The Doctrine of Election

should be nothing to fear

by Larry Stracener

This magnificent, miraculous, mysterious - and often misunderstood doctrine - must reside at the very pinnacle of our faith. For it is nothing less than God reaching down in love to depraved man, and at the same time giving man the desire to reach up in faith to God.

Election is a doctrine which many fear - both from a lack of understanding and from misguided or deliberate false teaching. It is the 'boogeyman' which can lead to one's doubt that God has chosen him or her for salvation.

When we are taught that God - not us - chooses whom He will save, it can bring unreasoned fear and desperate questions: Will He choose me? What if I am not among the chosen? How can I be sure I am chosen? Yet election is a doctrine which, common to all Scriptural doctrines, speaks of the loving heart of God.

Here is my disclaimer: I am not a theologian. I am a simple man living in simple, child-like faith. I can only explain what my heart tells me is true of God's word - and at the same time acknowledge that the ways of the Almighty are beyond my comprehension.

It is beyond my comprehension that He should love me. It is beyond comprehension that He should provide the miracle of His Son to save a wretched man like me. It is beyond com- prehension that I now stand free and clear of the penalty of sin because Christ Jesus, the perfect Son of God, suffered that penalty for me.

Yet I know it is true. And not simply because I have been taught this from childhood. And not just because this is what I understand from Scripture. I know it is true because my heart bears witness to it even as yours does. And that is a miracle of love in itself.

Having said all that, I now say this: Others more learned than I will quite properly source the wonderful Scriptural basis in support of what my heart tells me. So it is from my heart to yours that I speak in this more informal manner.

How am I saved from the horror of Hell - a real fearsome place apart from God? It is a starkly simple question. My faith in Jesus Christ saves me. Also a simple - but totally true - answer.

But how am I able to even yearn for God in the first place?

In my base, sinful condition I do not even want to be better. But God's own Spirit has endowed me with a desire to seek Divine rescue and safety from my condition. I can follow this often tenuous path to faith - or I can wilfully continue in my sin simply because my depraved nature likes it that way.

The short answer to my predicament is that before I was ever conceived God knew everything about me. And here is the key to what follows: 'God is not willing that any should perish.' (2 Peter 3:9) I hold on to this simple premise for all it's worth. And the worth of it is that God in His omniscient foreknowledge of me:

Chose (elected) me before I was even formed. He foreknew and thus foreordained in the mists of time past that I would choose, of my own free will, the salvation offered me in Christ. In love God gave to me the desire to reach up to Him, even as He reach- ed down to me because He foreknew the love relationship I would have in Him - not through anything I could do, but through what He would do in me. . Whom he foreknew He chose; 'He predestined me (chose me in love) out of my sin through the work of Christ on Calvary to be His adopted son.' (Loosely paraphrased & expanded from Ephesians 1) I accept this mystery even as I cannot comprehend it.

God's election of me to become His was His loving gift to me. For I could never have reached up without the work of His Spirit in me. The terrifying thing is that not all men are are foreknown, and therefore foreordained, to reach up. God will not elect them into His kingdom.

The great mystery is that God does not offer this gift to those whom He knows will not accept it. Conversely, He does give it to those He foreknows in love will accept it. Thus, we are predestined to be His elect (His chosen), His sons and daughters by adoption.

Can anyone, then, who wants to be, be saved? Yes! I hang my whole faith and hope in the same knowledge that you and I share alike:

'For God so loved the world [all of us] that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him might have eternal life. God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world [any of us], but that the world [all of us] through Him might be saved.' (John 3:16-17)

E. V. Hill, that great black preacher, sums up the substance of this great doctrine with a marvellous brevity: "I believe the Elect is them that Selects Jesus." Amen!

What more can I, or anyone, possibly add? Perhaps just one more thing: 'God is love.' (1 John 4:16).

What, then, is there to fear?