[Note: This sermon expounds Matthew 19:10–12. Delivered 23 November 1980, Montreal.]
We continue our study in Matthew chapter 19. On the last occasion we looked at the spiritual meaning of marriage in verses 1–9, but we did not examine verses 10–12. When the disciples heard that divorce is permissible only on the ground of adultery, their response in verse 10 was: "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry." Their thinking was simple: if there is no way of escaping a difficult wife, perhaps it is safer not to marry at all. The Lord takes up this point and says in verse 11 that not everyone can remain single — only those to whom it has been given.
There are three kinds of people who do not marry, as the Lord enumerates in verse 12. First, there are eunuchs who have been so from birth — those born with some congenital defect in their reproductive capacity. Second, there are those who have been made eunuchs by men — castrated by others, often by parents who wished their sons to qualify as household administrators in the palaces of kings and high officials, since such positions were entrusted to those who posed no threat to the household. Third, and most significantly, there are those who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The Lord adds: "He who is able to receive this, let him receive it."
Now, the word "given" in verse 11 — "only those to whom it is given" — raises a question of fundamental importance for the whole Christian life. Does "given" mean determined or enabled? Does grace determine you, so that whether you struggle or do not struggle makes no difference, because grace has already fixed what you will be? Or does grace enable you, empowering you to do what you could not otherwise do, while still placing the responsibility for decision upon you? These are not two slightly different positions — there is no neutral ground between them. If grace is determinative, then you are essentially a spiritual robot, with no responsibility. If grace is enabling, then responsibility rests squarely upon you.
Many Christians today assume without examining it that grace is determinative. They read "only those to whom it is given" and immediately think: God has determined some people to be single and others to be married, and there is nothing I can do about it. They apply this to every area of the Christian life: to calling, guidance, sanctification, spiritual gifts. In this view, if you are spiritually nothing, it is not your fault — God simply did not choose to give you the grace. This way of thinking paralyses the Christian life entirely, because it means there is nothing to strive for and nothing to decide.
But already within this very passage, the final words of verse 12 disprove the deterministic reading. "He who is able to receive this, let him receive it." If grace were deterministic, this statement would be meaningless. Whether you receive it or not would already be fixed; nothing could remain to be received. The very fact that the Lord says "he who is able, let him receive it" — putting the responsibility on the individual — shows that the kind of grace in view here is enabling, not deterministic. The ability to receive is placed before each person as a genuine challenge.
Now look more carefully at the first two types of eunuchs. The born eunuch and the man-made eunuch are indeed determined, in the sense that the choice has been removed from them — but in neither case is God responsible for that determination. The Lord explicitly says of the second type that they were "made eunuchs by men" — not by God. And as for those born congenitally defective: when you read Genesis, God made all things and saw that they were good. Good means not defective. Sin entering the world has introduced all kinds of defects into human life. Consider the thalidomide cases, children born without arms or legs — no one would say that God made them that way. A congenital condition does not mean it was determined by God. God does not make any person defective; sin and its consequences do.
So in the first two cases, determination does not come from God. And in the third case — the only case that speaks of grace freely received — the language is entirely that of enabling: "he who is able to receive this, let him receive it."
[Continues in Part B]
# God's Grace: Determinative or Enabling — Matthew 19:10–12 (Part B) — Grace as Enabling Power; "I Can Do All Things Through Christ"
[Note: This is Part B of the sermon on Matthew 19:10–12, continuing directly from Part A. Delivered 23 November 1980, Montreal.]
Everywhere in the New Testament, when you examine how the word grace is actually used, you find that it is enabling and not deterministic. Consider John 1:14: the Lord Jesus was "full of grace and truth." If grace meant determinism, what would it mean to be full of it? But John says we beheld it with our own eyes — we saw this grace and truth. How can you see grace, unless it is manifested in graciousness? The word is rightly translated "graciousness and truthfulness." You can see that. And in Hebrews 2:9, it says that by God's grace Jesus suffered death for every man. If grace were deterministic, this would mean God compelled the Son to die with no say in the matter. But the Lord Jesus himself says, "No one takes my life from me; I lay it down of my own accord." He chose to die. The Father freely gave the Son, and the Son freely gave himself.
Or take Titus 2:11: "The grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men." If grace were deterministic, then since it has appeared for all men, all men would necessarily be saved — they would have no choice. But the New Testament does not teach universal salvation. Grace is therefore not compulsion; it is God's enabling power available to all, which each person may receive or reject. Similarly, when Paul says in Galatians 1:15 that God called him by grace to be his servant, he immediately adds: "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." He could have disobeyed — his not doing so was the point worth saying. Grace called, and Paul responded. And Peter's exhortation to "grow in grace" (2 Peter 3:18) is simply meaningless if grace were deterministic — you do not grow in what is already fixed.
The clearest statement of this enabling view is Paul's own in Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who enables me." That word "enables" is the key. Christ's grace does not do the things for Paul in spite of Paul, bypassing his will. It enables Paul to do them. The sky becomes the limit — there is no obstacle too great — because God's enabling grace meets you in every challenge. Paul's Christianity was not a defeated, passive, waiting-for-something-to-happen Christianity. It was a victorious forward-pressing Christianity, because he understood that God's grace was there to empower him to achieve whatever God called him to achieve.
The opposite picture — the deterministic God who turns human beings into robots — is not the God of Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 13, one of the characteristics of love is that it "does not insist on its own way." Love does not force; love does not compel. If God is love, and love does not insist on its own way, then God is not a divine dictator who overrides your will and programs your choices. Calvin's portrait of God as an absolute sovereign who determines every action has been acknowledged even by sympathetic theologians to resemble more a despotic king of the Middle Ages than the God of the Bible. The truly great person does not throw his weight around; the higher you go, the more humble and courteous and non-coercive the person tends to be. How much more so God.
Now, a personal note on what this means in practice. I myself found it exceedingly easy to remain single for many years — no struggle, no desire for marriage, no interest in the subject at all. My mind was so completely absorbed in the word of God and the kingdom of God that nothing else competed for my attention. Does this mean that grace had determined me to be single, so that when I eventually married, I had thrown away God's grace and must live in guilt? That cannot be right, because I have absolutely no sense of guilt about it. The reason it was easy to remain single was not that God had determined me for celibacy, but that God's enabling grace, operating through total absorption in his word, removed the pull of competing desires. I drew on that grace for years, and then the circumstances changed. If singleness had been determined, marriage would have been disobedience — but there is no guilt, which is itself confirmation that grace was enabling and not deterministic throughout.
The practical consequence is this: stop waiting for God to wind up the key in your back and push you into action. God is not going to make you a robot. He has given you a checkbook on the bank of his grace, as Spurgeon beautifully put it — you write the checks, you draw what you need, you press forward. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you" means: God's enabling power is there for you, all the time, for every situation. Draw upon it. Set your sights high, for the sky is the limit when you understand that the God of all grace has blessed us with every spiritual resource. I intend to press forward to the highest possibilities that God has set before us — and by his enabling grace, I intend to get there. With Paul I say: I can do all things through Christ who enables me.
Let us be quiet before God in prayer. Let us be quiet.