Let us consider God’s will in salvation and his provision of spiritual life, a new standing and a new position for every one who responds to the Gospel.
Election: God’s will in salvation first is election. Definition of election as it is presented in the Bible:
Ephesians 1:3-13 (NIV):
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[a] predestined us for adoption to sonship[b] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he[c] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
11 In him we were also chosen,[d] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
In relation to salvation, election is the act of God’s grace by which he chooses in Christ Jesus for salvation all those whom He knew in advance (foreknew) would accept Him and continue in their faith in Him.
a. To understand the meaning of election more fully we shall consider the Hebrew and Greek words for election as it is used in the Bible.
b. And we shall also consider Old and New Testament example of election to illustrate the idea.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word “Bahar” is used most often for election and it means “to choose or “to elect”. It occurs 164 times, and in over 100 of these examples it is God who elects or chooses.
These examples are very important. Let us read them up in the scripture to state whom or what God chose:
1 Samuel 10:24 (KJV):
24 And Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, God save the king.
2 Chronicles 6:6(KJV):
6 But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.
Psalm 106:23 (KJV):
23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.
In the above passages, we see divine choices which concern chosen individuals, objects and a chosen place. The word “Bahar” most frequently refers to God’s choice of Israel as His people (Deut. 7:7; Isaiah. 41:9).
The election of Israel to be a people of God was a high and holy privilege. But this choice placed great responsibility on the people chosen. As a result they were punished more severely than were the neighbouring nations, for willful pride or failure to obey the law of God.
While Israel as a nation was elected, individuals were accountable for their own response to God’s revealed will. Jeremiah 7:8-10 implies that the people of Israel believe that their election was so secured that nothing will happen to them no matter how they lived (Jer. 5:12, 7:4, Micah. 3:11).
God used Ezekiel to let them know that individually they will be punished for not loving, obeying and carrying out his will to do them (Ezk. 18:4).
In the New Testament, the Greek words for election were used about 50 times.
These words are:
Ekilegemai: “to choose”
Ekloge : “the act of choosing or choice”
Eklektos: “the chosen” or “selected one”.
In election God never predetermines the future of man nor is election to be separated from the responsible decision of man. Therefore let us see some of the views held by different schools of thought concerning election.
a. Different Views of Election:
i. Deterministic View:
Those who are in this school of thought understand election differently from what we believe is consistent with the total teaching of the scripture. They feel that God willed in eternity what the destiny of each individual would be. They believe that God determined that some should be saved and receive eternal life and some should be eternally lost.
According to them, Christ died only for the elect; we might call this view the determistic view. They also say that salvation is entirely of God; man has absolutely nothing to do with it. If he repents, believes and comes to Christ, it is because God’s Spirit has drawn him.
Here are some passages they used to support this view. Eph. 1:5, Rom. 8:28-30, Eph. 1:4, Acts, 13:48 Rom. 9:11, Phil. 2:13.
From this view comes the doctrine or teaching of eternal security, the belief that once one is in grace, he is a ways in grace, once saved always saved “for God determined in eternity the destiny of every human being. He created some to be saved and some to be eternally lost, according to them.
ii. Free Will View
In contrast to the deterministic views, there is another view of election held by many Christians which I believe is in line with the teachings of the Bible. This view recognizes man’s responsibility in salvation and may be called the free will view.
We believe and teach that it is God’s will for all people to be saved. This is based upon the evidence that Christ died for all people: 1Tim. 2:6, 4:10, Heb. 2:9, 1 Jn. 2:2, 2 Cor. 5:14; and offers his grace to every one.
While we agree that salvation is the work of God, totally free and independent of man’s good or merit, yet man must meet certain conditions.
This condition is found in John. 3:15-18, Jn. 1:12. One has to believe that Jesus died for Him and accept him as Lord and Saviour in order to receive salvation. We must, by an act of our own free will determine whether we will accept or reject His offer (Rev.3:20).
We believe that God, because of His ability to know the future or the end of every man, foresee all those individuals who would accept the Gospel and maintain their salvation in Him. Then He predestined them to eternal life (Chose them in advance or before hand in eternity).
The free will position is that God fore knew the eternal destiny of those people, but did not determine it (Eph. 1:11; Rom. 3:23; Eph. 2:8-10, 1:3-4; Rom. 8:29-30; Titus. 2:11; 1Tim. 4:10).
- Fore-ordination Predestination:
We have come to the second important word of our study of God’s purpose for the salvation of people. The word for-ordination and predestination mean the same thing.
Fore ordination comes from the Greek “Proorizo,” which means to decide upon before hand.
As applied to salvation this means that in election God has purposed to save those who accept his son and the offer of salvation, and in fore-ordination, we mean God carries out his purpose to save those who accept his salvation.
In other words, he has already made provision for all those he knew would accept him.
It should be noted that in all, God did not violate or suppress the ability of man to choose called free will. Hence there is biblical evidence that people can choose to resist the callings of the Holy Spirit to salvation and be finally lost for eternity. Pro. 29:1, Heb. 3:7-19.
Let us consider the following passages also:
Acts. 4:27-28;
Romans. 8:29-30;
1 Corinthians. 2:7
Ephesians. 1:5;
Ephesians 1:11-12 (KJV):
11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Thank you very much for your time and patience in study. May God richly bless you with wisdom and understanding.
Amen.
Blessings.