Unconditional Election Applied

Josh February 16th, 2006

U- Unconditional Election

God, in the mere good pleasure of His own will, not constrained by anything other than His Own good purpose did, before the foundation of the World, elect a people unto and for Himself, to the “praise of His glorious grace.” He did so and gave a people unto His Son, Jesus Christ, to believe on His Name and to escape the wrath that was to come through the transgression of Adam. In eternity, this is the Covenant of Redemption. The historical outworking of this Covenant is known as the Covenant of Grace. (Ephesians 1, John 6:37, 44 (etc.), John 17, etc.)

Ephesians 1:3 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 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. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight

And so we have that great doctrine of election before us. Many cringe when it’s heard, and immediately tense up, though it is both inherently beautiful and biblical. Several will not only put up their guards, but also greatly protest when one uses the term unconditional as an adjective of the glorious doctrine of God’s saving decree, objecting that the term is not found in Scripture. Not in so many words, maybe, but God’s election is clearly not based on any condition, other than the mere good pleasure of His will (Eph 1:5). The bad taste that is left in the mouth of the objectors is due to the subject previously discussed: man’s totally depraved nature, which has wrought man spiritually dead, spiritually captive, and foolishly subject to his own pride. Therein lies the culprit of man’s objection to the clear Word of God. The pride which tells him God would not go against man’s “free will”, but would only hope a man would come to salvation, despite the fact that the man is born incapable of doing so. Logically, this is tantamount to saying man is sovereign, God is not. Man has free will, God does not. Such a notion is both unbiblical and irrational.

Again, this will not be a defense of the doctrine, but a proclamation of how it can and should practically apply in the life of the believer. I believe the doctrine is clearly and unmistakably taught throughout the entire Word of God. However, it is important to address something. Many try to gloss over the truth of unconditional election by saying God looked down through the corridor of time and saw who would choose Him, thus He elected those particular people whom He saw choosing Him. That’s just illogical, and there would not even be a point in mentioning such in Scripture if it were the case. It also cannot be extrapolated from anywhere in the Bible. Even looking at the first chapter of Ephesians should do away with such nonsensical drivel.

The next objection from this same ilk typically confuses election and salvation, as if they were one in the same event. Thus, they argue that if God has elected (in their understanding actually saved) people before time began then there’s no need to evangelize. We should just sit on our duffs and do nothing. This is of course a strawman argument and a common caricature of Calvinistic thought, albeit a very shallow and illegitimate characterization in light of both history and Scripture. The problem with this is borne out of their ignorance of what the doctrine of election is. It is not actual conversion, but God’s decree in eternity past that He elected them unto salvation. In other words, election is his decree that He will save such and such a person. How does He actualize His decree? By saving them? How are people saved? By faith? How do they have faith? By hearing. How do they hear? By preaching. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”-Romans 10:17. We evangelize NOT because God needs our help, but because God commands we carry out the means by which he brings His election to fruition: evangelism.

Having briefly and grossly covered that, we now come to how the doctrine of unconditional election can and should be applied in the life of a believer. We’ll see, as we go through the “5 Points”, that many of the practical applications overlap throughout the system of Calvinism.

On the Preaching of the Gospel Indiscriminately

Practically speaking, unconditional election indeed demands that we consider an extremely broad venue of Gospel preaching. If God’s election of people unto salvation is without condition, then such teaches us that God is not bound to a certain skin color, ethnic group, social status, or culture. On the contrary, we are told that God wants all* people to be saved. Romans 1:16 says that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe, for the Jew and the Gentile. Thus, we should preach the gospel to all without discrimination of race, skin, culture, etc. One exception, of course, being those who know the Truth (in an intellectual sense), but openly defy and trample upon it, making opportunity of your evangelism to blatantly blaspheme Christ and His Church (i.e. Do not cast your pearls before swine). May the Christian ever be zealous to preach God’s Word indiscriminately to the poor, the rich, the proud, the humble alike to the praise of God’s glorious grace

(*1 Tim 2:3-4 says, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” This is not saying that God wants every person without exception to be saved, but every person without distinction, i.e. all kinds of men. Paul starts these verses with “This”, pointing to the previous verses which provide the context for the passage being discussed. If you look at Paul’s description of “all people”, he talks about different people, thus demanding that the following verses talk about distinction, not exception.)

On the Surety and Confidence of Evangelism
Another practical application of unconditional election is the confidence it should give the believer in his or her evangelistic efforts. Since, no doubt, God has chosen a people for Himself, before the foundation of the world; and since, no doubt, God has ordained that evangelism be the means by which He brings the elect unto salvation, then it follows that the believer should be relieved of all pressure or possible pride that he or she somehow persuades, in a saving sense, others to be Christians. No doubt we should be passionate in our witness, but ultimately, rest in knowing that God will bring His elect unto Himself by the proclamation of His Word, not by the intellectual or spiritual prowess of the vessel through whom it is proclaimed. The Christian can boldly and confidently be faithful in his/her witness of the Word of God, knowing that God shall move the hearts of the elect, raise their dead hearts to life, and certainly bring them to conversion. What a relief this brings to many who have felt the need to go knocking on doors, not out of genuine concern for their neighbor, but out of the fear that someone may go to hell because of their lack of so-called evangelism. May we be faithful in our witness of both God’s Word and godly actions knowing that people are watching, but also be relieved of the pressure that someone’s conversion somehow depends on us. Thank God for His saving power and unconditional election!
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As noted, some practical applications of the system will overlap in each point. One of these is gratitude. The doctrine of God’s electing decree should make us face up the absolute goodness of God, in that He graciously and sovereignly chose a people for Himself, of which none were worthy. That’s truly humbling. There are many applications that can be made, and these are just a few. Think on these things, Brothers and Sisters. Let us show the world that our Calvinism is no cold, intellectual, lifeless theory, but a warm, fervent, vibrant, and biblical command carried out with joy, passion and devotion to the God of the Scriptures! Blessed be the Name of the Lord Who is to forever be praised!

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