PART TWO:
DOCTRINE OF UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION
As we begin talking about the Doctrine of unconditional election I want to begin by praying for every one of you that is reading this that may the good Lord grant you the Spirit of wisdom that you may be able to understand this subject and be more influenced in your worship of God and give him all the honour and glory that he deserves.
Now under the Doctrine of Unconditional election we will be dealing with a subject of Salvation that begins way back from eternity past in God’s determination to save a people for himself and this salvation continues into the Eternal future by God’s final perseverance with his saints. This is also one of the subjects that stands as a measuring rod for someone’s theology since an acceptance or rejection of this doctrine of election reveals at once whether a person is biblically correct on such other doctrines as the nature and the extent of sin, the bondage of the will, the full grace of God in Salvation and even the presentation of the Gospel.
Now I have to simply put it right just to make an emphasis of the words I have just communicated; that if one is not biblically correct about the nature and the extent of sin, this is where again your biblical fidelity to scripture is going to be tested. One would ask; why am I making a lot of insecure statements? I want to make it very clear that under this doctrine of election, one has got not to partially agree but to fully agree that man is; totally depraved because of sin that affected his whole being and therefore he is unable to deliver himself.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)
And still after agreeing to the depravity of man one has got to surrender to the Sovereignty of God. The Sovereignty of God is one of the attributes of God that I have come to realize over the years in church that is rarely taught and preached about because much of what dominates the mainstream church is the man-centred gospel, a gospel which diminishes God to a level of simply being a servant and elevates man to a level of being in charge of his own life.
A word for us to consider from Loraine Boettner
“Salvation is absolutely and solely of Grace, that God is free in consistency with infinite perfections of his nature to save none, few, many or all, according to the Sovereign good pleasure of his will. It also follows that salvation is based not on any merits in the creature and that it depends on God and not men who are not to be made partakers of eternal life. God acts as a sovereign in saving some and passing by others who are left to the just recompense of their sin.”
Let me also add that election wasn’t a recent plan or an after-thought or by chance, however this was the Eternal purpose and plan of God.
That the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old (Acts 15:17-18). That’s the teaching of the text dear ones, “all the gentiles who are called” indicating they that were never called could not come and how many are to be saved or lost depends not on the will of the creature. But again one would think that we are just simply chasing rabbits.
What is Election someone is asking?
Election is God choosing uncountable number of men, women and children to eternal life as an act of free and Sovereign Grace.
And all who dwell on the earth will worship it everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain. (Revelation 13:8)
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with Palm branches in their hands. (Revelation 7:9)
And they sang a new song saying, “Worthy they are you to take the scroll and to open it seals, for you slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe language and people and nation. (Revelation 5:9)
This scripture show that the good Lord ransomed people for God from every tribe, indicating that from every tribe there are God’s people, from every language there are God’s people, from every people group there are God’s people, from every nation there are God’s people. This was in no way dependent upon his foresight of human faith, decision, works or merit. So when God was electing and choosing the uncountable number of men, women and children to eternal life, was in no way dependent upon God’s foresight of human faith, decision, works or merit. And why would God not consider those?
Take an example of the men that we are talking about (Roman 3:9-12) Paul quoting from actually (Psalms 14 1:3) and actually (Psalms 53 1:3). What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it written. “None is righteous, no, not one, no one understand; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless, no one does good not even one. (Romans 3:9-12)
But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by Grace. (Romans 11:4-5).
So when you talk about Unconditional Election, one thing that we see in play is what we call the electing Grace of God. God has not called men and women that are deserving, these are sinners, all those that are chosen, men, women and children, all of them are totally depraved.
1 Corinthians 1:24-31 actually settles the matter for all of they that think that maybe there is some injustice here. You and I don’t need justice we need God’s mercy.
But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling not many of you are wise according to the worldly standards not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing things are. So that no human being might boost in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:24-31)
It’s why we are saying that when God was choosing men, it was the electing grace of God. God in no way depended on his foresight of human faith, decision, works or merit because had he considered that, none of the elect would actually qualify and no one would still qualify according to what we saw in Romans 3:10-12.
So I want us to consider Romans 8:28-30 which is going to supply us with a foundational truth that links directly to Romans 9 that we shall consider later on that will actually bring everything in its rightful balance.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called he also justified, and those whom He justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)
There is no any person that was not predestined that is ever called, that is ever justified, that will ever be glorified. It is they that were predestined that are called and those that were called, they are Justified and it’s only they that will be glorified.
Paul continues to say;
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, [The “all” in context are those that were called] how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. (Romans 8:31-33).The language of election is scattered throughout the entire Bible.
AW Pink said “Apart from eternal election, there had never been any Jesus Christ and therefore no divine gospel. For if God had never chosen a people unto salvation he had never sent his son and if he had sent no Saviour none had ever been saved thus the gospel itself originated in this vital matter of election”
So now I want us to consider Romans 9:6-18 and see what these verses teach.
Romans 9:6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
[Very important, remember what we saw in 1 Corinthians 1:24, from the Jews there are God’s elect, from the Gentiles there are God’s elect. And now a point is made here; for not all who descended from Israel belong to Israel].
Romans 9:7 And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, [he’s explaining further not all of they that came out of Abraham are his children] but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” [Ishmael was his son but not in the sense of salvation.]
Romans 9:8 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. [This means that it’s not the children of the flesh who are children of God case in point Ishmael, but the children of the promise accounted as offspring case in point Isaac]
Romans 9:9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Romans 9:10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,
Romans 9:11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls [It’s what we said that election was in no way dependent upon God is foresight of human faith, decision, works and merit.]
Romans 9:12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”
Romans 9:13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” [Those were the two sons, before they did anything good or bad in order that God’s purpose of election might continue not because of works but because of him who calls.(V11)]
Romans 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! [Paul anticipated by the Holy Spirit that there are those that would attack God.]
Romans 9:15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” [Paul was quoting Exodus 33:19That is the most Sovereign God. He is sovereign in his will, He does what seems to him best.]
Romans 9:16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
[This is so opposed to the common notion that says that it is the sinner who wills either to choose God or not but the text has made it clear here that it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy]
Please not that whatever came after verses 11 is very crucial because they’re just an explanation of what God said in verses 11.
Romans 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” [Paul was quoting Exodus 9:16,like Pharaoh, God raises different individuals for different purposes, some to mercy them and others to harden them and all this is for his own glory. But it should also be noted that God did not infuse anything evil into Pharaoh, he was already hardened before God hardened him and so God didn’t work actively in Pharaoh but passively. (James 1:13)]
Romans 9:18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
So now dear ones, I have to make it very clear that I do admit the fact that Romans chapter 9 is one of the most difficult passages in the Bible simply because it deals with two related matters.
First it deals with the “Doctrine of Reprobation” and when we talk about Reprobation; – it is a doctrine which refers to God’s passing over of those who are not elected to Salvation.
Secondly it deals with the “Doctrine of Election” which we have already defined as God choosing uncountable number of men, women and children to eternal life as an act of free and Sovereign Grace.
And election theologically is called theodicy. Theos which is the Greek for God in English and dik-ay-yos in Greek for just in English.
So when we talk about theodicy, it is an attempt to vindicate the justice of God in his actions. The question being; is it right and just for God to choose some but not others? It is what theodicy attempts to do.
But the thing that we also need to make very clear from what we have read, Paul already made this point very clear and it has also to be made very clear from what we saw; What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? [The bible answers with a resounding NO] By no means! (Romans 9:14)
So to you that is reading, this might be strange to you, it might be something new to you and so you have a lot of questions. Those questions you have were answered a long time ago before you and I were even born, before any of the men today that are pastors were born.
Paul being superintended by the Spirit, the question of injustice was assumed that it would come and the answer was given to it. So to you that is reading there is a point at which we are not as finite beings to question God’s Sovereign action.
Genesis 18:25 says Abraham said that the judge of all the earth does what is just and so God cannot conform to our limited insights into what is just or right that would be another matter entirely.
I hope to you that is reading you remember what I established at the start of this chapter when I talked about the Sovereignty of God and how God exercises control over everything and nothing happens whether directly or indirectly without his Sovereign permission and nothing and no one can thwarts his will. It’s what we also see in the book of Job “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)
Psalms 93:1 says the Lord Reigns, [he’s not about to reign, the Lord Reigns.]
That’s why we say that; how many are saved or lost depends not on the will of the creature. Everything was infallibly determined and immutably fixed by God from the beginning and that what happens in time is but the accomplishment of what was ordained in eternity.
Therefore, we must come to terms with the Doctrine of Election in one way or the other that it is simply inescapable because we see it in the scripture way back from the Old Testament. You remember we see the calling of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and that is what we call the three generation of calling, they did nothing and then Moses being called in Exodus 2 and Exodus 3. You cannot miss to see David chosen among his brothers.
There are many examples that are very notable and those that you can also consider from the New Testament that are very clear without actually you being deceived about anything. The Lord Jesus Christ said; you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15:16). We also see the sovereign selection of the Apostles in Luke 6:13. Acts 13:48 speaks about the Gentiles that were appointed to eternal life when they heard the gospel they believed and celebrated. Romans 11:4-5 that we considered much earlier that the call is not the call of works but the call of actually Grace.
Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love. [Ephesians 1:4]
For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, (1Thessalonians 5:9).
But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Peter writing to the elect scattered abroad. (1Peter 1:1). Jude was written to the elect of God referred to us the called.
Loraine Boettner once again in his writing distinguished between four types of election. The first one, Loraine Boettner said that there’s election of some individuals to salvation which we have already considered here in Romans we see it already there from what we have read. The second type of election he said is the election of nations to special privileges like the nation of Israel Deuteronomy 7:6-7.
The third type of election is the election of some individuals to external means of Grace apart from regeneration. The fourth one is the election of individuals to receive different kinds of gifts.
But he says rightly that these four types of election are alike in principle; namely that what God withholds from one, He graciously bestows on another. Why precisely this or that one is placed in circumstances which lead to saving while others are not so placed is indeed a mystery we cannot explain the working of Providence.
It’s a common thing even today, you are saved, but there are others that are not saved, you hear the gospel, others do not hear the gospel. It’s just like the wheels of the clock one is going down while the other is going up but they all meet at a certain point. But we know that the judge of all the earth shall do right and that when we attain the perfect knowledge we shall know that he had sufficient reason for all his acts.
And so it should be kept in mind that if God had not graciously chosen a people for himself and sovereignly determined to provide salvation for them, none would be saved.
The fact that he did this for some to the exclusion of others is in no way unfair to the latter group, unless of course one maintains that God was under obligation to provide salvation for sinners a position the bible utterly rejects. You and I are not God to tell him what to do. The very nature of sin is wanting to be in God’s place.
I want also to quote from the Synod of Dort which is also known as the Canons of Dort or the Five articles Against the Remonstrants. These were actually responding to the followers of Jacob Arminius in 1618-1619 who taught:
1. Election was based on foreseen faith
2. The universal merits of Christ
3. The free will of man due to only partial depravity
4. The resistibility of and
5. The possibility of a lapse from grace
The Canons of Dort came in to settle the controversy in the Dutch churches initiated by the rise of Arminianism. The Article on Election [Article one] says God is right to condemn all people, since all people have sinned in Adam and come under sentence of the curse and eternal death. God would have done no one an injustice if it had been His will to live the entire human race in sin under the curse and to condemn them on the account of their sin as the Apostle says the whole world is liable to condemnation
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God (Romans 3:19), for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)
Just to quote Joel Beeke “The act of election saved no one, what it did was to mark out certain individuals for salvation. Consequently the doctrine of election must not be divorced from the doctrine of human guilt, redemption and regeneration or else it will be distorted and misrepresented. In other words the father’s act of election is to be kept in its proper biblical balance and correctly understood. It must be related to the redeeming work of the son who gave himself to save the elect that were given to him from eternity past and to the renewing of the Spirit who brings the elect to faith in Christ.”
However for some people that are on the periphery of this doctrine, who are being indecisive enough about it. I would want to remind you; for he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (Romans 9:15). This is a humbling statement to all sinners and all of us should cry out like the tax collector in Luke 18:13 saying “God have mercy on me a sinner”.
The true preaching of the Gospel like I demonstrated in chapter one under Total inability should humble the sinner and exalt the Saviour. If any individual is to be saved it must be by mercy only and mercy falls in an entirely different category from justice.
That statement has to be understood, mercy and justice do not fall in the same category, mercy is entirely to a different category and justice is entirely to a different category. Let me explain; deserving has to do with what people have done, mercy has nothing to do with what people have done but it is something that finds its source exclusively in the will of God. For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (Romans 9:15)
So the subject in discussion when we are talking about the issue of election; is mercy and not justice. The two attributes belong to two different categories because God is a God of Justice at the same time God is a God of mercy as well as God is a God of Holy wrath. And election is a matter of mercy rather than justice.
Election is the only thing that is just if any individual fully understands who God is; the one who is righteous and holy, the one that cannot allow the guilty to go minus being punished, election is the only thing that is just.
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? (Psalms 130:3). How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? (Job 25: 4).Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one. (Job 14:4). Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls (Romans 9:11).
They all started at the same point, this was entirely apart from anything in the elect or the reprobate person themselves.
And so dear ones there are some benefits to election and since all scripture is inspired, we cannot miss talking about the benefits of election.
First and foremost, election is a humbling thought, those who do not understand election often suppose the opposite and think of us who believe in it as being prideful but that is not true. For we all know that salvation is by grace through faith. It’s why we believe in the Five Solas. Our faith is rooted in scripture alone; we are saved by grace alone; through faith alone; in Christ alone; to the glory of God. All people that have come to understand this doctrine, one thing that will explain them is; they are humble. Why are they humble? Because they know who God is, they know who they were, and what God did for them.
Secondly election encourages our love for God. If salvation is all of God then our love for him must be boundless, we love him more. It actually just widens our heart to throw all praise and adorations to God that had mercy on us because before we were born, before we ever did anything good or bad, He made a decree for us to born again today. What if God had not chosen me? To him be all the honour and the glory.
Thirdly, election enriches our worship. You’re not going to be actually a person that has to be motivated by others to worship God. You worship God because you know you’re worshiping a holy and a righteous God that is Sovereign, the one that transcends all things infinite, wise and actually immense.
Fourth election encourages us in our evangelism. That is a key thing, people suppose that if God is going to save certain individuals, then he will save them anyway and there is no point in us having anything to do with evangelism. But the thing has to be made very clear; the most Sovereign God actually ordains the means and the ends. He chose that men would enter in through the preaching of the Gospel. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)
Remember Cornelius’s case, visions were there, angels were there but he was commissioned to go and send for one Simon Peter who lives with Simon a tanner, the gospel had to be preached. Paul says; for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16).
And what is very amazing throughout church history it has been known that the most renowned evangelists believed in the doctrine of election starting with our Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. (John 6:35-37)
So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:24-27)
Apostle Paul writes; Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory (2 Timothy 2:10).
Peter writes; Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, (1Peter 1:1). Talk about George Whitfield, William Curry, Hudson Taylor, Martin Lloyd Jones and many others, these were evangelists who believed in the doctrine of election
So I want to end this by saying that Election and Reprobation surround and protect God’s glory, for they remind us that God is absolutely free and sovereign and God does whatsoever he wants with the universe.