Objection 1: Ephesians 1:19-20 - Whitby's refutation of Arguments in favor of irresistible grace

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II. OBJECTION ONE. When the apostle prays that his Ephesians may know “what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead;' (Ephesians 1:19-20) it must be absurd hence to infer, that the power of God working faith in believers, is equal to that which effected the resurrection of our Lord, and that we must be therefore purely passive in the whole work of our conversion. For as this power is not consistent with the persuasions and exhortations used in scripture to move sinners to repent and turn themselves from their iniquity, or with a rational choice, nor could it properly be said that " they turned," but only that " they were turned to the Lord;" so is not the exposition agreeable to the words: for the apostle speaks not of the power exercised on us to render us believers, but of the power which shall be exercised on us who believe already, not of the power to be exercised on our souls to raise them from a death in sin to a life of righteousness, but of the power to be exercised on our dead bodies to give them a glorious resurrection to eternal life, as he had done already in the body of our Head, Christ Jesus.

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