As the doctrine of election is a part of the wider subject of God’s sovereignty, a brief word on this first. In Revelation 19:6 we are told, “the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” In heaven and earth, He is the Controller and Disposer of all creatures. As the Most High, He ruleth amid the armies of the heavens and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, “What doest thou?” (Job 9:12). He is the Almighty, who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. He is the Heavenly Potter who takes hold of our fallen humanity like a lump of clay, and out of it fashioneth one as a vessel unto honor and another as a vessel unto dishonor. In short, He is the Decider and Determiner of every man’s destiny and the Controller of every detail in each individual’s life, which is only another way of saying that God is God.
Now, election and predestination are but the exercise of God’s sovereignty in the affairs of salvation, and all that we know about them is what has been revealed to us in the Scriptures of truth. The only reason why anyone believes in election is because he finds it clearly taught in God’s Word. No man, or number of men, ever originated this doctrine. Like the teaching of eternal punishment, it conflicts with the dictates of the carnal mind and is repugnant to the sentiments of the unregenerate heart. And like the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the miraculous birth of our Saviour, the truth of election must be received with simple, unquestioning faith.
Let us now define our terms. What does the word election mean? It signifies to single out, to select, to choose, to take one and leave another. Election means that God has singled out certain ones to be the objects of His saving grace, while others are left to suffer the just punishment of their sins. It means that before the foundation of the world, God chose out of the mass of our fallen humanity a certain number and predestined them to be conformed to the image of His Son. “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name” (Act 15:14).
We cannot do better than here amplify our definition of election by quoting from a sermon by the late C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) on “Things That Accompany Salvation”:
“Before Salvation came into this world, Election marched in the very forefront, and it had for its work the billeting of Salvation. Election went through the world and marked the houses to which Salvation should come and the hearts in which the treasure should be deposited. Election looked through all the race of man, from Adam down to the last, and marked with sacred stamp those for whom Salvation was designed. ‘He must needs go through Samaria’ (Joh 4:4) said Election; and Salvation must go there. Then came Predestination.
Predestination did not merely mark the house, but it mapped the road in which Salvation should travel to that house. Predestination ordained every step of the great army of Salvation; it ordained the time when the sinner should be brought to Christ, the manner how he should be saved, the means that should be employed; it marked the exact hour and moment when God the Spirit should quicken the dead in sin, and when peace and pardon should be spoken through the blood of Jesus. Predestination marked the way so completely that Salvation doth never overstep the bounds, and it is never at a loss for the road. In the everlasting decree of the sovereign God, the footsteps of mercy
were every one of them ordained.”
Why God selected these particular individuals rather than others, we do not know. His choice is a sovereign one, wholly gratuitous, and dependent upon nothing outside of Himself. It certainly was not because these particular individuals were, in themselves, any better than the others which He passed by. Scripture is very emphatic upon this point: they, too, “were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph 2:3). They, too, had no inherent righteousness. Neither did God choose the ones He did because of anything that He foresaw would be in them, for the simple but sufficient reason that He
foresaw no good thing in them, save that which He Himself wrought in them. All that we can say is that God chose out certain ones to be saved solely because He chose to choose them, because such was the good pleasure of His sovereign will (Eph 1:5).
Continue reading-->HERE.
were every one of them ordained.”
Why God selected these particular individuals rather than others, we do not know. His choice is a sovereign one, wholly gratuitous, and dependent upon nothing outside of Himself. It certainly was not because these particular individuals were, in themselves, any better than the others which He passed by. Scripture is very emphatic upon this point: they, too, “were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph 2:3). They, too, had no inherent righteousness. Neither did God choose the ones He did because of anything that He foresaw would be in them, for the simple but sufficient reason that He
foresaw no good thing in them, save that which He Himself wrought in them. All that we can say is that God chose out certain ones to be saved solely because He chose to choose them, because such was the good pleasure of His sovereign will (Eph 1:5).
Continue reading-->HERE.
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