Unconditional Election

first published in Impact Magazine

U is for Unconditional Election

It is true that God loves all the kinds of people in the world (John 3:16) and that “whosoever will let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17.) But these scriptures do not mean that God loves every individual in the same way or that we are capable or willing to love and follow the Lord without being born again first. While we are “free” in the sense there is nothing outside of us preventing us from coming to God, we are so inwardly twisted against God we will never choose to follow Him unless God recreates our heart. While it is true that our will is free from outward compulsion, it is not free of inward corruption. That fundamentally wicked inclination (Genesis 6:5), our slavery to sin (John 3:34), our deadness in sin (Eph 2:1) means that we will never chose to come to God unless God first choses for us to come to Him.

Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).

God, in His mercy, chooses some sinners to come to Him. Some but not all. On precisely this point many will object that God wills everyone to come to Him. This is partly true. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23; 33:11). God is loving, in certain ways, to all people. But in His love and wisdom, He does not choose to call or even finally elect all people. Some are “not my people” whom He will not have mercy on (Hosea 1:6-8).

“For many are called but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14).

The Lord Jesus Himself put the emphasis squarely on God’s initiative, the ultimacy of His choice. He’s the one who calls many (not all) and chooses few.

Salvation is first the work of God. Our choice for Him, our turning from our sins and to His grace, is both a product of God’s prior work in us and a tool which God uses to do that work in us. Before God even the most mature Christians, “the elders”, will cast their crowns at the feet of His throne in worship because they recognize that every good thing they did was done only as God enabled them (Rev. 4:10). Ultimately all the glory will only belong to the Lord because He really was responsible for every good thing. Since God’s choice of who He will save is based completely on His “good pleasure,” grace, it is unconditional (Eph. 1:4).

Jesus told His disciples, “You did not choose me but I chose you” (John 15:9).

In John 10:26 Jesus told His followers that they believe because they are His sheep first. In other words, God made them His sheep and then, because of that, they had faith.

The Apostle Paul points out (in Romans 9:11-12) that Esau too was descended from Abraham but he wasn’t chosen by God. And God chose Jacob and not Esau before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad. Why?

“In order that God’s purpose of election might stand, not because of works but because of His call. . . .”

The Apostle’s conclusion, in verse 16, was that salvation “does not depend on man’s will or effort but upon God’s mercy.” By the gospel, God gives faith to those He has chosen (Romans 10:17.) We are first “born of God,” then having been given a new heart, we believe (1 John 5:1.) Through and behind our faith is God’s grace which He freely choses to give to those He has predestined before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-6).

Dr. John Carpenter is pastor of Covenant Reformed Baptist Church (Danville, VA) and author of Seven Pillars of a Biblical Church.