Election

We Are Chosen

No one seeks for God.

Ps 14:2-3 The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. See also Rom 3:10-12

No one seeks for God, there is not even one person in the whole wide world who seeks for God. Some people claim to seek for God, but God’s word says that no one seeks for God. The word of God also says that everyone is corrupt; that means there isn’t any good in anyone. Many people think that they are good, but that is because they are proud, and pride is sin, and God is opposed to the proud person.

Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world. God gives the invitation, to everyone in the world, to believe in Christ for the forgiveness of all their sins; but, no one will believe, no one will accept His invitation and be saved. Because we are all corrupt, we prefer to indulge our sinful desires rather than have a relationship with God. We love our sin more than we love God; the fact is, we don’t love God at all. We are all descendants of Adam; therefore, we are all like Adam, we all rebel against God.

Election is necessary, because if God did not elect some people, no one would ever be saved. God chose to save some of us for Himself as a demonstration of His grace, even though no one deserves to be saved, even though no one seeks for Him.

God is not unfair in not electing everyone; He is sovereign and has a right to do as He wills. All those who are not elected for salvation don’t want anything to do with God anyway; the fact is, no one desires a relationship with God. The invitation to believe in Jesus Christ is given to everyone, and those who are elected accept the invitation, but those who are not elected reject the invitation.

The doctrine of election recognizes the grace of God, and it gives glory to God for His grace toward undeserved sinners, that we might be to the praise of the glory of His grace.

God chose us. We did not choose Him.

Rom 8:28-30 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

God is sovereign, wise, good, loving, kind, all powerful and He never makes a mistake. God is at work in our lives to accomplish His perfect will in and through us; therefore, if we truly love God, it is because He had planned for it to be so. His purpose in calling us is to reveal His grace to us, to make us to know His love for us, and to teach us to love Him; therefore, He sees to it that all things work together for our good. Every blessing, every trial, every problem that we encounter is designed by God to transform us into His own image, so that we might be true children of God, and be glorified with Jesus Christ.

When God plans to accomplish something, there is no power in heaven or on earth that can prevent His purpose from being accomplished; and no one, not even we ourselves can oppose His will and succeed. From the beginning, God predestined that we should become His children; therefore, He called us, justified us, and glorified us in Christ. Because God cannot fail, we can be sure that we will be glorified with Christ. Our salvation is complete and we are as good as already glorified because we have already been made children of God.

God will not fail to save anyone He has predestined to save. Furthermore, we can rest fully assured in knowing that we are saved forever, because it is by God’s will and power that we are saved. Our salvation is according to His plan and work on our behalf, it is one hundred percent of His doing, one hundred percent grace. The only part we play is to receive it, by believing in Jesus Christ; and even the faith, by which we receive salvation, is a gift of God.

Eph 1:3-4 Blessed {be} the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly {places} in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. 

God chose us, even before He made the world. He placed us into Christ and He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, by virtue of being in Christ. Before we were ever born, God chose us to be saved. God saved us by placing us into Christ; so that, we could be made holy and blameless, as Christ is holy and blameless. God is perfect, holy and blameless; therefore, we must be holy and blameless in order for God to accept us, in order for us to enter into His presence. Therefore, God gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for the forgiveness of our sins, so that we might partake of His holiness. We receive the righteousness of Christ as a result of being in Christ.

Eph 1:5-6 In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Because God loved us, He predestined us to be adopted into His family, to become His true children through faith in Jesus Christ. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ made it possible for God to forgive our sins and to receive us as sons. God chose us, we did not choose Him; as when a person adopts a child, the child does not choose the parent but the parent chooses the child. Everyone is totally depraved; therefore, God had to choose some for salvation, if He did not, no one would ever be saved. Furthermore, the reason He choose us was to reveal His grace to us, to make us know and understand His grace toward us, so that we might be to the praise of the glory of His grace. For all eternity, we will not be boasting that we chose Him, but we will be praising Him for choosing us; we will be praising Him for His grace toward us.

Eph 1:7-8In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. 

Our salvation is the result of God’s grace toward us; we do not deserve to be saved, but God saved us because He wanted to make His grace known to us. According to the riches of His grace, He placed us into Christ, redeemed us by the blood of Christ, and forgave all our sins. Jesus Christ came to save sinners; therefore, the greater the sinner, the greater the grace of God toward that sinner. God’s grace is beyond measure, it is without limits, there is only one sin that cannot be forgiven, and that is the sin of unbelief, the sin of rejecting Jesus Christ.

Eph 1:11-14 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

God is sovereign and does all things according to His own purpose and will. No one can control God, no one can cause Him to change His will, no one can prevent Him from accomplishing His will, and no one can force Him to do anything.

God has predestined us, according to His own purpose and will, to receive an inheritance in Christ. All that belongs to God belongs to Christ, and all that belongs to Christ belongs to us who believe in Christ. We are sure to receive our inheritance as sons of God, because it is God’s plan and purpose to give us the inheritance. We are not only sure of our salvation, but we are also sure of a wealthy future in the eternal family of God. Since God has planned it, it will surely be accomplished.

God’s purpose in all of His dealings with us is that we should be to the praise of His glory. All of creation will forever recognize the mercy and grace and love of God. For all eternity, we will praise Him for His grace toward us. According to His grace He chose to love us, to save us from our sins, to adopt us into His family, and to shower His great riches upon us. God not only predestined us to be saved, but He also predestined us for a full and rich eternity with Him in heaven.

II Th 2:13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

Paul gave thanks to God for his fellow Christians because he knew that their salvation was the result of God’s working on their behalf. God loved all those He chose to love, before He even created them. The only people who are saved are those that God has chosen to be saved, and all that are chosen will be saved because God cannot fail.

God chose us to be saved, the Son of God died for the forgiveness of our sins, the Holy Spirit works in us to bring us to Christ, and we are saved by believing in Jesus Christ for salvation. But, even the faith by which we are saved is a gift from God; if God did not give us faith we would not believe, and we would not be saved.
2 Tim 2:10 For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.

Even though Paul knew that only the chosen would be saved and that God would not fail to save all those He had chosen for salvation, he still worked hard for the sake of the chosen. God was at work in Paul to give Him the desire to see the chosen come to faith in Jesus Christ. Spirit led Christians love their fellow Christians, they love all those who are loved by God. All the good work we do in life must be motivated by love or it is of no value. God loved us; therefore, we love Him, and we love all those who love Him, and all those He has chosen to love.

1 Pet 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: may grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.

Peter also knew that Christian were chosen by God. Christians were chosen by the foreknowledge of God; God knew, before He created anyone, whom He would chose to love. This simply means that God had a plan beforehand, before He created the world. God knew, before He created the world, that men would become sinners; therefore He had a plan by which He would save sinners.

God planned to redeem us, by giving His Son to die for us. In God’s plan, all sinners are invited to believe in Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins. But, no one will believe, if left to themselves, because everyone is totally depraved. Therefore, in God’s plan, He chose to elect some to believe, and to be saved by grace through faith. He is not unfair for not choosing everyone, because no one seeks after Him, and no one deserves to be saved. He does not force anyone to reject Jesus Christ, but it is because of the evil in their unbelieving hearts that men refuse to believe in Jesus Christ. Because we are all born into this world as sons of Adam, we are all rebellious as Adam was; therefore, if God did not chose some in spite of themselves, no one would obey God and believe in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

John 6:37-40 “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

Everyone whom God the Father gives to His Son, Jesus Christ, will come to Christ for forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Furthermore, everyone who comes to Christ will be received by Christ; no one will be rejected. It is the will of God that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ shall be saved; no true believer will ever be lost. Every person that the Father gives to the Son will someday be resurrected from the dead by Jesus Christ Himself. Salvation is offered to everyone, but only those who believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life will be saved, and only those who have been given to Jesus Christ by His Father will believe.
Our salvation does not depend upon anyone except God. No one will ever be lost because I have failed to be the witness I should be. No one’s salvation depends upon me. If anyone has the desire to be saved, it is because they have received that desire from God. We try to reach everyone with the message of forgiveness of sins and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ because it is God’s desire for us to do so. Furthermore, we do not know who has been chosen by God and we do not know who has not been chosen by God; we do the witnessing and God does the choosing.

John 6:43-44 Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
Because everyone is totally depraved, no one is capable of coming to Christ unless they are drawn to Christ by God. The only people who can come to Christ for salvation are the people who are drawn to Christ by God the Father. Christ will accept everyone who comes to Him; and He will not fail to raise everyone of those people from the dead.

John 5:40 and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life.

Everyone who is chosen by God will be willing to come to Christ, but everyone who is not chosen by God will not be willing to come to Christ. We all have a free will, but left to ourselves we would all reject the free gift of eternal life. Therefore, God has chosen some of us and given us faith, in order to save us.
Rom 9:22-23 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,

Before God created this world, He chose certain people to be saved. Nevertheless, He did not chose everyone for salvation. God puts up with unbelievers, the people who reject Christ, the wicked of this world, those who will never be saved; so that, the believers can be saved. We who are saved, are not saved because we deserve to be saved, but we are saved by the grace of God. We do not deserve to be saved any more than the ones who are not saved; but in order for God to demonstrate His grace to all of His creation, He saved us even though we do not deserve to be saved. God chose some for glory, according to His sovereign choice, the rest will be destroyed according to their choice. Furthermore, no one has the right to question God in this matter.

II Th 2:11-12 And for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

The invitation to believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life is given to everyone, but most people refuse to accept the invitation. Everyone who rejects Christ, that is everyone who refuses to believe in Christ is deceived by their own wickedness and unbelief. Because they do not believe in Christ, God rejects them and gives them over to unbelief and all kinds of falsehood, to become even more deceived.
Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

Everyone who had been appointed to eternal life believed. God appoints the ones He chooses to appoint to eternal life. We do not appoint ourselves; God appoints us. God will never fail to save everyone He chooses to save. Not one chosen person will ever be lost because God cannot fail.

Titus 3:5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

No sinner will ever inherit the kingdom of God. We were all sinners just as every mere mortal human being. We were all deserving of death and separation from God forever. We did not and do not deserve forgiveness, but God was merciful toward us and will not give us the punishment we so rightly deserve. God chose us according to His mercy and grace; we did not choose Him; and we do not in any way deserve to be chosen. Through the working of His Spirit He gave us faith to believe in Jesus Christ, gave us a new nature, and works in us to desire to do His will. We are not saved through any merit of our own; our salvation is all the work of God on our behalf.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, ©
Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968,
1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1988. Used by permission.

* Bible Studies by Max Swan
Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD. (NAS) Jer 9:23-24