Election

We mention predestination and election in the message April 23, 2023.  This musing of 5 years ago…

I mentioned the doctrine of election in the message on Jan. 14, 2018, for it is found in the Colossians 3:12 text and then I talked about it in some detail in the Jan. 21 message.  Those two talks did not give great detail but simply noted that we believe in the doctrine of election because it is all through the Bible.  While we may not understand it or even like it, we best believe it because it is God’s teaching (like grasping the truth that God is one and three or that God has no beginning – hard to understand, but clearly taught).

The danger with election is that we come to drift in our obedience to God’s call that we evangelize by living lives that speak of His presence (a peace in storms/pain/rejection), showing our commitment to Him (a love of church and the Bible), and talking pointedly about His payment and offer to the lost using the Bible (how do they hear without a voice? Romans 10:17).

So, who are those elect?  I have no idea!  As I said on the 21st, it is not my call or my need to figure out the how’s and why’s of God’s ways, but it is empowering to know that God is out there ahead of us moving hearts and turning heads toward Himself so that we can have strong hope that people can be and will be saved despite our poor showing or talking.  We plant and water and God gives the increase! I Corinthians 3:7.  Colossians 4:3, We are to show and tell Jesus – OBEY!

One point I did not mention either Sunday was that election is not God selecting those whom He saw were going to accept Him.  The Bible clearly teaches that man is dead, rebellious, uninterested and an enemy of God (Romans 3:3-18, Philippians 3:18).  Man loves the dark (John 3:19) and thinks Christians are weird (I Peter 4:4) and even foolish (I Corinthians 1:18).  That all said, they are not about to submit to a God who tells them to submit, follow, love enemies, forgive offenders, die to self, sacrifice, etc.  People that knew Jesus WELL – His family and friends in Nazareth – were offended at Him (Mark 6:3).  Such is the state of natural man!  They don’t see their need and they see the call to repentance and submission to Jesus as weakness and unnecessary (I Corinthians 2:14).  All our great points and rhetoric are not going to persuade them against their stone-cold heart!  Ezekiel 26:36

Yet, God, in His love and grace, has opted to save some that He determined before creating anyone (Ephesians 1:4, Revelation 13:8).  That selection was not based on their deeds, their parents, their knowledge or their accepting Him.  Again, the who, why and how of election are God’s business!  God’s call on us is to show and tell – to evangelize!  May we be obedient!

God Chose You Before You Chose Him by John Piper (April 21, 2017)

John 10:26: “You do not believe because you’re not of my sheep.”  Not the other way around.  It’s not, because you do not believe, therefore you’re not part of my sheep.  It doesn’t say that.  He says, “Because you’re not part of my sheep, that’s why you don’t believe.”

So John says, “Being in the book of the life of the Lamb that was slain, being in the book keeps you from worshiping the beast” (Revelation 13:8).  Luke says, “Being ordained to eternal life brings you to belief” (Acts 13:48).  Jesus says, “Being part of my sheep is why you believe.”

In other words, God’s choice of who will be rescued from rebellion and wrath in Christ is not based on foreseen faith.  If you have faith in this room, or watching this video, if you have faith today in Christ, and are thus united to Christ, it is because God chose you for this before the foundation of the world.  That is not, in my judgment, an ambiguous teaching in the Bible.

What I mean by gospel depths is that both the central event of the gospel – death and resurrection of Jesus – and your union with that risen Christ was accomplished in the mind of God before He created the world.

PK adds:  We love Him because He first loved us, I John 4:19.