Examining Election and Pondering Predestination

One of the most controversial topics in the Bible is election. Just the mention of the word in the biblical context is sure to start a debate or argument. But no Bible believing Christian (I repeat myself) can deny it since the Bible clearly teaches it. Jesus spoke of many being called but few chosen (Matthew 22:14). He said that it was for the ELECT’s sake He will shorten the days of trouble prior to His return (Matthew 24:22) and that if it were possible, even the ELECT would fall away and be led astray during such a time (Mark 13:22). God will certainly come to the aid of His ELECT who cry out to Him for what they need (Luke 18:7). And Jesus promises at His return to send His angels to gather His ELECT from all over the globe (Matthew 24:31). Paul explicitly exclaims in praise that God “CHOSE us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). The assurance for the believer that God will finish His purpose in his or her life is found in the golden chain of salvation given in Romans 8:29-30. “Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified”. Also how no one can bring any guilty charge against “God’s ELECT” on account of the cleansing of their sin and being covered with Christ’s righteousness accomplished through the work of Christ (v. 33). He tells the Thessalonians he knows their ELECTION (1 Thessalonians 1:4) and then in another letter how God had CHOSEN them as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13). And Peter opens up his first letter to the exiled Christians scattered throughout “who are CHOSEN according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to the obedience of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2). Later, in his second letter, he encourages his readers to “be all the more diligent to make your calling and CHOOSING [or ELECTION] sure” (2 Peter 1:10). There can be no question that the Bible teaches the doctrine of election. The issue is how we understand the election the Bible speaks of. I think when we consider everything Scripture says about God’s work in our salvation, the better understanding of this difficult doctrine is that it refers to God’s choosing of those whom He will save all for His glory according to His grace. 

 

 The Nature of Election

 

The first response we often have when we read these statements is, "I thought that I chose Him. I chose to trust in Christ for my salvation and to follow Him, didn’t I? Don’t we sing, 'I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back?' " Indeed, you did decide and it was a real choice on your part but you have to realize that the only reason you ever chose Him was due to Him first choosing you and bringing you into a place where you would see your great need of Him and even have a desire to flee to Him for your salvation. The best illustration I have ever heard for this comes from the late Presbyterian preacher, Donald Grey Barnhouse. He said to imagine the door into Christ’s kingdom being shaped like a cross. Because the only way into that kingdom comes by the means of the cross. And over the top of that door are the words from Revelation, “Whosoever will may come.” When you enter through that door by putting your faith in Christ, you now turn and look back to the door from the inside and read the words from Ephesians 1 over it, “Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.” You realize after being saved that the only reason you were able to come to Christ was because God first chose you and worked in your life to do so. In a sense, it is kind of like Zaccheus. The wee little man climbed up into that sycamore tree seeking after Jesus, wanting to see Him, only to find out that Jesus had already been seeking after him.

 

Scripture is clear that our salvation is entirely the work of God from start to finish. It is 100% His work and 0% ours.There is absolutely nothing we can boast of ourselves regarding our salvation. Our only boast can be in Him because He has done all that is necessary for it. Jesus has lived the perfect obedient sinless life we have failed to live, died the death we deserve for our sins, and rose from the dead conquering death itself. The Holy Spirit opens our blind eyes to see the truth of who we are, who Christ is, and the significance of what He has done for those who have believed. He is the One to convict us of our sins, cause us to be born again, and work in our hearts saving faith as well as bringing us to repentance. All of that is based on the Father’s plan we are looking at right now. It is all Him and not us at all. As Jonathan Edwards has said, "The only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary." We do the sinning and He has do the saving.

 

God is the One who always takes the initiative in our salvation. He seeks us before we would ever think to seek Him ourselves. That was the case with Adam after the fall. He would have remained hidden in his shame otherwise (Genesis 3:8-12). The same is true with Abraham who was busy worshiping the gods of his father Terah and paying no attention to Yahweh when the Lord came to him and called the man (Joshua 24:2). We see this also with Isaac, Jacob, the twelve disciples, and the Apostle Paul just to name a few. Jesus says in John 6:44, “No one can come to the Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him [that same one the Fathers draws] up on the last day.” Just go through the book of Acts. Luke is very consistent that every single conversion is a work of the Holy Spirit. That God ultimately is the one responsible for the persons who come to faith in Christ. He says that the 3,000 who responded positively to Peter’s message on the day of Pentecost had been “pierced to the heart” (2:37). Something had happened to them from outside of them. The Lord was the One who continually added to their number. They did not add themselves. It was divine math. Acts 13:48 reports about some of the first Gentile converts, “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” And we are told in chapter 16 that the Lord had opened up Lydia’s heart to pay attention to the things spoken by Paul (v. 14). Even the faith and repentance by which we must respond to the gospel are described as being gifts from God. Philippians 1:29 states, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” It has been granted to suffer for Christ just as much as it is to believe in Him. And Paul tells Timothy in his second letter to “with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps GOD MAY GIVE THEM REPENTANCE leading to the full knowledge of the truth” (2:8).

 

The Bible even tells us that left to ourselves, we would NEVER seek after God to choose Him for salvation. The Psalmist and Paul could not be any clearer that "there is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside" (Psalm 14:2-3; Romans 311-12). We are described to be like sheep who once lost cannot find their way back (Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:25). Which is why it is necessary for a good shepherd to leave the 99 of his flock to go out and search for the one lost sheep (Matthew 18:12-13). That sheep will remain helplessly lost otherwise. We had a dog when I was growing up called "Mutt." That's what he was. A mutt. Anyway, I remember one time he getting loose from his chain and running away. We searched all over the neighborhood for him but were not able to find him. That was a Thursday or Friday night. Then, on Saturday morning, I heard something at the door and, lo and behold, there was Mutt! He had found his way back home and returned. That would not be the case for sheep. That is not the case for us.

 

Take a moment to think back to your own conversion. How you became a Christian. Were you at one time indifferent to Jesus? Not caring what He thought about what you did? Having little to no desire at all to read the Bible? Certainly not wanting to ever step foot in church. Or if you were blessed to have grown up in the church, you were only coming because mom and dad wanted you to or to see your friends. It wasn’t to worship Christ and to serve Him. But then something happened. You very much started caring what He thought about you. You began to read your Bible because you wanted to know Him more. There was a longing present now to do so which had not been there before. And you regularly started to attend worship each week for Christ’s sake to serve Him. How can you describe such a change? It couldn’t have been that you just simply “came to your senses” or that you changed your mind all on your own. We are far too stubborn for that! It had to be God’s Spirit doing a prior work in your life to bring you there.

 

Charles Spurgeon recognized this reflecting back on his own conversion. He wrote, "When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this… One week-night, ... the thought struck me, "How did you come to be a Christian?" I sought the Lord. "But how did you come to seek the Lord?" The truth flashed across my mind in a moment – I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, "I ascribe my change wholly to God." Spurgeon is also the one who acknowledged, “If God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards.”

 

I recently discovered an older hymn that conveys this truth well. It goes, "I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew / He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me; it was not I that found, O Savior true; no, I was found of Thee. Thou didst reach forth Thy hand and mine enfold; I walked and sunk not on the storm-vexed sea; ‘twas not so much that I on Thee took hold, as Thou, dear Lord, on Me.” Without realizing it, we have sung this truth in a number of our hymns. It is conveyed in the words, "He sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God," "Jesus sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood", and "I know not how this saving faith, to me He did impart . . . I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus thru the Word, creating faith in Him."

 

I think every believer actually understands this truth in their hearts. They just may not have connected all the dots about it in their heads yet. I say that because no true Christian would ever dream of taking the credit for their salvation. They almost instinctively know as part of the new nature given to them in their new birth to give glory to God alone for it. It only makes sense to give God the full and complete glory and praise for our salvation if He is the One said to be in charge of all of it, from the very start of it to its reception and completion. Also, pretty much every Christian I have ever met prays for the salvation of their loved ones who don't currently know Jesus. If the determining factor of salvation rested in the sinner's hands, then there would be no reason for such prayers to be said. But since salvation is entirely the work of God, the best thing we can do is to pray for God to bring the individual to repentance and saving faith in Christ because we rightfully recognize that there is no way they can do such themselves in their sinful state.  

 

The Basis of Election 

 

There is no indication in these texts that God’s choice of us is based on anything about us at all. Nothing is said or implied that God chose us on account of something He saw in us or about us beforehand. I think some want to read that into the text because they are uncomfortable with what it says at face value. I love Deuteronomy 7. That passage deals with God’s choosing of Israel over and against all the other nations. Out of all the nations in the world, why did He ever choose Israel? He says it wasn’t because they were the most numerous. That certainly couldn’t be the case because they were the smallest of the nations. And we know it wasn’t due to any righteousness or obedience on their part. The entire record of the Jews in the OT is one of rebellion and idolatry. Continual disobedience to God’s commands. What is the reason He gives for choosing them? Simply because He chose to love them. It all comes down to that. As Paul puts it in Ephesians 1 at the end of v. 5, He chose to save us “according to the good pleasure of His will.”

Now, you may say, “But doesn’t 1 Peter 1:2 and Romans 8:29 both indicate that God’s election is according to His foreknowledge? Wouldn’t that mean His choice is based on what He foreknew our choice would be or whether or not we would ever exercise faith?” Let me point out a few things about this foreknowledge in the context of Scripture to show that such cannot be the correct understanding of it. I have actually written more about this in greater depth here in case you would like to explore this argument further. First, we need to recognize that the word is not the same as "foresee" or "foresight." It does not mean something God looked forward in the corridors of time to discover. It is something He simply knew beforehand. Actually, when we pay attention to how this term is often used in Scripture,  you will notice that the emphasis in the foreknowledge is almost always on SOMEONE and not SOMETHING specific about them. Any of that is only secondary at best. Paul states that God knew the people of Israel beforehand (Romans 11:2), not anything specific about them regarding their faith or faithlessness. It is Jesus Himself who Peter describes as being "foreknown before the foundation of the world" in 1 Peter 1:20. In Romans 8:29, the apostle states explicitly that it is those whom He foreknew that God predetermined to be made into the image of His Son. We also see that this foreknowledge of God is connected with His predetermined plan. That is the case in Acts 2:23 when Peter points out in his sermon on Pentecost that Jesus was delivered over to be crucified by the Jews and the Romans was "by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God." It doesn't make sense for this to mean that God predetermined His plan based on what He knew beforehand would occur with the actions of man. That would actually go against all the prophecies in the Old Testament which laid out what would happen and Jesus' own teaching that the Son of Man must go as it has been written of Him beforehand (Matthew 26:24). God foreknew what He had already planned. We need to realize as well that the word "know" in Scripture often has the connotation of love or intimately connected with. Early on we are told in the Hebrew that Adam KNEW Eve his wife and she conceived and bore a child (Genesis 4:1). Now, for that to happen, Adam had to know a lot more about Eve than just one specific thing about her. He had to know her fully and thoroughly, in an intimate sense of a relationship. God in Amos 3:2 tells Israel, "You only have I KNOWN among all the families of the earth." The idea here is that out of all of the nations in the world, God had chosen Israel alone to love and have a relationship with at the time. Likewise, when Jesus later says to false professors, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness" (Matthew 7:23), it clearly cannot be that He did not know of them or who they were. It was simply that He did not know them to be His. Putting all of this together, the talk of God's election of His people being according to His foreknowledge appears to indicate nothing more than the fact that those He chose to belong to Him are the ones He had determined to love or know as His people beforehand. It simply says that God chose the ones He has determined to know and love as His own before we even existed existed yet. His love for us preceded our love for Him (1 John 4:10, 19).

 

The question which is typically asked when it comes to this doctrine of election is “Why doesn’t God save everyone?” May I kindly and lovingly suggest that that is the wrong question to be asking? You see, underlying that question is either the thought that everyone deserves to be saved or that God somehow owes us salvation. That it would be unjust for Him not to save everyone if it were up to His choice to do so. Keep in mind though that no one deserves salvation. We all deserve damnation. And God would be perfectly just to have all of us go to hell to pay for our sins. No one will be in hell who doesn’t deserve to be there. And no one will be in heaven who does deserve to be there. Those who believe and are saved are those God has chosen to show mercy to. If a governor of a state which practices the death penalty chooses to pardon a criminal on death row, that man or woman receives mercy; not getting what they deserve. All the other criminals not chosen by the governor to be pardoned receive justice; getting what they do deserve. None of them could be said to receive injustice. You see, the better question is not “Why doesn’t God choose to save everyone?” but “Why does God choose to save anyone?” Or to make it even more personal, “Why would God choose to save me?” “Why would God choose to save you?” In light of all we have ever done against Him and will yet to do, why does He choose to save a wretched sinner like me or you? We clearly don’t deserve it and give Him every reason not to. Yet, if you are in Christ, He has! 

 

This truth of God’s election is not something we should argue, fight, or debate about. Rather, it is something we should rejoice in and praise God for. Let the glorious richness of this blessing sink in. If you are a believer, God chose to set His love upon you before you even existed to make a mess of things and give Him all the reasons not to love you. And if He determined to love you beforehand knowing all that about you since He knows everything past, present and future, that means there is absolutely nothing we could ever do to change His love for us or alter it in any way. His love precedes our actions and was with the fullest knowledge of them. He is not going to look down and see us do something and say, “Well, I’m not going to love them anymore because they did that.” He already knew we were going to do it and had made the choice long beforehand to love us regardless of it. As J. I. Packer has said, “There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me.” 

 

Isn’t this amazing? There is no love you have ever experienced like this. Your spouse began to love you after getting to know you a little bit while you were dating. Your parents the moment they learned of your conception and beginning development in the womb. But God’s love for you goes much farther back still, long before you ever were created. Before the world itself was made. How marvelous, how wonderful, is the Father’s love for us in Christ shown in His choice to save us through Christ’s perfect sinless life, substitutionary sacrifice, and victorious resurrection!

 

The Motivation of Election 

 

Now, I need to say something about how this doctrine of God’s election relates to our evangelism. Because one of the things which are brought up whenever someone encounters such a teaching is why should we share the gospel if God has already chosen who would be saved. But this fails to see that God has not only chosen WHO will be saved but He has also chosen HOW they will be saved. Not just the end of who will come to faith in Christ but the means of how they will come to faith in Christ. And that means is through us proclaiming the gospel. Romans 10:14, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” We are given the privilege to be God’s mouthpiece and deliver the word He uses to bring men and women to faith. And the thing is none of us know who the elect are or not. God has not shared that information with us. Someone came up to Charles Spurgeon one time and asked him since he believed that only those God has chosen will be saved, why doesn’t he just preach the gospel to the elect then. He told the man that if he could lift up everyone in the crowd’s coattails and see an E or C on their bellies to indicate such, he would just preach to them. But of course no such marking of whom God has chosen exist. And, frankly, it is not our business to know. Nowhere are we ever told in Scripture to be concerned with whether someone has been chosen by God before the foundation of the world to belong to Him. But the Bible does say we must be concerned that everyone hears the gospel and be called to repent and believe in Christ alone for their salvation. Our job is to share the Word, pray, and leave the results in God’s hands. And don't give up on that person you have been witnessing to and praying for but have yet to see any change in them at all or movement towards Christ. Don't write them off as not being elect then. We have no idea what God might do in their life 20 or 30 years from now. It may be that God is working in their heart now in ways you cannot see or that He has you planting seeds His Spirit intends to water later to cause to bud with the fruit of faith.

 

It is interesting to note that in their evangelistic sermons in the book of Acts directed to unbelievers, Paul and Peter do not say a word about election. Nothing is mentioned to the people about God choosing any of them to believe and be His own. Instead, they are called to repent and believe in response to the message of what Christ has done. However, in their letters, they have no problem and do not hesitate to refer to believers as being the elect or having been chosen by God. That is telling. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ proves or demonstrates one’s election. So if you are concerned with whether you have been chosen or not, know that if you are trusting in Christ alone for your salvation, you clearly have been. Because the sure sign of election is being brought to faith in Jesus. And if you are not looking to Christ as your only hope of salvation, I appeal to you to turn from your sins in repentance and leave whatever else you may be trusting in to get you to heaven and come to Him now. And, if by God’s grace you do, you can know that He chose you in Him before the foundation of the world as well. You’ll be able to look back at that door and see that blessed truth.

 

This teaching of election actually serves as a motivation for evangelism. That was the case for the Apostle Paul. He faced much adversity in Corinth and probably did not have any immediate visible fruit. But what kept Paul laboring to preach the gospel there in spite of all the hardship which easily could have convinced him that he should head to a different area? The Lord had spoken to him in a vision telling him that He had many people in that city. That there were those who have been chosen to become God’s people who needed to hear Paul’s message and would respond to it positively (Acts 18:5-10). He couldn’t give up because of those who had been selected to receive the gospel he was called to preach. I don’t know if he had to remind himself of that or not when things got really tough for him there. If he had to say from time to time, "I have to keep preaching for the sake of those many people in this city God has chosen to be His." Either way, that truth revealed in the vision led him to continue on there a year and six months more (v. 11). The knowledge that God has many more of His elect to be saved and join His church in the area you are in as well as those among our friends and family should keep us sharing the message with them and praying for them rather than shrinking back. 

 

In fact, what has kept more missionaries on the mission field so long where they have labored for years in some instances without ever seeing one convert is this truth. That God has elected those from every tribe, tongue, and nation to be saved and that will only take place through their ministry of the gospel. John Alexander, a former president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, once said, “At the beginning of my missionary career, I said that if predestination were true, I could not be a missionary. Now after twenty some years of struggling with the hardness of the human heart, I say I could never be a missionary unless I believed in the doctrine of predestination." 

 

And let me just add that out of all the names of the greatest evangelists and missionaries in history, William Carey, Jim Elliot, Adoniram Judson, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Charles Spurgeon, just to give a sampling of them, most of them were convinced that the ones who would respond to their message were those God had chosen or elected to beforehand. Believing that in no way directed them away from evangelism and missions but propelled them further in it. 

 

The Purpose of Election 

I want to end our study with a look at the purpose of election. The aim or goal of what God has elected believers for. This is where the doctrine of "predestination" comes in which is not the same as "election." Warren Wiersbe has helpfully pointed out that "Election seems to refer to people, while predestination refers to purposes." To put it in another way, we could say that election focuses on WHO God chooses while predestination is WHAT He chose them to be or do. And we find that Scripture points out three specific things all closely tied together that God has predestined those He has chosen beforehand for. One is to "be holy and blameless before Him" (Ephesians 1:4). In essence, to live a holy and righteous life as God has declared the believer to be through their faith in Christ. To labor for their practice to more and more match their holy and blameless position. Also, to be adopted as God's sons and daughters; to become part of His family with all the rights and privileges a child would have in that family (v. 5). And to "become conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29) which of course would be to be holy and blameless like Jesus is.  

 

Don’t buy the lie that the doctrine of election will lead one to be lazy or lax in their spiritual life. To have the attitude of "if God has already chosen me, I can now do whatever I want." Such an attitude can never be the case for the person who realizes what God has chosen him or her to be. We have been chosen by God for a purpose. Not to live unholy and lives full of blame but holy and blameless ones reflecting being a child of God and resembling His Son. The knowledge of this being the chosen purpose for believers ought to encourage us to walk in it and call into question the status of those who have no desire to. 

 

Now, I don't pretend to have all of this figured out and I may not have answered all the questions anyone may have about the Bible's teaching on election and predestination. But hopefully I helped lift the fog of confusion at least a little bit instead of adding to it. In conclusion, I want to stress again that this is not a doctrine to wring our hands over and get worked up about. It is a doctrine to delight in and take comfort in. That is the way Scripture treats it and how we should handle it then. Take some time today to reflect on the goodness and greatness of God in choosing to love and save you if you are a Christian long before you had ever done anything to disqualify yourself from that love and salvation. And the security you have in such love. That would be what Jesus, Paul, Peter and the other authors of Scripture under the inspiration of Scripture would want us to do with it.

 

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee