Over the last number of years, since the eruption of the FV controversy, we have of course been involved in the public back and forths that such a controversy involves. Much of it has been the doctrinal interaction, and the rest of it has been (mostly unsuccessful) attempts to clarify what we are in fact saying. But for some, these latter attempts are just like rubbing the spot on the wall — it just won’t clarify. Take, for example, Scott Clark’s most recent foray into fog. His summary of our position is this: “Get in by grace, stay in by cooperation with grace.” Forsooth, and double heh.

via Three Reasons Why There Has Been An FV Controversy.

Doug’s entire post is helpful and true, in my opinion (obvious as well, but we live in an age where that makes it rare to find in print). But I want to point out Doug’s summary misrepresentation which he ascribes to Clark. I think I’ve read similar stuff from several quarters whether or not it was in this latest post by Clark (I trust Doug, but I haven’t verified for myself in this particular instance and, if I thought this was something peculiar to Clark’s recent post, I would be obligated to personally witness it).

“Get in by grace, stay in by cooperation with grace.”

Why is this misleading?

Because it is misleading. It is a way of asking if one has stopped beating his wife.

It is misleading because Calvinists know that cooperation with grace is itself a gift of grace and that cooperation goes back to getting in.

Paul said it best in Ephesians 2.8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Faith itself is a gift from God.

(I realize the gender of “faith” and “that” are different in the Greek, but there is no way to remove faith from what is covered as a gift of God and what is excluded from the result of works.)

But even though faith is a gift of God, it is also the act of an individual believer. When a person hears the Gospel and believes it is he or she who believes. God or Jesus does not believe in his or her place.

So you get in by cooperating with grace, not merely by cooperating by grace, but the grace of God is what gives you the grace to cooperate with the grace of hearing the Gospel.

And you continue to believe and you continue to be justified, not of yourself, but it is a gift of God that he continues to bestow. As the Belgic Confession puts it:

However, we do not mean, properly speaking, that it is faith itself that justifies us—for faith is only the instrument by which we embrace Christ, our righteousness. But Jesus Christ is our righteousness in making available to us all his merits and all the holy works he has done for us and in our place. And faith is the instrument that keeps us in communion with him and with all his benefits. When those benefits are made ours they are more than enough to absolve us of our sins.

So you stay in by grace, not merely by cooperation by grace–because it is God’s grace that makes you continue to believe.

Calvinists have had to deal with those who deny that the gospel offer is genuine when that offer is made indiscriminately. The Gospel is not offered by saying, “If God has chosen you for eternal life, you will believe,” but rather,”Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved,” or more fully, “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will be saved, you and your house.”

And what is true of preaching the Gospel and encouraging repentance and conversion is also true of preaching the Gospel and encouraging perseverance and growth in grace. You don’t tell professing Christians that they will effortlessly persevere, or that they will persevere if they are elect and there is no use trying if they are not. You tell them that God is faithful and that they must continue to trust him to the end in order to inherit eternal life.