Election is a mystery. I admit it. But the Bible teaches election, so we must as well.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)
A Few Exegetical Notes
The word “chosen” in verse 4 is the verb form of the word “elect.” Peter uses an adjective form of the same word in I Peter 1:2.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ…
Peter uses “elect” descriptively, emphasizing the method God uses in saving them that believe. Paul uses “chosen” as a verb, showing what God did on our behalf. Paul emphasizes the result of our salvation – that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.[1] Because God has chosen us, we are sanctified (4), adopted (5), accepted (6), redeemed and forgiven (7), and we have an inheritance (11).
Paul uses the aorist middle indicative “hath chosen.” The indicative points to the reality of the choice. God’s choice is actual, not potential. The timeless aorist tells us the choice is made for all time. The middle voice tells us that God made the choice for His sake, not ours.
This selection of the saints in this age of grace is the act of God choosing out from among mankind, certain for Himself. These become His own, to be used for a certain purpose.[2]
The context confirms this.
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (5-6)
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: (9)
Paul emphasizes God’s ultimate reason in saving sinners – not for the sinner’s sake, but for His own glory’s sake, to display His glory in His grace to undeserving sinners. God saves sinners out of His own goodness and grace, not for any good thing He sees in us.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8)
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: (Colossians 1:21-22)
Ephesians 1 focuses on God’s saving choice of the sinner. Paul maintains this emphasis throughout. He presents our inheritance in Jesus Christ in terms of God’s eternal purpose rather than our right choice.
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. (Ephesians 1:11-12)
Why We Pray
I don’t think Bible-believing Christians should object if I say that it is not my choice of God but His choice of me that saves me from my sin. The saving work is all of God, all of grace, and none of myself. God initiated the work of salvation. God reached out to me when I couldn’t reach out to Him. He sent an evangelist with the good news of the gospel. He arranged my history so I would hear the gospel to the saving of my soul. God did a work of grace in my sin-hardened and rebellious heart. And God alone gets all the glory.
When I preach the good news of the gospel – for how shall they hear without a preacher? – I pray that God will work through the preached word to reach the sinner’s heart. I ask God to open sinners to the saving message. I pray that God’s Holy Spirit will draw men to salvation. I assume that non-Calvinists pray the same way.
Should we not pray this way? We should pray for boldness, that we will preach the pure gospel, and that men will hear and believe. But we pray because we know that men won’t be saved unless God draws them to salvation (John 6:44-45). Otherwise, our prayers should focus on our own persuasiveness, not God’s work in the heart.
Paul rejected the notion that effective gospel preaching rested in the evangelist’s persuasive powers.
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (I Corinthians 1:17-18)
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. (I Corinthians 2:1-5)
If God’s saving power rests in the preacher’s powers of persuasion, then why pray at all? Polish up your presentation, practice your delivery, fill your passion buckets, and close the sale. But if our faith stands in the power of God, we must ask God to work.
So yes, the Bible teaches election – God’s sovereign, saving work in the sinner’s life. We depend on God alone for our salvation. I didn’t choose to hear the gospel. God blessed me with parents who would preach the gospel when I was a baby. You didn’t choose to hear the gospel, either. God brought someone to you with the saving message of grace. Your faith came the same as mine – by hearing the Word of God. God sent an evangelist to preach the gospel to us – for how shall they preach except they be sent?
The Dispute
But this brings us to the point of contention. Because the Calvinist says that we were saved because we were predestined to hear and believe the gospel, and the non-Calvinist says that we were saved because, when we heard the gospel, we believed. And I say yes, and yes.
Please, put down the pepper spray.
Before you fumigate me, let me explain. Ephesians 1:4 says that God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Taken at face value, that seems to mean that we were predestined to hear and believe the gospel – which is why many seek to explain away the verse rather than understand it.
This choice was made outside of time – “before the foundation of the world.” Our finite minds can’t comprehend God’s view of time. We can’t conceive of the world without time. But God sees the end from the beginning. He beholds all of time at a single glance.
The Mystery of Election
This is the mystery of divine election. Whatever God decrees, whatever God determines, whatever God chooses is chosen outside of time, in eternity. So, the Savior is not “waiting to enter your heart – why don’t you let Him come in?” That is absurd.
From our perspective, His choices are made in eternity past. But God doesn’t dwell in time. There is no “eternity past” with God. “Eternity past” is oxymoronic. We can’t comprehend this. We can only think in terms of time, which explains why our mind is more comfortable with a phrase like “eternity past.” But there is no eternity past, only eternity. And the point where time meats eternity is in the present. The past is sealed by the sovereignty of God, and the future is controlled by that sovereignty. We experience the moment, the point where time meets eternity.
Thus, God has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. From man’s perspective, that choice was already made by God. He is Unchangeable God. We live our lives as a tale that is told. God wrote the story. The point isn’t so we would say, “I am elect,” as a point of pride. Nor is it the point to emphasize that my choice of salvation was somehow a pre-determined thing that offered me no actual choice in the matter. The point is to re-emphasize the role God’s sovereignty plays in my blessedness. I am blessed because God has poured out His blessing on me. He made His choice without regard for my actions or behavior, because He made that choice before the foundation of the world. If anything, God chose me even though I have been a sinful rebel against Him.
Before the Foundation of the World
A few things should be pointed out here. First, the idea that God chose us because He foresaw that we would believe has no basis in Scripture. It is an attempt to escape a particular view of the role of God’s sovereignty in salvation. If God saved us because He foresaw that we would believe, then He saved us because of some good thing He saw in us.
Second, the phrase “before the foundation of the world” tells us that this was not a historical selection but “an eternal choice, a determination of the Divine Mind before all time (Expositors). [3] Actually, I would modify that quote to say “a determination of the Divine Mind outside of all time – in eternity.” The point here is not to give the rationale of divine election, but to display the grace of God that brings salvation to people who manifestly do not deserve it. Our salvation is entirely of God.
Third, this eternal choice was made in a way our finite minds cannot comprehend. The choice was made by an eternal, unchangeable God. This means, as Kenneth Wuest explained, that…
We were chosen in eternity before the universe was created. But, wonder of wonders, this choice was never made. God cannot be said… to decide upon any course of action. That choice is as eternal as God is. The name of every Christian is as eternal as God is, for God has had that individual in His heart for salvation as long as He has been in existence.[4]
Fundamental Disagreement
Fundamentally, my disagreement with Calvinism stems from this mysterious interaction between man’s free will and God’s sovereignty. We shouldn’t pretend to clearly understand a doctrine that New Testament believers have wrestled with for thousands of years.
When I called on Christ to save me, my choice was entirely free. I wasn’t pre-programmed to do so. I didn’t act as a robot or a machine in choosing Christ. Nor did God set aside His sovereignty at all or sit by helplessly waiting for me to make that decision. God chose me in such a way that I freely called on Him to be my Savior, and now live my life as one of the elect.
“Scripture nowhere dispels the mystery of election, and we should beware of any who try to systematize it too precisely or rigidly.” (John Stott’s commentary on Ephesians, p. 37)
Election then doesn’t refer to a historical selection, as Expositors explains. Election refers to
an eternal choice, a determination of the Divine Mind before all time.
Again, I would modify that to say this determination is made outside of time. It is a timeless choice. The New Testament doesn’t present election as the ultimate explanation of the system of things. It doesn’t give the rationale of the story. The New Testament insists that salvation is God’s work from beginning to end. Salvation originates with God and is wholly of God (see Kenneth Wuest’s commentary on Ephesians 1).
I object to any theology that pretends to resolve the mystery. Calvinism’s explanation of the mystery isn’t the explanation of the mystery. I reject the emphasis on election as “the ultimate explanation of the system of things” rather than an expression of God’s sovereign work in our salvation. I appreciate Kenneth Wuest’s statement: “We were chosen in eternity before the universe was created. But, wonder of wonders, this choice was never made.”
That fits with Scripture. For instance, Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. Three times in Scripture, the Bible says, “this day have I begotten thee.” How are we to understand this? Are we to believe that the Bible describes the day Jesus became God’s begotten Son? Of course not! Jesus is the begotten Son of God eternally. As someone else explained, He was begotten in a birth that never took place.
Even so, I have been in the Father’s heart, in His determination and will and plan for the world for all eternity. There never was a time in eternity past when I was not. That staggers me. It overwhelms me. It makes me want to fall at His feet and worship Him. But it doesn’t answer all my questions or settle the mystery.
Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. (Acts 15:18)
[1] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament: for the English reader (Vol. 4, p. 30). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
[2] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament: for the English reader (Vol. 4, pp. 29–30). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
[3] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament: for the English reader (Vol. 4, p. 32). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
[4] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament: for the English reader (Vol. 4, p. 32). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans (emphasis mine).
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