.12c). All are depraved entirely from their heads (vv.13f) to their feet (v.15), being depraved in thought, speech, practice, and walk. All destroy and cause misery to others, and deserve destruction and misery from God, and are in the broad way that leads to it (v.16). All are ignorant of the way of peace with and to God (v.17). None has reverential affection for God (v.18). II. Unconditional Election – Salvation is of Jehovah the Father (Ephesians 1:3-7) “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” God the Father has predestined the salvation of certain sinners, those who are the objects of His saving love (vv.4b-5a), by choosing them out of our fallen race to be holy and blameless (v.4a), His adopted children (v.5), and highly favored to be accepted in Christ (v.6). Their election by God the Father was “before the foundation of the world” (v.4) – from eternity, before they existed. Their election by God the Father was unconditional, not conditioned upon any good or merit in them (neither then nor in the future), for it was “according to the good pleasure of His will” (v.5), “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (v.6), “according to the riches of His grace” (v.7). Their election by God the Father was “in Christ” (v.4), their decreed and covenantal head and representative (v.6), in whom and by whom and through whom are all God the Father’s spiritual blessings (v.3). These include sanctification making holy and justification declaring righteous (v.4), redemption from sins and forgiveness of sins (v.7). III. Limited Atonement – Salvation is of Jehovah the Son (Isaiah 53:4-11) “4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. ... 8 ... for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. ... 11 He shall see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. 12 ... He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Jesus Christ has made atonement for “many” – not all of mankind (vv.11, 12). God identifies the “many” as “My people” (v.8) – those whom He has chosen to salvation. God’s elect acknowledge that Christ died as their substitute, vicariously for them, in their place and stead. As their substitute, He was counted as one of the transgressors (v.12a), took upon Himself their griefs and sorrows (v.4) and iniquities (vv.6, 11). Then He was, in their place and stead, by God stricken and smitten and afflicted (vv.4, 8), wounded and bruised and chastised (v.5), until the travails of His soul satisfied all that God required regarding the sins of His people (v.11a). All for whom Jesus Christ died will be healed of all their spiritual infirmities (v.5) and justified from their sins (v.11). Christ accomplished atonement for the “many” for whom He died – and for all of them! IV. Irresistible Grace – Salvation is of Jehovah the Spirit (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14) “13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The final operation in the salvation of sinners is here identified as “sanctification [wrought] by the Spirit”. The Holy Spirit graciously, effectually, irresistibly, and unfailingly applies all the saving benefits of Christ’s atoning death to the Father’s elect, and enables them to embrace His blessings. This “sanctification by the Spirit” is followed by and necessarily joined with “belief in the truth”, who is Jesus Christ, the sum and substance of all gospel truth (John 14:6). This “belief in the truth” is an operation of the Holy Spirit, for “This is the work of God” (John 8:29), and “faith ... is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8f). This “belief in the truth” is preceded by being “called by our gospel”: the Holy Spirit leads God’s preachers to the lost elect and effectually calls the lost to salvation while the preachers preach the gospel to them (as in Acts 16:7-34). All who believe the gospel will “obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Believing sinners are assured that they are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2). This “sanctification wrought by the Spirit” includes other operations. He regenerates God’s elect: they are “born of the Spirit” (John 3:3-8) and therefore “born of God” (John 1:13) – in no way is their new birth attributable to man or man’s will (ibid). He cleanses God’s elect: “through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). He justifies God’s elect: they are assured that “you were washed, ... you were sanctified, ... you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). He liberates God’s elect: “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). He works in the adoption of God’s elect: “you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:15-17; cp. Galatians 4:6f). V. Perseverance of the Saints – Salvation is of Jehovah to the end (Romans 8:35-39) “35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Here is both the preservation and the perseverance of God’s saints (i.e., those whom the Father chose to be holy in Ephesians 1:4). Their preservation is of divine grace, and is evidenced in the fact that nothing is able to separate them from the love of Christ and the love of God which is in Christ (vv.35, 38f). Their perseverance is of divine grace, and is evidenced in the fact that, although they always suffer adversity (v.36), they are “more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (v.37). “Salvation is of Jehovah!” – Daniel E. Parks (July 13, 2014; #870)
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 15:39:50 +0000
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