A common argument by Calvinists is to suggest that anything apart from an Irresistible Grace, necessarily results in the individual becoming their own Savior, as a Self-Savior.
What do Calvinists believe?
Arminians effectively make themselves their own Savior by thinking that they are saved by their own choice to receive salvation, that is, through the exertion of the strength of their own willpower, both which births and sustains salvation, as the author and finisher of their own faith—the captain of their own salvation—all apart from the gracious gift of God’s effectual drawing, by which the human “decision of salvation” is actually secured and guaranteed on our behalf, that is, for God’s elect.
Our reply:
Believing in Christ does not mean that you either lived a perfect life or died on the Cross to become a perfect Savior. Instead, assenting to God’s ultimatum for salvation, through belief in His Son, simply means that you are accepting the heavy-lifting and hard work of what Jesus did—not what you did—in Him having overcome the world and Him having accomplished a perfect provision and atonement for sin. After all, if a non-Calvinist truly was their own savior and the captain of their own salvation, then they wouldn’t need Jesus at all, and could then stand on the merits of their own perfection, like what Jesus did. So, by having to utterly depend on someone else for salvation, namely depending upon Jesus, we are most definitely not our own savior. But, this is the point where Calvinists like R.C. Sproul will object and say,
“But though God does 99 percent of what is necessary, the man is still left with 1 percent.”367
However the perspective of percentages is a fallacy, as everyone is 100% responsible for their own choices. God’s decision to provide redemption, at His own personal cost, was 100% His own choice. There is no split percentage. Additionally, mankind’s decision to receive or reject God’s offer is 100% their own choice. There is no split percentage.
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367 Chosen By God (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1986), 115.
[This post has been excerpted with permission from Richard Coords, Calvinism Answered Verse by Verse and Subject by Subject, © 2024.]
