SALVATION-ELECTION
Some
of us, over the duration of our lives, have been shaken to the foundations by
this truth of God’s sovereignty over man’s belief and unbelief. We have run
from it, pretended it wasn’t there, argued against it, wept over it, and
finally bowed our heads and hearts before it, and then discovered it to be one
of the most deep and firm and precious foundation stones in the house of our
fragile faith. We see now, with trembling joy, that without it we would not
have believed, and we would not endure to the end and be saved.
John Piper
How Shall People Be Saved? Part 2. Romans 10:13-21,
August 31, 2003. www.DesiringGod.org.
Used by Permission.
In
considering the conflict between the sovereignty of God in election and the
human responsibility, J.I. Packer writes: What is an antinomy? The Shorter
Oxford Dictionary defines it as “a contradiction between conclusions which seem
equally logical, reasonable or necessary.” For our purposes, however, this
definition is not quite accurate; the opening words should read “an appearance
of contradiction.” For the whole point
of an antinomy – in theology, at any rate – is that it is not a real
contradiction, though it looks like one. It is an apparent incompatibility
between two apparent truths. An antinomy exists when a pair
of principles stand side by side, seemingly irreconcilable, yet both
undeniable.
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God,
InterVarsity Press p. 18.
C.H. Spurgeon
was once asked if he could reconcile these two truths to each other. “I
wouldn't try,” he replied; “I never reconcile friends.” Friends?
– yes, friends.This is the
point that we have to grasp. In the Bible, divine sovereignty and human
responsibility are not enemies. They are not uneasy neighbors; they are not in
an endless state of cold war with each other. They are friends, and they work
together.
J.I. Packer
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God,
InterVarsity Press p. 35-36.
God chooses
us, not because He foresees that we would choose Him, or that we would believe,
but for the very opposite reason. He chooses us just because He foresees that
we would neither choose Him nor believe of ourselves at all. Election proceeds
not upon foreseen faith in us, but upon foreseen unbelief.
Horatius Bonar
Truth and Error, 1845.
You are perplexed by the doctrine of
God’s sovereignty and election. I wonder that any man believing in a God should
be perplexed by these. For if there be a God, a King, eternal, immortal, and
invisible, He cannot but be sovereign – and He cannot but do according to His
own will and choose according to His own purpose. You may dislike these
doctrines, but you can only get quit of them by denying altogether the
existence of an infinitely wise, glorious, and powerful Being. God would not be
God were He not thus absolutely sovereign in His present doings and His eternal
pre-arrangements.
Horatius Bonar
God’s
Way of Peace, 1862.
There can be no grace when there is no
sovereignty. Deny God’s right to choose whom He will and you deny His right to
save whom He will. Deny His right to save whom He will and you deny that
salvation is of grace. If salvation is made to hinge upon any merit or fitness
in man, seen or foreseen, grace is at an end.
Horatius Bonar
The Reign of Grace, Preface, 1844.
I liken them
to two ropes going through two holes in the ceiling and over a pulley above. If
I wish to support myself by them, I must cling to them both. If I cling only to
one and not the other, I go down. I read the many teachings of the Bible
regarding God's election, predestination, his chosen, and so on. I read also
the many teachings regarding 'whosoever will may come'
and urging people to exercise their responsibility as human beings. These
seeming contradictions cannot be reconciled by the puny human mind. With
childlike faith, I cling to both ropes, fully confident that in eternity I will
see that both strands of truth are, after all, of one piece.
R.B. Kuiper
Quoted in: Leadership, v. 7, n. 3.
Election and sovereignty are only sources of good.
Election is not a decree to destroy. It is a decree to save. When we elect a
president, we do not need to hold a second election to determine that the
remaining millions shall be non-presidents.
Augustus H. Strong
Election is
best understood in hindsight, for it is only after coming to Christ that one
can know for sure whether one has been chosen in Christ. Those who make a
decision for Christ find that God made a decision for them in eternity past. It
is like the words of the anonymous nineteenth-century hymn: I sought the Lord,
and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me; it was not that
I found, O Savior true; no, I was found of Thee.
Philip Graham Ryken
Assured by God, ed. Burk Parsons, P&R, 2006, p. 46. Used by Permission.
Theologians
sometimes speak of “double predestination,” which means that according to Gods
decree, some sinners will never repent and thus finally will be lost in their
sins. Strictly speaking, double predestination is not a biblical term, for the
Bible nowhere speaks of anyone being predestined to hell. It reserves the verb
“predestine” (proorizo) for the salvation of sinners unto
eternal life. However, even if it is not a biblical term, double predestination
expresses a biblical truth. If God has made an advance decision about which
people He will save from their sins, He has also made an advance decision about
which people He will leave in their sins (Romans 1:28). The theological term
for this is “reprobation.” It means that when God established His plan of
salvation, He decided to pass some sinners by.
Philip Graham Ryken
Assured by God, ed. Burk Parsons, P&R, 2006, p. 44. Used by Permission.
[The elect] are gathered into Christ’s flock by a call
not immediately at birth, and not all at the same time, but according as it
pleases God to dispense His grace to them. But before they are gathered unto
that supreme Shepherd, they wander scattered in the wilderness common to all;
and they do not differ at all from others except that they are protected by
God’s special mercy from rushing headlong into the final ruin of death.
John Calvin
Institutes, 3.24.10.
For no man is
damned precisely because God hath not chosen him, because he is not elected,
but because he is a sinner, and doth willfully refuse the means of grace
offered.
Anthony Burgess
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 88.
Let us then
ascribe the whole work of grace to the pleasure of God’s Will. God did not
choose us because we were worthy, but by choosing us He makes us worthy.
Thomas Watson
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 84.
It is absurd
to think that anything in us could have the least influence upon our election.
Some say that God did foresee that such persons would believe, and therefore
did choose them; so they would make the business of salvation to depend upon
something in us. Whereas God does not choose us FOR faith,
but TO faith. “He hath chosen us, that we should be holy,” (Ephesians
1:4), not because we would be holy, but that we might be holy. We are elected
to holiness, not for it.
Thomas Watson
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 83.
Christians,
you who are vessels of election – were by nature as wicked as others – but God
had compassion on you and plucked you as brands out of the fire! He stopped you
in your course of sinning – when you were marching to hell! He turned you back
to Him by sincere repentance. Oh, here is the banner of love displayed over
you!
Thomas Watson
The Mischief of Sin.
Moreover, the
topic of election is nearly always introduced for a practical purpose, in order
to foster assurance (not presumption), holiness (not moral apathy), humility (not pride) and witness (not lazy selfishness)...
Similarly in 1 Thessalonians 1:4 Paul unites the love of God and the election of
God. That is, He chose us because He loves us, and He love
us because He loves us. He does not love us because we are lovable, but only
because He is love. And with that mystery we must be content.
John Stott
As the
Reformers put it, saving faith is the instrument by which we subjectively
appropriate Christ's objective, finished work.
It is an opening of our empty hands to receive what God is
offering. But we shall never give God
all the glory for our salvation unless we remember that even the opening of our
hands depends on what God has already done in the hiddennes
of our hearts.
Mark Talbot
The Signs of True Conversion, 2000, Crossway
Books, p. 29.
But there are some who say, “It is hard for
God to choose some and leave others.” Now, I will ask you one question. Is there any of you here this morning who wishes to be holy,
who wishes to be regenerate, to leave off sin and walk in holiness? “Yes, there
is,” says someone, “I do.” Then God has elected you. But another says, “No; I
don’t want to be holy; I don’t want to give up my lusts and my vices.” Why
should you grumble, then, that God has not elected you to it? For if you were
elected you would not like it, according to your own confession. If God this
morning had chosen you to holiness, you say you would not care for it. Do you
not acknowledge that you prefer drunkenness to sobriety, dishonesty to honesty?
You love this world’s pleasures better than religion; then why should you
grumble that God has not chosen you to religion? If you love religion, He has chosen you to it. If you desire
it, He has chosen you to it. If you do
not, what right have you to say that God ought to have
given you what you do not wish for?
C.H.
Spurgeon
Sermon, 2 Thessalonians 2:13.
There are two
great truths which from this platform I have proclaimed for many years. The
first is that salvation is free to every man who will have it; the second is
that God gives salvation to a people whom He has chosen; and these truths are
not in conflict with each other in the least degree.
C.H. Spurgeon
From the Word
of God I gather that damnation is all of man, from top to bottom, and salvation
is all of grace, from first to last. He that perishes chooses to perish; but he
that is saved is saved because God has chosen to save him.
C.H. Spurgeon
If God would
have painted a yellow stripe on the backs of the elect I would go around
lifting shirts. But since He didn’t I must preach “whosoever will” and when
“whatsoever” believes I know that he is one of the elect.
C.H. Spurgeon
I believe that nothing happens apart from
divine determination and decree. We shall never be able to escape from the
doctrine of divine predestination – the doctrine that God has foreordained
certain people unto eternal life.
C.H. Spurgeon
How is it
that some of us are converted, while our companions in sin are left to
persevere in their godless career? Was there anything good in us that moved the
heart of God to save us? God forbid that we should indulge the blasphemous
thought!
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons, 6.34.
Your
damnation is your own election, not God’s.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons, 5.119.
I believe the
man who is not willing to submit to the electing love and sovereign grace of
God has great reason to question whether he is a Christian at all, for the
spirit that kicks against that is the spirit of the unhumbled,
unrenewed heart.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons, 5.424.
Whatever may
be said about the doctrine of election, it is written in the Word of God as
with an iron pen, and there is no getting rid of it. To me, it is one of the
sweetest and most blessed truths in the whole of revelation, and those who are
afraid of it are so because they do not understand it. If they could but know
that the Lord had chosen them, it would make their hearts dance for joy.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons, 9.374, 375.
Rebellion
against divine election is often founded on the idea that the sinner has a sort
of right to be saved, and this is to deny the full desert of sin.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermons, 24.302.
I believe the
doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, 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; and He must have
elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in
myself why He should have looked upon me with special love.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermon, A Defense of
Calvinism.
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"
C.H. Spurgeon
Some of you
have never preached on election since you were ordained. “These things,” you
say, “are offensive.” And so you would rather offend God than offend man. But
you reply, “These things will not be practical.” I do think that the climax of
all man’s blasphemy is centered in that utterance. Tell me that God put a thing
in the Bible that I am not to preach! You are finding fault with my God. But
you say, “It will be dangerous.” What! God's truth dangerous?
I should not like to stand in your shoes when you have to face your Maker on
the Day of Judgment after such an utterance as that.
C.H. Spurgeon
It is a good
thing God chose me before I was born, because he surely would not have
afterwards.
C.H. Spurgeon
Many people
want to know their election before they look to Christ. But they cannot learn
it thus; it is only to be discovered by “looking unto Jesus.” Look to Jesus,
believe on Him, and you shall make proof of your election directly, for as
surely as you believe, you are elect. If you will give yourself wholly up to
Christ and trust Him, then you are one of God’s chosen ones. Go to Jesus just
as you are. Go straight to Christ, hide in His wounds, and you shall know your
election… Christ was at the everlasting council. He can tell you whether you
were chosen or not, but you cannot find out in any other way. Go and put your
trust in Him. There will be no doubt about His having chosen you, when you have
chosen Him.
C.H. Spurgeon
If it were Christ's intention to save all
men, how deplorably He has been disappointed!
C.H. Spurgeon
I am persuaded that the doctrine of predestination is one of the “softest pillows” upon which the Christian can lay his head, and one of the “strongest staffs” upon which he may lean, in his pilgrimage along this rough road.
C.H. Spurgeon
In one of his
sermons, Spurgeon reminded his congregation about the doctrine of God’s
electing some from the foundation of the world. But he noted that our task is
to preach the gospel to every creature, not to find the elect. Spurgeon
reportedly said that if God had painted a yellow strip down the back of each of
the elect, he would run up and down the streets of London, lifting up
shirttails, and preaching the gospel to the elect. But Spurgeon reminds us that
God has not done so. Instead He has commanded us to “preach the gospel to every
creature.” We must urgently appeal to everyone to come to Christ.
Jim Ehrhard
The Dangers of the Invitation
System, Christian Communications Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org, 1999, p. 23.
God elects us
in order to eliminate all boasting, all self-reliance, all human pride (1 Cor.
1:29-31; Eph. 1:3-11; 2:8-9).
G.K.
Beale
Taken from “1 and 2 Thessalonians” by G.K. Beale, © 2003, InterVarsity
Christian Fellowship/USA. Used with
permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, p.
228. www.ivpress.com.
The marvel of
marvels is not that God, in His infinite love, has not elected all this guilty race to be saved, but that He has elected
any.
B.B. Warfield
A man may be
so bold of his predestination, that he forget his
conversation.
Thomas Adams
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 88.
It
is sometimes said that the doctrine of predestination exposes God to the charge
of injustice. But this is hardly correct. We could speak of injustice only if
man had a claim on God, and God owed man eternal salvation. But the situation
is entirely different if all men have forfeited the blessings of God, as they
have. No one has the right to call God to account for electing some and
rejecting others. He would have been perfectly just, if He had not saved any,
Matt. 20:14, 15; Rom. 9:14, 15.
Louis Berkhof
Summary of Christian Doctrine, Part II: The Doctrine of God and Creation,
Chapter VIII: The Divine Decrees.
Our
election is not written in particular in the word of God; but our duty is
plainly set down there. If men conscientiously perform their duty, this is the
way to come to the knowledge of their election. Men therefore should not
question whether they be elected or not, but first believe on Christ, and
endeavor diligently to work out their own salvation; and if their works be
good, and their obedience true, thereby they will come to a certain knowledge
that they were elected and set apart to everlasting life.
Thomas Boston
Of the Decrees of God, Commentary on the Shorter
Catechism.
Thou didst
seek us when we sought Thee not; didst seek us indeed that we might seek Thee.
Augustine
God chooses
us, not because we believe, but that we may believe.
Augustine
So often when
we struggle with the doctrine of predestination and election it is because our
eyes are always fixed on the difficulty of resolving predestination with human freedom.
The Bible, however, links them with salvation, which every Christian should
find enormously comforting. Salvation is not an afterthought of God. The
redemption of His people, the salvation of His church, my eternal salvation, these actions are not a postscript to the Divine activity.
Instead, from the very foundation of the world, God had a sovereign plan to
save a significant portion of the human race, and He moves heaven and earth to
bring it to pass.
R.C. Sproul
The Purpose of God, An
Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 23.
The reason
for election is not my foreseen righteousness; or my foreseen obedience; or my
foreseen response to the gospel…the only reason to be found in Scripture that
explains why God elects people for salvation…[is] that God has done this in accordance
with His pleasure and will (Ephesians 1:5).
R.C. Sproul
The Purpose of God, An
Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 24.
At no point
in Scripture is the term “loved by God” applied to any person other than the
saints. It is never applied to the world at large, where the reprobate would be
included. On the latter the “wrath of God” abides, while on the former “there
is no condemnation.” Only the Elect are the specific objects of the love of
God.
Duane Edward Spencer
TULIP, The Five
Points of Calvinism in the Light of Scripture, Baker, 1979, p. 41.
From my
childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God's
sovereignty in choosing whom He would to eternal life, and rejecting him whom
He pleased; leaving them eternally to perish, and be everlastingly tormented in
Hell. It used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me. But I have often, since
that first conviction, had quite another kind of sense of God's sovereignty
than I had then. I have often since had not only a conviction, but a delightful
conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared exceeding pleasant, bright,
and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God. But my first
conviction was not so.
Jonathan Edwards
The
conversion of a sinner being not owing to a man's self determination, but to
God's determination, and eternal election, which is absolute, and depending on
the sovereign Will of God, and not on the free will of man; as is evident from
what has been said: and it being very evident from the Scriptures, that the
eternal election of saints to the faith and holiness, is also an election of
them to eternal salvation; hence their appointment to salvation must also be
absolute, and not depending on their contingent, self-determining Will
Jonathan Edwards
Make God the peculiar object of your praises. The
doctrine [of election] shows what great reason you have so to do. If God so
values you, sets so much by you, has bestowed greater mercies upon you than on
all the ungodly in the world, is it too little a requital for you to make God
the peculiar object of your praise and thankfulness? If God so distinguishes
you with His mercies, you ought to distinguish yourself in His praises. You
should make it your great care and study how to glorify that God who has been
so peculiarly merciful to you. And this, rather, because there was nothing
peculiar in you differing from any other person that moved God thus to deal
thus peculiarly by you: you were as unworthy to be set by as thousands of
others that are not regarded of God, and are cast away by Him forever.
Jonathan Edwards
When the
solemn and blessed subject of Divine foreordination is expounded, when God’s
eternal choice of certain ones to be conformed to the image of His Son is set
forth, the Enemy sends along some man to argue that election is based upon the
foreknowledge of God, and this “foreknowledge” is interpreted to mean that God
foresaw certain ones would be more pliable than others, that they would respond
more readily to the strivings of the Spirit, and that because God knew they would
believe, He, accordingly, predestinated them unto salvation. But such a
statement is radically wrong. It repudiates the truth of total depravity, for
it argues that there is something good in some men It takes away the independency of God,
for it makes His decrees rest upon what He discovers in the
creature It completely turns things
upside down, for in saying God foresaw certain sinners would believe in Christ,
and that because of this, He predestinated them unto salvation, is the very
reverse of the truth. Scripture affirms that God, in His high sovereignty,
singled out certain ones to be recipients of His distinguishing favors (Acts
13:48), and therefore He determined to bestow upon them the gift of faith.
False theology makes God’s foreknowledge of our believing the cause of
His election to salvation; whereas, God’s election is the cause, and our
believing in Christ is the effect.
A.W. Pink
The Attributes of God, Baker Book House, p.
23.
God foreknows
what will be because He has decreed what shall be. It is
therefore a reversing of the order of Scripture, a putting of the cart before
the horse, to affirm that God elects because He foreknows people. The truth is,
He “foreknows” because He has elected. This removes the ground or cause
of election from outside the creature, and places it in God’s own sovereign
will.
A.W. Pink
The Attributes of God, Baker Book House, p. 26.
Like the
doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the miraculous birth of our Savior, the truth
of election must be received with simple, unquestioning faith.
A.W. Pink
Reformed theologians say that God deems His
own glory more important than saving everyone, and
that (according to Romans 9) God’s glory is also furthered by the fact that
some are not saved. Arminian theologians also say that something else is more
important to God than the salvation of all people, namely, the preservation of
man’s free will. So in a Reformed system God’s highest value is His own glory,
and in an Arminian system God’s highest value is the free will of man.
Wayne Grudem and Jeff
Purswell
Bible Doctrine: essential Teachings of the Christian Faith, Zondervan, 1999, p.
291, www.zondervan.com.
Now
do not think that the belief of others in history establishes any doctrine… But
it does help to say that we are not alone in our interpretation of Scripture,
the Scripture being of “no private interpretation.” This is not a new doctrine
– forgotten, yes – but not new. So I will start the list with Christ and Paul,
Peter, John, and the others, and continue with these: Wycliffe, Tyndale,
Coverdale, Ussher, Lightfoot, virtually all the King James Version translators,
Beza, Brainard, Edwards,
Whitefield, Carey, Fuller, Livingstone, Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, Luther
Rice, and China Inland Mission missionaries. Matthew Henry, Martin Luther, John
Brown, Joseph Caryl, Thomas Chalmers, Alexander Maclaren, John Gill, Bishop Hall, Charles Hodge, Bishop
Leighton, Thomas Manton, Thomas Goodwin, John Owen, G. Campbell Morgan, Matthew
Poole, Bishop Reynolds, William Gurnall, J.C. Ryle, John Trapp, Robert Haldane,
C.H. Spurgeon and Thomas Scott. We could add a host many others,
including George Mueller, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and several prominent authors and
preachers of today, such as R. C. Sproul, John MacArthur, J. I. Packer, John
Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, etc. All of this listing is again just to say that
a person who genuinely interprets Scripture as giving God supreme sovereignty
over who is and who is not saved does not mean that he or she is in a freakish
minority of irrelevant theologs.
Jim Elliff
A
Three-legged Stool: All Side of God’s Salvation Process, Christian
Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
The
foreknowledge spoken of (in Romans 8:29) is foreknowledge of persons, not
events. The statement reads, “whom He
foreknew…” You see this as well in Romans 11:2, speaking of His endearment to
Israel: “God did not reject His people whom He foreknew.” Therefore we can
deduce that foreknowledge as related to salvation is not just seeing a person's
conversion experience prior to election and therefore electing on the basis of
the individual’s choice. It is a foreloving of
persons.
Jim Elliff
A
Three-legged Stool: All Side of God’s Salvation Process, Christian
Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
We
have created on our understanding a big man and a small God: a strong and able
man choosing his destiny and weak God who does not determine but simply waits
on man. In fact, we have a very frustrated God. He wrings His hands waiting for
capricious man to decide for Him. He begs a little – but not too much, for then
He would overpower man’s will. He is sovereign, but sovereign over what?
Certainly nothing to do with man’s will. The weather maybe.
If salvation is determined by man's believing alone, then God is not sovereign,
but man is.
Jim Elliff
A
Three-legged Stool: All Side of God’s Salvation Process, Christian
Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
The
pre-sight view of election makes God seem absurd in
His language if not somewhat dishonest. You see, God has gone to great lengths
to say that some are elected, chosen, foreordained, predestined as part of His
eternal purpose. For God to say that He saw those that would choose Him and
then He calls them elect (select from a number) is linguistic trickery. It is
like the Queen decreeing that the sun will rise in the morning, as others have
said. God’s words about His action toward man would mean nothing but could only
be construed as a way of presenting an authoritative front that God is in
charge, whereas the decisions of eternal life and death are really within man
alone. Apply this to prophecy. Much of prophecy is presented to us as that which God determines to do in the future. Is this the
truth of it? Did God prophesy that John the Baptist would be the forerunner of
the Messiah (Isa. 40:3-5; Luke 3:3-6) on the basis of pre-sight, and then
declare that it would happen? Doesn’t language lose all meaning to say that?
Does it not make sense of the language to say that the action predicted was
based on God’s determined plan and not just what He saw happening?
Jim Elliff
A
Three-legged Stool: All Side of God’s Salvation Process, Christian
Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
As
a philosophical idea, God’s decreeing of a thing has dominance over His seeing
a thing beforehand. Even though…the word foreknowledge is more than pre-sight,
we nonetheless cannot disregard the verity that God sees all things beforehand.
Thus God’s seeing all things has forever been a reality to Him, and God’s
determining all things has also been forever. These two have had eternal
origins. As long as He has decreed, He has known; and as long as He has known,
He has decreed. So, in one sense, we cannot put one philosophical idea ahead of
the other in terms of time. Yet we can put one above the other in terms of
dominance. If God has seen and determined at the same time, we cannot make His
decreeing subservient to His knowing. The reason one is preceding the other in
terms of force (not time) is that determination is a willful act of God,
whereas seeing is a passive act. God cannot help but see all, but He wills to
decree. Therefore what He determines, He sees; and what He sees, is determined.
The force of decreeing a thing dominates the seeing.
Jim Elliff
A
Three-legged Stool: All Side of God’s Salvation Process, Christian
Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
In
the final place we should remember that the doctrine of election is principally
for the good of those who hear. It says that sinners may be saved. It says that
those without hope have hope in God’s love. Though fears may come when one
considers the implications of being non-elect, it is most certainly a positive
doctrine.
Jim Elliff
A
Three-legged Stool: All Side of God’s Salvation Process, Christian
Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
I tell you
again, God hath not ordinarily decreed the end without the means; and if you
will neglect the means of salvation, it is a certain mark that God hath not
decreed you to salvation. But you shall
find that He hath left you no excuse, because He hath not thus predestinated
you.
Richard Baxter
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000,
p. 86-87.
Salvation is
from our side a choice; from the divine side it is a seizing upon, an
apprehending, a conquest by the Most High God. Our “accepting” and “willing” are reactions
rather than actions. The right of determination must always remain with God.
A.W. Tozer
Predestination
to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby before the foundations of
the world were laid, He hath constantly decreed by His counsel secret to us, to
deliver from curse and damnation those whom He hath chosen in Christ out of
mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made
to honor. Wherefore they which be imbued with so excellent a benefit of God be
called according to God’s purpose by His Spirit, working in due season; they
through grace obey the calling; they be justified freely; they be made sons of
God by adoption; they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus
Christ; they walk religiously in good works and at length by God’s mercy, they
attain to everlasting felicity.
The Thirty-nine Articles
Number Seventeen, 1563.
The idea of
election goes back to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3). God chose to make a nation of that
patriarch’s descendants. He chose Israel to be his people. He worked his
purposes out through that one nation and in due course sent his Messiah as a
Jew. After that, God continued to choose, or elect, people in accordance with
his purpose (Rom. 9:11), grace (Rom. 11:5), love (1 Thes. 1:4), and
foreknowledge (1 Pet. 1:2). The “elect” can rely on God’s concern for them
(Luke 18:7) and on their sure salvation (Rom. 8:33). They are to live lives
befitting their status (Col. 3:12-14). Mystery is inherent in the concept of
election, because we also know that God desires the salvation of all persons (1
Tim. 2:4).
Author Unknown
If God
actually stood powerless before the majesty of man's lordly will, there would
be but little use to pray for Him to convert any one. It would then be more
reasonable for us to direct our petitions to the man himself.
Loraine Boettner
The Reformed Doctrine of
Predestination.
The elect are whosoever will, and the non-elect,
whosoever won't.
This is the
well-known decision of election and reprobation revealed in God’s Word. This
decision the wicked, impure, and unstable distort to their own ruin, but it
provides holy and godly souls with comfort beyond words.
The Canons of Dort
The First Main Point of Doctrine: Divine
Election and Reprobation. Article 6-
God’s Eternal Decision.
Election (or
choosing) is God’s unchangeable purpose by which He did the following: Before
the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the free good
pleasure of His will, He chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of
particular people out of the entire human race, which had fallen by its own
fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Those chosen were neither
better nor more deserving than the others, but lay with them in the common
misery. He did this in Christ, whom He also appointed from eternity to be the
mediator, the head of all those chosen, and the foundation of their salvation.
And so He decided to give the chosen ones to Christ to be saved, and to call
and draw them effectively into Christ’s fellowship through His Word and Spirit.
In other words, He decided to grant them true faith in Christ, to justify them
to sanctify them, and finally, after powerfully preserving them in the
fellowship of his Son, to glorify them. God did all this in order to
demonstrate His mercy, to the praise of the riches of His glorious grace.
The Canons of Dort
The First Main Point of Doctrine: Divine
Election and Reprobation. Article 7-
Election.
Election took
place, not on the basis of foreseen faith, of the obedience of faith, of
holiness, or any other good quality and disposition, as though it were based on
a prerequisite cause or condition in the person to be chosen, but rather for
the purpose of faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, and so on.
The Canons of Dort
The First Main Point of Doctrine: Divine Election and Reprobation. Article 9- Election not based on Foreseen Faith.
A
certain individual said to (Asahel Nettelton): “I cannot get along with the doctrine of
election.” “Then,” said Nettleton, “get along without it. You are at liberty to
get to heaven the easiest way you can. Whether the doctrine of election is true
or not, it is true that you must repent, and believe, and love God. Now, what
we tell you is, that such is the wickedness of your heart, that you never will
do these things unless God has determined to renew your heart. If you do not
believe that your heart is so wicked, make it manifest by complying with the
terms of salvation. Why do you stand caviling with the doctrine of election?
Suppose you should prove it to be false, what have you gained? You must repent
and believe in Christ after all. Why do you not immediately comply with these
terms of the gospel? When you have done this, without the aids of the divine
grace, it will be soon enough to oppose the doctrine of election. Until you
shall have done this, we shall still believe that the doctrine of election lies
at the foundation of all hope in your case.”
Bennet Tyler and Andrew Bonar
The
Life and Labours of Asahel Nettleton,
p. 405.
None can know
their election but by their conformity to Christ; for all who are chosen are
chosen to sanctification.
Matthew Henry
Nothing is more effective [understanding divine election]
in killing human pride and promoting godly humility and granting insight into
the nature of God and inflaming the heart in worship.
Sam Storms
Divine Election: How and Why Does God Choose? – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
If God did not want us to understand His sovereign saving
purposes, He would not have given such extensive instruction in His Word.
“Therefore,” says Calvin, “We must guard against depriving believers of
anything disclosed about predestination in Scripture, lest we seem either
wickedly to defraud them of the blessing of their God or to accuse and scoff at
the Holy Spirit for having published what it is in any way profitable to
suppress” (Institutes, III.21.3).
Sam Storms
Divine Election: How and Why Does God Choose? – Part I, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Those whom God chooses are chosen out from among all others. They who are chosen were in the same
sinful condition, the same misery as the whole of the race. They were alike
partakers of corruption, morally and spiritually destitute of anything good.
They were, like all others, at enmity with God, serving Satan, deserving of
death and condemnation, without righteousness. There is no distinction between elect and non-elect prior to the
distinction that election makes.
Sam Storms
Divine Election: How and Why Does God Choose? – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
[Jonathan] Edwards reminds us that God doesn’t choose men
because He foresees excellence in them, but “He makes them excellent because He
has chosen them.” Or again, “God doesn’t choose men and set His love upon them
because they love Him, for He hath first loved us” (1 John 4:10). “Nor did God
choose men because He foresaw that they would believe and come to Christ. Faith
is the fruit of election and not the cause of it.” “Nor is it from any
foresight of men’s endeavors after conversion, because He sees that some will
do much more than others to obtain heaven, that He
chooses.”
Sam Storms
Divine Election: How and Why Does God Choose? – Part II, Edwards quotes from:
Christians a Chosen Generation, 17:280, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Here’s the rub: We
simply don’t like the idea that the reason for God’s choices resides wholly
within God. We want to account for His decision. We want to explain it, to
rationalize it, to provide grounds and warrant for it. We want to be able to
point to “factor A, or datum B, or issue C” in something other than God or
preferably to “characteristic X, or virtue Y, or work Z” in us. We want to
point to this quality or that personality trait or some accomplishment in one
that isn’t in another as the grounds for God’s decision.
Sam Storms
Divine Election: How and Why Does God Choose? – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Some contend that we should believe in divine election
reluctantly, wishing that it were otherwise than what we find in Scripture.
They argue that we should speak of it with sadness and regret, and talk about
it only when pushed or coerced to do so. But there is something seriously wrong
when we fail to rejoice in what pleases God. There is a grievous flaw in our
thinking and in our affections when we are reluctant to speak about what God
spoke so often of in Scripture.
Sam Storms
Divine Election: How and Why Does God Choose? – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
God did not sovereignly choose you so that the idea of Him choosing you might merely
bounce around in your brain. He chose you for worship. The ultimate purpose of predestination is
praise! You have been chosen for this goal: the proclamation of his excellencies and your extravagantly affectionate and
inexpressibly joyful delight in them (cf. 1 Peter 1:8; 2:9).
Sam Storms
Divine Election: How and Why Does God Choose? – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Divine election is certainly one of the more profound and
controversial doctrines in Holy Scripture. To some it is an idea conceived in
hell, a tool of Satan wielded by him to thwart the evangelistic zeal of the
church and thus responsible for populating hell with men and women who
otherwise would have been reached with the gospel message. To others divine
election is the heart and soul of Scripture, the most comforting and reassuring
of biblical truths apart from which grace loses its power and God His glory. To
the former, then, election is a primary reason why people are in hell. To the
latter, it is the only reason why people are in heaven!
Sam Storms
What is Election? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
No one who believes in the Bible disputes the fact that
election is taught there. It isn’t the reality of election, or even its source,
author, time, or goal that has elicited so much venom among professing
Christians. It is rather the basis of divine election, that is to say, why
and on what grounds some are elected to salvation and life and others are not.
There are essentially only three options, the first of which is more pagan than
Christian.
1.
It has been argued that God elects those who are good. In
this view, election is a debt God is obliged to pay, not a gift He graciously
bestows. It is on the basis of inherent or self-generated righteousness that
God elects men and women. This is the doctrine of Pelagianism, named after the
British monk Pelagius who popularized the view in the fifth century. One would
be hard-pressed to find an advocate of this perspective within the professing
Christian church.
2.
Others contend that God elects some who are bad who,
notwithstanding their being bad, choose to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. It
is on the basis of this foreseen faith that God elects them. This is the
doctrine of Arminianism, named after the Dutch theologian James Arminius
(1560-1609). It has also been called Wesleyanism because of the influence of
John Wesley.
3.
There is the view that God elects some who are bad who,
because of their being bad, are not of themselves able to exercise faith in
Christ. It is on the basis of His own sovereign good pleasure that God elects them.
This is the doctrine of Calvinism, named after the French theologian John
Calvin (1509-1564).
Sam Storms
What is Election? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Thus the Calvinist says that God elects unbelievers and
predestines them to become believers. The Arminian, on the other hand, says
that God elects believers and predestines them to become His children… The
question…is this: Are faith and
repentance produced by free will and thus the cause of election, or are they
produced by the Holy Spirit and thus the effect of election? According
to Arminianism, election is that act of God whereby He foreordains to eternal
life those whom He foresees will respond in faith to the gospel. According to
Calvinism, election is that act of God whereby He foreordains to eternal life
those who, because of sin, cannot respond in faith to the gospel.
Sam Storms
What is Election? November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Only the doctrine of unconditional election preserves the
integrity of divine grace. According to the notion of conditional election, God
graciously makes possible, but not certain, the election of all people by
restoring to each that power and freedom of will of which they had been
deprived by Adam’s fall into sin. Whether or not God elects any person is
therefore dependent on the way in which he or she makes use of this ability. By
establishing the condition for election as faith, God is thereby obligated to
elect all those who, by means of their now purportedly free wills, believe in
the gospel of Christ. But surely, then, election itself can be neither
of grace nor according to God’s good pleasure. I suppose one might say that it
was gracious of God to restore in all people sufficient ability to believe and
that it was gracious of God to impose the condition of faith in Christ (by
which one qualifies for election). But it is certainly not possible to say that
election is itself gracious. To choose men because they believe is an
obligation to which God is bound; it is a debt he must pay. If it would be
unjust of God, having made faith the condition of election, not to elect those
who believe, then election is a matter of giving man his due. Election would be
the divine response to what a person deserves. He deserves being chosen because
by a free act of will he has fulfilled the condition (faith) on which election
was suspended… How can election be gracious if it is something God must
do because justice requires it? Election is gracious precisely because
it is the bestowal of life on those who deserve only death.
Sam Storms
Grace – Part II, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
The doctrine
of predestination promotes humility, not arrogance; assurance, not
apprehension; responsibility, not apathy; holiness, not complacency; and
mission, not privilege.
John
Stott
Romans – God’s Good News for the World, 1994, InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship. Used with permission of InterVarsity Press
UK, p. 252.
Evangelism…far
from being rendered superfluous by God’s predestination, is indispensable,
because it is the very means God has ordained by which His call comes to His
people and awakens their faith.
John
Stott
Romans – God’s Good News for the World, 1994, InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship. Used with permission of InterVarsity Press
UK, p. 252.
I affirm with
John 3:16 and 1 Timothy 2:4 that God loves the world with a deep compassion
that desires the salvation of all men. Yet I also affirm that God has chosen
from before the foundation of the world whom He will
save from sin. Since not all people are saved we must choose whether we believe
(with the Arminians) that God’s will to save all people is restrained by His
commitment to human self-determination or whether we believe (with the
Calvinists) that God’s will to save all people is restrained by his commitment
to the glorification of His sovereign grace (Ephesians 1:6,12,14; Romans
9:22-23). This decision should not be made on the basis of metaphysical
assumptions about what we think human accountability requires. It should be
made on the basis of what the Scriptures teach. I do not find in the Bible that
human beings have the ultimate power of self-determination.
John Piper
Are There Two Wills in God? January 1, 1995. www.DesiringGod.org. Used by
Permission.
Here are
eleven things expressly taught in the Word of God about election:
1.
Election
is “IN CHRIST.” No less than fourteen times in the first fourteen verses of Ephesians
chapter one the Holy Spirit expressly tells us that every benefit and blessing
of grace that comes to sinners from God is in Christ.
2.
Election
is UNTO SALVATION. Certainly, there is a sense in which it must be said that
God's elect were saved from eternity (Rom. 8:29); but we must never be deceived
into thinking that election is salvation. Election is unto salvation. Election
is not, as some teach, unto "Christian service." Election is unto
salvation.
3.
Election
is an act of pure, absolute, DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY. God has mercy on whom he will have mercy (Rom. 9:11-18). God was not moved by
anything outside Himself to choose the people He chose to save.
4.
Election
took place in ETERNITY. God did not choose His people in time, but before time
began, in eternity. He chose us before the foundation of the world, from the
beginning, when nothing existed except God Himself in the tri-unity of the
eternal Godhead.
5.
The
source and cause of election is God's eternal LOVE for His people. He loved us
freely, from everlasting, before ever the earth was made. Our love to Him is
not the cause of His love toward us, but the result (Jer. 31:3; 1 Jn. 4:19).
6.
God’s
election was an act of free, UNCONDITIONAL grace. Grace is always free and
unconditional. The moment a condition is put to it, it ceases to be grace. To
say that God chose us because of something He foresaw in us, or foresaw we
would chose to do, is to frustrate the grace of God, making it the reward of
our work (Rom. 11:6).
7.
Election
is God’s PERSONAL choice of specific sinners to eternal life in Christ. Here is
a sweet cordial of grace which shall never cease to amaze and rejoice the
hearts of believing sinners – The Lord God chose me to eternal salvation in
Christ, because He loved me with an everlasting, unconditional love!
8.
Election
is IRREVERSIBLE. “The gifts and callings of God are without repentance” (Rom.
11:29). Those who were chosen to salvation in eternity shall not be unchosen in time!
9.
Election
is EFFECTUAL. There is no possibility that one of God’s elect shall perish (2
Tim. 2:19).
10. Election is DISTINGUISHING. To talk of
universal love in God toward reprobate men is to talk nonsense. Read Isaiah
43:1-4!
11. Election is BLESSED, for it is the
cause of all blessedness (Ps. 65:4; Eph. 1:3-6).
Don
Fortner
Eleven Things Taught in the Word of God About
Election, Used by Permission.