The bible is filled with this. It’s pervasive in its lines. Election, as defined by Benjamin Merkle is “God’s choice of individuals to receive his favor before they have done anything good or bad” [1]. The concept of election is really God’s right that He exercises over people. He chooses whom he wants as Paul tells us in Romans 9. Almost everyone that was used by God was first chosen. Abraham was chosen. Isaac was chosen. Jacob was chosen. Moses was chosen. Joshua was chosen. David was chosen. Solomon was chosen. Esther was chosen. Ruth was chosen. The list truly goes on and continues even until this day. During Jesus’ ministry, he chose his disciples and even after his death he still chooses his disciples and followers. This is a profound mystery that I cannot explain but I can’t help to think what seems to be the criteria to be chosen? Why choose some and not others? What does that have to do with my life today and the life of those who do not believe in Jesus Christ? Why election? These are difficult questions to ask and even more difficult to attempt to answer with our human wisdom. My hope today as I write is to shed light on what election entails and perhaps give you a sense of awe at the privilege of what it means to know Christ and being chosen by Him.
When I look at the life of Abraham, I wonder what made God appear to him, speak to him and command him to go to a different land? What was it about Abraham? Or was it even about Abraham? Another question is what made Abraham obey? After all, Abraham did not know this God, he knew false gods then so he could have disregarded the call of God but he did not. It is as though something in Abraham recognized that this was what he was made for. And Abraham obeyed God to the fullest. He obeyed that command like his life depended on it. Even as he was about to die, he made his sons bury him in the land God had promised him. It did not matter that Abraham did not see the promise of God upon his life come to pass, he believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. For some reason, despite not seeing the full promise of God coming to pass, Abraham’s faith in God remained strong. He had quite a journey with God, waiting a lifetime for the promise of his son Isaac to come into the world, having to sacrifice his long awaited son only to find out that it was a test and enduring the call to wait upon the Lord. I am persuaded that the Lord strengthened Abraham, He gave grace to Abraham to be able to stand and continue to serve Him the way he had otherwise, Abraham wouldn’t have been able to wait as well as he did (think of how Ishmael came). God Himself made a way for Abraham to believe Him, He held Abraham fast because by human standards, this could not have been made possible. This was the Lord’s doing. God called Abraham and he ensured Abraham stood. All this is done with the main ingredient of obedience. Without this obedience, Abraham could not have been sustained by God. This is a pattern that we see repeated in the bible with everyone that has been chosen.
Let’s take the nation of Israel for example, coming from the seed of Abraham, they had “the adoption as sons, the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises” (Romans 9:4) just because they were God’s chosen people. God actually said many times that He did not choose them because they were better than other nations, he says “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.” (Deuteronomy 7:7) Moses goes on to explain God’s reason for choosing them and says “But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery…” (verse 8). God then makes it clear that He is a covenant keeping God and that He is faithful. However, it is evident that God does not force people down otherwise He would have forced the nation of Israel to obey Him but that is not what we see. In fact, Israel disobeyed God repeatedly going from one false god to the other, putting their trust in chariots and horses or in other nations. Despite this rebellion, the Lord did not force them but came to their rescue when they called. Indeed, God would often leave them to themselves and when things would get hard and out of hand, Israel would call upon the Lord who in His love would actually come. However, God always requires obedience and humility when He is invited. He requires to be ascribed the glory due His name, to be honoured as rightly as He should. How we are chosen does not depend on us but the response to accept the call or not is totally ours. When we accept the call, we follow the terms of God, we abide by His rules. This is how it was with Abraham, it is how it was with the nation of Israel and it is how it is with us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We serve a God who has not change and does not change. One of the revelations of the word of God to Paul was that salvation belonged to the Lord and it was available to everyone whom God called in Jesus, not just the Jews. Therefore, anyone who heard the message of the gospel, confessed it with his mouth and believed in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead is saved (Romans 10:9). In fact, Paul showed from the scripture that this was the only way to be saved for anyone. This means, the “privilege” that the Jews had as a nation should have drawn them closer to Jesus to receive their full salvation. Again, we see the same pattern, how we are saved exactly is a mystery. The first step is that we have to hear the word of God but how many people have heard the word of God and yet do not believe? Even during the early church, how many heard the message of the gospel as powerfully delivered by Peter and Paul and yet still did not believe? This again shows that there is an element of God’s sovereignty and mystery behind. He calls, we respond. Like I said earlier, God does not and will not force anyone who has heard His message to believe it, this is something the person must do because believing means obedience to the terms and condition of this new covenant in Christ. Paul explains it beautifully when he discusses the unbelief of his brothers the Jews by quoting a scripture from Hosea which says “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” (Romans 9:26). In this passage, we see how God’s call went to people who did not know Him or had any desire to know Him but as soon as He revealed Himself to them, they believed. The same is true of us today who have come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. I know for a fact that before the Lord called me, I was not particularly looking for Him, in fact, I don’t even think my mind gave much thought to Him yet when He found me, I grabbed onto Him and as He has done with Abraham and others, He is doing with me – holding me fast.
We have seen how unchanging God is in His ways. When it comes to the topic of election, it is clear that God is the only one who knows how that process goes or the whys behind it. All we know at our human and physical level is that we are given an offer that we can either accept or reject with clear terms. Upon acceptance, we surrender our rights and abide to the terms of God which may I remind us are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). Do you then see how privileged you are to be adopted as a child of God? Do you also see why it is urgent to make that offer available to as many people as you possibly can, giving them the same opportunity you were given to accept or reject the offer? Paul called this having “beautiful feet”. These are the feet of those who bring good news! (Romans 10:15) I know my love for the lost is not as great as that of Paul, but his word challenge me to love more than I do today and to actually see presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ as the good news because that is what it is! Yes, it is foolishness to others that are perishing but to those who believe it is the power of God to save (1 Corinthians 1:18)! I don’t know about you but I believe now is the time to be bolder in our evangelism. On a personal level, that is what I am doing and I pray the Lord equips me and opens the door for the gospel to be preached everywhere and for me personally that I am able to proclaim it clearly as I should to use Paul’s words in Colossians 4:4. This is my prayer for you too. Amen.
[1] https://www.crossway.org/articles/what-is-the-doctrine-of-election/#:~:text=Election%20is%20God’s%20choice%20of,9%3A16).
A Word Aptly Spoken 