Designed to Work: Genesis 2:15-17

Election in the Bible

Election is either corporate or individual:

Corporate election is choosing a group of people.

Individual election is choosing specific individuals.

Four Kinds of Election

Corporate Election to Serve

God chose the people of Israel. This corporate election is not for salvation but for special favor and service.

Deuteronomy 14:2 (LSB) 2 “For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Isaiah 41:8–9 (LSB) 8 “But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, Seed of Abraham My friend, 9 You whom I have strongly taken hold of from the ends of the earth, And called from its remotest parts And said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you.

Isaiah 45:4 (LSB) 4 “For the sake of Jacob My servant, And Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor Though you have not known Me.

Acts 13:17 (LSB) 17 “The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and lifted up the people during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it.

How do we know that Israel corporately was not chosen for salvation but instead for favor and service?

Acts 13:16-41

Israel was chosen but just because they were chosen they were not automatically saved.

They individually needed to repent and believe the gospel which is why Paul warned them from the Hebrew Scriptures.

Individual Election to Serve

God elected the Messiah

Isaiah 42:1 (LSB) 1 “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul is well-pleased. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.

Matthew 12:15–18 (LSB) 15 But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. Many followed Him, and He healed them all, 16 and warned them not to make Him known, 17 in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, 18 “Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen; My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased; I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

Cyrus, the King of Persia

Isaiah 44:28 (LSB) 28 “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd! And all My good pleasure he will complete.’ And saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ And of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”

Isaiah 45:4 (LSB) 4 “For the sake of Jacob My servant, And Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor Though you have not known Me.

Corporate Election to Save

Elect Israelites Now

Romans 9:6 (LSB) 6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;

Romans 11:1-10

God foreknew- v.2

a remnant according to God’s gracious choice has also come to be.- v.5

but the chosen obtained it v.7

Elect Israelites Future

Romans 11:25–28 (LSB) 25 For I do not want you, brothers, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” 27 “And this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” 28 From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers;

On what basis will there be a future salvation of Jewish people according to verse 28?

God made a promise to Israel that in the future there will be a mass salvation after the time of the Gentiles.

Why is that going to happen?

Because God in his eternal plan has chosen to save that generation of Jewish people.

Ezekiel 36-37, Jeremiah 31.

Elect Gentiles

Acts 15:6–17 (LSB) 6 Both the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.” 12 And all the multitude kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 Now after they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 “Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. 15 “And with this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, 16 ‘After these things I will return, And I will rebuild the fallen booth of David, And I will rebuild its ruins, And I will restore it, 17 So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,’

Individual Election to Save

Abraham

Genesis 12:1–4 (LSB) 1 And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go forth from your land, And from your kin And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” 4 So Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Genesis 15:6 (LSB) 6 Then he believed in Yahweh; and He counted it to him as righteousness.

Nehemiah 9:5–8 (LSB) 5 And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Rise up, bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting! O may Your glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise! 6 “You alone are Yahweh. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down to You. 7 “You are Yahweh God, Who chose Abram And brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees, And gave him the name Abraham. 8 “You found his heart faithful before You, And cut a covenant with him To give him the land of the Canaanite, Of the Hittite and the Amorite, Of the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite— To give it to his seed. And You have established Your promise, For You are righteous.

Can we divorce God’s choosing to serve and God’s choosing to save when he chose Abraham?

Moses

Psalm 106:19–26 (LSB) 19 They made a calf in Horeb And worshiped a molten image. 20 Thus they exchanged their glory For the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt, 22 Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham And awesome things by the Red Sea. 23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them, Had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, To turn away His wrath from eradicating them. 24 Then they despised the pleasant land; They did not believe in His word, 25 But grumbled in their tents; They did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. 26 So He swore to them To make them fall in the wilderness,

Exodus 3

The Apostle Paul??

Galatians 1:14–17 (LSB) 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being far more zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who had set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal His Son in me so that I might proclaim Him as good news among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.

Did God choose him to be an apostle?

Did God choose him to be saved?

2 Thessalonians 2:13 (LSB) 13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

Acts 13:48 (LSB) 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

James 2:5 (LSB) 5 Listen, my beloved brothers: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?