Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Is God Sovereign or Is Man Responsible in Salvation? with Jonny Ardavanis

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

Is God sovereign in salvation, or is man responsible? This is one of the most asked questions in theology. In this episode, we dive into Scripture to answer whether Calvinism or Arminianism is correct.We explore key passages like John 3, John 6, Romans 9-10, and Matthew 11 to show how God's sovereignty and human responsibility are both clearly taught in Scripture. You'll learn:✅ What hyper-Calvinism gets wrong ✅ Why human responsibility matters for evangelism ✅ How election and "whosoever believes" work together ✅ What an antinomy is (and why it's not a paradox) ✅ How to answer "Am I one of the elect?"Whether you're wrestling with predestination, struggling with evangelism, or just want to understand what the Bible actually teaches about salvation, this conversation will ground you in Scripture.SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: John 3:3-7, 16 | John 6:37-47 | Romans 8:29-30 | Romans 9:15-18 | Romans 10:9-17 | Matthew 11:27-28 | Ephesians 1:4-11 | Ephesians 2:1-10

Am I a Calvinist? Juxtapose constantly. You see this reality of God's sovereignty and salvation. And then there's this right after that, you need to believe in Jesus Christ. So which one is it? Like, is God sovereign or is man responsible for responding in faith? And concisely, how would you answer that question? Hang, thanks for sitting down.

One of the things I get asked a fair amount and comments, and by the way, if you have different ideas for future episodes, we want to know those, you can drop us a comment below telling us, we want to be a resource to you listening, and sometimes people respond with questions that are prevalent and prominent. One of those questions is... Can I guess? Yeah. Are you Calvinist? Yeah, exactly. Am I a Calvinist? Is God sovereign in salvation or is man responsible?

sometimes when we're reading a passage of scripture and it seems like we're affirming God's sovereignty in one area. People respond with, that's Calvinism. And I say, no, no, that's in the scripture. At other times, people that are in the Calvinist camp tell me I'm, I sound Armenian, right? Because I'm affirming man's responsibility to respond in faith to the message of the gospel. And to your point, there's nothing fundamentally wrong. Like, it's good to know terminology and to be able to define those terms. But maybe I feel like at least in my instance, working with students or even talking with other brothers and sisters, oftentimes they'll assume that they know the definition. And then it gets very divorced from scripture. And so maybe it would be useful to actually dive into scripture itself and maybe address those questions kind of from first principles.

Yeah. And really in this episode, we want to answer the question is God, sovereign, and salvation, or is man responsible? Regarding Calvinism as a whole, we'll maybe do an episode next week on, you know, just what Calvinism is. you know, I think Calvinism is somewhat kind of like a boogeyman for a lot of people, meaning like it's just this topic, it's this idea that's thrown around without a lot of understanding of what that even means. But in this episode, I want to talk about man's responsibility or is God's sovereign. In John chapter 3, there's this passage where five times in the opening 10 verses, Jesus affirms the reality that Nicodemus needs to be born again. This is,

Nicodemus is the most religious man in Israel. He comes to Jesus. He knows all the answers. He He knows the theology, but he has no assurance of his standing before God. And he tells Jesus, good teacher, we know that you must come from God for no one can do the signs that you're doing unless God is with him. And Jesus disregards Nicodemus's opening salutation and gets right to the heart of the matter and says, unless one is born again, unless being a key word there, R.C. Sprole used to say it is a critical condition. Like unless there's gas in the car, unless you take this medicine, you won't get better. The car won't start. Don't speed pass unless, yeah.

Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Just like you have nothing to do with your physical birth, Jesus says you have nothing to do with your spiritual rebirth. Something has to happen to you in order for you to see the kingdom of God. A miracle of God has to occur in order for someone to be a child of God. And he affirms this reality over and over again. In John chapter 3, verse 6, Jesus says all that is flesh is flesh, meaning you, because you are born of Adam,

are born into sin. Psalm 51, verse 5. In sin, did my mother conceive me? We are not born children of God. We are born, Ephesians 2, enemies of God. And so Jesus is just affirming this reality over and over again. There needs to be a miracle in your life. God's sovereignty and salvation is present. However, and this is just kind of setting up what we see throughout the rest of scripture, after five times affirming God's sovereignty and salvation, the necessity of being born again, seven times in the following verses, Jesus will affirm that you need to look in faith to the one that's going to be lifted up. It says, for God's to love the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever is born again. No, it says whosoever believes in him should not perish

but have everlasting life. So, you know, I want you to intervene. Juxtapose constantly, and this is the most, I would, probably one of the most popular chapters in the Bible. You see this reality of God's sovereignty and salvation. And then there's this, right after that, you need to believe, you know, just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness and whoever looked to that serpent, lifted up on the pole, was healed.

He's emphasizing, reinforcing, this isn't something you can wash your hands of the matter of. You need to believe in Jesus Christ. And so maybe if I was just going to turn the screws a little bit, I guess the question I would pose then that maybe we can use as the starting off point is, so which one is it? Like, is God sovereign or is man responsible for responding in faith?

And concisely, how would you answer that question? Well, the answer would be yes. And I think I always want to go back to A.W. Tozer, and I say this often when I'm preaching. It takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian, meaning that people that are watching this are listening to this, they walk into maybe this conversation with a theological bent. And one of the things that I've seen probably over and over again, and this is nothing new, this is something that's as old as the sun, right? There's nothing new under the sun,

is that people elevate one passage at the expense and diminishment of another. You'll often say, which I feel like is helpful, is just there's two ditches on either side of the road. And so maybe what would be the ditch if you were to be over-emphasizing God's sovereignty? Well, that's sometimes referred to as hyper-Calvinism. So hyper-Calvinism, first of all,

I don't really know anybody that's a hyper-Calvinist, but I think they're out there. Hyper-Calvinism would be, well, if God is sovereign in salvation, a few things. First of all, no need to share my faith. If God's going to save whom he's going to save, then he's going to do what he's going to do. Why send missionaries? Why preach the gospel to my neighbor? You could say this even about your own heart, meaning like, you could be in sin, right?

You could be an unbeliever and you could also recuse yourself and saying, well, if I'm one of the elect, God, you know, and salvation's a miracle. Maybe that miracle is just not taking place in my life, right? So you could say it both outside, you know, looking out at the world. Why do I have to help my neighbors? You know, that's why Jay Packer wrote the book Evangelism and the sovereignty of God. If God's going to save him, he's going to save, and every tribe, nation, people in tongue is going to be represented around his throne. What's my, I don't have any role in proclaiming that truth.

Or if you're an unbeliever and you, you know, in your mind, you're choosing the darkness over. the light as it says in John chapter 3, if God's going to save him, he's going to save, maybe I'm just not one of the chosen. So that would be hyper Calvinism. Which I guess I'm just thinking that that would put you vocationally in a very tricky places. As someone who's preaching the word. Yeah. And as a pastor, it would totally diminish any sort of urgency with which I preach. And I'll talk about that in a moment. On the flip side then. On the flip side would be, you know, you're looking at this and going, it's all man's responsibility. As a preacher, that would put a lot of panic in me, meaning like, as a

pastor, as a preacher, or just as a Christian, I am fully responsible for the way that someone else responds to the gospel, meaning like, this is what you see, I would say, more often in pragmatic culture, like, we need to get the right lighting, we need to get the right emotion, we need to have the right message, everything needs to be super pithy, and you're trying to manipulate the audience, you're banking the results on your performance. And there can be a danger in that as well. So those are two ditches. It's all me or it's all God, and I recuse myself from the matter on Pontchus Pilate. In the middle of that, I would say you have biblical theology, right?

You just have the reality of Scripture. I want to take you somewhere and show you something in John Chapter 6. And we could spend a long time looking at all these different passages in Scripture. I want to take you probably to four primarily because you asked the question, is God's sovereign or is man responsible? The correct answer is yes. Yes. And at the end of this episode, maybe people will still persist in asking, well, how do we reconcile these realities?

And the biblical answer, and I'll give you the answer from the beginning, is you do not reconcile these realities. You recognize them as both being true, elevated in God's Word, and Packer has some great quotes for us in that regard. But in John chapter 6, and before I read, you not only have these truths both present in the same Bible, you have them in the same Bible. you have them in the same book and in the same passages over and over again. John chapter 6, verse 37, this is the sovereignty of God and salvation. I don't know what Bible you're reading. You would have to be reading a different Bible to not come to some conclusion of, okay, salvation is a gift from God.

637, all that the Father, this is Jesus talking, gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. So, okay, the father is giving people to Jesus. That's John 10, right, as well. He says in verse 40, for this is the will of my father that everyone who beholds the son and believes in him will have eternal life.

That's man's responsibility, right? And I myself will raise him up on the last day. So within three verses, it says, salvation is a gift from the father to the son. He's giving a love gift to the son, and it's the redeemed. In verse 40, it's about belief. That's all human responsibility.

verse 44 no one no one being a key word no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise them up on the last day that is the sovereignty of God and salvation Jesus said

out of the mouth of Jesus there is not a single person who has ever been saved that has come to Jesus outside of the father's drawing and I don't remember if this was actually your teaching or when we studied this in youth group but that no one is a double-necked

negative. It's without exception. There is not a single person who's coming to Jesus without the father's leading. Yeah. And then you have this reality. And this is where I always want to be, first of all, I think sometimes the word balances you synonymously with compromise. That's a balanced guy. And sometimes it just means that he is kind of milky. He doesn't really take a stand on anything. But balance in this sense means that you're appropriately elevating two realities in scripture. Jesus says no one comes to me unless the father draws him in verse 44 of chapter 6 in verse 47 Jesus says truly truly I say to you he who believes has eternal life because it's I was about to say it's almost as if God understands the human mind he does

because you're tempted over and over again in John chapter 3 and John chapter 6 and John chapter 8 and John chapter 10 and John chapter 12 how do I know you know it says in Ephesians 1 he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that's the language of election that's why Paul says to the chosen over and look it up over and over again throughout the epistles to the chosen to the chosen to the elect to those whom he forek knew he also predestined and it's it's not only Paul first John first Peter I mean these are other yeah this idea too and I think it's really helpful for people to understand predestination election that is not some sort of terminology or theology that someone came up with 400 years ago it's biblical terminology Paul says he chose us in

him before the foundation of the world to those who he foreknew, it says in Romans 8, he also predestined to be conformed into the image of his son. The question then is, how do I know if I'm one of the chosen, right? How do I know? Well, maybe I'm not one of the elect. No, that's what Jesus says, and there's no footnote ever associated with this word, whosoever, whosoever, if anyone believes, Jesus says, and he says, truly, truly, truly, I say to you, 25 times you read that in John's Gospel, truly, truly, verily, verily, amen, amen. I say to you, he who believes has eternal life, meaning it's open to anyone.

So take a breather for a moment back up for some air. Right here in John chapter 6, salvation is a gift from the father to the son. No one is saved outside of that choosing of God, the drawing power of God. And yet, when I'm preaching the gospel to someone, and they say, what must I do to be saved? I must say, I don't respond and say,

the father must draw you. I say, which would be true. which would be true. Right. Nor do I say, you must be born again. Be born again. As an imperative, I say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be what? Saved.

So you see this reality. I want to take, I want to look over to Matthew for a minute. Are you already there? Yeah, I've flipped over. So this is something I like talking about because Paul, Paul says to do the work of an evangelist as a pastor. I like to preach evangelistically because it's a command from God. Now, if you're looking at things from a hyper, per Calvinistic perspective, which I think is the appropriate term for, no, God's sovereign.

I would preach with no urgency. But Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 that we implore and we plead with people on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. So Paul's the one that's talking about the sovereignty of God all the time in salvation. And yet he says that he pleads with people. He's grabbing people by the proverbial caller saying, be you reconcile the God because he knows that God not only ordains the end, but the means to the end. But let's just talk about this from a responsibility perspective. Jesus does plead with people to come to him in repentance. Read a passage that's well known.

Yeah, so this is Matthew 11, 28, and 29. Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Yeah. It's a well-known passage. I love the verse. Jesus says, come to me. What's the next word? All. All. So who is the invitation open to? Everyone. Everyone. Jesus says, if anyone thirst, he said, whosoever believes. Over and over again, you see that reality. This is an open invitation. It's saying, come to me. Yeah, it's a command. People talk about it being an invitation. People say Jesus invites you, but he's commanding you. R.C. Sproul used to say he's delivering a demand.

Now, that is, on the surface, it's talking about the responsibility. Come to me, all who are weary and burdened and heavy laden. That's a true verse. But often it's divorce from the verse that precedes that. So right before Jesus has come to me, all who are weary and burdened and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. What does he say? He says, all things have been handed over to me by my father,

and no one knows the son except the father, nor does anyone know the father except the son, and anyone to whom the son wills to reveal him. And then he goes on to say, come to me all who are weary and burdened and heavy laden. So he says no one knows the son except the father and those whom the father has willed the reveal to the son, meaning like that's the sovereignty of God and salvation. But Jesus is never elevating that truth to make even his own audience go,

well, how do I know if I'm one of those people? Right after that, the following verse, he says, come to me. Because if you're ever asking the question, am I one? He's just, well, to anyone, to anyone, to anyone. This is why we preach the gospel far and wide because Charles Spurgeon used to say that the elect don't have yellow stripes running down their back.

So we do what Jesus does, preach the gospel far and wide. Now, in Romans 9, there's a passage that elevates God's sovereignty and salvation. It says in 918 that he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires. This is a reality. He says in Romans 915, that I will have mercy on whom I have. mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. This entire chapter, chapter nine, is on the sovereignty of God and salvation.

Sometimes people try to dismiss this and what they have to do, they're forced to do, is try to make a passage not mean what it obviously means, right? This is all about the sovereignty of God and salvation. Jesus, or God's word says that God himself says, I have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and i will harden those whom i have i will harden and we just talked about this that god never hardens those hearts that aren't already hardening towards god god and this is a big idea we don't believe in double predestination in the sense where god predetermined someone to go to heaven and then predetermines other people to go to hell everyone that goes to hell goes to hell for one main

reason and that is that they rejected jesus christ not because they were predetermined to go there No one meets God face to face and says, you did this. It's not like there's a bunch of people that wanted to believe, but God wouldn't allow them to believe because that would contradict each other. This is a reality, though. All that God has to do is withhold his grace, right? People aren't born neutral. They're born enemies of God, and those who are saved have been extended,

the grace and kindness of God, and they're elect, they're chosen. But if you read Romans 9, you would go, what's the point, right? But then Romans 10 says, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised them from the dead, you will be saved for what the heart of person believes resulting in righteousness and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation. So right after going, this is all the work of God, this is all the work of God, you can't do, you know, you can't do anything. I will have compassion on those. I will have compassion. Yeah. Then you're told again, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is. the Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be what? Saved.

Saved. Romans 1013. Whoever calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. Saved. And then this is Paul. So far is he now from using the sovereignty of God as a crutch for his own passivity and proclamation of the gospel, he then says this in repeating the Old Testament, whoever calls the name of the Lord will be saved. And then he says, Romans 1014, how are they going to call on him whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard and how will they hear without a preacher? Then in verse 17, it says, so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ, meaning Paul is constantly juxtaposing these realities together. The scripture is juxtaposing these realities together. Jesus says, a miracle of God

has to happen to you to be saved. And then he tells that same man, Nicodemus, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to pull to the forefront because we've been super careful with your words, and I want to make sure everyone's tracking with this. You're saying these two, these twin truths are juxtaposed alongside one another. I'm noticing you're not saying this is a paradox. I think oftentimes people kind of flippantly say like, oh, yeah, there's a paradox here. Maybe would you define for us, like, is this a paradox?

Maybe what is a paradox? And if it's hot, what is it? A paradox is maybe on the surface of contradiction that when you think about it actually makes sense, meaning Paul says that he is sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. He was beaten, he was whipped, he was scourged, he was shipwrecked, and then he says, but I'm always rejoicing.

It makes sense. His life was full of sorrow, but he always had joy. This is what Packer calls an antinamy, meaning that it's something that is on the surface, there's tension, and we actually don't find the terminus where we end up resolving these realities. I think sometimes, even in apologetics today, people want to explain the Bible in such a way where there are no questions about God,

you know, to people that, you know, or maybe, you know, they're trying to, people come up and they say, what about all the contradictions of the Bible? And they'll say, well, hey, here you have something that appears to be a contradiction. But it's not because God cannot contradict himself. You have these realities. Packer says, a God whom we could understand exhaustively and whose revelation of himself confronted us with no mysteries whatsoever would be a god in man's image and therefore an imaginary god not the god of the bible we generally like tidy theology but these are two twin truths so spurgeon says they are like you know railroad tracks they run parallel to each other in scripture over and over and over and over again so they're undeniable we're not trying to reconcile

them. I also, I would want people to understand that, and I think I try to communicate this in my preaching, whenever we're talking about the sovereignty of God and salvation, it also says that he takes an Ezekiel, no delight in the punishment of the wicked. He loves to save sinners. Jesus is saying, hey, no man comes to me unless the father draws him. He knows that he's coming. And first of all, without the sovereignty of God and salvation, if you elevated a man's responsibility, you present the possibility that Jesus died for nothing. Right? So when Jesus says, I laid down my life in John chapter 10, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. They're going to get saved. Paul says there are some elect in that city in the book of Acts. But without asserting the sovereignty of God and salvation, you present this reality where Jesus died for a possibility that someone give their life to him. No, he knows the elect. It says that he knows his sheep and his sheep know him. But with that said, he's never capricious about it in the sense where the elect are, you know, just going to respond. No, that's why in Luke 13, he's, unless you repent, you will likewise perish.

John chapter 8, you've heard me preach this. He says, unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sin. And so I think there is a danger. And this is why people don't really like affirming at times the sovereignty of God in salvation, which is actually a submission to scripture issue, because it's obvious over and over and over again that God is sovereign and salvation. But it presents this idea of God as a puppeteer. And God is in the heavens. And Psalm 1153 says he does whatever he pleases. But whenever we talk about the sovereignty of God, whether that be salvation or in suffering, right? Like, oh, something horrible happened to you, God's sovereign. We never want to assert God's sovereignty to the degree in which we don't

understand the full character of God. He loves to save sinners. When I rather them turn from their wicked ways, says the Lord. And he's pleading with people. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I wanted to gather you. He loves to save sinners. And that's why Jonah, even in the book of Jonah, Jonah is upset, saying, I knew you were a God gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness. You love to save sinners, God, and you save the Ninevite. So we have, it takes the whole bible to make a whole christianness regard and uh maybe building off of that and so you mentioned and it's an antimony one more time i feel like an anemone but so there's this reality that we are never going to fully comprehend how those twin truths interact in their most like truest eternal nature

on the flip side i think there would be i guess to harmonize this with prior episodes the christian faith it's still a thinking faith. I'm thinking about Deuteronomy 6. We're to love the Lord or God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. So it's not that we should turn our brains off and be like, well, they're never going to touch. I don't understand it. I'll never understand it. There is an element of we do need to engage with this. And we started in John 3 because this is a reality, a textual reality. When we come across these verses, we need to understand how it fits within the broader narrative of scripture. But that is different than a paradox in which we can work all the way down and actually kind of have a final understanding of the matter.

Yeah, you know, I think from a terminology perspective, we would dismiss the idea that there are any theological contradictions in scripture. There is theological tension where you're forced to ask the question, how do both of these things work together? At a certain point, you read the scripture, you take it for face value. You know that from a hermeneutical perspective, first key to interpreting the scripture is that we interpret the scripture with the scripture. Sure, right? And it takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian, meaning you can't take a hobby horse passage and then neglect another one that doesn't seem to fit well with your theology, which is why, when you ask the question at the beginning, is God's sovereign or is man responsible, we respond by saying yes. And I don't feel like, oh, I'm, you know,

Short-changing. Yeah, fourth and 40 on the one-yard line and just having to punt it as far as I can by saying God's ways are not our ways. Who knows the mind of the Lord? We'll never understand. We see these realities in Scripture. Packer asked the question,

how do we avoid these two extremes? Meaning like God's sovereignty or, you know, this man's responsibility where... Either ditch on either side of the road. And Packer says, by making it our business to believe both these doctrines with all of our might,

to not qualify, modify, or water down either of them. This is big, because there are a lot of people that affirm God's sovereignty that water down their own responsibility. There are people that can preach a five-part sermon on the sovereignty of God and salvation that have never shared Christ with their neighbor. That's a problem. There are other people that think it's all on them. They are active in evangelism, and yet they're diminishing the reality that Scripture says,

no, a miracle of God has to happen. It says in Ephesians that he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. It says, and I think it's in Ephesians 11, also we haven't obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will, predestination is not something some guy in Geneva came up with 500 years ago. This is a reality in scripture. So we avoid these two extremes. I like it again, by believing both these doctrines with,

all of our might. We don't reconcile these realities. We recognize them and we can preach the gospel and trusting that God is sovereign in salvation. And yet we also plead both with God and with the sinner to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. And that's why I think appropriately so. There should be tears in the eyes of someone who affirms the sovereignty of God and salvation as they preach the gospel because why because jesus did because paul did i implore people on behalf of christ to be reconciled to god this is a guy that could give you his magnum opus on on one but never diminishing one at the expense of the other yeah absolutely any any final thoughts as we kind of land the plane here i think three things as we close first of all god is sovereign and salvation it's a

rampant reality throughout the scripture another one is that man is responsible with what they do with the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus pleads. And the people that we see in the New Testament that were most ripe to believe, right? They grew up in the truth. They rejected him. And Jesus says, no, no, no, don't do this.

Repent, turn, believe in me. Look at the signs that I'm doing. Believe, believe, believe. I think just third reality, and I always want to come back to this, there's anyone wondering whether or not they're included in the elect, included in the chosen.

How do I know you know you're one of the chosen if you come to Jesus Christ and faith. His invitation is open to all. If anyone believes in me, whosoever calls in the name of the Lord will be. Saved. Saved. Awesome.

Well, I think that's maybe a helpful place to stop Johnny. Appreciate the conversation. Thanks, Hank.