Irresistible Grace (or efficacious grace) is a doctrine in Christian theology particularly associated with Calvinism which teaches that the saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom he has determined to save (the elect) and, in God's timing, overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing them to a saving faith in Christ.

The doctrine

According to Calvinism, those who obtain salvation do so, not by their own "free" will, but because of the sovereign discriminating grace of God. That is, men yield to grace, not finally because their consciences were more tender or their faith more tenacious than that of other men. Rather, the willingness and ability to do God's will,

Biblical evidence for the doctrine

The sixth chapter of the Gospel of John contains three quotations from Jesus that summarize the Calvinistic view that no one can obey God unless God first regenerates the heart (all quotes from the ESV):

• 6:37,39: "All that the Father gives me will come to me.. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day."
• 6:44-45: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me."
• 6:65: "o one can come to me unless it is granted
  
  
  
  him by the Father."

And the statement of St. Paul is said to confirm that those whom God effectually calls necessarily come to full salvation: "hose whom predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified" (Romans 8: 28,30).

The doctrine is inexorably bound up with the Calvinistic system's view of man's inability to respond to God and the extent of God's common grace. As Charles Hodge says, "The and doctrine is true, if the other parts of their doctrinal system are true; and it is false if that system be erroneous. If the doctrine concerning the natural state of man since the fall, and the sovereignty of God in election, be Scriptural, then it is certain that sufficient grace does not become efficacious from the cooperation of the human will" (3.14.4). Thus the passages discussing those doctrines are also relevant here.

Objections to the doctrine

Christians associated with Arminianism, notably followers of John Wesley and part of the Methodist movement, reject the Calvinist doctrine. Instead, they believe that God's prevenient grace is equally provided to all human beings alike, drawing them toward his love and salvation. In this view, (1) after God's universal dispensation of grace to mankind, the will of man, which was formerly adverse to God and unable to obey, can now choose to obey; and (2) although God's grace is a powerful initial move to effect salvation, it can ultimately be resisted and rejected.

History of the doctrine

(see also History of Calvinist-Arminian Debate)

The doctrine is one of the so-called Five points of Calvinism- also known as - that were defined at the Synod of Dordrecht during the Quinquarticular Controversy with the Arminian Remonstrants, who objected to the general predestinarian scheme of Calvinism. The doctrine is most often mentioned in comparisons with other salvific schemes and their respective doctrines about the state of mankind after the Fall.

See also

• Born again
• Justification
• Prevenient grace
• Total depravity

Con

• by John Wesley
• by John Wesley
• by Gregory Neal
• by Steve Witzki
• by Steve Witski