Predestination And Free-Will

Can A Person Resist God’s Grace?

 
Do you think in a test of wills, that man can overpower the Almighty? I think not!
 

Acts 6:10 – “And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.

 

Romans 9:19 – “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?“

 

1Corinthians 3:6 – “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.”

 

Galatians 1:15-16 – “15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, 16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood”

 
But, you may ask, what about verses like these:
 

Acts 7:51 – “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist <496> (5719) the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”

  • 496 antipipto {an-tee-pip’-to} from 473 and 4098 (including its alternate);; v
  • AV – resist 1; 1
  • 1) to fall upon, run against
  • 2) to be adverse, oppose, strive against

2Timothy 3:8 – “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist <436> (5731) the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.”

  • 436 anthistemi {anth-is’-tay-mee} from 473 and 2476;; v
  • AV – resist 9, withstand 5; 14
  • 1) to set one’s self against, to withstand, resist, oppose
  • 2) to set against

We must remember that it is the nature of unsaved man to resist God, to fight against Him, to rebel. That is why we need God to transform us into new creatures who do not continually resist God just as God transformed Saul the rebel, who was actively resisting God, into Paul the Apostle:
 

Acts 9:5 – “And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: [it is] hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”

 
When we examine this conversion experience in Paul’s life we see him at one moment “kicking against the pricks” and then at the next moment he is asking Jesus “what wilt thou have me to do?”. God was not at Paul’s mercy hoping that Paul would stop persecuting the Church and hoping that Paul would stop resisting the Holy Spirit. It was clearly Paul who was at God’s mercy and who was subject to God’s will and God’s instructions, not the other way around, as we see in Acts 9:6:
 

Acts 9:6 – “And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.”

 
Paul was trembling – he had a fear of the Lord. God had converted him at this point. He was aware of who Christ was and who he had been persecuting and he was now willing and able to do the Lord’s bidding and forsake his own previous self-righteous agenda.
 
Summary: This article is a section of a much larger article on the Bible doctrines of Election and Predestination called “Who accepts Whom?“. You are urged to check out that larger article for many other thought provoking questions pertaining these “Doctrines of Grace”. — RM Kane