God's Purpose of Election

Introduction

The doctrine of election is not easy to understand. It involves focusing on the deepest part of God’s will, a part that we only have a fraction of a glimpse of. And yet, we see in this doctrine a truly humbling and God-glorifying doctrine of salvation that is based not on ourselves, but on him who calls us out of our sin and condemnation, softens our hearts, and brings us to himself and into the promises made to our spiritual father Abraham.

Through these OT examples, Paul will begin to expound on this doctrine in order to explain who the true Israel is and how God calls these true Israelites, the Israelites in heart, to himself as a people set apart for himself to be the object of his love, to be holy and blameless in his sight, and to enjoy his kindness and love for all eternity.

Isaac, Jacob, and Esau

Last week we saw that, despite Paul’s great sorrow for the exclusion of the vast majourity of God’s physical, historical people of Israel because of their rejection of the Messiah, the children of God, the true children of Abraham, and the promises God made to Abraham, are not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. That is, people do not become children of God through the genetic descent of ancestry from Abraham. This is proved by the fact that Ishmael was not a child of promise, but a child of this world, a symbol of slavery to the flesh and to the law. To be a child of the promise is not merely being a child of Isaac rather than Ishmael, since Esau was a child of Isaac, but rather this symbolized that being a child of God has to do with being a child of the promise by the miraculous work of God. So it is not ethnic Israelites that are children of the promise, but rather those whom God calls to himself to believe in him and in the One he sent to save us from our sins: Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

John 1:12–13 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John Gill says,

An Exposition of the New Testament, Volumes I–III Chapter 9

so these are called children of promise, because they are born again, not through the power of nature, and strength of their own free will; they are not born of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, according to the will of God and his abundant mercy

Titus 3:5 ESV

he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

In our text tonight, we see that individual election is introduced through this OT theme of God choosing one son above the other; Isaac rather than Ishmael, Jacob rather than Esau, and so on. We see emphasized the will of God in salvation according to his promise. The impact that we are left with is that the promise is due to the will of God, not the will of man. Thus, it is not through our acts of free will that works our salvation, but rather the electing call of God.

God’s Election in the OT: The People of Israel

For this is what the promise said: About this time next year I will return and Sarah shall have a son.” This takes from the episode in Genesis 18 when three strangers come to Abraham and make this promise to Abraham and Sarah. This was the defining moment where the promise made to Abraham so many years before was made reality. Although Abraham had Ishmael, God was going to fulfill the promise his way in an almost impossible situation. This is remembered to emphasize that the promise was enacted by God’s choice and work, not by Abraham and Sarah.

Now the readers may say “well that’s because Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, was a slave woman. Surely, the offspring of Isaac are all true Israelites, true sons of God right? Well, in verse 10 Paul demolishes that assumption. He brings up Rebekah who had two sons in the same pregnancy, Jacob and Esau. Yet, before they were born and had not yet done anything either good or bad, Rebekah had been told that the older would serve the younger. In other words, the promise would pass on to Jacob, not Esau. Verse 13 puts more weight on this sovereign decision by God by quoting Mal 1:2 where God says, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” In the context, Paul is saying that this love for Jacob and hatred for Esau was not because of their actions, but “in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls”. God, in his sovereignty, called Jacob and overlooked Esau before they were even born for his own elective purposes.

This election, in the OT, would become the genesis of the people of Israel, Israel being Jacob’s redeemed name similar to how Abram had his name changed to Abraham, signalling a new identity they were taking on in partaking in the promises of God by faith. Israel would be the true father of the Israelites since it was from him that the twelve tribes of Israel would originate through his sons. This was not just the election of a person, but the election of a family and a nation. Though nations would come through Ishmael and Jacob, the only nation that was to be endowed with the promises of God was Israel.

This led to the idea that all who were born of Israel and circumcised under the Mosaic law were part of the people of God. So imagine the shock of Jews reading Galatians 4:25-26

Galatians 4:25–26 ESV

Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

So to Paul, being under the law of the old covenant is actually to be spiritually children of Ishmael, not Israel. These are not spiritually children of God, despite being of the family of Israel, the man to whom the promise of God came.

God’s Election in the NT: The Spiritual People of God

So what is Paul’s point? Who are the children of God? Well, we see that Paul uses the example of Jacob and Esau to show how one inherits the promises of God. It is clear that one does not inherit the promises of God through national identity, but through the election of God.

Let us look at this phrase in verse 11, “in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls.

This is in response to God calling Jacob and not Esau before either were born or could do either good or bad. Why was this? Was it simply because God, who knows all things beyond time, could look ahead and see that Esau would reject the promise by selling his birthright to Jacob and marrying Canaanite women? This isn’t the answer that Paul gives us. Instead, he says, “in order that God’s purpose of election might continue.”

We could expound this to say, “in order that the election of his people, which began with Abraham and continued through Isaac, might further continue through his choice of one brother over the other, in order that God may have the final say in his purpose of election. This assumes that it is God who chooses his people through election and his call to his elect is effectual, while those who are not elect, while not rejected by God against their will, are never enlightened by God’s grace so that they do not respond to the call of salvation because of their darkened state of sin.

Not because of works. That is, Jacob wasn’t chosen over Esau because his works were better than Esau’s. It doesn’t take much investigation of the story of Jacob in Genesis to know that Jacob was hardly a model of upstanding godliness, but because of him who calls. God does not choose his elect based on their own righteousness, otherwise Jesus would not have spent his time with tax collectors and sinners. No, it is based on the call of God. This is where election becomes the difference between those who believe Jesus and those who reject him. Either the elect believe because of fate, perhaps being put in the right place and the right time to believe, or they believe because of works, believers being those more righteous and therefore more inclined to believe the gospel, or it is God’s sovereign choice who elects and calls effectively those he has set his love upon. God set his love upon Jacob for the sake of his glory, just as God called Abraham among all those living in the land of modern day Syria and Iraq.

Today, in the church age, we see that the way God called back then with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is the way God continues to call his elect today. It is not through genetics or works that one is called by God, but through God’s sovereign choice to reveal himself to sinners who are no more deserving than anyone else.

The evidence of election is simple: a turning to Christ in faith. Without the Spirit’s enlightenment, we in our sin and pride will always reject God’s offer of mercy and grace through the free gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

Do not spend a lot of time wondering if you are among the elect or not. Instead, spend your energy seeking Christ in faith. Those who do so can have assurance that they are elect, since it is only through the enlightening work of the Spirit in our hearts can we take than humbling step away from sin and the flesh and towards the free gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of election is a humbling doctrine that has us recognize that there is nothing in us that would cause God to choose us, but only the sovereign, loving election of God. Just as God chose Jacob rather than Esau before they were born, God chose you, if you are a believer, before the creation of the world. He set his love and affection on you for nothing in you but simply because it was his will. He wanted you to be saved for his glory. Now this undoubtedly brings many questions to our minds, and some of these questions will be addressed by Paul later in the text, but let us be amazed by the amazing love of God. For he has chosen us, despite our sin, and elected us for redemption, and those whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, those whom he predestined he called, those whom he called he justified and those whom he justified he glorified.

There is nothing you can trust for your salvation but God’s unending mercy and grace, given freely to those he has elected to be part of his bride, the church. Let us continually give thanks to him who love us and gave himself for us, despite the questions and difficulties we may have with the doctrine of election. Christ saves to the uttermost, and you are not saved based on who your grandfather was, based on your works, your righteousness, your intellect, or anything else but God’s unending love and grace for you. Glory in that, and you are applying the doctrine of election correctly.