I believe there are two wills of God. His “will of command”, which He commands of us such as, “we should abstain from sexual immorality”, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;” (1 Thessalonians 4:3), but this command which can be resisted is not His, “will of decree” God’s decretive, sovereign, or hidden will. This is God’s “ultimate” will. In which case, everyone would obey because God’s decree always infallibly comes to pass (NO ONE or NOTHING can thwart God’s eternal decree). God works all things after the counsel of His own will.” (Ephesians 1:11)
I believe that God decreed before the foundation of the world who He would save and who he would leave to their sin out of fallen man from every tribe, tongue, and Nation.
Before the foundation of the world, before the fall of man, God chose His people out of fallen man and predestined them for adoption (Ephesians 1:4, 5, 11). He wrote their names in the book of the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8)
It was based solely on His sovereign will, it was not based on anything man had done at all. He did not look down time to see who would put their faith and trust in Him as no one would have unless He did something first, even if he did look down time he would have had to draw them (John 6:44) and give them the gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8, Philippians 1:29) before they could ever come to Him.
We know not all people will be saved, that is Universalism. So, the only conclusion is that only those whose names are in the book of the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, who were predestined for adoption according to His will, will be drawn to God, born again from their spiritual death by God, and WILL repent and believe in Christ.
Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me” (John 6:37)
Jesus said, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” (John 6:39)
Jesus said, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40)
The work of God is that you believe…
Jesus says, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29)
So, God the Father’s will is that Christ should NOT lose any that the Father has given Him, but raise them up on the last day and that everyone who looks to Christ and believes in Him should have eternal life, and Christ will raise him up on the last day.
So, it is God who works in us to believe, He gives us the gift of faith and repentance. All that God chose who have been appointed to eternal life will believe (Acts 13:48). He first must change the status of our hearts, He first must give us a new heart, a new spirit and put His spirit within us as unless a man is born again spiritually he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3), he cannot understand the things of God, it is foolishness to Him as it is spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
We know this is God’s will and His will cannot be thwarted then we must understand that ALL that God chose from the foundation of the world whose names are in the book of the Lamb will be saved, no one can thwart Gods will.
Now, we have to understand something, because God is sovereign and we know this from scripture, His will can never be frustrated. Nothing happens that is beyond His control.
Unless you truly understand the state of fallen man and the order of salvation you cannot understand monergism and will always run to synergism.
God has decreed from the foundation of the world to save those whom He chose out of the world not based on any foreseen knowledge as God knows all, He does not learn anything, and if He looked down time to see who would choose Him means He would have to learn something. Knowing the state of man, NO ONE would choose Him, scripture is clear on that. Man is in a total fallen state, they are DEAD in their sins, they are off the path, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— who lives in the passions of their flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and are by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3)
Fallen man is hostile towards God, they are in rebellion against God, they cannot submit to God (Romans 8:7)
God commands ALL men to repent… He is not stopping them from repenting, He is not saying He does not allow them too. He is saying they CANNOT, they are not able to because of their sin, because of the hardness of their hearts, because they are in rebellion against Him, they hate Him, they want absolutely nothing to do with Him, they are the king of their destiny, they are the king of their lives, it is all about them.
The things of God is absolutely foolish to fallen man, they are NOT able to understand the things of the Spirit because they are void of the Spirit, He is not with them, He does not live within them guiding them, revealing truth to them. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
Fallen man, does not seek God (Romans 3:10-12), this is the very reason Jesus says, that a man must be born again to see the kingdom of God (John 3:3) unless He is born again He cannot understand, he is not able to.
This is what we mean by total depravity, which means that every aspect of man’s being is affected by sin, his will, his heart is deceitfully wicked, and his mind is set on the things of the world.
This is why synergism just does not work, we are not able to come to Christ, to accept Him, to choose Him unless He first does the work in us, unless He first causes us to be born again. It is God who causes us to be born again. (1 Peter 1:3)
How does He do that?
Regeneration… Ezekiel 36:25-26… By being born again we receive a new heart, our old heart of stone is crushed, we receive a new spirit, we are made new creatures, we receive the Spirit of God, we receive the gift of faith and repentance (Philippians 1:29, Ephesians 2:8, 2 Timothy 2:25, Acts 11:18) and NOW we are able to see the beauty of Christ, the Holiness of Christ and to see our sinfulness, our rebellion against God, We are now able to repent, we are able to understand the things of the Spirit, the Gospel, and the need for a savior.
We have been made ALIVE. Now we desire God, now we seek God.
This is why we say irresistible grace. Once born again, God looks so good, so lovely, so gracious, so sweet and worthy to be praised and glorified. Once made alive and having a new heart, a new spirit, and the Spirit of God inside us, we now see that we are heading for wrath and are frantically reaching for God to save us.
A similar thing would be seeing someone in a burning building, the fire is about to consume them, they are terrified as they realize they are about to perish, they feel the heat of the fire all over their body, their eyes are burning from the heat, the smoke is filling their lungs they can barely breath, their hairs are singed by the fire. Do you seriously think that that person would resist being saved by the fireman that is right there grabbing ahold of them to save them?
It is the Fathers will that Jesus lose NONE that He gave Him, but to raise them up on the last day, so we can be absolutely certain that God is making it irresistible for the man that He is drawing to Him.
This is why I believe in monergism. I believe that man is so lost in fact DEAD to God, that he will NEVER ever come to Christ on His own. God must do the work by causing him to be born again, He gives him the gift of faith and repentance and then the born again man can seek God and repent of his sins towards God.
God does ALL the work and man responds with the newly given gift of faith and repentance.
Scripture is clear on this. It also says in John 1:12-13, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of GOD!”
Those who believed in Jesus were born again. How? By GOD! Not of blood, meaning not of any sort of natural birth. They also were NOT born again by the will of the flesh or the will of man. Which means they weren’t born again because of anything they did they could not will themselves to be born again or work towards it nor could anyone will another to be born again.
They absolutely could not cause themselves to be born again. Being born again is something that God and only God does.
Paul speaks of it in Romans 9:16, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”
If being born again was synergistic, man could have something to boast about. Why did you come to Christ and not your neighbor or your twin brother? Is it because you was smarter, a better person, you sought God more? Why? What do you have to boast about? Because you chose Christ?
I know I covered a lot in this and I know a lot will disagree totally. I provided plenty of scripture to support the fact that salvation is 100% monergistic and that even the faith and repentance is a gift from God.