The Biblical Doctrine of Election
"For [God] chose us in [Christ]
before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." (Ephesians 1:4, NIV)
One of the great truths of the Christian
faith is that of election. The doctrine
of election states that God predestines, or predetermines, the final state of
all believers. This predestination is
carried out before the creation of the world without regard to the worthiness
of the person chosen because it pleased God to do so for the sole purpose of
His glory. This truth is at once awesome
to behold, humbling and a source of great comfort.
It is awesome to behold because before
we were born, before we had done anything that would merit divine favor or
judgment, before the very creation of the cosmos, God, because it pleased Him
to do so, set His divine love on us and placed us within His Son to receive
mercy and grace and blessing. Think
about this for awhile! This is the
formation of the body of Christ (the church) in eternity past. God knew He was going to created the
universe. God knew that the human beings
that He created were going to rebel and sin against Him. God knew He would have to send His Son, the
second person of the Trinity, down to earth to atone for our sins. God knew all of this already, and before
creating all of it, He predetermined those whom He would save through the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The word "chose" is
interesting. It is the Greek word eklegomai,
and it means "to pick out." So
God "picked out" from the mass of humanity that He would create those
who would be received in Jesus Christ.
Another interesting thing with the word "chose" is that it's
in the middle voice, which basically means that God did this choosing for
Himself. This is the thought that Paul
echoes in Colossians
Thirdly, the doctrine of election is a
source of great comfort. Why? This might at first sound a bit odd, but
follow me. If salvation were something
we could earn or gain by some effort on ourselves, then it stands to reason
that we could also do something to "fall from grace." If our salvation is not based on God's
sovereign election, then our salvation is based on something less than the
unchangeable character of God. I can't
speak for anyone else, but this doesn't comfort me! If I can earn my salvation, the I can lose my
salvation. Roman Catholic theology
teaches this which is why they believe that the holy sacraments are necessary
for the maintenance and upkeep of salvation.
Let's be frank. Any view of
salvation that doesn't ultimately place the ground of salvation on God's
sovereignty is a false salvation! Any
view of salvation that doesn't emanate from God's sovereign choice is basically
a works based salvation!
People balk at the doctrine of election
for various reasons and they try to rationalize it away. One popular way of rationalization is the
foreknowledge theory. In this theory,
God looks down the corridors of time to see which people will exercise faith in
Jesus Christ. It is those people that
God chooses in Christ before the creation of the world for salvation. The proponents of this view believe by doing
this they preserve humanity's free choice in salvation which is espoused in
Scripture. While humanity is ultimately
responsible for their response to the gospel call, the foreknowledge view
absolutely destroys God's sovereignty!
How? It places the ultimate
decision of salvation on man and not God.
God's choice of whom to save is determined for Him, and thereby His
sovereign choice in the matter is removed.
The foreknowledge view is invalid if we
look to the very next verse in Ephesians:
"In love he
predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance
with his pleasure and will." This verse alone should be more than enough
to put to rest the foreknowledge view of election. Why did God choose us? He did so out of love because it pleased Him
to do so. There is absolutely no mention
of the future faith of the elect.
Does election destroy humanity's free
will? No. Look back on your conversion experience. If yours is anything like mine, you will
recall a point in your life where you realized that the things you were doing
up to that point weren't working, and that God's way seemed a whole lot better. Our conversion experience was a conscious
choice on our part to repent of our sins and follow Jesus Christ. That's how it seems to us. However, there is another point of view in
this equation. God is behind the scenes
working in the lives of those who have been chosen before the beginning of the
world, getting them to the point in their lives where accepting the free gift
of God's grace is a desirable thing.
The bottom
line is that the Bible teaches two seemingly paradoxical doctrines: God's sovereign election and man's free
choosing. If you don't understand how
the two reconcile, don't worry about it; that's God's problem. If it doesn't make sense to us, be sure that
it does make sense to Him. God's mind is
more than capable to resolve things that seems to us paradoxical. Don't fall into the trap of trying to
reconcile these two poles. What you end
up doing is creating a heretical doctrine and destroying both Biblical
doctrines. Any attempt to reconcile
these two teachings robs God of His sovereignty and His glory!