The Glorious Doctrine of Divine Election

Sometimes certain truths or doctrines of Scripture are so life transforming that the father of lies does everything in his power to corrupt or distort them. This is certainly true of the doctrine of divine election or predestination.

By the grace of God I have never really struggled with this doctrine, but others I have known have. So here are some simple thoughts from years of thinking through these issues.

First of all please note that predestination or election is not a Pauline invention. Jesus alluded to it a number of times using the words, “chosen” and “elect” and “appointed”. Here are a few examples:

"For many are called, but few are chosen." - Matthew 22:14   This passage comes at the tail end of the parable of the marriage feast in Matthew 22:1-13, wherein many are invited to the feast and many sadly rejected the invitation, even beating and murdering the king’s servants who came to invite them. Then there was a man at the banquet without proper wedding clothing, and he was apparently thrown into hell (vs. 13). Then Jesus gives this closing statement without any explanation of it, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” God clearly from this passage calls or invites many, but chooses few (in comparison).

The first time Jesus uses the word “elect” in Matthew is found in His long discussion about the end times or last days, “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” Matthew 24:22  The “elect” clearly refer in this passage to born again believers.

Jesus makes clear later in that discussion that it is only His elect whom His angels will gather and bring to join with Him in heaven. "And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”- Matthew 24:31  

Similar passages to these can be found in the gospel of Mark. Luke provides one useage not seen in the other gospels in the parable re: persistence in prayer in Luke 18:1-8 “now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?”  Luke 18:7  This is a great promise for the elect, those whom God has chosen to know and walk with Him.

Another passage unique to the discussion and not found in the other gospels is Jesus’s words to His disciples in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”  John 15:16   This passage makes clear that our coming into relationship with Christ was not our doing but His. We responded to His initiative.

There are a few more verses we could look at but that gives you a feel for Jesus’s teaching on the subject of the election or choosing of believers.

Perhaps a big reason I have not struggled with the truth that God predestined that I would be saved or that He elected or chose me is because I readily agree and identify with the Scriptures that speak of our fallen condition or depravity. One of the primary passages in the Old Testament that speaks to this is Psalm 14:1-4, which the apostle Paul quotes in his long description of the depravity and sinfulness of man in Romans 3:9-18. The key truth I want you to see is in vs. 10, 11, “as it is written, ‘THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; …”

Why are there none who seek for God? Because we are all born in sin, our very nature that we are born with is rebellious towards God, and we by nature do not, will not and cannot seek God.

Paul speaks to this in Ephesians 2:1-3, where he states, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”  When a person is spiritually dead, he can do nothing to make himself alive. He was born that way and he will die that way unless someone intervenes. Thus Paul goes on, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us…made us alive together with Christ…” Ephesians 2:4,5. Thank God for His gracious, powerful and effectual intervention through and with Christ!

Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; ….” We are stuck. God must intervene! (see also Matthew 11:27).

Now let’s look at a few more Scriptures that use the word “appointed” in a similar way as elected, predestined or chosen -  first in Acts 13, where we see the gospel starting to spread to the Gentiles. Luke reports, “When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”  You may have noticed Jesus used both the word “chose” and “appointed” in John 15:16 quoted above. And Ananias – the brave and obedient disciple who went to minister to Saul after he was blinded by Jesus – said to Saul, “…The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth.”

One of the reasons Paul speaks much to this doctrine in his epistles besides being inspired by the Holy Spirit is because he experienced it like none other. Please know when he was walking down the Damascus road in a fit of rage, salivating at the next opportunity to persecute believers, he did not stop all of a sudden and think to himself, “You know, I’m wasting my life doing this.. Maybe this Jesus is real. I think I will just start following Him. That would be the righteous thing to do.”  Paul never once sought the “..One true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent..” (see John 17:3) on his own. He couldn’t and he wouldn’t. Rather Jesus intervened and invaded his life and stopped him in his tracks.

Some who have resisted this doctrine maintain that what all of these Scriptures really mean is that God “foreknew” who would be saved. Indeed that word is used twice and the word “foreknowledge” is used twice in the New Testament, so let’s look at them and see what we can learn. First in Romans 8:29 we read, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;”   My sense is “foreknew” in this passage speaks to God’s intimate knowledge of us before we were ever created and “predestined” in this passage speaks to what He chose us before the foundations of the earth for. But it is interesting that Paul asserts, “….He also predestined” after stating He “foreknew”.

The next time Paul uses the word “foreknew” is in Romans 11:2 re: Israel. “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew….” One of the major points of Romans 9-11 is that God will not reject the people whom He has chosen before the foundations of the world. They have been in His heart before creation. In fact the Greek word (pregno) translated foreknew here and in Romans 8:29 has the idea of  “had a meaningful relationship with”.

The first of two occurrences of “foreknowledge” in the New Testament is found in Acts 2:23, wherein Peter in his first outdoor sermon says, “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”  As in Romans 8:29, Peter joins a stronger word “predetermined” with the word “foreknowledge” so it is clear God didn’t just know what would happen to His Son, but actually predetermined it.

The last occurrence of “foreknowledge” is in I Peter 1:1,2 “….who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit,…”. Again the word chosen, which is a strong word, is used alongside foreknowledge so we know God didn’t just know who would trust Him and turn to Him but He chose us to turn to Him and trust in Him. This is further supported by vs. 3 that reads in part, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again…”. The word “caused” speaks to God’s merciful intervention in our sad trajectory headed towards hell.

A few other Scriptures you might want to check out along these lines are: Colossians 3:12, Titus 1:1, & Revelation 17:8, which implies our names were written in the book of life before the foundation of the world.

While all of this teaching in the New Testament is aimed towards we believers understanding and appreciating how great God’s mercy and grace has been towards us in choosing to save us and adopt us as His children, I do realize some still resist this doctrine because it seems to imply to them that God predetermined or predestined that those He did not choose must go to hell, and thus that God is cruel, unjust, unloving, etc.

To that I would remind us of some bedrock truths in Scripture:

First God clearly does not delight even in the death of the wicked, “Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back turn back from your evil ways! Why then will die, O house of Israel?’ Ezekiel 33:11

Second, the Bible is full of invitations to all to come to God, to repent, to receive Christ, etc. “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat….” Isaiah 55:1                                                                                                              “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give your rest.” Matthew 11:28                                                                                                                                                      “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,” John 1:12                                                                    “…If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” John 7:37

When I was in Seminary I met a Seminary student from another seminary in another state, and in conversation he told me we cannot and should not tell someone “God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life” because we don’t know if He does love them and if they are chosen and elected by Him or not. No where in Scripture is that kind of thinking supported. Peter in his sermon to the crowd in Acts 3:19 exhorted them all, not knowing any of them most likely, “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

Invitations to crowds small or large in the book of Acts are always to everyone.

I often fall back on the simplicity of this wonderful truth, “for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16. God does not lie. If He says it He means it.

Paul in Athens told the men of Athens gathered around him in the Areopagus, “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,” Acts 17:30

God has made His big heart clear through so many writings such as this one via Peter, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”  II Peter 3:9

OK, four final quick concluding points, and I need to get back to my sermon in Ephesians 1:1-14 that I Lord willing will be preaching this Sunday (please pray for my voice if you read this in time).

1.        The act of God electing or predestining or choosing us to know and love Him and be saved from our sins is an act of love for God is love and He can do nothing contrary to His character. (Ephesians 1:4,5 & I John 4:8)

2.        The act of God electing or predestining or choosing or appointing us to know and love Him and be saved from our sins is wise because God is wise (Romans 11:33 & Jude 25)

3.        The act of God electing or predestining or choosing or appointing us to know and love Him and be saved from our sins is just because God is just (Romans 9:14,15)

4.        The act of God electing or predestining or choosing or appointing us to know and love Him and be saved from our sins ultimately brings great glory to God. (Romans 11:33-36, Ephesians 1:12-14)

May the Holy Spirit give all of us greater and greater revelation into God's most gracious, loving and merciful act of electing us and choosing us to know and walk with Him that we might enjoy Him for all of eternity.

P.S. This post is meant to supplement my sermon this Sunday. My passage speaks of our being chosen once and predestined twice.