Whose choice is it?
‘The decision is yours ... Now it
is all up to you ... God has done all he can to save you, the rest is up to
you. You must choose Christ for yourself ...You must make the final decision’.
How often we have heard statements like those from
the pulpit or the podium. But whose choice is it, this matter of eternal
salvation? Our Lord Jesus Christ has answered the question very plainly: ‘Ye
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you’ (John 15:16).
Divine
election is a very humbling, and, at the same time, a very encouraging and
blessed doctrine. It is humbling to know that we would never have chosen
Christ. Our sins were so many, our hearts were so
hard, that we would never have sought the lord.
Yet, it
is exceedingly comforting to hear our Saviour say: ‘I have chosen you’, or (in
Jeremiah’s prophecy): ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore
with lovingkindness have I drawn thee’ (Jeremiah 31:3).
The natural heart
Our Lord Jesus Christ loved us long before we ever
loved him. He loved us even when we were dead in sin. Had he not loved us, we
would never have loved him. Had he not chosen us, we would never have chosen
him.
Language
could not be clearer. Our Saviour tells us that man, by nature, will never
choose God, for ‘the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them because they are
spiritually discerned’ (1 Corinthians 2:14).
It is
true, in one sense, that every believer chooses Christ. But this is the result,
not the cause, of Christ's choosing him.
The
natural ear is so deaf that it cannot hear. The natural eye is so blind that it
cannot see. The natural heart is so hard that it cannot feel. Man sees no
beauty in Christ. He feels no need of Christ. He has no desire for Christ.
Only when
God, by almighty grace, opens the blind eye, unstops the deaf ear, quickens the
dead heart, and gives strength to the withered hand, is the sinner made willing
to seek Christ. Only then is he given the strength of faith to embrace the
Saviour.
Election
This is what I am driving at: all who come to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ were chosen by God in eternal love. And that
divine choice secures their faith and holiness in Christ.
What does
the term election mean? Accurate statements on this doctrine are essential. No
doctrine in the Bible has suffered so much damage from the erroneous views of
its foes and the inaccurate statements of its friends.
Election
may be defined in this way: God has been pleased from all eternity to choose
certain people whom he has determined to save by the righteousness and shed
blood of Christ. None are finally saved except those whom he has chosen.
Therefore, the Word of God calls his people ‘the elect’. And their choice, or
appointment to eternal life, is called ‘the election of God’.
All whom
God was pleased to choose in eternity were redeemed by Christ at Calvary. All
who were chosen and redeemed are (in due season) called to salvation and
eternal life by the Holy Spirit. He convinces them of sin. He leads them to
Christ. He works repentance and faith in them.
He keeps
them by his grace from falling away. He brings them all safely to eternal
glory. In short, election is the first link in the chain of salvation, of which
eternal glory is the end (see Romans 8:28-30).
All who
are redeemed, justified, called, born again, and brought to faith in Christ are
elect. The primary and original cause of the saint's being what he is, is God's eternal election.
Election in Scripture
The Bible is our whole authority. It does not
really matter whether the Reformers and the Puritans taught the doctrine of
election. It does not matter whether Gill and Spurgeon taught it. It does not
even matter whether the Baptist and the Presbyterian Creeds teach it. Does the
Word of God teach this doctrine?
If so, we
must embrace it. If not, we must reject it and refuse to hear those who teach
it. ‘To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word,
it is because there is no light in them’ (Isaiah 8:20).
The
Arminians boast of preaching ‘Ye must be born again’. In this they are correct.
The necessity of the new birth ought to be loudly proclaimed.
However,
they decry those who preach divine election, saying that it is an insignificant
doctrine, taught only in a few isolated verses. But ‘election’ is mentioned
fifty-one times in the New Testament alone. Surely, it must be of some
importance!
Our Lord
Jesus Christ taught election (Matthew 24:22,31; Mark
13:20,22,27; Luke 18:7; John 17:2, 8-9). The early churches heard the message
of election (Acts 13:48). The apostle Peter spoke of election without
hesitation (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:10).
The
apostle John spoke of the ‘elect lady’ and the ‘elect sister’. The apostle Paul
felt that the doctrine of election needed thorough and frequent exposition
(Romans 8:29, 30, 33; 9:11-16; Ephesians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; 2
Timothy 1:9).
The plain
fact is, you cannot turn to any part of the New
Testament without being confronted with the doctrine of divine election. Surely
those who claim to be preachers of God’s Word ought to follow the examples of
the apostles and our Lord and proclaim this doctrine?
Understanding election
God's election of men to salvation is gracious and
free, absolute and sovereign. It is an unconditional act of sovereign mercy. He
did not choose us because he foresaw that we would repent and believe on
Christ. Our repentance and faith are the result of God's election, not the
cause of it (John 10:16, 26; 15:16; Acts 13:48).
God's
election is personal. He did not choose a mass of nameless faces, but
individual sinners, calling them his sheep, his sons and daughters. This
election of grace is also, eternal and immutable (Ephesians 1:4).
When the
triune Godhead existed alone in glorious self-sufficiency, we who now believe
were chosen in covenant mercy. God chose us because of his eternal love and
sovereign pleasure, simply because he would be gracious.
Furthermore,
we were chosen ‘in Christ Jesus’, not apart from him. Chosen to be saved
through him, united with him, glorified with him, and made like him (Romans 8:
29).
Then,
again, behold God's strange choice! He chose not the noble, but the common. Not
the wise, but the foolish. He chose not the self-righteous, but confessed
sinners. All in order that ‘no flesh should glory in his presence ... that
according as it is written, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”’ (1
Corinthians 1:29,31).
Let all
who are born again confess: ‘By the grace of God, I am what I am" (1
Corinthians 15:10). With Josiah Conder, let us sing of God’s electing love:
Tis not that I did choose thee,
For, Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse
thee,
But thou hast chosen me.
My heart owns none before thee;
For thy rich grace I thirst;
This knowing, if I love thee,
Thou must have loved me first.
Don Fortner