Untitled Sermon (2)

Election as a Whole

I first came to hear of the doctrine of election in seminary as I heard the term mentioned in the hallways and at the lunch table. I honestly did not know what my classmates were talking about when they said election and I have to admit my mind was made up they were very political people. It did not take me long to understand that this “election” was not political jargon but salvation speech.

In my theology class, I began to listen to my professor explain these doctrines more deeply and the mental wrestling match with election and God’s sovereignty began. As I wrestled with this doctrine, I began to notice something very particular about the opinions of those against election- there was a livid hatred for the thought of election being a true doctrine. They did not just disagree with it, they were flat out rude and belligerent toward any conversation about it. I guess it was that curiosity and mystery that led me to figure this doctrine out for myself. I came to study more and wrestle more with it until I final accepted the following as true. It was never true to me because some person I admire or love deeply convinced me of it. It was never true to me because I wanted to jump on a poplar theological party bus in the church. I came to accept it as true because I saw the Scriptures teach it from Genesis to Revelation.

The doctrine of election encompasses all of Scripture.

WHAT IS ELECTION?

We will begin with the definition of election. I describe election as the pre-determined act of God before the foundation of the world to rescue certain peoples from his wrath against sin through the redemption of Jesus Christ, choosing to know them intimately through unconditional grace; not by any merit or work accomplished by those chosen, and assembling them into a living body called the church in order to present them to His Son, as his glorious bride for all eternity- to the praise of His glorious grace.

Smarter men than me have defined as:

Wayne Grudem

Election is an act of God before creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleaSURE

Baptist Faith and Message

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.

Boyce’s Statement on Election

Election is God’s eternal choice of some persons unto everlasting life-not because of foreseen merit in them, but of His mere mercy in Christ-in consequence of which choice they are called, justified and glorified.

TURN WITH ME TO EPHESIANS 1 AND LETS READ TO DISCOVER IF GOD’S WORD BACKS UP THESE DEFINITIONS:

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 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, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

the pre-determined act of our Sovereign God before the foundation of the world to rescue certain peoples from his wrath against sin through the redemption of Jesus Christ,

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world

Election as a whole:

God’s election is threaded throughout the revealed word of God, starting in eternity past and demonstrated in biblical history. Eph. 1: Paul is speaking to believers of Jesus Christ in the church and he is stating that they were chosen by God in Christ before the foundation of the world.

He chose:(action of God alone) This is a Sovereign act by the Creator of the Universe to save those who he planned to save by the atoning death of his Son according to the redemptive plan that He set in motion.

Chose US: he is not referring to just the Ephesians as some special group God assigned to do something. He is also not speaking about the election of ALL because he does not say “ he chose all” but he says “he chose US” referring to the salvation being originated by God for a specific and particular people, not a universal group. As much as we cannot comprehend the mystery of why God does not choose ALL, we cannot find in Scripture where God sends all to heaven. Many have tried to reason UNIVERSALISM from the Scriptures but God clearly does not save everyone. Instead, he saves some, and that some are not worthy to be saved and yet God chose to place His special saving grace upon them for His glory.

God is not some miner swinging his mighty axe in a deep cave and who stumbles upon this beautiful gem buried deep among the dark, black rock. If we approach election as an act that God directed at us because of some beauty or worth in us, we are not understanding what the Bible teaches about the condition of mankind. Before Christ, we are not that glorious gem waiting to be found.

WHO IS THIS “US”?

This is the beauty and mystery of this great doctrine. The elect of God are those who truly believe in Christ, placing their trust in His saving work. We do not know the elect for that is seen only with the divine eye. We cannot determine the elect because we do not have the mind of God, so we agree that whoever truly comes to Christ is the elect. If we get it wrong in thinking a person is truly a believer in Christ when they truly were not, God didn’t get it wrong. We can affirm that anyone who wants to come to Christ can come, Jesus does not turn a single person away who desires to come to him.

John 6:37 (ESV)

37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

We know this because of what election teaches us. They come because they were predestined to do so - they just do not know they were the elect. This is the confusion as to why people think “but I chose to follow Christ.” That is true! But you chose to follow him because God planned it years before the mountains were stretched to the sky or the depth of the ocean was carved by God’s mighty hand.

In Him: Our election is based upon Christ first being the Elect of God. Since Christ is the chosen one of God and after salvation, we are in Him, then also our election is based upon our residency in Christ. No one who is chosen by God is or will ever be outside of Christ.

In Luke 9:35 (ESV)35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”

Before the foundation of the world This is the train stop that many people exit on. Many evangelical Christians today will accept the truth of election being in the bible. What they cannot accept is that our salvation depends totally on an act that God determined before the creation of the world.

The Lambs Book of Life: I imagined thinking as a young person that God was up there like a cosmic clerk, sitting at his desk, continually writing the names of people who came to Christ on earth in this BOOK OF LIFE that Revelation speaks of. Sunday, May 18th…Susy in California gave her life to Christ. Tuesday, June 2nd, Ronald asked My Son to be His Savior. The Scriptures say in Eph 1, “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” Those who belong to Jesus, who were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, had their names written in the book of life, mentioned in Revelation, and thereby will one day in their lifetime chose to follow Christ because He first chose them. They likewise, after choosing Christ will remain with him, through suffering, through temptations and trials, until they conquer or endure through this life, breathing their last breath. John in the book of Revelation speaks of these…

Revelation 3:5 (ESV)5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. Revelation 13:8 (ESV)8 and all who dwell on 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 17:8 (ESV)8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

Charles Spurgeon I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love.

That we should be holy and blameless- God’s plan in eternity past was to choose certain people for salvation, choosing them to be his representatives on the earth for his glory. But there were nor are there any worthy representatives on earth who would reflect the holiness and glory of God unless God intervened and created them that way. This involved radical change in humanity’s corrupted nature. In this choice is the undercurrent of transformation where a person goes from ELECT-REGENERATED-SANCTIFIED-GLORIFIED. This is the transformation that all believers in Jesus Christ experience after their salvation. This the change from sinful, guilty, rebel against God to forgiven, loved, son/daughter of God. Romans 8:29–30 (ESV)29 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. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

The synergy between election and the rest of our spiritual birth is that same: we have no ability to elect, regenerate, sanctify or glorify ourselves in this life. These spiritual actions must be initiated by our Creator and God.

- There has never been a time that a caterpillar formed its cocoon and came out some time later as a cockroach. The design of a caterpillar to form into a butterfly is exactly how God’s designed each transformation. Similarly, each child of God, who has been chosen, who then trusts in Christ, will be transformed through the spiritual process that God set in motion in his divine plan to save a people for himself.

WHY ME?

choosing to know them intimately through unconditional grace and not by any merit or work accomplished by those chosen,

Ephesians 1:4–5 (ESV)4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

-The next verses in Ephesians gives us the reason for our election. At the end of verse 4, we read IN LOVE. As you know, the original GREEK text was written in all capital letters and without punctuation. The placement of “IN LOVE” is debated to whether it concludes verse 4 signifying our holy and blameless life in Christ or setting the foundation for verse 5 as the purpose of our election/predestination. The translators of the ESV, NASB, NIV, and HCSB all attach IN LOVE to the phrase in verse 5, while the KJV and NKJV append it to verse 4. I think “IN LOVE” is meant to classify the purpose for our election in order that we are reminded that God’s love is the reason we know Him. It is a pursuing love that is originated in the character of God apart from any work or spiritual goodness in us.

Look at Ephesians 2:1–5 (ESV)

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world,

following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,

carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,

and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Some Argue: There are those who want to argue that our election is based on what foresees in us before the foundation of the world. They would claim that God knows we will choose him and thus he acts upon our will, instead of us acting upon his will to choose whom He desires in love. With our human understanding of a common term like foreknowledge, it would make sense that people would see this word and assume God knew something before we knew because He is all knowing and thus He made a decision based upon our decision. These who make this argument might use Romans 8:29 as the basis for their argument so turn there with me:

FOREKNEW:

Romans 8:28 (ESV)28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (what purpose?) 29 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. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

3 reasons that foreknowledge is not God seeing our actions, but instead merely seeing us in love and choosing

the word “foreknowledge” or foreknow does not mean “to know before hand.” God does not look down the tunnel of time and see us choosing him for salvation, and then act upon our decision. When God speaks of knowing someone, it is referencing relationship in love not information and knowledge.

Genesis 4:1 (ESV)1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”

Deuteronomy 34:10 (ESV)10 And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,

Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV)5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Foreknowlegde is also ascribed to Jesus as being the Savior and Redeemer in…

Acts 2:23 (ESV)23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

1 Peter 1:20 (ESV)20 He(Jesus) was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

If foreknowledge means that sees information unknown to him and then acts upon that information, then redemption was outside the plan and mind of God. This definition of foreknowledge would not only put Jesus’ act as a surprise to God but mankind’s choice to follow Christ is outside the plan and power of God.

If Foreknowledge means God decides upon our initial decision, then this gives mankind something to boast about and Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “by grace you are saved, through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, so that no man would boast.”

We can summarize this idea by saying that God’s foreknowledge of those who He saves is a pre-determined special love that God has for some but not all. It has been said that this special love is like the husband has for his bride above all other women on the earth. This husband does not show contempt or hatred towards the other women of the world. He respects them and is kind to them but he shows special love to the one who will be his bride.

and assembling them into a living body called the church in order to present them to His Son, as his glorious bride for all eternity and to the praise of His glorious grace.

Scripture is full of verses that teach us that all who believe upon Christ for salvation are the elect of God. It also says that all who believe in Christ for salvation are the body of Christ-the church. So we can deduce that the elect of God make up the true church who will one day be presented to Christ as His bride. When considering election, it makes sense that in the perfect wisdom and will of God, that He would set apart His elect before the foundation of the world and would save them, and transform them into the image of Christ in order to present this Bride to His Son in the culmination of all things for eternity.

Ephesians 5:25–27 (ESV)25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

T: We have looked at this idea of Election in the whole of Scripture. It is the first phase of God’s redeeming plan for mankind as he sets aside those whom will be saved. He calls them his elect and as they are born into the world, he regenerates their sinful hearts, he continually conforms them to the image of Christ and then in the end, he glorifies them for eternity. Now we are going to look at this doctrine and how it is found in both parts of God’s revealed word. I want you to be confident that this doctrine is not misinterpreted here in the mentioned verses, but instead encompasses all of Scripture.