Effectual Grace

Effectual Grace

Jer. 31:18-19, "Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; Thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh"

"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you - Acts 7:51 ...This passage, which is often used in an attempt to refute the biblical doctrine of irresistible grace, actually supports it. Notice the condition of the persons who are doing the resisting: their hearts and ears are uncircumcised, which is the Bible's way of saying they are unregenerate. A person in this condition will always resist the outward call of the gospel. The Holy Spirit may convict them of sin and work to show them their need to Christ, but as long as they remain unregenerate, their hearts will remain closed to Christ. Only the Spirit can circumcise their heart that we might be willing to believe and obey: "And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deut 30:6) Irresistible grace does not mean that whenever the Spirit works He is irresistible. Rather, it means that while His promtings are always resisted by the dead in sin, He can make the gospel irresistible when He opens their spiritually blind eyes, when he opens their deaf ears and turns their heart of stone to a heart of flesh.

The Doctrines of Grace Part 4 - Irresistible Grace (MP3)
Arturo Azurdia III

Irresistible Grace
Brian Schwertley

Concerning Efficacious Grace
Jonathan Edwards

The Jesus Syllogism: A Biblical Reflection on John 6
J.W. Hendryx - Does Jesus Himself Teach that Regeneration Precedes Faith?

The Call The Brings a Response Paul Helm

Who Can Come?
by Mark Webb

Effectual Calling and Regeneration by Dr. Van Lees

The Pelagian Captivity of the Church by R.C. Sproul

If anyone affirms that we can form any right opinion or make any right choice which relates to the salvation of eternal life, or that we can be saved by assent to the preaching of the gospel through our natural powers without the effectual work of the Holy Spirit, who makes all whom He calls gladly and willingly assent to and believe in the truth, he is led astray from the plain teaching of Scripture by exalting the natural ability of man, and does not understand the voice of God who says in the Gospel, "For apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5), and the word of the Apostle, "Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God" (2 Cor. 3:5).