aIn previous BLOGs we looked at the teaching of the Trinity in order to show that the Gospel is fully Trinitarian and must be applied by grace in order to be fully of grace. I quoted George Smeaton regarding the Trinity and will do so again: “And as to the divine works, the Father is the source FROM WHICH every operation emanates (ex ou), the Son is the medium THROUGH WHICH (di ou) it is performed, and the Holy Ghost is the EXECUTIVE BY WHICH (en wi) it is carried into effect.”
Arminian teaching is not, at its best and in the kindest way I can say it, a full Gospel. If a person had perfect theology (the Reformed too) and presented a theologically perfect message of what Christ had done but left the person to his or her own devices, that person would not have presented the whole Gospel message (and so not truly perfect). Not only would that be true, but the person presenting the message would not have told all that Christ had done. Christ did not just provide enough to save sinners as long as they finished the work themselves, but His work was enough to guarantee the application of His merits to sinners by the work of the Holy Spirit. Christ purchased the Holy Spirit for His people and the Spirit will be applied to them.
We must not leave it in the hands of sinners to bring themselves to Christ as that is not a full Gospel at all. John 6:44-45 tells us the reality of this: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.” Here is the reality. No one (in the text “can”) has the ability to come to God unless the Father draws him. But, one might argue, the Father draws all men and it is up to the person to come that last step. Apart from that not being found anywhere in Scripture, let us look at the text before us. The text did not make that distinction about degrees of ability or the last step being in the power of the human will. It simply says that no one can (word of ability) come to Christ unless the Father draws that person. The text then goes on to show in part how that is done. Those who have heard (inner call) and learned from the Father will come to Christ and all the way to Christ. Who is it that teaches people inwardly? That is the Spirit.
Now let us go back and imagine what it means to call people to Christ. The Arminian method, though used by many that call themselves Reformed, is to tell people the message of Christ and then tell the person that s/he needs to believe. But notice that by believe it is usually thought of as a cognitive belief or to pray a prayer. But Scripture tells us that a person must be born again, that a person must repent, a person must love God and a person must be humbled and broken to do those things. But we must always remember that the sinner is dead in sins and trespasses and hates God. The Arminian message is really telling the person to go against his or her nature of enmity with God and just decide to love Him. In other words, it is a version of crass works no matter the way it is given and no matter the terminology of it. I John 4:7-10 and then 11-21 give us a different picture. No one loves God or anyone else until that person is born of God and knows Him. No one can love God until the wrath of God is removed from that person and the love of God is living in that person. It is God giving love that draws us to Christ.
We know from Romans 5:5-8 that the love of God is given to a person through the Holy Spirit. We know from Ephesians 3:16-20 that our inner man must be strengthened by the Spirit in order that we may have Christ dwell in us and then being grounded in love we can be filled to the fullness of God. The demands of the Gospel are so high that no one can meet them in his or her own power. This is the work of the Spirit and His alone. The Arminian view of the Gospel (practiced by many professing Reformed people too) is that man must do something in his own power to be saved. Again, the very best we can say is that is reducing the Gospel and reducing the demands of the Gospel. The sinner is not to be left with anything to do in order to be saved, but is to seek the Lord alone who can save him or her. The sinner must be taught that s/he can do nothing to save him or herself. Instead, the sinner must be taught that s/he must be humbled from the acts of the will and from any power or ability to save self and look to His grace alone. When we tell people what they must do, we must never tell them that they have the ability to do it or we will not have taught them the Gospel. The New Covenant is that God will be in them and that God will work in them all that is needed. What the sinner must do is to be broken from any hope or ability in him or herself and even that cannot come from his own strivings. In order to trust in Christ alone one must leave the workings to the Holy Spirit who was purchased by Christ. True faith in the triune God will only come when a person has no trust in self or its abilities. That is one reason why the Arminian message is so opposed to the true Gospel.
God Loves... Himself 
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