Does the Bible teach the doctrine of Unconditional Election?

 

By Moses Flores

 

 

            When we think of the grace of God, the last thing that usually comes into our minds is the doctrine of election.  For most people, the doctrine of election seems divisive and even blasphemous, but the Bible uses the words “election” and “predestination” and their other synonyms quite freely.  What do we mean by the Doctrine of election?  And more importantly, is what we mean by the doctrine of election what the Bible teaches.  I’ll begin by defining the doctrine of Election

 

            What is the doctrine of election?  According to Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, election is “the gracious and free act of God by which He calls those who become part of His kingdom and special beneficiaries of His love and blessings.[1]” According to the Wycliffe Bible Dictionary, election is “the doctrine concerning God’s divine choice of some individuals out of all mankind to become His own through regeneration and salvation.[2]”  Historically, the doctrine has been stated as such:

 

“God, by an eternal and immutable decree, out of his mere love, for the praise of his glorious grace, to be manifested in due time, hath elected some angels to glory; and in Christ hath chosen some men to eternal life, and the means thereof…”  (Westminster Larger Catechism, Q13, 1648)

 

“Election is the unchangeable purpose of God, by which, before the foundation of the world, according to the most free pleasure of his will, and of his mere grace, out of all mankind – fallen, through their own fault, from their first integrity into sin and destruction – he hath chosen in Christ unto salvation a set number of men, neither better nor more worthy than others, but lying in the common misery with others…”  (Synod of Dort, 1585)

 

“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 honour.”

(Article 17, of the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England , 1549)

 

 

            Other noteworthy Catechisms and Creeds that include the Reformed doctrine of Election include the 1689 Baptist Confession, the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Belgic Confession of Faith.

Simply put, election is the teaching that God, before creation existed, determined, in Christ, whom He would save and whom He would not save. 

            What the doctrine does not mean is that God looked into the future, down the corridors of time, and “saw” who was going to be saved, and then called those whom He saw would be saved His “elect.”  This view of Election is known as Arminianism, deriving its name from a Dutch theologian by the name of Jacobus Arminius.  The Arminian view teaches that the election of God is conditional upon faith and repentance.  That is, those who decide to make the decision of faith toward God and repent of their sins of their own “free will” are the ones whom God elects (present tense; not elected, past tense). The Reformed Calvinist and, as we shall see, Biblical view, teaches that God’s election is grounded, not upon man’s faith and repentance, but in the sovereign love and good pleasure of God and His purposes.

The Bible is rich with the doctrine of election.  However, for the sake of debate, we will be looking at Ephesians 1:3-6 as Paul expounds the doctrine of election in these short verses.  Other verses will be mentioned in passing for the sake of space limitations.

 

The verse begins with an exaltation of praise to “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Clearly we are to see that God is the source and origin of the “spiritual blessings” that believers receive in Christ which includes the predestination of God’s elect.  The doctrine of election, according to the Bible, is not some sort of Fatalism.  Our salvation is not left to chance, or even our human decisions, but is rather determined by a God who decided to save.  Had we been left to our own decisions and God been left out of determining salvation, then we would have a reason to despair in the hand of “fate.”

 “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.”  I think this is one of the Bible’s best statements of the teaching of election. The clarity of this verse is crystal.  Notice that “He chose us.”  God alone choose.  He did not choose in accordance with the will of them whom He chose.  Rather, the Bible teaches here that He alone made that choice.  The same thought flows through Romans 9:11-13 where Paul is mentioning the election of Jacob over Esau.  The passage says, “(for the children, not yet being born nor having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of him who calls), it was said to her, ‘the older shall serve the younger.’  As it is written, ‘Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated’.”  Elsewhere, Paul also echoes the same thought as he writes to the church at Thessalonica:  “God chose you from the beginning to be saved…” (II Thess. 2:13). 

            Notice also the when and where Election is said to have taken place:  “in Him” and “before the foundation of the world.”  By “in Him” we are to understand that the sphere of God’s choice took place “in Christ.”  John Calvin, in commenting on this particular verse believed that being elected “in Christ” proved that God’s choice was free from our actions. He said, “If we are chosen in Christ, it is not of ourselves.  It is not from a perception of anything that we deserve, but because our heavenly Father has introduced us, through the privilege of adoption, into the body of Christ.[3]”  “In Christ” is the foundation of election.  Again, there is no scriptural reason to add the actions of man to “in Christ” so we could also imply the word “alone” at the end of “in Christ.”

            The time of election should also be proof to show that God did not elect according to our foreseen actions.  If the Bible says that we were chosen before time existed (which came into being with creation), how could we do anything “in the future” when the future did not even exist?  This idea of being chosen before time existed is not a teaching that is only abundant in Paul’s writings, but comes from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Himself.  In Matthew 25:34 Jesus teaches about the final judgment and this is His pronouncement on those who are saved:  “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘come you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Italics mine).”   Jesus also said in John 6:37, 39, “All that the Father gives to me will come to me…this is the will of my Father, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.”  We note here that, grammatically speaking, the “giving” of the Father precedes their “coming”, which is to say that one cannot “come to Christ” (i.e. “believe in Christ”) unless that one has first been “given” by the Father to Christ.  Notice that verse 39 particularly emphasizes the mission of Jesus by the Father to “lose nothing” of those who are “given”, but rather secure their salvation (a point which will be made in the Limited Atonement debate).  Grammatically, this is irrefutable.

Who, or what, has God “chosen” from before the foundation of the world?  The object is “us” here in this verse.  Notice that the Bible does not say “everybody” is chosen from before the foundation of the world.  “This pronoun ‘us’ must be explained in the light of its context.  Paul is writing to ‘saints and believers’ (verse 1).[4]”  “Us” is exclusive language.  Paul, in no way, says that the unbelieving world without discrimination was chosen to be adopted into God’s family and redeemed in Christ.  In Romans 8:29-30, Paul also shows the exclusiveness of the election.  “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom He predestined these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified these He also glorified.”  Notice that only those who were “predestined” are the only group that is called.  The group that is also called is the same group that is going to be justified and glorified.  That is, the group that is “called” is not going to be a different group that is glorified.  They are the same.  Clearly, God chose sinners before they were “believers” to be “believers” (don’t get confused there).

            It should also be noted that God chose people (“us”) and not a plan to save.  There are some that believe that God predestined a plan of action for redemption.  While this is somewhat true, the Bible does not teach that God “elected” a plan, but rather that He elected people.

Finally, the purpose of election is so that “we should be holy and without blame before Him.”  This is especially important in several ways.  First, it shows that we were not holy (or even disposed to being holy) when God elected us.  We know that the Bible teaches that men are sinful in their nature.  Clearly we were elected to desire the things of God, not because we previously did desire them.  Second, we are predestined to salvation but that does not mean that we may live any way that we want to if we are “predestined.”  The purpose of election is to make us holy.  As Romans 8:29 says, we are predestined “to be conformed into the image of His Son.”  Many people object to the doctrine of election because they believe that it teaches that men may live as they please with no regards to holiness, but clearly the Bible teaches that we are elected to be holy.  Ephesians 2:10 says that the elect are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God had prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

On what ground did God elect some and not others? Paul says, “in love having predestined us…According to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”  God’s two motives for electing a people unto salvation are revealed in these verses; they are God’s love and God’s good pleasure.  We are not to suppose that the doctrine of election is God going through the “eternal phone book” and randomly picking and choosing, or even rolling dice and choosing arbitrarily.  No, the Bible teaches that God choose those whom He loved “in the Beloved.”  Notice that we are not chosen “because of what we did” – again, the election is not based on our efforts or merit, but only in Christ alone.  “Any attempt to base God’s election and predestination upon human merit, whether foreknown or otherwise, in unscriptural and futile.  The cause of God’s choice of us is not to be found in us, but in him alone (cf. Titus 3:5; Eph. 2:8,10).  The will of God is the determining factor.[5]” 

            Notice also that election is grounded in the sovereignty of God:  “according to the good pleasure of His will.”  Election in salvation is God exercises His sovereign right to give what is His to whom He will.  Jesus taught this same principle of God’s sovereignty in the distribution of His mercy in the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20: 1-16).  In the parable, the workers felt that they had been treated unfairly with their wages, but the owner (representing God) says, “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? (v15), and then Jesus concludes the parable by saying “many are called but few are chosen (or elected).”  Because God is God, He may do as He wishes with what is His.  In this case, both creation (humans) and salvation are His.  He may give each as He pleases, for we deserve none of them in our sinful state.

 

            I will admit that the doctrine of election is one of the most divisive doctrines among Christians today.  However, this is not a reason to avoid the subject and not make mention of it.  The apostle Paul exhorted the Ephesians to unity (Ephesians 4:1-6) after making mention of the doctrine of election (1:3-13).  It is obvious that Paul saw the doctrine as something that would be a part of bringing Christians together, not dividing them.  It is also noteworthy that in the scripture that we just examined, predestination is a reason to praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and not a reason to object to the cry out against God for “free-will”. 

In conclusion, we must ask, is the Reformed Calvinistic teaching of Election in accord with the Scriptures.  I believe that it is as this brief overview of Ephesians 1:3-6 has proven.  The Scriptures have given us no clear evidence to believe that God chose us according to how He saw we would be in the “corridor of time”.  Neither do the scriptures give us a reason to denounce or not mention the doctrine when its teaching are evident from Genesis to Revelation in the choosing of Noah, and Abraham and his descendants, to Israel, to God’s remnant of the elect scattered abroad.  The language of election in connection with salvation also shows that the topic is an essential in salvation since the mention of election and predestination is almost always with in the context of salvation. 

In closing, I would like to quote from Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of preachers: 

 

I have my own opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel if we do not preach justification by faith without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing unchangeable eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross. (Autobiography: 1, The Early Years, p. 168)

 

            Spurgeon believed in the doctrine of election because it was from the Scriptures alone and had no problems equivocating Calvinism with the Gospel because He believed that the teaching known as Calvinism are submitted to Scripture.  The responsibility is no less with us to believe all that the Scriptures teach and submit to the full counsel of God in salvation.  Amen.