Article 9: Human Responsibility for Rejecting the Gospel

The fact that many who are called through the ministry of the gospel do not come and are not brought to conversion must not be blamed on the gospel, nor on Christ, who is offered through the gospel, nor on God, who calls them through the gospel and even bestows various gifts on them, but on the people themselves who are called. Some in self-assurance do not even entertain the Word of life; others do entertain it but do not take it to heart, and for that reason, after the fleeting joy of a temporary faith, they relapse; others choke the seed of the Word with the thorns of life’s cares and with the pleasures of the world and bring forth no fruits. This our Savior teaches in the parable of the sower (Matt. 13).

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The authors of the Canons have been very clear from the very beginning that the only reason why any are delivered from God’s wrath stems from something good in God and not because God sees anything good or meritorious in us. We are sinful creatures.

The theology of the Canons relates to our contemporary situation in that we cannot begin any discussion of human sin and God’s grace with the presuppositions typical of American democratic egalitarianism, namely, that everyone is equally entitled to a chance at heaven and that it would not be fair for God to elect some or bypass others because this would mean that God’s decree in election somehow prevents people from receiving that to which they are supposedly entitled, a chance at heaven.

The Scriptures teach that all of Adam’s children fell into sin when he did (Romans 5:12-19), and we suffered all of the consequences of Adam’s act on our behalf—sin and death. The Scriptures do not teach that everyone has an equal chance to go to heaven. Rather, Scripture teaches that the entire human race equally deserves eternal punishment. The entire human race is under God’s curse, since each one of us have sinned in Adam (the biological and federal head of the human race), in addition to the fact that we have each personally sinned against God’s infinite majesty. God owes us nothing but judgment.

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Article 6: Unbelief Man’s Responsibility

However, that many who have been called through the gospel do not repent or believe in Christ but perish in unbelief is not because the sacrifice of Christ offered on the cross is deficient or insufficient, but because they themselves are at fault.

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At this point, the authors of the Canons must respond to the perennial and nagging question raised by the biblical teaching about the death of Christ. “Why is it that if Christ died for all, not all are saved?” This is especially the case in light of the Reformed distinctive that Christ’s death was designed to save God’s elect, not merely make all people hypothetically “savable” if they do what God asks them to do–repent and believe.

You have undoubtedly heard questions such as the following. “If the preaching of Christ crucified is the power of God unto salvation, why do not all believe the gospel when it is preached to them?” Where does the fault truly lie when someone does not believe the message of Christ crucified and then perishes eternally?

Since Reformed Christians contend that God alone can save those dead in sin, and since not all are saved, the Arminian will object that the Reformed understanding of the atonement makes God to blame when someone is lost, because God supposedly did nothing to provide for their salvation–the death of Christ being “limited” to the elect. On the Reformed understanding of particular redemption (God will save his elect), is not God himself to blame because he is not being fair in not choosing everyone to be saved? Does this mean that God somehow prevents certain individuals from believing and coming to faith in Christ when he chooses others to be saved, as is so often charged?

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