Luke 12:32
Luke 12:32
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.”
God the Father gladly gives people the Kingdom because they love and believe in His Son. Jesus states: “For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.” (John 16:27) The Calvinist will have to infer that the reason why they loved Jesus and believed in Him was because of Irresistible Grace, predetermined by Unconditional Election:
John Calvin: “In this utterance, Christ confirms the confidence that He urged His people to possess. How would God deny plain, perishable food to His own, when He had made them, by adoption, heirs of His Kingdom? He deliberately picks upon the word little flock, that they should not rate themselves lesser in God’s sight, for being counted as nothing in view of the world for their smallness. ... When Christ openly declares that God has given us the Kingdom, and for no other reason than that it has so pleased Him, then it is more than evident that it is not acquired by any meritorious works. And so, as often as the Lord lifts us to the hope of life eternal, let us remember to have no fear for our daily food.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol.I, p.224, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “First he points out the eternity of election, and then how we should think of it. 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)
Whereas Jesus says that it’s because they have “believed,” Calvin says “not by faith.” Make no mistake about it. Calvinism does not teach Justification by Faith, first and foremost. Rather, first and foremost, Calvinism teaches Justification by Election:
John Calvin: “When God prefers some to others, choosing some and passing others by, the difference does not depend on human dignity or indignity. It is therefore wrong to say that the reprobate are worthy of eternal destruction.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, pp.120-121, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “Those therefore whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children.” (Institutes, Book 3, Chapter 23, Section 1, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “There are some, too, who allege that God is greatly dishonored if such arbitrary power is bestowed on Him. … they should look up to the sovereignty of God and not evaluate it by their own judgment.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Romans and Thessalonians, pp.209-210, emphasis mine)
That’s Calvinism.
Question: Why was God glad to do this?
Answer: This verse does not address the why, but only the what. See John 16:27 for the answer to the question of why.
