The Calvinist perspective is that God chooses His own sheep, selected from eternity past as a special class of humanity, meaning that everyone who will ever believe in Christ has already been fixed and decided by God. What of the rest? It means that according to Calvinism, God does not desire that everyone come to know Him, and that He never intended most of humanity to spend eternity with Him in Heaven.
What do Calvinists believe?
As the Parable of the Lost Sheep illustrates, God went looking for us, long before we were looking for Him. God tracked me down and found me by the Holy Spirit. By Supernatural intervention in my heart and life, I became a Christian.
Our reply:
God indeed seeks the lost, but the objection is over the notion that God makes the choice for us. Instead, we must choose God over the things of this world. In other words, if you were to ask God to give you an “Irresistible Grace” so that you would never sin again, ever—you won’t get it. Like Peter, you will fall, and get back up again, and you must choose God over sin, every day. It’s the same struggle that everyone faces. Some people don’t want to let certain things go. Others fall back into the same sins over and over, but we must get back up again. We must choose. We have to make a choice. He won’t make it for us. Thankfully, because we have turned to God, He has given us a new nature that seeks to walk with Him and to do His will.
What does it mean to be one of God’s sheep?
It means to be a follower. However, Calvinists conceive of God’s “sheep” as a fixed and predetermined class of “the elect,” in which John 10:26 is cited in support:
John 10:26: “‘But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.’”
However, if we keep reading to John 10:37-38, we find that Jesus still persuades these very same people (whom He just declared were not His sheep) to believe in Him through the compelling evidence of His miracles, evidencing that not being one of His sheep is still correctable:
John 10:37-38: “‘If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.’”
The idea that someone who is not one of His sheep can still believe in Him, runs counter to Calvinism’s concept of a fixed state. But if we consider the real meaning of sheep as followers, then it makes perfect sense that someone who is not currently one of His [followers] can still turn and become a [follower]. Indeed, some of the Pharisees whom Jesus stated were not His sheep, later fell under conviction and asked Peter what to do:
Acts 2:36-38: “‘Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.’ Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”
In this way, people who were not Jesus’ sheep/followers ended up later becoming as such, reinforcing the fact that those who were not of Jesus’ sheep still could become one.
[This post has been excerpted with permission from Richard Coords, Calvinism Answered Verse by Verse and Subject by Subject, © 2024.]
