Election

Good evening. Tonight we're starting a new unit. We're starting unit number eight, and it's on soteriology. Soter in Greek simply means Savior or salvation. So soteriology is the study of the doctrine of salvation. In unit six we looked at Christology, and in unit seven we looked at Pneumatology. What you'll find here is that those two actually combine, because soteriology is the finished work of Christ applied to us by the Holy Spirit. It covers everything about salvation. So we'll be spending the next 12 weeks in soteriology. Tonight we are beginning our first lesson, and it's on election. Election is a doctrine that is a vast doctrine and a deep doctrine, and it's not an easy one to grasp. There have been famous theologians and pastors who struggled with this doctrine for years, because it takes wrestling with God's revelation. It takes reading His Word and making it part of your life to be able to comprehend these things.

However, you have been prepared for tonight through the last two years. We're on lesson 77 now, and no doctrine stands on its own. We study what we call systematic theology because we started — if you remember, for example, with the doctrine of bibliology — and we looked at several weeks in bibliology. Think about how that relates to election. What we learn in bibliology is that the Word of God is God-breathed. It's His Word, and all of it is His Word, even the parts that are hard for us to understand. And so we just take them as they are. We trust them. Whether it is the doctrine of the Trinity, which is very difficult to understand, or the doctrine of Christ — His person being one person with two natures, a human and a divine nature — it's hard for us to grasp. When we studied anthropology, we talked about humanity and humanity having a free will that's yet bound. It's hard to grasp, but we trust that God's Word is true.

When we studied inspiration in bibliology, we also talked about how holy men of old were inspired and moved, carried if you will, by the Spirit of Christ to record His revelation. Well, that ties in with election, because here you have the Bible being written over 1,600 years by 40 different men of various estates — from a shepherd to a king. But what do they do? They produce one unified text with one central message, Jesus Christ. When you read the gospel of John, it's every bit the work of John. God used John's personality and John's location and his life and his experience with a Savior, but it's not just John's gospel — it's the Word of God. And we can see that free will and sovereignty go together, and it's not questioned.

Think about theology proper. That was our second unit of study. We talked about how God is a personal being, and as a personal being that means that He is rational, that He is also resolute — meaning that He wills and He acts — and also He relates. That has everything to do with election. Think about when we studied the doctrine of God, God being holy, that was His chief attribute. What is holiness? We discussed that it was God's self-affirmation and self-willing, and because He is perfect purity revealed, He must punish evil and He must reward righteousness. And so His holiness is a guarantee that all His plans come to pass, that everything will one day be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Think about the second part when we did theology proper part two. We talked about the decrees of God — we'll be talking about them tonight. Election is just an aspect of God's decrees. It's God's decrees towards men for their salvation. When we discussed the doctrine of God part two, we also talked about God's providence — how God ordains all things big and small to carry out His plan and accomplish His will. That has everything to do with election.

When we studied anthropology, we talked about how we are created in the image of God and we are personal beings. So therefore we are rational, we are resolute, we have a will and we act and we relate. That has everything to do with election. When we studied hamartiology, which is the doctrine of sin, we talked about how man's will was corrupted — how because we're born in Adam, we're born in sin, we're depraved, and we're bent away from God. That has everything to do with election. When we studied the doctrine of Christ, we talked about how Christ is the perfect servant of God, He pleased God, and in Him we find God's pleasure. The book of Ephesians says that we are elect in Christ Jesus. So the doctrine of Christ has everything to do with election.

And we just studied Pneumatology, and in Pneumatology we talked about how the Holy Spirit is the principle of all movement and all return to God — that we must be born of the Spirit, we must be born again, we must be regenerated, because we can't take our stony heart and make it a heart of flesh, but the Holy Spirit can. So you've been prepped for this. There's a reason why we haven't gotten to election yet. It's because everything should be in its proper place.

So we're going to start on Bible point number one. We have a lot of points tonight, so I'm going to be moving pretty quick. You'll be drinking from a fire hydrant, I'm not going to lie to you. But hold on to your notes. Let this be your contemplation for the next week. Come back to these Scriptures and think about what you've learned tonight, and bring your questions too, because everything that we're learning tonight will be touched upon again over the next 12 weeks, because the doctrine of salvation from first to last is wholly the work of God. God is the one who says salvation belongs to the Lord.

Let's begin with Bible point number one. This is going to be the overall definition of election, and then Bible points two through five are going to break down this definition piece by piece. Election is a doctrine taught with reverent humility all throughout Scripture. Doctrine is always meant for us to glorify Christ, never meant to puff ourselves up. And election is not something that puffs you up — rather it makes you humble.

Election is the eternal — that's the first blank — the eternal act of God by which in His sovereign pleasure, and on account of no foreseen merit — merit means works or something that you earn — on account of no foreseen merit in men, He chooses — chooses is the third blank; first blank is eternal, second blank is merit, third blank is chooses — He chooses some sinful men to be the recipients of the special grace of His Spirit, and so to be made voluntary — this is the fourth blank — voluntary partakers of Christ's salvation. So it's an eternal decree of God in which He graciously chooses guilty sinners for salvation, and they're doing it voluntarily — He's working with the human in doing this.

Ephesians 1:4–5 says, "Just as He chose us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will." Is it the good pleasure of man's will? The good pleasure of God's will.

The application for number one is this: ponder election and gospel. Gospel is preaching the good news that Christ came to save humanity, and there is no contradiction between the two. I have as a reference Matthew 11:27. I want to read that to you. Matthew 11:27–28 says — these are Jesus's words — "All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." You see God's sovereign choice there. His will to reveal Himself to man is His election. But look at the very next verse: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." There is no contradiction between preaching the gospel and the secret of election. Jesus says it in the same breath. That shows us the Word of God is inspired. What man would write that?

Also John 6:37 — Jesus says, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me." That's certain. Not "may come to Me," not "can come to Me" — they will come to Me. "And the one who comes to Me, I will by no means cast out." All that the Father has given Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me, I will by no means cast out. Here again we see man's action — coming to God — but we also see that God is the one who is drawing man to God. There's no contradiction between election and gospel. They are part of God's plan of redemption.

Bible point number two: the doctrine of election is only a special application of the doctrine of the decrees. If you do not remember this, go back on YouTube and watch the doctrine of God part two. I believe our first lesson was the doctrine of the decrees. I'll give you a quick summary of it right here in this point. God's decrees are certain. God's decrees are another word for His plans. God's plans — they may seem many, but they are but one. God's decrees are certain from eternity. They are not of possible events, but of what is to be. And there can be no foreknowledge unless there is something fixed in the future to be foreknown.

This fixity can only be due to God's perfect predetermined will. What we mean by that is this: there are some theologians, Christian theologians, who believe in what's called open theism or process theology, and they say, "God can't know the free acts of human beings down in the future. He doesn't know the future. And so He waits for men to choose God. Men elect themselves — they're elect." That's what they say. I grew up in Texas, and when I was in college, we had a senator there named Phil Gramm. He was a pretty good guy, but he had the reputation of grandstanding. In other words, he would go all over Texas, and there may be, say, a Lions Club event — they raise some money for charity — he would get up on the podium and backslap everybody, as if he had a part in it. And they actually used his name against him. They called it "Gram-standing" because he was so connected to it. Well, that's cosmic grandstanding to say that man chooses God, so therefore God is obligated to choose him. God knows the future because the future is certain. It's fixed, therefore it is knowable, because it's foreordained by Him.

"God's decrees are an eternal act of an infinitely perfect will, framed by His wisdom and goodness. God's decrees never conflict with man's free will, yet are accomplished through man's moral agency."

It's hard for us to fathom how God's will is done and man's will is done at the same time, but we see that all throughout Scripture. Remember what Peter preached? He says, "You, with wicked hands, slew Christ, which was predetermined and preordained from eternity past." God's decrees are not addressed to man. He doesn't tell us His plan — wish we could know, wish we knew what was coming, but we don't know the future. "And are only revealed" — revealed is the third blank — "after they occurred." The only way that you can know they occurred is they occurred.

All that is true of God's decrees is true of God's election. Election is just God's decrees in application to salvation. Isaiah 46:9–10, the prophet writes, "Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.'" Does that sound like open theism? Does that sound like process theology? Does that sound like a God who doesn't know the future, a God who doesn't know what's going to happen? Not at all.

If God isn't God, then He's no God at all. God must be sovereign. Application for number two: remember that God's sovereignty is the sovereignty of God. What I mean by that is this. I had a coworker years ago when I was at Morgan Stanley, and there was a lot of office politics, and the branch manager made all the rules. He could take accounts from one individual and give them to another individual at his will. And one of my friends there says, "It's good to be king." We put ourselves in God's place and say, "Well, if I was God, then I would elect everybody." If I was God, I would do it this way, or I would do it that way. We're not God. We don't have the wisdom. We don't have the love. We don't have the power. We don't have the knowledge that God has to even understand His purposes. We are finite beings, and He is infinite.

Bible point number three: election is not based on any foreseen merit or faith of those chosen by God, as faith is God's gift — gift is the blank. There are some in the Arminian tradition who'll say, "God looks down through the corridors of time, and He sees those who respond to His call, and He sees those who are righteous, or He sees those who are worthy of salvation, and He saves those." But even faith, the Bible tells us, is a gift from God. As man's faith is only the result of God's grace, election is not based on foreseen belief, but on foreseen unbelief.

God's election is based on foreseen unbelief. Remember when we discussed hamartiology and how depravity affects our will — it corrupts our will, and we do not desire the things of God. We're bent away from God and we're bent towards ourselves, the world, the flesh. Natural man doesn't desire God. So our election is based on unbelief, not on our belief. Faith as the effect of election cannot at the same time be the cause of election. In other words, election produces faith in us, not the other way around. Election and salvation on the grounds of works foreseen are not different from election and salvation on the grounds of works performed. We're not saved based upon our works. It's not that we do a lot of good deeds and put them on the scale to outbalance our misdeeds. No — we're saved wholly on the merits of Jesus Christ.

John 15:16 says — Jesus says — "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit." We will eventually bear fruit if we abide in the Vine. But that fruit is not what saves us. What saves us is Christ — He chose us. The application for number three is trust in Christ alone and rely on His completed work. Jesus on the cross said, "It is finished." We must believe that. Deep down in our minds, oftentimes, we think that our works save us. Perhaps it's guilt from old sin that we haven't dealt with biblically, and we figure we can outdo things to drown our guilt. You can't outperform what Christ has done. We'd never measure up.

Bible point number four: the depravity of the human will is such that without election, all would reject Christ's offer of salvation, and thus all would perish — perish is the first blank.

So election is gracious, because apart from election, we would all be damned to hell. Election is God's determination that Christ's sufferings were not in vain, but actually accomplished the salvation of His people. Election is not a permissive — that's the second blank — permissive decree, but is positive — that's the third blank — and efficient — efficient is the fourth blank. Let me reread that. Election is not a permissive decree, but it is positive and efficient. Let me explain what that means. Christ did not die in order to permit you to come to Him on your own terms. It's not permissive, but it's positive. Christ died to save you. He died to give you a new heart. He died to make you His child. He died to make you whole, to set you apart for Him. It's efficient because those on whom He set His love will indeed come to faith. They will produce faith and repentance — which election is not without faith and repentance — but it's God who is working that into your heart.

Colossians 2:13 — "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven all your trespasses." He unites you to Christ. His death is considered yours and His resurrection is considered yours. When you're dead in your trespasses and sin, think about this.

Here in Florida we've got a lot of water. We have ponds, lakes, pools — drownings happen. Let's say that someone has drowned and they're on the bottom of a pool and you pull them up. They're not breathing. Their heart's not moving, but you signed up for a CPR class this Saturday and you learned to pump their chest and breathe air into the lungs. And finally they cough up that water. Their heart begins to beat again and they breathe. They can say, "Well, I'm alive," but who made them alive? Same with salvation. It takes the work of God to unite you to Christ. It takes the work of God to take a heart that's dead and make it alive, to take a heart that's corrupt and make it pure, to change your affections to match the holy affections of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Application for number four: "Make your calling and election sure." 2 Peter 1:5–11 — I'm not going to read that, but read that in your own time. Peter is saying, "If you've been bought with a price, basically walk that way. Make your calling and election sure. If you've been saved, then you better live like it. If Christ has given you a new heart and He's given you breath, spiritual breath, then live for Him, because you are no longer your own."

Bible point 5: Election turns on who gets the credit — that's the blank. This is the key thing about election. Election turns on who gets the credit in initiating salvation. Election exalts — that's the second blank — exalts God's preeminence over man. No man can say, "I saved myself. I pulled myself up by my own spiritual bootstraps. I changed my heart. I moved towards God first." No. God initiates salvation. It's His from the beginning to the end.

John 1:12–13 — listen to the words of John: "But as many as received Him" — speaking of Christ — "to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name." Well, if you just listen to verse 12, you say, "Well, okay, I received Him, I believed in His name. So therefore I get the credit in salvation." That's what verse 12 kind of sounds like. But then read the very next verse, verse 13: "Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh" — in other words, it's not your heritage that saves you, it's not the will of your flesh, it's not your choice, so to speak — "nor of the will of man, but of God." In other words, it's not your efforts that save you. It is simply God's efforts that save you. You do impart — have faith and exercise that faith. We're going to talk about that when we do regeneration and conversion. God elects no one apart from faith and repentance, but it's God who gives you that faith and that repentance.

The application for number five: do not rob God of His glory — glory is the blank — or diminish His Word. Isaiah 42:8 speaks about God and says, "I am the Lord, and there is no other, and I will not share My glory." So when we try to take credit for something God has done, that's an awful thing. Let us never do that.

Over on the right-hand side of your page, number six: election is taught all throughout Scripture. It would be impossible to cover every passage in one brief study. Here are just a few of the key Scriptures that teach this doctrine. I encourage you to underline these Scriptures or highlight them, and then find them in your Bibles — Pastor Casey says to underline them there in your Bible. There are no fill-in-the-blanks on this section, so just read along with me.

First of all, we see God choosing or giving His people according to His eternal purposes before time began. Look at Acts 13:48: "Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed." This is where Paul has turned from the Jews and is now preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. And who believes? As many as had been appointed. Our governor here — if someone resigns from their position, he has the power to appoint a judge or a government official into their position, to place them there. Here it's saying they were placed. Can you appoint yourself? No.

Second Thessalonians 2:13: "God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth." It's pretty crystal clear. From the beginning, He chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. Again, He's using your belief, but He's the one who's working that in you.

Romans 9:11: "For the children not yet being born" — speaking of Jacob and Esau — "nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls." Saying it's based on no foreseen merit in man.

"God's elect have His special love, attention, affection, and care set on them." Look at Deuteronomy 7. Now this is speaking of God's electing of Israel, choosing Israel for His purpose. This is the Lord, Yahweh: "The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples, but because the Lord loves you." God chose you because He loves you. That's it. The reason is in God.

Romans 8:28–29: "And we know" — speaking of believers — "that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, for whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." What He's saying here is that God has special care for us. He's going to see that all things work together for our good, so we're conformed to the image of Christ. That's what He has elected us to — elected us to Christ.

God's election is a matter of pure grace, apart from works, in eternity past. 2 Timothy 1:9 is a great verse to underline in your Bible. This is "who has saved us" — speaking of Christ — "and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began." Before time began, God set His love upon you and put you in Christ Jesus.

God's uniting us to Christ the Savior by His Spirit — which is what salvation is, a communion with the Savior — is a work of God alone. John 6:44: Jesus says, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him."

1 Corinthians 1:30: "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus." Uniting with Christ means that we are in Christ, that Christ is in us. And how are we in Christ? This is of Him, of God. It's God's doing — He unites our soul to Christ.

God's elect are written in the Lamb's book of life. Revelation 21:27: "But there shall by no means enter it" — speaking of heaven — "anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life."

God's elect are born into God's kingdom, not by man's will, but by God's will. Look at James 1:18. I know our children know this very well. "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth." Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, but it's of His own will. "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." We're an offering to God. It's His work that has produced us for Him.

1 John 4:10: "And this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." He's the one who loved us — not we who loved Him.

God's election secures our faith rather than our faith securing our election. Look at John 6:65: "And He said, 'Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.'"

Acts 15:8–9: "So God, giving them the Spirit, purifying their hearts by faith." You see how salvation works — everything is from God. It's from God through the Son and the Spirit, and then everything returns back to God. We obey God in the Spirit through the Son to the Father, to His glory.

Philippians 1:29: "For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him" — you catch that? It's been granted on behalf of Christ to believe in Him — "not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake."

So our belief, our faith, is a gift. It's been granted to us.

God elects His people to holiness and good works for His own glory. 1 Peter 1:2 says, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."

There are some who hold the doctrine of election, but the doctrine of election does not hold them. They don't walk in sanctification. They don't walk in holiness. To them, it's just mental assent. It's just a doctrine they've memorized or a creed they've recited, but their heart has never been regenerated. Because it says here that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

By the way, this "foreknowledge" — ginosko in Greek means to foreknow, to forelove. It talks about an intimate knowledge of a person. It's not just that God looked down and saw you — He knows you. You're His own. He set His love on you. And it's even more sobering that Jesus says, "Depart from Me, for I never knew you." I thought God is omniscient — doesn't Christ know all things? He's talking about a personal relationship.

Ephesians 2:8–10: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Scholars debate whether faith is a gift of God or salvation is a gift of God based upon the Greek, and most of them say it's faith, but it doesn't really matter either way, because salvation is inclusive of faith. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." We are created to be holy, conformed to the image of the Son — which means we're going to walk that out too.

The application is simply a Bible verse from Psalm 95:6–7: "Oh come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand."

Flip over to the back. Points 7, 8, and 9 are going to be three ways that election profoundly affects us as believers. And then 10 through 14, I'm going to deal with the five most common objections to election. Some of them you may already be thinking of in your head right now. So let's look at number seven: the doctrine of election comforts us in grief and loss.

When we studied hamartiology, our last lesson was on the salvation of infants. And we began that lesson by saying that infants, though they may not have personally sinned yet in their personal volition — if they're in the mother's womb and you lose that baby, they haven't committed an outward sin — yet they still need regeneration because they still have inherited depravity. They were born in Adam. And if they were to live and mature, they're going to act on that. And we went through several passages that show how God does distinguish — there are degrees of guilt, and they have a relative innocence. And then we ended that lesson by point number eight, that God's special care ensures us their place in heaven.

And I felt a bit awkward doing that, and the reason why is because I didn't want to talk about election yet — we hadn't gotten to that place yet. If you read between the lines, you could see that kind of coming. But when a woman loses her child, she's had a miscarriage, or you've lost an infant, lost a young child — that can be a very grievous thing. It can tear apart families, tear apart marriages. I believe that election gives us great comfort with this. The salvation of infants who die is not possible apart from God's election. It's impossible for a baby who dies to be saved apart from God's election.

Does a baby have the mental capacity to understand the gospel? Does a baby have the mental capacity to believe and to repent? They haven't even been outside their mother's womb. Although infants may not have personally sinned against God, they have inherited depravity and need salvation. Their regeneration is wholly a work of God. They're not regenerated because they die in infancy — they're regenerated because they were elected. And sometimes God's elect are allowed to die in infancy. David's certainty of seeing his son again is the normative hope for all who grieve. I believe that's there for a reason.

David is not recorded as having any special revelation that his son was elect. I believe it's normative. He says — remember — "I can't go to him or he can't come to me, but I can go to him." Jesus promised in Matthew 18 that it is not God's will for believers to eternally perish. When you read Matthew 18 — and I encourage you, we're not going to do it tonight just because of brevity and time — but I encourage you to read Matthew 18:1–14. The whole thing is set in the context of an analogy comparing believers to infants. Believers, He says, have to be like an infant, have to come with a childlike faith to God. That reception is what gets you into the kingdom of God.

Jesus promised in Matthew 18 that it is not God's will for believers to eternally perish. This is not His will of precept — that's the first blank. What is will of precept? Think of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not kill." That's God's will. His will of precept is will of command. Can you break that? Yes — our jails are full of men who have broken that. So when we talk about God's will, you have to ask what will we're talking about. Will of precept is His will of command. Or His will of disposition — His will of disposition shows you what pleases God. Think about, I have here references to 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9, that God is not willing that any should perish. It basically echoes Ezekiel, who cries out — God cries out through Ezekiel: "Why should you die in your sin? Turn and live." God is gracious and shows His heart towards humanity. That's His will of disposition.

But when God promises in Matthew 18 that it is not God's will for believers to eternally perish, this is not His will of precept or His will of disposition, but it's His sovereign decretal will. Do any believers perish eternally when they die? No. All believers go to heaven, go to be with their Savior. Jesus' teaching in Matthew 18:1–14 compares believers to infants. Jesus' entire teaching is undergirded by this analogy. He has a child right in front of Him. He's using it as an example. God desires neither a spiritual infant nor a natural infant to perish.

God's will that no believer should perish eternally is only true of believers, and to the degree that it is true of infants — otherwise there would be a broken analogy. When I've taught that before to people, most people say, "Yeah, I get that." Some people say, "No, I don't get that." I encourage you to wrestle with that. I encourage you to wrestle with the whole text of Matthew 18:1–14, and go beyond looking up a word study in Vine's or Strong's. Read up on hermeneutics. Read up, for example, on how in Hebrew parallelism, Hebrew poetry, and the use of analogies — look at how the rabbis used analogies. Christ was the best rabbi. He was the ultimate teacher, and His use of analogies was incredible. They were always direct, they were always perfect, and I believe that when you see how He's using this example, and we'll read it here, He says, "Even so, it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones" — which means infants, and He's again speaking of believers under the figure of an infant — "that one of these little ones should perish." If it's true of believers, then it must be true of the infants by way of analogy, or else the analogy is pointless and broken.

And then 2 Samuel 12:23: "But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." This is a hard one, but I encourage you to wrestle with it. As with anything in Scripture, be a good Berean. Application: be amazed that God provides special care — special is the blank — care for all of His children.

Bible point number eight: the doctrine of election humbles believers. It teaches us to live in gratitude and to be wholly dependent on God for all things. Some people object and they'll say, "Well, election puffs you up because you say, 'I am chosen. I've got it going on.'" But if you truly understand election, it's not based on your foreseen merit or your foreseen belief, but on your wretchedness, upon your unbelief. It's pure grace that God says —

Psalm 3:8 says, "Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah." Psalm 115:1: "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, because of Your truth."

The application for number eight: how does God's sovereignty change the way we act? If we truly believe that we are elect in Christ Jesus for sanctification and for good works, what does that mean? How should we orient our life? Is our life about pleasing us?

It's not about living your best life now. It's about serving Christ and living for Him in gratitude, and showing grace to others, because you have been shown such great grace.

Bible point number nine: the doctrine of election gives believers confidence in their salvation. It teaches us that God is the originator and perfecter of our faith. It is a sweet secret certainty to believers. Everywhere in the New Testament we see election told as an encouragement to believers — a secret to believers, to know that your salvation is not of your authorship. So can you lose your salvation?

You didn't elect yourself. God elected you. God purchased you. Christ died for you. He united Himself to you. So it's not something that you can do or foul up. Everything we do we foul up. We fall short. We are crooked. We are perverse. Even in our best efforts they're not entirely for the glory of God. We are finite beings and we're corrupt still.

But the doctrine of election gives us confidence that our salvation is sure. Do you want to know the elect? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Have you called upon the Lord? Have you repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus Christ? And if you've done so, the Bible says whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Guess what? You're elect in Christ Jesus. And then you live that way, because you are abiding in the Vine.

Hebrews 12:2 says, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" — that means He is the originator and the perfecter of our faith — "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Philippians 1:6 — you know this, I know the co-ed class went through Philippians recently — "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." When you get down on yourself and you say, "I'm not making progress like I want to in my sanctification," know that God's not finished with you yet. And if He has saved you, He's elected you to sanctification. He's going to work in your life to conform you to His image. The application for number nine: do you find rest and peace knowing that salvation is of God?

It's a joyful relief to know I'm not having to earn my salvation. I'm not having to measure up. It's sweet freedom. Remember Luther — before his conversion, he used to flog himself in the monastery. He was trying to earn his salvation. He crawled up those steps that were believed to be the steps that Jesus walked on and bloodied his knees. He did acts of penance. But then he read "the just shall live by faith," and he said it was like a whole wave washed over him, a wave of peace, because no longer was he carrying his burden, but he was solely resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Okay, numbers 10 through 14 are the five most common objections you'll run across regarding election. Some of these you may be thinking in your minds, because election — especially if you've never really thought through it or never been taught it — it may seem foreign to you. What is this?

Number 10: some object that God is unjust to those not included in the purpose of salvation. In other words, why doesn't God save everybody? If I was God, I'd save everybody. Do you think you're more just than God? We must recall that God deals with men who are guilty and condemned, and that any should be saved is a matter of pure grace.

Those not included in the purpose of salvation suffer only the due reward of their deeds. They trumpet free will — they get what they chose. The wages of sin is death. There is no injustice. Romans 9:14–16 — you can read that. Paul answers this there. Is there unrighteousness with God? No. Nothing prevents men from being pardoned but their own unwillingness to accept it.

Nothing prevents men from being pardoned but their own unwillingness to accept it. It's not that your "can-do" is broken — it's your "will-do" that's broken. You don't want to bow the knee. We may better praise God that He saves any than charge Him with perceived injustice because He saves so few.

Number 11 is another objection. Some object that election makes God partial in His dealings — and thus a respecter of persons. The Bible says that God is not a respecter of persons. But they would argue, "Well, if God's choosing some, then He must be a respecter of persons because He favors some over others."

This objection is invalid because there is nothing in man that determines God's choice of one over another. There's nothing in man that merits His election of your soul. I remember R.C. Sproul teaching on this, and he talked one time — he said, "If you had a sliding scale, and over on the right-hand side you had the perfection of Jesus Christ Almighty, and over on the far left you had the most unholy man you could think of, say Hitler," he asked most people, "Where would you be between the two?" He said, "Well, I'm in the middle. You know, I'm not Jesus, of course, but I'm not as bad as Hitler." But in the sight of God, there's no daylight between you and Hitler. God's holiness is infinite.

And so there's no merit in man that would make God elect them, so He can't be a respecter of persons. This objection is invalid because there's nothing in man that determines God's choice of one over another. God is not partial in choosing nations like Israel to accomplish His purpose, or individuals like Cyrus to accomplish His purpose. You don't hear anyone say, "Well, God chose Israel — that's being a respecter of persons," or "God chose Cyrus to restore Israel to the promised land — that's being a respecter of persons." No. There is no partiality in God choosing to bring salvation to some fallen men but not to fallen angels. You could just as much accuse Him of that. Why doesn't God save the angels? But He saves men.

Number 12: some object — this is the third objection — that election represents God as arbitrary. We must remember that God's election is not arbitrary, but is an exercise of the free choice of God's wise and sovereign will for reasons that are inscrutable to us — reasons we can't fathom, reasons we can't understand. Who can know God's ways? To deny this is to deny God's personality. God is infinitely wise, holy, and loving. Remember what Paul says? "How can we fathom the width and the height and the breadth and the depth of His love?" He is incomparable to His most wise, just, and loving creatures. How dare we say that we're more loving than God, or more just than God, or that we have a better perspective of things? Who can fathom the ways of God?

God can truly say to all men — and there's a quote from Matthew 20, the parable of the vineyard workers: "Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?" He can choose to treat everybody the same or treat them differently. That's His divine prerogative.

Bible point number 13, this is the fourth objection: some object that election discourages believers from evangelizing and discourages unbelievers from repenting and believing. Do you follow the logic? Well, if it's all up to God, I don't have to go share Christ. And if it's all up to God, I don't need to repent and believe — either I'm elect or not. So why bother with that?

We must remember that election as a decree from God is secret and unrevealed to men. I don't know who the elect are. So what do you do? You treat every man as if they are lost. You treat every boy, every girl, as if they need a Savior. We must remember that election as a decree of God is secret and unrevealed to men. Therefore, it cannot be a discouragement. How does a person know they're not elect if they don't know? Election is rather a ground of encouragement, as it compels the sinner to seek salvation from God. As faith is His alone to give, salvation will surely be given to all those who cry out for it. In other words, if we believe what Scripture says — that even faith is a gift of God — then that should compel you to go to God and ask for it. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So it's not a discouragement. It's actually an encouragement to know that salvation is totally of Him.

Likewise, election makes Christians entirely dependent on God's power in their efforts to convert the lost. In other words, when you're out shining Christ's light to a lost and dying world, it shouldn't discourage you. It should encourage you to know that God is working, and He's working in secret ways that you do not know. The most hardened sinner that you've shared Christ with three or four times — don't give up on them, because God may still be working in their heart. And the person you've never met, when the Holy Spirit moves you to go talk to them — that's a prompting. You never know what may come of that, so it's an encouragement to witness, because the results aren't dependent on you. God's not going to send you into the corner because you didn't save 10 souls last week. But if you go and you witness to 10 people, hallelujah — you're spreading the gospel. You're faithfully obeying the Great Commission, and there's no telling what God can do through that.

Election makes Christians entirely dependent on God's power in their efforts to convert the lost. Christians join with Paul in saying, "I therefore endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." Second Timothy 2:10.

And lastly, number 14, the last objection: some object that election implies a decree of reprobation. Reprobation is the idea that God imparts evil to people, makes them evil, and condemns them for their evil — in other words, just as He imparts righteousness to make an unbeliever a Christian, that He makes people evil and then judges them for it. There is not an active decree of reprobation, but there is a passive decree, and we'll look at that here.

We recall that while election is a positive decree — and when we say it's a positive decree, we mean that God must elect us, He must save us, He must regenerate us, so we would never have faith. He must give us faith, He must give us repentance, or we would never come. So it's a positive thing that God does. He puts His Spirit within us, He unites us to Christ, He regenerates our hearts, He gives us faith. So election is a positive decree, something that God does actively. Whereby God decrees to save — reprobation is but a permissive decree. In the decrees we talked about how God ordains all things that come to pass, either actively or permissively. He is not the author of evil. He allows free men to do wicked and evil things, but even that He works to His glory. He's not the author of evil. He's not positively putting that evil in people. He's letting free moral agents achieve their own ends.

Election is a positive decree whereby God decrees to save. Reprobation is but a permissive decree to leave the sinner in a self-chosen rebellion and its natural consequences of punishment. Think about Pharaoh. The Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and also says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart against the Lord. He saw God's revelation and he continued to rebel against Him. At some point God says, "Okay, I'm going to remove My restraining grace from you. I'm just going to let you have the just merits of what you've chosen. You're getting your will here. This is what you want." Remember when we discussed hamartiology — that sin is both self-defeating and self-punishing. It's punished in this life and even greater in the next. Sinners left to themselves will come to ruin. Just like water runs downhill, sinners left to themselves slouch toward hell.

Election and sovereignty are only sources of good. Election is not a decree to destroy, but a decree to save. When we elect a president, we don't hold a second election then to make all the other millions of Americans not the president. We've positively elected the president, and we've passed over everybody else. There is indeed a book of life, but there is no book of death. So election is a positive decree for good only, where He imparts the righteousness of Christ to the sinner. He regenerates the heart. To speak of reprobation is simply to say that God passively permits sinners to follow their own self-chosen course of rebellion, and the wages of sin is death.

I know this is a lot. It's kind of like drinking from a fire hydrant. But again, I encourage you to review this in your personal studies, to wrestle with this. If you have any questions about this, come see me, come see any of the elders. Also know that over the next 11 lessons, we're going to have touchstones to each of these doctrines as we go, because again, salvation is the work of God. So live your life in light of His gracious election of you. Live in humility and live for His glory.