Using Correct Terminology (Part 3) – Sovereign Grace, Election, Predestination, Reprobation, Child of God, Born Again, Quicken

Click here for the Entire Series and Outline.

Click here for more sermons on Sovereign Grace.

Click here for the previous sermon in this series.

Click here for the next sermon in this series.

.

Sovereign grace

1. The term sovereign grace is not found in the Bible, but it describes the Biblical doctrine of salvation by grace.
2. Sovereign grace is the act of God in saving His elect by His grace alone apart from their will or works (2Ti 1:9; Tit 3:5-7; Rom 9:16).
3. We use the term “sovereign grace” because God is a sovereign king (Dan 4:35; 1Ti 6:15) who chooses to whom He will extend mercy and grace (Rom 9:15).
   1. Sovereign adj. – 1. Of persons: Standing out above others or excelling in some respect. Of things, qualities, etc.: Supreme, paramount; principal, greatest, or most notable.
   2. Sovereign n. – 1. One who has supremacy or rank above, or authority over, others; a superior; a ruler, governor, lord, or master (of persons, etc.). Freq. applied to the Deity in relation to created things.
4. Grace is unmerited favor and is not in anyway dependent on human faith or other works (Rom 11:5-6 c/w Joh 6:28-29).
   1. Grace n. – II. Favour. 6. a. Favour, favourable or benignant regard or its manifestation (now only on the part of a superior); favour or goodwill, in contradistinction to right or obligation, as the ground of a concession.
   2. The word “grace” by itself conveys the idea that God alone decides whom He bestows favor towards.
   3. Since most people think grace is an offer of salvation which is contingent on faith (which it is NOT), we use the term sovereign grace to describe our belief concerning eternal salvation to clear up any confusion.

Election, elect

1. Election n. – 1. a. The formal choosing of a person for an office, dignity, or position of any kind; usually by the votes of a constituent body. a. The exercise of deliberate choice or preference; choice between alternatives, esp. in matters of conduct.  3. Theol.  a. The exercise of God’s sovereign will in choosing some of His creatures in preference to others for blessings temporal or spiritual, esp. for eternal salvation. doctrine of election: the doctrine that God actually exercises this prerogative with regard to mankind; in popular language often identified with the (Calvinistic) doctrine of ‘unconditional election’, i.e. election not conditioned by the conduct or disposition of the individual.
2. Election is God’s choosing of men to eternal salvation (Eph 1:4; Rom 11:5; 1Pe 1:2).
3. Election is not man’s choosing of God for eternal salvation (Rom 9:11, 16).
4. The elect are those whom God has chosen (Mar 13:20) to eternal life.

Predestination, predestinate

1. Predestinate – v. 1. Of God: To foreordain by a divine decree or purpose: a. to salvation or eternal life; to elect.
2. Predestination is God choosing the eternal destination of heaven for His elect before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:11; Rom 8:29-30).
3. Predestination is God choosing to make one a child of God by adoption through Jesus Christ before the world began (Eph 1:5).

Reprobation, reprobate

1. Reprobation n. – 3. Theol. Rejection by God; the state of being so rejected or cast off, and thus ordained to eternal misery. (Opposed to election in the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination: cf. reprobate adj. 4 and v. 2.)
   1. Reprobate – 1. Rejected or condemned as worthless, inferior or impure. 2. Depraved, degraded, morally corrupt. 3. Rejected by God; lost or hardened in sin. 4. absol. Those who are rejected by God, and thus excluded from participation in eternal life with Him. (Opposed to the elect.)
   2. The Bible defines reprobate as “rejected by God” (Jer 6:30).
2. Reprobate v. 1. trans. To disapprove of, censure, condemn. 2. Of God: To reject or cast off (a person or persons) from Himself; to exclude from participation in future bliss. (Cf. reprobation 3.)
3. Reprobation is the action of God choosing before the foundation of the world to reject the people whom He did not choose to save, viewing them as fallen sinners.
4. The reprobate are those sinners, whom God rejected, who are not in Christ and He is not in them (2Co 13:5).
5. Reprobates are identified by their reprobate (depraved and morally corrupt) thoughts and behavior (Rom 1:28; 2Ti 3:8; Tit 1:16).

Child of God

1. A child of God is an elect, born again person who has eternal life (Luk 20:36; Joh 11:51-52; Rom 8:14-16; Eph 1:5; Gal 4:4-6; 1Jo 3:1-2).
2. A child of God is a spiritual child by the new birth, not a natural child by natural birth (Rom 9:8).
3. A child of God is one of the elect who is born again, quickened, regenerated, and in possession of eternal salvation, but not necessarily converted or a Christian.

Born again

1. Born-again – a. Of, pertaining to, or characterized by (an experience of) new birth in Christ or spiritual renewal; of a Christian: placing special emphasis on this experience as a basis for all one’s actions, evangelical. b. fig. Regenerate, revitalized; characterized by the extreme enthusiasm of the newly converted or re-converted.
2. The dictionary definition of “born again” is only partly accurate.
3. Being born again is the state of a person whom God has regenerated (quickened), giving him a new spirit and eternal life, making him a child of God (Joh 3:3-8 c/w Tit 3:5; 1Pe 1:23 c/w Joh 5:25).
4. Being born again is a synonym of being a child of God, being quickened, and being regenerated.
5. Being born again is not synonymous with conversion or with being a Christian, but rather happens prior to conversion (Joh 5:24; 1Jo 5:1) and becoming a Christian.

Quicken

1. Quicken – 1. a. To give or restore life to; to make alive; to vivify or revive; to animate (as the soul the body).
2. To quicken is to make alive and resurrect spiritually (Joh 5:21 c/w Joh 5:25; Eph 2:1, 5; 1Pe 1:3).
3. Quickening happens after a person has been legally justified by Christ’s death on the cross (Col 2:13).
4. Being quickened is a synonym of regeneration, being born again, and being a child of God.
5. Quickening is not a synonym of conversion, but rather happens prior to conversion.