John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Neil Anderson: “Jesus is the door; He is the access through whom we have the right to come to the throne of grace. Our only right to be there is because of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and His grace.” (Who I am in Christ, p.82, emphasis mine)
Ephesians 2:13: “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:18 states: “For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.”
Jesus is the only way to the Father. Only as a Christian can one be called elect or chosen. Jesus is the Elect One, and we are only “choice meats” in so far as we are blood-washed, redeemed, Born Again Christian believers. We have standing and access to God the Father only on account of our position and identification with Christ. However, by contrast, before Calvinism’s elect are Christians, they are already deemed elect with the Father and chosen to be atoned for and regenerated with a new heart of flesh, resulting in being irresistibly drawn to Christ. That contradicts John 14:6.
To illustrate that dilemma that John 14:6 creates for Calvinism, consider the following quotes which claim special access to God the Father:
John Calvin: “Christ says that the elect always belonged to God. God therefore distinguishes them from the reprobate, not by faith, nor by any merit, but by pure grace; for while they are far away from him, he regards them in secret as his own.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.393, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “This way of speaking, however, may seem to be different from many passages of Scripture which attribute to Christ the first foundation of God’s love for us and show that outside Christ we are detested by God. But we ought to remember, as I have already said, that the Heavenly Father’s secret love which embraced us is the first love given to us.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, pp.76, emphasis mine)
“In secret as his own” with a “secret love” contradicts John 14:6. For if we were God’s eternal secret possession, as per Calvinism, in an alleged, eternal flock of the Father, then John 14:6 loses its meaning. Calvinists are free to disagree, but the point Jesus is making is that you cannot come into a relationship with the Father, that is, in the Father (1st John 2:24), apart from first abiding in His Son. The way to the Father is through His Son, and yet Calvinistic Election seems to have found another way to the Father, namely, through eternal secret Election.
God predestined spiritual blessings for His church (Ephesians 1:3), and God, for His part, sincerely desires everyone to come to know Him and become part of His church. Calvinism, though, presumes that there exists the Father’s special class of “elect.” They are not “in Christ.” They are not believers. Instead, they are “in the Father,” so to speak, hidden with a “secret love” (John Calvin says). But if true, then Jesus is not the only and pivotal way to the Father. John Calvin picked up on this dilemma. The whole idea of Christ-centered theology is that you have no secret, hidden connection to the Father, except through Jesus. (John 14:6) Hence, a relationship with Jesus is the door to the Father. That is the essence of Corporate Election. The point is that no Calvinist is worthy, eligible or has any basis or standing to be one of the Father’s secret elect, especially since it would undermine and circumvent the Mediatorship of Christ.
Calvinist presumed paraphrase: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one [visibly] comes to the Father but through Me [though the secret sheep were already hidden in the Father].”
John Calvin: “So all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only empty and confused but also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for although philosophers sometimes come up with excellent sayings, they contain nothing but what is ephemeral, and mixed up with perverse errors.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.339, emphasis added)
And that’s not Calvinism’s Election? Calvinism teaches that the only way for a person to ever be able to believe in Christ is by first being eternally in the Father. In other words, Calvinism teaches that in order to ever become one of the Son’s sheep, you have to first be one of the Father’s secret sheep:
John Calvin: “God has chosen His own to be holy and without blame (Eph 1:4).” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.134, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “As if God were not said to have purposed His good pleasure in Himself alone, because finding no cause in us He made Himself the cause of our being saved! As if it was in vain that Paul repeats five times that our salvation is wholly the effect of that decree and purpose and good pleasure! As if he declared without any purpose that we were blessed in Christ because we were elect!” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.140, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “For God looks at nothing outside Himself by which He is moved to elect us, for the counsel of His own will is the only and proper and (as they say) intrinsic cause of election.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, p.130, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “Paul further confirms this, declaring that God was moved by no external cause; He Himself and in Himself was author and cause of our being elected while yet we were not created, and of His afterwards conferring faith upon us.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.69, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “Then, when Paul lays down as the unique cause of election the good pleasure of God which He has in Himself, he excludes all other causes.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.69, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “Christ therefore is for us the bright mirror of the eternal and hidden election of God, and also the earnest and pledge. ... We see here that God begins with Himself when He sees fit to elect us....” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.127, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “The calling is therefore a certain and specific calling, which seals and ratifies the eternal election of God so as to make manifest what was before hidden in God.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.70, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “Christ certainly counts none among His own, unless he be given by the Father; and He declares those to be given who before were the Father’s (ibid. 17:6).” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.147, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “I answer briefly that Christ was so ordained for the salvation of the whole world that He might save those who are given to Him by the Father, that He might be their life whose Head He is, and that He might receive those into participation of His benefits whom God by His gratuitous good pleasure adopted as heirs for Himself.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, pp.102-103, emphasis mine)
Calvinist, William MacDonald: “Election refers to His sovereign, eternal choice of individuals to belong to Himself.” (Believer’s Bible Commentary, pp.2290-2291, emphasis mine)
These quotes all show that in order to become Christians, you must first have been the eternal, secret possession of God the Father, hidden in Him, such that before the foundation of the world, God the Father chose you in Himself, so that you may then be chosen by Him to become in Christ. This is clearly what Calvinism teaches, and yet stands opposed to John 14:6.
Here is a link to a Blog discussion on this verse.
