What has happened to the solid, Biblical conviction of the doctrines of grace in the lives of Believers? Due to watered down preaching, a lack of personal study, and individual prejudices most evangelical Christians of the twenty-first century do not even have the correct understanding of what the doctrines of grace stand for and how they impact our daily lives in relation to world missions. The correct understanding of the doctrines of grace not only supports the Biblical principles of world missions, but it is also the fuel that sets Christ-centered hearts on fire with the passion to glorify God bymaking Him known.
In Pastor Grover Gunn’s Short Explanation and Defense of the Doctrines of Grace he states: “The doctrines of grace are the teaching that salvation is all of grace." This is the heart of the gospel: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. This is an amazing and unbelievable work because apart from Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross no one could be reconciled to God. “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not works, lest anyone should boast”(Eph. 2:8-9).
The reason why we can proclaim the gospel and fulfill the Great Commission is because salvation is the work of God who has sovereignly elected individuals from every tribe, tongue, and nation to be his chosen people (Rev. 5:9). God has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation; as if, we are His ambassadors imploring the world on Christ’s behalf to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:18-20). The doctrines of grace are essential to our lives because without God’s grace no one could be saved.
The History of the Doctrines of Grace The doctrines of grace are most commonly known today as the five points of Calvinism and are easily remembered with the help of the acronym, TULIP: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and the Perseverance of the saints. “These
doctrines are important because they take confidence away from any spiritual good that might
be thought to reside in man and instead anchor it in the will and power of God alone” (Boice &
Ryken 19).
Although, the word Calvinism is derived from John Calvin (1509-1564), the Father of Reformed Theology, he himself did not draw up these five points. In 1610, a year after Professor Jacob Arminius died, his followers put together five articles of faith that summarized Arminius’ position on salvation. “The Arminians, as they came to be called, presented these doctrines to the state of Holland in the form of a protest…arguing that the Dutch confessions should be amended to conform to their views” (Boice & Ryken 25). As a result, in 1618, a synod was called to convene in Dort for the purpose of examining the Arminians’ five articles of faith in the light of Scripture. After the course of seven months, the Synod of Dort rejected as heretical the five articles drawn up by Arminius’ followers because these articles made salvation out to be the work of man instead of the work of God. J. I. Packer summed it up well in writing: “…Arminianism made man’s salvation depend ultimately on man himself, saving faith being
viewed throughout man’s own work and, because his own, not God’s in him.” Thus, the Synod of Dort set forth their own five points known as the five points of Calvinism refuting the Arminian position of salvation. They believed that the Bible taught that salvation is solely the work of God from start to finish and that man cannot in anyway contribute to his own salvation.
However, this great controversy did not originate at the Synod of Dort. It can be traced back
several centuries earlier when Augustine defended the doctrines of grace against Pelagius in the
fifth century.
Pelagius argued that man had not been tainted in any way by Adam’s fall, but that Adam had
only set a bad precedent for mankind to follow. He held that everyone had the free will and
power within himself to believe the gospel and live a perfect life free from sin.
In great contrast, Augustine believed that there is no one righteous who can seek God, and
that the only way we can be saved is by God’s grace alone. Augustine contended relentlessly for
the doctrines of grace against Pelagius’ constant opposition. Finally, after years of controversy,
Rome condemned Pelagius as a heretic and affirmed Augustine’s view of salvation.
Nevertheless, “…a new system soon presented itself, teaching that man with his own natural
powers is able to take the first step towards his conversion and that this obtains or merit’s the
Spirit’s assistance” (Smeaton 338). This view, which was condemned by the Council of Orange in
529, came to be known as Semi-Pelagianism. Casian, who was the founder of this view, believed
that man is indeed corrupted by original sin; but, he held to a system of universal grace for all
mankind that allowed the end result of salvation to rest on man’s final decision through his own
freewill.
Not only did Augustine, Calvin, the Synod of Dort, and the Council of Orange reject these
man-centered systems, but those who led the Protestant Reformation and the Great Awakening
also rejected these doctrines as unscriptural. These leaders studied the Scriptures and concluded
that salvation is by God’s grace alone for His chosen elect whom Christ redeemed with His shed
blood on the cross.
Nonetheless, these five points of Calvinism would have no power or significance over our lives
as Christians, if they were solely based on a manmade system. The question at hand is what
does the Bible have to say about salvation? Do the doctrines of grace have any Biblical stance?
As we take a closer look at each of these individual doctrines, I would like to point out from
Scripture the solid evidence that declares that God is sovereign over every aspect of our lives
including our salvation; the very reason that world missions is possible.
Total Depravity The first point of Calvinism is total depravity or total inability. In Romans 3:10-12, Paul quotes from the Psalms and says: “…There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together
become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” This passage in Scripture clearly states that no one can do anything that is good in God’s sight. “The doctrines of grace teach that salvation is all of God's grace, and the doctrine of total depravity relates to this by demonstrating that natural man is unable to do anything to earn or merit his own salvation” (Gunn). Isaiah 64:6 states: “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” All of mankind has been totally tainted by sin. Everything we do is polluted by our sin. Even the attempts we make to perform good deeds are as “filthy rags” in God’s sight. Indeed, we have all gone astray and turned to our own way (Is. 53:6).
Ever since the fall of creation when Adam and Eve first disobeyed God, all of mankind has been born dead in his transgressions and sins inheriting Adam’s sin nature (Ps. 51:5; 58:3; Eph.2:1-3). We can never measure up to God’s holy and perfect standards, and nothing we can do will bring us back into a right standing with God. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Ro. 3:23).
Since the fall of mankind the natural, fallen man views the things of God as foolish and stupid (1 Cor. 2:14). Due to his hardness of heart, his understanding is darkened and his eyes are blinded to the light of the gospel (2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 4:17-18). In fact, the Bible clearly teaches that fallen man lives as the enemy of God, not loving or seeking after God, but delighting in the darkness and in his evil deeds (Ro. 8:7-8; Jn. 3:19).
Jeremiah 2:13 sums up all sin into two grievous evils: “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me [God], the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns---broken cisterns that can hold no water.” The reason why sin is so terrible in God’s sight and why He must punish sin is because of how holy and righteous He truly is. By sinning against God, we have ceased to treasure the only one worth treasuring (God) and have turned away to treasure that which is worthless.Fallen man has no ability to come to Christ for salvation because everyone has been corrupted by sin. We do have freedom in the sense that we can chose to act out the intentions of our hearts, yet as Genesis 6:5 says: “Then the LORD saw the wickedness of man . . . and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The hard fact of the matter is that fallen man in his carnal state does not want to live in fellowship with God. He is happy wallowing in his evil deeds and relishing his wicked ways. Even people who appear to be good and decent on the outside are desperately wicked in God’s sight because they live apart from God delighting in their own pleasures.
Unconditional Election This leads us to the second point of Calvinism, which is unconditional election. Loraine Boettner puts it well when He states:
It follows…from what has been said that salvation is absolutely and solely of grace---that God is free, in consistency with the infinite perfections of His nature, to save none, few, many, or all, according to the sovereign good pleasure of His will. It also follows that salvation is not based on any merits in the creature, and that it depends on God, and not on men, who are, and who are not, to be made partakers of eternal life. God acts as a sovereign in saving some and passing by others who are left to the just recompense of their sins (Boettner 71).
As Boettner says, the Biblical definition of unconditional election is that God chose to save some from the punishment of their sins while leaving others to receive the just recompense of their sins. Ephesians 1:4 states: “…[God] chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love….” God based His choice not on the merit or the works of the individual He saved, but solely upon His grace and good pleasure (Eph.2:8-9). Before the foundation of the world---before anyone was born and had the opportunity to do either good or evil---God chose to save certain people for His name’s sake (Ro. 1:5-6). There is much controversy over this doctrine in the church today. However, this debate is not over the validity of the doctrine of election itself, but rather, it is over the source of that election.
Pastor Mark Waite summed up the controversy of election well when he wrote: “The Calvinist believes that the basis of election is God’s unconditional and sovereign choice, whereas, the Arminian believes that it is man’s choice” (Waite 55). The Calvinist would affirm that God chose people unconditionally, and thus, those people will choose Him, whereas, the Arminian believes that God chose because He knew who would choose Him. Arminians considers God’s election as conditional. “This means that God bases His election of an individual on foresight, foreseeing whether or not a particular individual will have Faith” (Boice & Ryken 99). They believe God’s election depends upon their decision to repent and choose Him.
However, this view leads to a man-centered system of salvation, where people essentially elect themselves and have the final say whether they are saved or not. Arminians base their belief of God’s foreknowledge off of verses like Romans 8:29: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son….” However, the use of the word “foreknew” does not mean that God looked down the portals of time to see who would repent and choose Him; it is quite the contrary. When the Bible speaks of God’s foreknowledge it refers to the fact that God actively and personally chose His elect before the foundation of the world. “…God knew the people themselves intimately and personally because He had chose them beforehand” (Waite 62).
There are many objections to the doctrine of unconditional election. One objection is that this doctrine is unfair. As humans, we cannot understand why God would choose some individuals
without giving everybody the opportunity to be saved. However, we cannot judge God by our
own thoughts and opinions; for God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Is. 55:8). If God treated us as our sins deserve none of us would be saved, for we have
all sinned (Ro. 3:23). Romans 9:14-23 pointedly addresses this very issue:
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.’ So then it is not of him who wills, nor him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.’ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens
You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?’ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory….
God is all-powerful and sovereign over all things and has every right to save some but not all. It is hard for us to wrap our imperfect, human minds around the fact that God has prepared some people for destruction so that those whom He has chosen may see how marvelous His grace and mercy truly are for those He has chosen. He has a reason, and even though it is hard to understand why God does what He does, we must trust Him for He is God.
Another objection to the doctrine of election is that it reduces people into robots and makes
their choices not real choices at all, because God has already made their choices for them.
However, we cannot confine God in a box. Scripture clearly teaches that God in His sovereignty
Has chosen some to be saved, but not others, yet all the while holding humans responsible for
their actions and deeds. We may not be able to understand how these two realities exist at the
same time, but as I have said before, we must trust God.
Additionally, unconditional election blows free will out of the water in the sense that man has
no power to choose God of his own accord. Indeed, the fact still remains that no one wants to
choose God of his own accord. Everyone has the free will to act out the inclinations of his heart,
but everyone is inclined to do evil.
God in His wisdom and sovereignty elected certain people whom He chose to save before the
foundation of the world. He is not unfair or unjust in any way because He is God and can do
whatever pleases Him.
Moreover, as Christians, the truth of this doctrine should make our hearts overflow with
gratitude and praise to God for His great mercy and grace in electing us before the foundations of
the world. As Christians, we do not need to know all the whys and hows, but we do need to
praise and thank God for His kindness in redeeming us from our sins.
Limited Atonement The third point of Calvinism is the doctrine of limited atonement. Matthew 20:28 states:
“…The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for
many.” Election itself cannot save anyone. “Those chosen by the Father and given to the Son
had to be redeemed if they were to be saved” (Steele, Thomas & Quinn 39). Limited atonement
addresses the fact that Jesus, through His blood shed on the cross, made atonement for the
elect. “…God had a limited design or purpose in the atonement…the cross of Christ saves,
everyone God intended it to save” (Gunn).
Christ came to earth to bear the sins of many. Isaiah 53:12b says: “ …[Jesus] bore the sin of
many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Jesus made redemption for the elect and
paid for all of their sins. God did not intend to make salvation a possibility for those who might
believe in Him, but a reality for His chosen people. As Matthew 1:21 states: “And she will bring
forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
God’s plans cannot be thwarted in any way and what He has declares in His Word will come
into fruition. Throughout the entire Bible, God has made known the fact that Christ would save
many and make atonement for many, not all. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid His life down
for His sheep (John10:11-18). Jesus did not die for those who were not His sheep, but for the
ones whom the Father had already given Him.
In John 17:6 Jesus prays to His Father and says: “I have manifested Your name to the men
whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me….” Jesus
redeemed the ones His Father had given Him. He did not make atonement for every single
individual.
The question remains, what about the Bible passages such as 1 John 2:2, which speak of Jesus
making atonement for the whole world? We must interpret Scripture with Scripture and not
pick out of context a single verse because it affirms our thoughts and feelings. In many Bible
passages, referring to universal terms, “world” is used in the sense that people from every tribe,
language, and people group will be saved.
We must consider many factors when we study limited atonement, especially taking into
consideration the original Greek rendering of certain passages and words. Take for instance the
verse I mentioned above, 1 John 2:2: “And He [Jesus] Himself is the propitiation for our sins,
and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” This verse may seem to be referring to
unlimited atonement, but if you dig deeper and study the meanings of the Greek words, “whole
world” takes on a different meaning. World does not imply every single individual, but is a
general term referring to people all over the earth. It “simply identifies the earthly realm of
mankind to which God directed His reconciling love and provided propitiation” (MacArthur 49).
Jesus made propitiation for the elect and satisfied the wrath of God. He did not make Salvation a potential for every individual, but He made salvation an actuality for the elect.
Furthermore, when Jesus came to earth to pay the penalty for the sins of the elect, He took upon Himself 100% humanity, all the while remaining 100% God (Jn. 1:1-2,14). He alone could save sinners because He alone was and is the perfect Son of God, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, and of supreme, infinite value and worth (Heb. 4:15b). At the cross, Jesus paid for all of the sins of the elect. A great exchange occurred when God the Son took all the elects’ sin upon Himself and gave them all of His righteousness (Ro. 5:18-19). The reason we, as Christians, are able to have fellowship with God is because Jesus took our place and paid for all of our sin and imputed to our account all of His righteousness.
Irresistible Grace This brings us to the fourth point of Calvinism, which is irresistible grace; or, better defined as
efficacious grace. Efficacious means to have the power and ability to bring about a desired result
and in our context refers to the way in which God draws sinners to Himself. Unconditional election is the work of the Father, limited atonement is the work of Jesus Christ the Son, and
efficacious grace is the work of the Holy Spirit. “Simply stated, this doctrine asserts that the
Holy Spirit never fails to bring to salvation those sinners whom He personally calls to Christ”
(Steele, Thomas & Quinn 52). Romans 8:14 states: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are
sons of God.”
As we study God’s plan of salvation for His elect people, we see that God’s plan is perfect and
flawless. He has every aspect of salvation under His control, and He is unfolding His divine plan
in His own perfect timing.
At the end of the book of Matthew, Jesus commands His disciples to preach the gospel wherever they go and to make disciples of all nations. God, not only ordained who will be saved, but He also ordained the means by which those people will be saved. God uses His children to proclaim the good news to the ones He has not yet saved. As we preach the gospel to the unsaved, the Holy Spirit uses it to draw sinners to Christ.
The Perseverance of the Saints The last point of Calvinism is the perseverance of the saints. This is the doctrine that everyone whom God has chosen to save will never lose his salvation. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which we have in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ro. 8:35-39). Our salvation is secure because it is the work of God, which cannot be frustrated.
In John 10:27-30 Jesus states: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.” As this verse says, God truly is greater than all, and through His might and power He keeps His children who He has saved, saved. He will not let His covenant of peace depart from His chosen people (Is. 54:10).
However, “The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints does not maintain that all who profess the Christian faith are certain of heaven” (Steele, Thomas & Quinn 64). Only we who are true Christians and set apart by the Spirit will persevere to the end through the almighty power of God that keeps our faith secure. It is valid that many true Believers fall away and go through periods of great darkness. At times, we may look more like unbelievers than believers, but if we
are the true children of God, we can never lose our salvation. Indeed, God will discipline us when
we are unfaithful to Him, but He will never take away the salvation He has given to us through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
God is faithful and will bring about the plans and purposes He has promised. God has given
His children salvation, and He will keep them eternally saved. In 1Thessalonians 5:23-24 Paul
states: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit,
Soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, He who calls you
is faithful, who also will do it.” God is faithful and will complete the good work He has started in
us (Phil. 1:6).
Furthermore, 2 Timothy 4:18 says: “And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and
preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.” God’s plans
and purposes will stand, and He will bring His chosen elect safely into His heavenly kingdom for
His glory. We are safe and secure in our faith because God keeps us safe and secure.
Finally, Jesus declares in John 5:24: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word
and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has
passed from death into life.” Because of the salvation God has bestowed to us through the
redemption we have in Christ Jesus, we will never face the wrath of God. Jesus satisfied God’s
wrath and is our Savior from our sins. Our faith is secure in God because when God the Father
looks at us He sees Christ’s righteousness imputed to our account (Colossians 3:3-4). We can
persevere in our faith and have eternal security because of the power of God through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
The Doctrines of Grace Fueling World Missions Salvation is all of God’s grace. Every aspect of His sovereign plan is perfect, and all glory and
praise belong to Him alone. When we make salvation out to be dependent upon man and his
choices we belittle God and make much of ourselves; but, when we acknowledge that salvation is
solely the work of God from start to finish He gets all the glory and we get the joy.
God has commanded us to proclaim His Good News of salvation and gather in the harvest of
His elect to worship Him. We must obey God by sharing the gospel with the lost. “However, the
essence of evangelism does not lie in the results; it rests in the message itself---the good news of
salvation in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ” (Boice & Ryken 23). We are to carry out
the Great Commission that Jesus gave to His disciples with all diligence, but always with the
pure motives of glorifying God and not ourselves. Romans 1:16 states: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes….” Salvation is the work of God, and He has appointed us to be His witnesses. He deserves all the glory for salvation is all of His grace.
When we recognize that God is sovereign over every aspect of salvation and correctly understand the doctrines of grace, our lives will explode with a passion to share the Gospel of
God’s grace with the world. Our great confidence in the mission God has given us as His ambassadors is anchored in the fact that we cannot fail because God’s plans and purposes cannot
fail. Indeed, the doctrines of grace are the fuel that gives us motivation for missions. If salvation were not a work of God’s grace, our mission would be impossible because no one is able to turn to Christ through his own ability. The accurate understanding of the doctrines of grace motivates us to proclaim the gospel because we know that people will come to Christ because God has chosen to save people from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Rev. 5:9). The mission God has given us of evangelizing the lost is now no longer impossible because God has made it possible through His saving grace.
This is the motivation that has stimulated countless men and women to serve the Lord as missionaries. They clung to the assurance that God would be faithful to fulfill His Word and save
His chosen people through the preaching of His Word. They could not fail because their mission
did not rest upon the results, but upon God’s name being glorified as they faithfully shared the
gospel.
The pages of history bear witness to the great impact the doctrines of grace have had on world missions. One such example of the motivation the doctrines of grace spurred on is the life of John Eliot, a missionary to the American Indians.
John Eliot sailed to Boston, Massachusetts from England in 1631, to escape the persecution of his Puritan beliefs. He settled in Roxbury a couple miles outside of Boston with his wife, Hannah, where he pastored a new church there.
When Eliot was in his early forties he began reaching out to the Indians in the surrounding
countryside. He spent two years studying the Algonquin language and eventually translated the
entire Bible into the Indians’ native tongue. Eliot began preaching to the Indians in 1646, and
baptized the first converts five years later. He also set up “praying towns” in which the Christian
Indians could live.
Eliot spent his life serving as a missionary to the American Indians. His confidence in God’s sovereignty over salvation carried him through life’s ups and downs. He knew that “God, not he,
was saving souls and was in control of the bad times as well as the good” (Tucker 89).
In John Piper’s book, Let the Nations be Glad, Piper address the motivation that inspired Eliot to become a missionary to the American Indians:
According to Cotton Mather, there were twenty tribes of Indians in that vicinity. John Eliot could not avoid the practical implications of his theology: if the infallible Scriptures promise that all nations will one day bow down to Christ, and if Christ is sovereign and able by His Spirit through prayer to subdue all opposition to His promised reign, then there is good hope that a person who goes as an ambassador of Christ to one of these nations will be the chosen instrument of God to open the eyes of the blind and set up an outpost of the kingdom of Christ (Piper 50).
The heart of Eliot’s motivation was rooted in the doctrines of grace. His confidence that God had chosen people from every tribe, tongue, and nation motivated him to share the gospel with the Indians because God would save His chosen ones and fulfill the promises He has made in His Word. Consequently, Eliot believed that his missionary work to the Indians could not fail because God’s plans cannot fail. His great incentive was his assurance that God would save His elect indians.
Furthermore, not only are the doctrines of grace the fuel that gives us motivation for missions, but they are also the fuel that gives us perseverance through missions. In view of the fact that God is completely sovereign over salvation and has chosen the means by which He will save His elect, we can persevere through missions and the great trials and hardships that we may face because we are convinced that it is the will of God for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. God’s plans and purposes cannot fail or be hindered. In Job 42:2 Job, in speaking to God, says: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.” In addition, Proverbs 19:21 says: “There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the LORD’s counsel---that will stand.”
God has planned to reconcile to Himself His chosen elect for the glory of His name, and nothing can thwart His plans. God uses His children to accomplish His plans in regard to missions and carries out His purposes through their lives as they proclaim His Gospel. When we recognize that God is sovereign and in control of our lives, we can be assured that nothing that we are doing for His glory is in vain. He has appointed every situation we go through and every trial we face for our good and His glory. As Romans 8:28 states: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Adoniram Judson, who was a missionary to Burma, was encouraged by this same confidence in God’s sovereignty and persevered through his life-long missionary service to the Burmese people. “The great importance this has to my purpose here it to stress that this deep confidence in God’s overarching providence through all calamity and misery sustained him to the end” (Piper).
Judson arrived at Burma in 1813, to begin his missionary work to the unreached, hostile Burmese, which he continued for the next thirty-seven years until his death in 1850. In looking
back over his life as a missionary, Judson said: “If I had not felt certain that every additional trial
was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings” (Piper).
Throughout the time Judson spent in Burma, he translated the entire Bible into Burmese and
a dictionary for the benefit of future missionaries. He also experienced many terrible hardships
throughout his years as a missionary including several years of imprisonment for his Christian
faith, the death of his first wife, Ann, and their three children. The first baby, nameless, was
born dead as they were sailing to Burma, the second baby, Roger Williams Judson, lived to be seventeen months old and then died, and their third baby, Maria Elizabeth Butterworth Judson,
died at age two out living her mother by six months. Judson’s second wife, Sarah, died eleven
years after their marriage, and only five of their eight children survived childhood. Judson’s third wife, Emily, outlived Judson by four years and gave birth to two children, one of whom died
at birth.
Judson faced severe depression after the death of his first wife and nearly gave up his missionary work, but God used Judson’s losses to strengthen him in his faith. Judson persevered through the great heartaches he experienced because he knew God was sovereignly using these hardships to accomplish His perfect will for His glory.
After Judson’s death in 1850, hundreds of Burmese converts were leading the church and using the Bible Judson had translated. Judson’s work and sacrifice were used by God to fulfill His purposes by spreading the gospel message to Burma and to gather up His elect Burmese people. Judson’s missionary service was not in vain even when he endured great suffering and failure. He persevered because he was confident in the sovereignty of God over every aspect of his life.
Finally, not only are the doctrines of grace the fuel that gives us motivation for missions and perseverance through missions, but they are also the fuel that gives us joy in missions. When we
realize that God is sovereign over salvation, and thus, sovereign over missions, we can joyfully
surrender our lives into His hands knowing that He will sustain us through missions as He uses
us to accomplish His purposes.
In Psalm 16:11 David joyfully addresses God saying: “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (emphasis added). When we submit our lives to the sovereignty of God and embrace the doctrines of grace our hearts ignite with an inexpressible joy; a joy that is found in God alone as we trust Him daily. James 1:2-4 states: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” As we depend upon God and His sovereign plan for our lives, we realize that whatever we may go through is the perfect will of God for us. If we are serving as His ambassadors, the understanding that He is in control of salvation and in control of our lives frees us to surrender our worries and concerns to our kind, heavenly Father and rest in His good and perfect will for our lives.
John G. Patton joyfully embraced the sovereignty of God as he served as a missionary to the cannibals in the New Hebrides. As Patton learned to rest in God‘s sovereignty, he found great
joy in the presence of God in missions.
Patton was born near Dumfries, Scotland, on the 24th of May, 1824. Patton’s father greatly influenced him and spurred him on in his faith. At a young age Patton committed his life to missions and determined to become a missionary one day.
In 1858, Patton along with his wife, Mary, sailed for the New Hebrides. They reached the island of Tanna seven months after embarking upon their journey. However, less then three months later in March, Patton suffered the great loss of the death of his wife and newborn son. The Lord sustained Patton through this sorrow, though, and solidified Patton’s confidence in His sovereignty and care for him through these trials. God was preparing Patton for the years of missionary work that still lay ahead.
Patton remained at Tanna for the next four years, persevering under great opposition. Finally, in 1862, he was driven off the island of Tanna by the cannibals whom he had tried to minister to and spent the next four years traveling around Australia and Great Britain laboring to gain support for the missions work in the New Hebrides.
Patton remarried in 1864, and sailed with his wife, Margaret, for the island of Aniwa. They served as missionaries there for forty-one years to the natives of Aniwa. Patton found immense joy in serving the Lord as a missionary because he knew that God is sovereign over salvation and would draw His elect people to Himself.
At the end of his life he recorded the great joy he had as a missionary and his hope that his
children would have that same joy:
Let me record my immovable conviction that this is the noblest services in which any human being, can spend or be spent; and that, if God gave me back my life to be lived over again, I would without one quiver of hesitation lay it on the alter to Christ, that He might use it as before in similar ministries of love, especially amongst those who have never heard the Name of Jesus. Nothing that has been endured, and nothing that can now befall me, makes me tremble - on the contrary, I deeply rejoice - when I breathe the prayer that it may please the blessed Lord to turn the hearts of all my children to the Mission Field and that He may open up their way and make it their pride and joy to live and die in carrying Jesus and His Gospel into the heart of the Heathen World! (Patton 444).
Patton’s life is a testimony of the joy God bestows upon those who trust and rest in Him. When we rest in God’s sovereign hands and rely upon Him to save souls and accomplish His purposes we find joy in His presence in missions.
The doctrines of grace, certainly, have had an enormous impact upon world missions because without the correct understanding of how God reconciles people to Himself, we would end up
relying upon our own power and strength instead of resting in His sovereignty. God will bring
about the salvation of His elect in His own perfect timing. He uses us to be the bearers of His Good News to the unsaved; but, we must always remember that God is the one who works in the hearts of men and not us. We are simply the instruments that God uses to proclaim His
great salvation.
The Doctrines of Grace Misunderstood: Two Dangerous Extremes Nevertheless, as I have stated before, many Christians today do not have the correct understanding of these important doctrines, and consequently, fall into one of two dangerous extremes. On one end of the spectrum lies the error of viewing salvation from a hyper-
Calvinistic point of view, and the other error is viewing salvation from an Arminian point of
view. The former extreme is just as detrimental as the latter because both interpret God’s word
incorrectly concerning salvation.
“Hyper-Calvinism is sometimes defined as the view that God will save the elect apart from
any means” (Johnson). Those who hold to this view oppose evangelism and missionary work
because they believe that God will save whomever He will save apart from Believers sharing the
gospel with the unsaved. However, as we have already seen, this view is totally contrary to the Word of God. There are countless passages in Scripture that speak of how God uses His children as His instruments to bring His chosen elect into salvation. The book of Acts is a perfect example of how God uses His children to proclaim His Gospel to the lost. Paul and other first-century Christians went on numerous missionary journeys to spread the Gospel to the lost. In Paul’s second epistle to the church in Corinth, he referred to Christians as “God’s ambassadors” who are to be imploring the world to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:18-20).
Hyper-Calvinism takes all responsibility away from man, whereas it is true that salvation is
all of God’s grace and not by works, God also holds man responsible for his actions and choices.
For Believers, this means that we are to be obedient to the Great Commission that Jesus gave His followers and make disciples by proclaiming the gospel. We are God’s instruments to call His
elect into salvation. Just as a doctor performing a surgery uses certain tools to operate on his patient; so, God also has sovereignly chosen to use His children as His tools to bring about the
salvation of His elect.
The doctrine of hyper-Calvinism is by no means a new concept, but has existed for centuries.
William Carey, the Father of Modern Missions, faced great opposition from hyper-Calvinists when he decided to serve the Lord as a missionary to India. When Carey began talking of becoming a missionary to India a certain man, John Ryland, told him: "Sit down, young man. When God decides to save the heathen, He will do it without your help” (Johnson). However, Carey did not give up even when faced with great opposition. He believed that God, not only sovereignly chose to elect certain people to be saved, but also sovereignly chose to use His children to be the instruments by which He would save His elect.
Carey wanted to be one of the laborers Jesus spoke of in Luke 10:2: “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Carey was confident that God’s plans could not fail and that God would use him to save His elect people in India. Carey invested his life in a pursuit that could not fail--- a pursuit that was not in vain or a waste of time. Even though many people of his day thought he was out of his mind, he pressed on confident in God’s sovereignty and confident that God would use him as an instrument to save the elect.
God commands His children in His Word to be His witnesses and to proclaim the gospel to the
unsaved. We do not know whom God has chosen, but we do know that God has commanded us
to be the light of the world. When we understand the doctrines of grace correctly, we will see the
inconsistencies of hyper-Calvinism and its lack of a Biblical base.
The other dangerous extreme is Arminianism, looking at salvation from a man’s perspective.
Arminians believe that salvation is a gift that God offers everyone; and that everyone has the
final say whether he accepts or rejects this gift. They base their theology off of human reasoning
such as: “If God is love, then He must be fair and gives everyone the equal opportunity to be
saved.” However, God does not operate off of our mindset. If God was truly fair, everyone would be going to hell!
Arminians view missions work as their way to help God bring sinners to Himself; their way to
make God’s name glorious among the nations. They are motivated by their love for the lost who will end up going to hell, if someone does not lead them in a confession of faith. This is totally contrary to the Bible. God does not need our help to save His elect; but, He graciously uses us in this work: not to make His name glorious, but because His name is glorious. Our love for God and His glory should be the reason why we spend our lives serving in missions; not our love for people. Our love for people will fade and vanish, and if we are basing our ministry off of that we will give up and quit. However, it is our love for God and His glory that will spur us on in missions.
God’s plan for salvation cannot fail because He is carrying it out. If it was up to us salvation would be a total flop and failure. Missions is not about the numbers or the results of our effort, but about God and His name being glorified and magnified. Thus, when we correctly understand the doctrines of grace, we realize that God is the reason why we should spend our lives serving
as missionaries to gather in His elect to worship and glorify Him.
The Doctrines of Grace Carried on through History History testifies of the countless, God-centered missionaries who spent their lives making much of God as they served Him on the mission field. We have touched on only a few who committed their lives to glorify God by proclaiming His Gospel to the lost, but so many more stories have been left untold. “For all these men, the doctrines of grace were not merely an appendage to Christian thought; rather, these were the central doctrines that fueled their evangelical fires and gave form to their preaching of the gospel” (Boice & Ryken 19).
Not only are the doctrines of grace the fuel that spurred on past missionaries, but they are also the fuel that will spur us on as well. The end times are at hand. We should make the most of every opportunity that God has given us and glorify Him by making Him known among the
nations. When we realize that God is sovereign over salvation, sovereign over missions, and sovereign over every aspect of our lives, we will be able to do nothing except glorify Him as we serve as His ambassadors wherever we may live.
As we look back over history, God has given us great examples to follow. We must take up the torch and live our lives as passionately for God’s glory as those who have already gone before us have. We must understand the doctrines of grace correctly, so that we will spend our lives making much of God and not ourselves as we proclaim the Gospel of God’s grace to the world around us.
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