A. A. Hodge (1823–1886) on Irresistible Grace

20. In what sense is grace irresistible?

It must be remembered that the true Christian is the subject at the same time of those moral and mediate influences of grace upon the will, common to him and to the unconverted, and also of those special influences of grace within the will, which are certainly efficacious. The first class of influences Christians may, and constantly do resist, through the law of sin remaining in their members. The second class of influences are certainly efficacious, but are neither resistible nor irresistible, because they act from within and carry the will spontaneously with them. It is to be lamented that the term irresistible grace has ever been used, since it suggests the idea of a mechanical and coercive influence upon an unwilling subject, while, in truth, it is the transcendent act of the infinite Creator, making the creature spontaneously willing.

A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1999), 451–452.

A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1879), 451–452.

Irresistible Grace, not Coercion

When the wind beat upon the man in Esop, it made him only draw his cloak the closer round him. But when the sun made him hot, he by his own will threw off the cloak, which the storm without had not torn from him. You might be got out of this room in two ways: a strong man might come and thrust you out, or a beautiful lady might invite and thereby draw you! Now, it is an utter misconception to suppose that by “irresistible grace” is meant an ab extra coercing influence. Grace acts from within, through the will. The man becomes willing: and so there is no resistance or desire to offer it. To be “made willing in the day of God’s power” is the highest liberty.

C. A. Salmond, “Brevia Theologica [of A. A. Hodge],” in Princetoniana: Charles & A. A. Hodge, with Class and Table Talk of Hodge the Younger (New York: Scribner & Welford, n.d.), 178; italics original. Bio: 
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