God's Elect

Calls You His Elect

Rom 8:33  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect [when it is] God Who justifies [that is, Who puts us in right relation to Himself? Who shall come forward and accuse or impeach those whom God has chosen? Will God, Who acquits us?] AMP

Two candidates are being interviewed for the same position. Their educations and work histories are similar. They possess comparable skills and both want the job badly. After carefully considering both of them, the employer chooses one and thanks the other for applying. Is the employer being fair? That probably depends upon which candidate you ask. The one who has been chosen for the position will likely applaud the employer for selecting wisely. Suppose, however, that the one who was chosen had absolutely nothing to recommend him or her for the position? What if that person had no experience and no education? Suppose that individual had performed terribly during the interview and had not even dressed appropriately for it? Obviously, the other candidate would feel cheated.

That is how many people respond when they hear the theological term election, which literally means "to choose."

It is not the fact that the New Testament often refers to the church as "the elect" or "the chosen" that is so troubling. Rather, it is the basis that God used for making such a choice that poses the problem. According to 1 Peter 1:2, it was a choice based upon the foreknowledge of God. Moreover, Eph 1:4 tells us that it was a choice made by God "before the creation of the world."

If we were to trace the beginning of our salvation back to the point when we first exercised faith in Jesus Christ, we haven't gone back far enough. We can go back to the point when we first heard the gospel, and we still aren't there yet. We can even go all the way back to the moment when Jesus Christ died on the cross, but we must still go further. If we are "chosen," then we must go all the way back to the Father's decision to save in order to see where our salvation first took place.

To many people, this seems patently unfair. "If the choice was made before I was born," they say, "made even before the very world in which I now live was created, how can it be fair?" The answer is that it isn't fair. That's because God's choice to save was not based upon fairness but upon the principle of grace. Rom 8:33 says that it is God who chooses and God who justifies. God's choice was based solely upon grace.

In a society that values pragmatism like ours does, such a message is hard to accept. We know that we must work for what we get, and we look up to the person who has made his or her own way in life. Whether or not we like to admit it outwardly, we secretly believe that everyone gets pretty much what they deserve. So when we read that we have been chosen by God, we naturally conclude that somewhere along the way we must have done something to deserve being chosen. But since God's choice is based upon grace, it cannot be rooted in any action or merit of our own.

Those who say that divine election isn't fair are correct. None of us deserves to be in Christ. It is a gift of grace. As a Christian, I had always accepted this as a point of faith, but I don't think that I truly understood it until I watched Martha die of cancer. Over a matter of weeks, she grew thinner and thinner, eventually taking on that pinched, skeletal appearance of someone who has been the victim of starvation. Yet each day that her body weakened, her faith seemed to grow proportionally stronger.         Frankly, Martha's confidence bothered me. I didn't see her as someone who "deserved" to have that kind of assurance. As far as I was concerned, she wasn't a very good Christian. She didn't go to church as often as I thought she should. She wasn't involved in any of its ministries. I was fairly sure that she wasn't reading her Bible as much as she should have been. After one of my visits to her in the hospital, I complained to God. "She doesn't deserve to have that kind of peace," I grumbled. "Exactly," came back God's unspoken reply. "Isn't that what grace is all about?" Whatever Martha's weaknesses may have been, she had staked her life on the truth that Jesus Christ had died for her. She wasn't counting on her own righteousness, but on Christ's. So when the time to die finally came, this "average" Christian was able to face it without fear.

The fact that God is the source of our salvation is the basis for our assurance of salvation: "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Rom 8:31-32).

God will not bring a charge against us. On the contrary, it is He who chose us in grace before the foundation of the world. Christ will not condemn us; He is the One who died and rose again to pay for our sins and now stands at the Father's right hand and pleads on our behalf.

But why me? Why did God choose to make me an object of His grace? While not all my questions in this area can be easily resolved, the Scriptures inform me of the motive behind God's choice. It was based upon love. The employer may make a choice based upon merit or personal connections, but God's choice is grounded on His undying love.

Sovereign God, thank You that You loved me even before the foundation of the world. I may not have all the answers to my questions, but I do know that You chose me in grace and sent Your Son to be my Savior. Amen.

Thanks to John Koessler for allowing us to publish his material.www.johnkosessler.com

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John Koessler serves as chair and professor of pastoral studies at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. He is married to Jane and has two sons, Drew and Jarred. John is the author of ten books and numerous articles. He also serves as a contributing editor for the Moody Bible Institute publication Today in the Word, where you can read his monthly “Theology Matters” column. You can contact John via email at John.Koessler@moody.edu or by phone at (312) 329-4077.