In considering the depths of God’s grace we come face to face with the Bible’s teaching on God’s election and predestination to eternal life of undeserving sinners. All without exception are lost in the guilt and bondage to sin. The deepest sin beneath all our sins, flaws and mess-ups is our addiction to our own autonomy or self-rule. This is the taproot sin of which all the others are just the fruit. We are helplessly guilty before a holy God and helplessly enslaved to our waywardness and we prefer it this way although at times the consequences of our rebellion break into our lives with devastating effects.
God is under no moral obligation to remedy our sinful guilt or bondage. Yet the only way anyone is rescued from the total depravity and the total inability due to sin is by the sovereign grace of God. In fact if we have any degree of sensitivity to just how lost we are as slaves to our passions and pride we would yearn for God’s mercy. Yet even such a yearning comes only as God graciously brings us to the end of ourselves and convicts us of our guilt and bondage to sin. So the question we need to consider is a simple one: who saves sinners? Is salvation a joint work where God does his part by sending his Son to die on the cross to make salvation possible and we do our part by responding in faith? Many sincere Christians hold this view but it begs these questions. How can those in bondage to sin liberate themselves? How can those who are dead in trespasses and sins make themselves come to life? How can those who are blind make themselves see, or deaf make themselves hear or lame make themselves walk?
The Bible teaches that salvation is wholly and solely the work of the Triune God and that this work of salvation is from start to finish accomplished by his powerful and unmerited grace and it has its origin in the eternal purpose of God to elect a people in Christ and predestine them to become his adopted sons and daughters thus delivering them from the guilt and bondage of sin. We see this in the two major texts that teach this doctrine: Ephesians 1:3-14 and Romans 9:1-24.
The Bible’s teaching on election has been called unconditional election. What this means is that God’s choice of who of Adam’s fallen race he would save is not conditioned by anything within the them. The elect are just as lost in their sin as the non-elect. They are just as deserving of condemnation and just as enslaved to their addiction to their own autonomy. In fact many of the elect are, at least on a human level, worse sinners apart from grace than the non-elect. God’s choice on whom he will have mercy and who he will harden – i.e. let them stay in their bondage to sin and its guilt – is rooted in God’s sovereign purpose to bring glory to his name in both the vessels of mercy and in the vessels of wrath (Romans 9:19-24).
Now some would affirm that the Bible does teach the doctrine of election but deny that the Bible teaches unconditional election. Based on a passage like Romans 8:29 – “Those whom God foreknew, he also predestined” – they would stress that God’s work of election is based on God foreknowing who would respond in faith to the Gospel. God elects to salvation those who accept the Gospel.
Yet what God is said to “foreknow” is not the response of those he predestined but the persons he predestined. It is not the action of the person but the person that God foreknew. Certainly God foreknows what a person will do or not do. Yet this is not what “foreknew” means in this text. Based on texts like Galatians 4:9; Psalm 1:6; Jeremiah 1:5 and others, the Bible’s teaching on the concept of God’s foreknowledge when applied to people is a synonym for election. The idea really is that of God fore-loving or loving beforehand those he predestines to eternal life. This is reflected well in a passage like Ephesians 1:4-5, “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.”
God’s election is unconditional. It is based in his free and sovereign grace and not upon anything that comes from us. God’s election is not based on his foreknowledge of our faith in Christ. Certainly, his election is not based on anyone’s moral goodness or intellectual prowess. We are all lost in our sins – enslaved to our passions and pride. So election is unconditional and rests solely upon God’s own purpose and grace.
Having stated the doctrine it must also be said that many have taken a wrong turn with it. This doctrine must never be separated from the Gospel. Here is what this means.
1. The Bible’s teaching on election by grace must never be used to undermine the Bible’s clear teaching on passionate evangelism or prayer for the lost. Rather when understood it gives us every incentive to be deliberate in sharing the gospel and confident that by God’s grace there will indeed be fruit from our prayers and labors.
2. The Bible’s teaching on election by grace must always be set side by side with the Bible’s teaching on the free offer of the Gospel. Since the number of the elect and non-elect is kept from us and God does not place a mark on people’s foreheads, we are called to freely offer the Gospel to all without respect to election or non election.
3. The warrant or reason to believe the Gospel is not based on one having to ascertain his or her election. Rather the warrant to believe the Gospel is everyone’s need for the Gospel. The Gospel invitation (Isaiah 55; Matthew 11:28; John 3:16; 5:35-37; Acts 16:20) is made to sinners. It is for those who need Christ and all without exception do. In fact all are commanded to repent and to believe the Gospel.
4. This means that if you are convicted of your need for Christ and want him to be your savior you may indeed come to Christ and he will not turn you away. All you need do is see your sin, confess such to him and tell him that you believe that his word is true and that he came for sinners and he will not turn sinners who come to him away. This is the only way you will discover your election!
5. The caricature of election by opponents of the teaching, as well as, the way some who accept the doctrine have mishandled it give the impression that there are many who want to come to Christ but cannot because they are not of the elect and there are others who don’t want to come to Christ but since they are elect they will come even against their wishes. This is not the case at all. All those who indeed want to come to Christ may. He will not cast anyone away from him who wants to come. Likewise those who don’t want to come to Christ will not be forced against their will to come.
Those of you who have believed on Jesus Christ as your redeemer from the guilt and bondage of sin – continue to look to Christ. Hold fast your faith in him and make every effort to make your calling and election sure by a life of faithful obedience and endurance. Genuine saving faith holds Christ continually precious to the soul and grows in assurance and in obedience. This is how we make our calling and election sure. Don’t presume that you possess Christ based on a mere decision but rather make sure your faith is alive in you and that Christ is most precious to you – give evidence of this in humble obedience to His Word.
For you who have not yielded to Jesus. I urge you to hear the offer He makes to you even now. Jesus came not for the well-adjusted or those who wrongly think they are okay and have no need of God. Jesus came for those who know they are damaged goods (and everyone truly is). If you are convicted of the deeper sin of your addiction to your own self-rule and are troubled by this as the root cause of all your other flaws and sins – the good news is that Christ welcomes you and will indeed rescue you from the guilt of your sins and your bondage to sin. He said “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” This is a certain and clear promise from the Lord Jesus Christ addressed to all people without distinction or exception. It is the offer of the Gospel!
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