Ah, yes. We come to some of those detested doctrines of Calvinism: Election and Predestination. As we will see in the next blog, election is not the most hated teaching of TULIP. That spot is always reserved for the L (Limited Atonement). Nevertheless, the doctrine of God’s sovereign election in salvation typically ranks high as one of the reasons many reject Calvinism. It’s not that election itself is rejected for it’s clearly discussed in many places throughout the Bible. All must have some understanding of the biblical sections on election. But it’s for the word that lands it second in the TULIP acronym that often turns some folks off: Unconditional Election. On the other hand, the particular way in which the Calvinist understands the doctrine of election and predestination is sometimes what is denied— the nature of said teachings. In other words, some think we misunderstand what the Bible teaches about election and predestination. And what is that exactly? In short, we believe that God elects individuals who He will save in Christ apart from any pre-condition they meet in and of themselves. For His own good pleasure and for His glory, God chooses to save some from the whole pile of unworthy, guilty sinners. “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB).
Many would be happy to say that they believe God elects certain individuals as long as He is electing based on their works or their faith that God foreseen that they would exercise first. Others, to avoid the complications with those views, have held to a corporate election view, namely, that God elects those who enter into the group of believers in the elect “One” (Jesus Christ). In this view, predestination to salvation is not so much seen as individual or personal, but rather election describes the “plan” by which God would save all who would (of their own free will, of course) believe. But the ultimate question— the same question we have been asking about all these doctrines— is: what does the Bible say on the matter?
Before we look at those passages, let us first distinguish and define election and predestination. Election, in the context of this blog, pertains to God’s action in choosing a people for Himself, a people to whom He would call to Himself to be saved. Predestination consists of God’s plan to bring about all of His purposes (including the salvation of His elect people) through the Creation of all things, and in His providential actions throughout history. Though this section of our series is primarily concerned with God’s election of a particular people unto salvation, God’s over-arching predestination of all things that come to pass falls under that umbrella. Some of the passages we will look at on election will tie God’s predestination right along with it, though predestination is also used in other places to speak more broadly of God’s decrees. In a later blog, we’ll come back to this all-important topic, but for now, in order to shield from any false notions about what Calvinists believe about that, read carefully Chapter 3: Section 1 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith (LBCF):
Of God's Decree, Section 1: God hath Decreed in himself from all Eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin, nor hath fellowship with any therein, nor is violence offered to the will of the Creature, nor yet is the liberty, or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established, in which appears his wisdom in disposing all things, and power, and faithfulness in accomplishing his Decree.
Returning now to the topic of this post, what is it exactly that the Bible means when it speaks about election and why has this doctrine generated so much heat in the history of the Church? To briefly answer the second question first, it stirs up controversy because your understanding of God’s character, the nature of salvation, the use of works in redemption, and so many other essential issues are affected and shaped by your view of the Biblical data on election. For example, some non-Calvinists insist that if God chooses to save some and not others (despite whether they’ve done good or bad in their lives), then He is either showing partiality or that He is arbitrary, and thereby impugning God’s justice and/or righteousness. Calvinists, on the other hand, often argue that if salvation is not ultimately based in God’s free and sovereign grace, but rather, in the free will decision of the creature, then either: a.) None would be saved (because “There is none who seeks for God…” Rom. 3:11 NASB), OR b.) that salvation would no longer be “of Grace” but rather of due or merit (God saves them because they believe, He owes them salvation); Salvation would cease to be a gracious act of God and would become a reward for the better “decision makers”. These are certainly not the most thought out objections to or arguments for Calvinism, but hopefully they show how what we believe about this teaching can create implications that reach much further than just the particular doctrine itself. Doctrines like election should generate heat; they are worth getting right!
Thus far in our series, we’ve hopefully shown, at least, why election would be necessary: 1.) Man, fallen in sin, needs salvation, 2.) Because of their bondage to sin, they reject God and rebel against Him, 3.) God sends Christ to be the Savior of the world, but, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” John 1:11 ESV). They crucified Him. 4.) Jesus states in John 6 that no man can come to Him unless they are given and drawn to Him by His Father. 5.) Yet, some are saved; they are called by an effectual calling and drawn to Christ for salvation. If these propositions are true — and I’ve attempted in the past few blogs to how these are all derived from the pages of Scripture — then it follows that God has chosen some to call and draw in such a way that they will come to Christ in faith for salvation, and the rest He allows to freely reject Him and be justly condemned for their sins. Some (the “elect”— those chosen by God) will be saved, the rest will perish. The question is this: are those who are “the elect” chosen for salvation because they believed, or do the elect believe because they were chosen to do so? Let us turn to the Scriptures.
For the sake of brevity, we will quickly (as quick as possible at least) look at two passages: Ephesians 1:3-14 and Romans 8:31–9:24 respectively. Obviously, I will not have the room to add all of these scriptures here, so I leave it to you to read through the whole of these sections while reflecting on my comments below.
1. Ephesians 1:3-14 (ESV) : Read carefully and you’ll notice that the passage at hand explains God’s purposes in a tri-fold way identifying the works of each of the members of the Blessed Trinity in redemption. The Father chooses and predestines, the Son redeems them with His own blood, and the Spirit seals us in our redemption up until “we acquire possession of it,” (Eph. 1:14 ESV). The gospel is trinitarian by nature!
Vs. 3: God the Father “blesses us in Christ”- “in Christ” is an important theme throughout this passage. The Scriptures shout here and elsewhere: that all gifts, blessings, graces, etc. come to us only “in Christ”. We’ve discussed this in part in one of the previous blogs, but here we see it reiterated again and again.
Vs. 4: “He chose us in Him…” The object of the choosing (as some have wrongly understood) is not Christ. It is the “us” that is chosen by the Father. He didn’t choose us because we were in Him, for we were all originally in Adam. This verse is saying that the Father chose us for salvation in Christ’s work of redemption. The “in Him” refers to the method or the means by which those chosen would be saved. When was this: “before the foundation of the world,”. What was the purpose of the choosing? “That we should be holy and blameless before Him.” We are certainly those things in Christ and in Christ alone!
Vs. 5: “In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons…” Linking election and predestination, Paul states that the predestined plan of God, the unbreakable, immutable plan of God for us was our adoption to Himself, thus making us sons. It’s as if these verses are saying “God, before He created the world, chose to adopt us as His sons, to be redeemed by His Son.” In essence, Paul is saying that God chose us to be in Christ. How can we be considered sons, sinners though we are? Only “through Jesus Christ”.
Vs. 6: all this He does “to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.” There is a particular people being spoken of throughout this passage which God gives this redeeming grace to: they were chosen, predestined, blessed, redeemed. This echoes the section we looked at previously in Romans 8:28-30.
Vs. 7: Our redemption is “through His blood”, “the forgiveness of our trespasses” comes by Christ’s sacrifice.
Vs. 7, 8, and 9: Christ redeems us “according to the riches of His (the Father’s) grace, which He lavished upon us… making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ…” All of this work performed by God was according to His predeterminate plan and purpose FOR those who He chose “in Christ”.
Vs. 11: We (those “chosen in Christ”) “have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,” It is said here that we obtain an inheritance HAVING BEEN predestined. Those who receive the inheritance were the same ones predestined to adoption before the foundation of the world.
Vs. 13: “when you heard the word of truth,… and believed in Him, [you] were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,” Here, some will suggest that this verse seems to teach that our believing was a condition for our being saved and sealed (thus refuting unconditional election). A key point to remember in this discussion is that though we believe the Bible teaches that election is unconditional, we likewise affirm the Bible teaches that salvation is conditional. God is explicit in His Word that faith is the channel by which a man is saved. God elects whosoever He wills, but all who will be saved MUST come to Christ in faith. You must believe in order to be saved. The question is: who will believe? We assert: Those who God elects to call and draw unto Himself. Faith in Christ is not something we believe man possesses naturally that is just laying dormant until he decides to exercise it. We believe that faith is a gift from God, the means by which He saves us. (See Philippians 1:29, 2:13-14, Ephesians 2:8).
2. Romans 8:31-9:24 (ESV) : Chapter 9 of Romans proves to be one of the most debated chapters in the Bible. Chapters 9-11 are a section themselves describing God’s work in and through Israel. In the final verses of chapter 8 Paul gives the context needed to understand what he says in the following 3 chapters. This is a larger passage and one of equal importance in this discussion, but for your already afforded patience I promise to hurry through the highlights!
Vs. 31-39 (chp. 8): “What then shall we say to these things?” What things? That God works all things together for our good, he foreknew us, predestined us, calls us, justifies us, and glorifies us. Therefore, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?” No one, nothing, can. Because, “It is God who justifies.” He does so by not sparing His own Son, giving Him up for “us all”, and will with Him also “graciously give us all things…” Nothing “will be able to separate us (God’s elect) from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We are saved ultimately on the basis of God’s work in Christ for our redemption.
Vs. 1-6 (chp. 9) : The question might then arise, what about Israel? “Were they not God’s elect people? Yet they have rejected the Messiah and appear to be being separated from God. If all this is true, Paul, why doesn’t it apply to Israel?” Paul expresses his great love and longing for the salvation of the Jewish people, his “brothers… kinsmen according to the flesh.” After all, “To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.” So has God’s plan been abandoned? Has His word failed? Paul answers, “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,” Immediately, Paul identifies a “group within the group”, an Israel of God within the natural born Israelites. This will be a significant distinction moving forward.
Vs. 7-13: Paul shows in these verses how there’s always been a difference between the “children of the flesh” and “the children of the promise” in the case of Israel. He shows this using two examples: of Abraham’s children and Isaac’s children. Both men had two sons, but God chose which would be counted as the offspring through His calling, the chosen descendent. (These choosings weren’t necessarily a choice between which would be saved and which would go to hell, but they will stand as the pattern by which Paul will go on to show how God’s election in salvation works.) “This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” Paul then points out that the choice made by God was made prior to the children’s births, thus before they did “either good or bad”. Why? What is Paul’s point here? “In order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of Him who calls…” We come again to this concept of calling. God’s choice of which would be the children of the promise was unconditional in that it wasn’t based on anything they did, either good or evil, but so “that the purpose of God according to election might stand” (KJV). “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” That’s why God chose Jacob. He loved him. Not because of the works that Jacob performed, but because God loved him.
Vs. 14-18: “Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!” How could God choose one over the other apart from any merit or effort or work exerted by the individuals? Because God doesn’t owe anyone anything, especially fallen, sinful rebels. As God tells Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” God decides who He grants unmerited mercy and favor (grace) to according to His will. “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” So much for free will; a free will decision wouldn’t gain you favor with God even if you had one! Then, in 17 and 18, Paul gives Pharaoh as an example of the opposite of one “mercied”, one who is hardened. It is said that God’s purpose in raising up Pharaoh, hardening his heart, pouring out the plagues upon Egypt, and destroying the Egyptian army was so that God “might show [His] power in [Pharaoh and Egypt], and that [His] name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” What’s the conclusion of this matter then? “He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills.” This is another one of those hard sayings. But do you believe the Scriptures, Brethren? Do you believe?
Vs. 19-24: Next, we find a question that is often asked of the Calvinist: If this is all true, and it’s all according to God’s own will, and He mercies who He wills and He hardens who He wills, then “Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?” The answer Paul gives: “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’” If you’ve never wrestled with this section of Scripture, it would do you some good to spend some time here. How would you respond to Paul, the inspired writer of this letter? Better yet, how would you answer God? “Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” All of humanity is a part of that one, sinful, disobedient lump of clay. Can He not do as He pleases with what is His? But then, we see the purpose in all of this: “What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” Herein lay part of the purpose behind God’s gracious, sovereign election: “to make known the riches of His glory…” He works ALL things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
If you are a believer today, thank God for it! As we’ve already seen, you’d have never chosen Him. Neither would I. We were so bound by our lusts and sin that we would have always rejected Him. We would have ran and hid from Him just like our first parents did after they fell. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—“ (Eph. 2:4-5 ESV). Election is not a doctrine to be despised or ignored. God is worthy to be praised for all of His works. He didn’t have to show mercy to any of us, but He does, He has. A common question that arises here is: “if God has the ability to call and draw men to Christ to be saved, then why would He only do this for some and not all?” The simple answer is, He could have if He had so desired to do so. However, the Word is clear that some will be saved and some will perish in the end, thus concluding that He has not and will not draw all human beings to Christ in a salvific way, the way described previously from Rom. 8:29-30, 1 Cor. 1:18-29, John 6:37-45, and so on. Yes, God offers salvation to ALL. He calls everyone to repent and believe in Christ and promises to save ALL that come to Him. Whosoever will believe will be saved. These truths must not be neglected or denied. But the Bible tells us why those who do believe, those who do come, do so. We will revisit the various objections to the Doctrines of Grace (as the Calvinist doctrines of TULIP are sometimes called) and try to provide some response to them in a future post. But it behooves us as Christians, especially as Protestants who hold Scripture as our final and ultimate authority to believe whatever it teaches; It is these doctrines that we (Calvinists) believe it does.
Soli Deo Gloria
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