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This article is adapted from the recently released book The Christian’s True Identity: What It Means to Be in Christ (Reformation Heritage Books, 2019) by Jonathan Landry Cruse.
A hurdle many Christians cannot seem to get over is accepting and embracing the doctrine of election, or predestination. By nature, we don’t like the fact that God is the one who does the choosing. We want to be the masters of our fate and the captains of our soul. Yet Paul seems to make the case very clearly in Ephesians 1:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,even as he chose us in himbefore the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In lovehe predestined usfor adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 1:3–5; emphasis added)
What brings Paul to doxology is distasteful to many. R.C. Sproul accurately describes the feeling of most people towards the concept:
The very word predestination has an ominous ring to it. It is linked to the despairing notion of fatalism and somehow suggests that within its pale we are reduced to meaningless puppets. The word conjures up visions of a diabolical deity who plays capricious games with our lives.[1]
Yes, this is a hard truth to come to terms with, but such a fatalistic view tragically eclipses the beauty of God’s work for undeserving and incapable sinners like you and me. To help us grapple with and grow to love this essential aspect of the gospel, consider the following three points about election.
1. Election is a biblical doctrine.
First, the doctrine is biblical. This should seem evident enough, as it is clearly spelled out in the section of Ephesians 1 quoted earlier. Nor is this the only place we run up against the concept in Scripture. Just a few verses later on Paul will say—even more bluntly—that we have been “predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11). In Romans 8:29-30 we read,
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.”
These are places in which these theological terms are used explicitly, but if we broaden our radar to also pick up allusions to and themes of choosing, predetermining, and electing, the list gets longer.
There are some out there who have a false notion of predestination and election, namely, that it was the invention of some ancient French madman named John Calvin. No doubt, Calvin would mourn the fact that history has dubbed this doctrine “Calvinism,” as though it somehow belonged more to him than to God.
Others who are more informed would recognize that the idea of election is not strictly Calvinist and is in fact a scriptural concept. Indeed, Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, and so-called Calvinists all hold to different nuances of predestination. But even then, the most common view is not the biblical one; that is, while God does choose some to salvation, He does so based on “foreseen faith.” This view states that God was able to look down the halls of time and see everyone who would, if presented the opportunity, respond to the gospel in faith. Those who would respond in faith God elects to everlasting life. This effectively makes our choice the foundation for God’s. It would put us over and above God.
2. Election is a big doctrine.
To those who would argue for that view, I would respond by saying it does not square with the rest of the biblical data regarding who God is, and that those who hold to it don’t understand the second thing about election: it is a big doctrine. By that I mean several things.
It is big in the sense that there is a lot at stake with election—like salvation! But the doctrine also deals with a big topic: the sovereignty of God. Or, to put it another way, election is a big deal because it deals with the bigness of God.
The Westminster Confession of Faith gives us a great description of what God’s sovereignty is all about:
God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.” (WCF 3.1)
This sweeping statement accurately captures the bigness of God, all in reference to predestination, or foreordination. First, in terms of time: “from all eternity”—there was never a moment that God wasn’t in control. Second, in terms of necessity: “freely”—no one forces God to do anything. Third, in terms of permanence: “unchangeably”—nothing can thwart God’s plan or cause it to take a detour. Fourth, in terms of scope: “whatsoever comes to pass”—in other words, if it happened, it’s because God ordained it to happen.
You see, if we lose God’s bigness, we lose God. If God is not sovereign, he is not God at all. If something can be decided or determined apart from, outside of, or before God, then that means that there is something out there that is greater than God. And if something is greater than God, then God isn’t God at all. Think about it: why would you want to choose salvation in Jesus for yourself, when it would mean putting your eternal destiny in the hands of a God who doesn’t even have a say in your temporal decisions?
Of course, the main concern for people is that if we “give” God His sovereignty, then we are giving away our own freedom. But this is a false dilemma. Loraine Boettner writes,
The true solution of this difficult question respecting the sovereignty of God and the freedom of man, is not to be found in the denial of either, but rather in such reconciliation as gives full weight to each, yet which assigns a preeminence to the divine sovereignty corresponding to the infinite exaltation of the Creator above the sinful creature.[2]
It is the very same God who has ordained “whatsoever comes to pass” who has also ordained our freedom! We can both be free, me and God. He’s just freer. As a father and a child are both free, yet the father’s freedom outweighs the child’s, so too does God give his creatures freedom out of and yet also within his own freedom.
3. Election is a beautiful doctrine.
This brings us to the third thing regarding predestination and election. Not only is it a biblical doctrine and a big doctrine, but it is also a beautiful doctrine. It can so often be caricatured as nothing more than a cold and lifeless calculus. But what does Paul say in Ephesians 1? That it was in love he predestined us (Eph. 1:4-5)! Thus, it has been said that election is based on affection. It is God’s love for us that causes him to ordain us to everlasting life. This is a beautiful truth, and it should move us to praise as it does Paul:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Eph.1:3)
When properly understood, election teaches us not just about how great God is, but how good he is:
God’s love is the fountainhead of the gospel. God’s Son did not come into the world to persuade the Father to love or to win His love for us; He came as the gift of the Father’s love to us.[3]
He is a sovereign God, and yet also a saving God. Some people might tend to pit John’s “God is love” (1 John 4:16) against Paul’s predestination. But they go hand in hand. If God were not love, we would be lost. Yet while we were still sinners, God loved us—God chose us.
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Jonathan Landry Cruse is the pastor of Community Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Kalamazoo, MI. He is a published hymn author and his works can be viewed at www.HymnsOfDevotion.com. He is also the author of The Christian’s True Identity: What It Means to Be in Christ.
Recommended:
The Christian’s True Identity: What It Means to Be in Christ by Jonathan Landry Cruse
[1] R.C. Sproul, Chosen by God (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1982), 1.
[2] Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1932), 208.
[3] Ian Hamilton, Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2018), 20.
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