Last night in our Sunday Seminar we covered the doctrine of election. Our article on election states, “Election is God’s eternal choice of some persons unto everlasting life—not because of foreseen merit in them, but of his mere mercy in Christ—in consequence of which choice they are called, justified and glorified.” This truth flows from chapters in the Bible like John 6, Romans 9, and Ephesians 1.
Here are a few quotes from my book Roots Of Our Faith on election:
“Particularism, then, is the reality that God does in fact actually save people, in himself, by himself and for himself. That is why the Bible uses words like chosen and elect because they ground salvation in God’s grace and nothing else. When a person becomes a Christian, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone, they come because God has chosen them before the foundation of the world. God is not surprised when a person gets saved because he himself is the one rescuing them out of sin and hell. Particularism places the ultimate emphasis on grace in salvation, leading to the ultimate amount of glory to God, to the praise of his glorious grace.”
“Again, election is not a debate topic, it is a discipleship necessity. And the main discipleship emphasis is found right in the heart of this text, “So then, it does not depend on the person who wants it nor the one who runs, but on God who has mercy.” This lands a deadly blow in two directions. It puts pride to death because it teaches us how totally dependent we are on God. We may not need to think of ourselves less to be humble people, but we do need to think of our contribution as less—in fact as nothing—so that we can rightly appreciate the honour and glory that God is due. Election also puts despair to death because it teaches us that it doesn’t matter how slow we run or how bad the choices of our will have been, God’s mercy is not dependent on those things. How depressing it would be to people who sin and struggle if their salvation was a potential, dependent upon their running and willing! The problem most of us have with election is that we assume free will means we have the ability to choose God. Free will does mean we have real and free choices, but people who are slaves to sin always and only choose what is opposed to God. Election drops from the level of argumentative debate down to the heart level of discipleship when we come to delight in God’s free will instead of our own free will—when we come to delight in God’s ability to choose wisely, instead of our ability to choose wisely.”
The Lord Bless You
