Election, Evangelism, and God's Eternal Plan
Introduction
A child went to a friend of mine recently and asked him about election in the Bible. My friend was startled because he had never been asked that question before, especially from a child. The child explained that their newly hired Youth minister had taught them in Sunday school that election was like a big giant slide coming down from heaven and God was at the end of the slide saying, “I choose that one, and that one, and that one.”
The child was frightened and confused! Sadly, this story represents a greater confusion in many churches today.
Election is a biblical word and no layman or preacher should avoid its use just because some have perverted its meaning. Election is not a scary doctrine, it conveys a sense of well-being that God is working his sovereign plan and has always sought our highest good.
The SBC Baptist Faith and Message 2000 states, “Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners” (Section V).
Our God is a God of priority and purpose. Jehovah God sees the beginning and the end. He is eternal. His plan is eternal. Our God doesn’t half-do anything! We see this in God’s salvation history and we see it on a personal level as the rebellious sinner is justified, sanctified, and eventually glorified.
However, to reduce the grand and glorious doctrine of election down to God acting from eternity past in choosing certain particular persons (and them only) to salvation, denigrates the overall understanding of how God has worked in creation, his call of Abraham, God’s special relationship with his “chosen people”, the prophets he called, and all those unique individuals named or nameless that God has chosen and called to a special service.
God called Abraham so that through him “all peoples on earth will be blessed” (Gen.12:3). 1 Abraham walked forward in faith, thereby fulfilling the divine purpose and plan of God.
Amos pointed a finger at the nation of Israel and said, “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins” (Amos 3:2). Here election deals with his chosen people that were called to be a light to the nations of the world. The doctrine of election is much more that the idea of God standing at the end of a giant slide saying to himself, “I choose that person for salvation and that one, and that one”. God forbid! That is such a superficial and bizarre understanding of God’s sovereign will.
Election is primarily a call to service in the Bible. God chose a people and persons to fulfill his grand and glorious purpose through them.
God never does anything impulsively or erratic. The cross didn’t catch God by surprise. Your birth or the worst thing you have ever done hasn’t caught God by surprise.
The Bible reveals that our God has taken the initiative in creation, history, revelation, and the redemption of his highest being. Our God’s motive, method, and mission all reside from him and in him.
Dr. William W. Stevens wrote the following definition of election in his fine book Doctrines of the Christian Religion …”The Doctrine termed Election is None Other Than God’s initiative in salvation, or God’s sovereignty in relation to man’s redemption.”
Our sovereign God chose to reveal himself to man because as finite creatures of the dust, we are not smart enough to know the will and ways of God without his help. God chose to pull back the curtain on himself revealing his nature and character to man through a personal relationship. This can be seen “in the beginning” as God relates to Adam and Eve in the garden. And, it can be seen in our daily walk with God. While no acrostic can adequately summarize the work of almighty God in history, the outline of this message is:
E.L.E.C.T.
I. E – Stands For Eternal
Everything God does is in harmony with his eternal plan. From eternity God chose to work for our highest good. Even after Adam and Eve sinned, God did not give up on mankind. God’s mission has been to restore all mankind to wholeness with himself, each other, and all of God’s created order.
Man’s salvation is not accidental or a second thought. Through the ages, Our God has been working his eternal plan and it culminated at the cross as the living Son of God did what he determined to do before the foundation of the world.
The Bible teaches us that God … “who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, but hath now been manifested by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus” (II Timothy 1:9, 10).
Salvation is God’s supreme goodness and grace toward us and it is a result of an eternal plan that unfolded through the ages. God initiated this salvation and he fulfills it.
This eternal plan will be understood more fully on the other side of eternity, as an endless sea of born-again believers are found, from every tongue and tribe around the throne of God in heaven worshipping the Lamb of God!
Dr. Adrian Rogers taught us that the elect are the “whosoever wills” according to Revelation 22:17; I like this thought. According to God’s eternal plan, Jesus shed his precious blood for the sins of the whole world and salvation is offered freely to whosoever will come and take the water of life freely.
Some Christian groups interpret election as their personal status of divine preferential treatment and selection, while playing down God’s call to every believer being involved in establishing his kingdom on earth. This line of reason always leads to the faulty notion that God chose in eternity past to favor some and damn the rest.
II. L – Stands For Love
John says, “God is love” (I John 4:8). Love is part of God’s very nature.
God’s love is that eternal attribute that moves him to communicate with his creatures. God’s love was before creation itself, Jesus said of the Father “…because you loved me before the creation of the world” (John 17:24).
Jesus promised the Father that he will continue to make him known in order that the Father’s love for the Son may be in the followers of Christ.
God’s love craves expression in the hearts and lives of the lost …“For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
God’s electing love is driven to manifest perfect love as the Father gives his only Son to redeem a fallen world. God’s loving-kindness is seen in the following scriptural definition …”Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10).
Our heavenly Father gave the supreme object of his love, his only Son, for our salvation. This fact alone should tender the heart of the vilest sinner and make the most self-righteous person humble.
When the aged Simeon took the baby Jesus into his arms, being moved by the Spirit of God, he said, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32).
The love of God was greater than the house of Israel; it was for all men –Gentile, Jew, and You!
Just as many of the “chosen people” of Israel developed a particular understanding of election that limited God’s love to only them, others in Church history have taught a narrow view of limited atonement. This narrow view has led to a double-edged predestination that teaches God elects some to salvation and others to reprobation or damnation.
III. E – stands for Evangelism
The basis for evangelism is found in the nature of God, not in our sinful nature or our spiritual neediness. We are totally dependent on God for salvation, but our lostness and sinfulness is not what motivates him, it is his amazing love.
As Christ followers, the love of God should be the driving force in our lives.
The evangelistic and missionary appeal is often made on the basis of man’s terrible spiritual plight and predicament of lostness. This is true, but this motivation will not carry a Christian through a lifetime of faithfulness. Only the pure love of God will cause us to push ahead in our worship and work stretching over a course of a lifetime.
Jesus knew that we are temporal minded and we can get discouraged by the lack of visible results. Jesus said to his disciples, “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).
The Christ follower who falsely equates spiritual success with visible results will not be kept going with such faulty motivations. Only the love of Jesus will keep our minds set on the eternal. The Apostle Paul said, “For the love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Cor. 5:14). This kind of love will “confine” us to live and love for the sake of Christ and not for our own pleasures and treasures.
Love is the amazing reason God sent his Son into a sinful world to be nailed to a cross. This amazing love should be our pure motive in reaching a lost world.
IV. C –Stands For Covenant-Love
The Hebrew word for covenant-love is (chesed). This word means no covenant exists until both parties meet the conditions of the covenant. When Israel was brought out of Egypt, God leads them to Sinai to reaffirm the covenant he had made years before with Abraham. A calling comes with the covenant.
God reminded his people that he had brought them out of Egyptian bondage to be a nation of priests to the world. Every generation of God’s people was to be servant-priests to pagans, prodigals, and other fine prospects.
God looks to his people as his partners in world redemption!
Paul believed all of God’s elect inherit the promises of this partnership, “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Gal. 3:14 NIV).
I’m a preacher of the New Covenant or the New Testament. The covenant made with Abraham thousands of years ago has been extended to the Gentiles. The reason is clear, so we might receive the promise of the Spirit according to Galatians 3:14.
This promise is full, free, and final!
The 1925 Baptist Faith and Message included a section entitled: The Freeness of Salvation and it stated, “The blessings of salvation are made free to all by the gospel. It is the duty of all to accept them by penitent and obedient faith. Nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner except his own voluntary refusal to accept Jesus Christ as teacher, Saviour, and Lord.”
Our covenant relationship calls us to teach, preach, and share the blessings of salvation to all who will listen, learn, and love our Jesus!
V. T –Stands For Truth
God has done everything he can, consistent with his law and love, to bring men to repentance and faith. God’s Spirit continues to work convicting and convincing men of their need of salvation.
Jesus said, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you” (John 16: 13, 14).
In order to repent and believe, men must believe the truth.
The devil seeks to blind the unsaved to the glorious gospel. Some men believe they are not good enough to come to God and find grace and forgiveness. They have bought the old lie that God doesn’t love everyone and that he is not merciful to all, and that he is pleased to damn untold billions to the lake of fire. The old Methodist Evangelist Sam Jones tells about a preacher counseling a sinner at a revival altar and the man felt damned and doomed because he wasn’t one of the elect of God.
The preacher said, “Well, my brother, listen to me a minute. Now, “said he, “if you could see your name, James B. Green, written upon the Lambs book this minute, would you believe then Christ died for you and your were one of the elect?” The poor fellow thought a moment and he said, “No, sir. There are other people in this world of my name.”
“Well, “said the preacher, “if you could see it, James B. Green, Scriven County, Georgia, would you believe it was you then?” “Well,” he says, “there may have been other people of my name in the county before I was born, I don’t know.” “Well,” said he, “if you could see it, James B. Green of Scriven County, and Nineteenth District and the 1867, would you believe it was you?” “Well, “he says, “I could not know definitely.” “Now,” said he, “my friend, God Almighty saw all that trouble and he just put it into one word and he said: ‘Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” And the poor fellow jumped up and clapped his hands and said, “Thank God! I know that means me.”
Conclusion
Listen to me; when God extends his invitation and says “whosoever will”, that mean you!
The Spirit says “Come”. The Bride says “Come”. Are you thirsty?
Are you thirsty for the water of life?
Jesus says, “Whosoever” - that means you.
Jesus says, “Whosoever will” – that means God is giving you the choice.
He is not going to force you or coerce you! He will not make you do anything against your will! God does not force his love on anyone.
Will you come? Will you come and FREELY take of the water of life by giving your life to Jesus?
Ron F. Hale – Ronfhale@yahoo.com
1 Bert Dominy, God’s Work of Salvation: Layman’s Library of Christian Doctrine, Broadman Press, 1968, p.33.