Board index ‹ Salvation

[Nic J]

Does God pre-elect people who he has chosen to be in heaven with?! Like he has picked us. We don’t pick hi ?! Also if that is the case, where does free will come into play?

[jimwalton]

This is a tricky question. Many what are called Calvinists believe that God picks us, we don’t pick him, and that’s that. I just can’t buy that, from SO many angles. Last year when I was the interim pastor in a church and preaching every Sunday, I preached one Sunday on Eph. 1.4-14, and the whole issues came to light to me in a new way.

If we’re picked as you say, (1) there’s no free will, (2) it’s not really a love response on our part, and (3) it’s fundamentally unfair. It means we are recipients of special favor or privilege, and other people just aren’t. They could easily claim it’s unfair because they feel cheated. Logically it’s not possible to choose some for blessing without at the same time choosing others for exclusion. Now, I’ll be frank with you and say that the Bible only talks about election to salvation and never election to hell, but a normal person would still assume that’s necessarily part of the picture.

What I discovered is this: election is not about who gets to go to heaven, it’s about whom God choses to be part of His team to take the message of salvation and healing to the world.

I used this illustration: I called 2 teens to the front of the church and I gave them each a candy bar. That’s how most people think about election: the have’s and the have-nots. They got chosen, tough apples for everyone else in the room. People in the room could say, “Hey, that’s not fair.” I agree it’s not.

But then I called the same 2 teens to the front, whom I had chosen to give candy. I gave them each a large bag of candy to distribute to anyone who would take it. See, this is a whole different point. Yes, I chose the two, No doubt about it. But the point is not that someone has and others don’t, the point is that they have been selected to be the givers, the sharers, and the inviters. Anyone can have candy, but I picked the ones to hand it out.

Ephesians 1.4-14 talks about ALL these blessings (the candy) available to God’s chosen. Great. Yep, that’s true and it’s right. BUT TO WHAT END?

Look at this:

Abraham was chosen. Fer sher. Because he was special and privileged? Not really, even though that was true. He was chosen “to that the world through him might be blessed” (Gn. 12.2-3).

Why was Israel chosen? Read Gn. 22.18: so that all the nations of the world could be blessed.

Why were the apostles chosen? To be sent out to share the good news with the world (Lk. 6.13; Mt. 28.19-20).

Why was Paul chosen? To bring the gospel to the Gentiles (Gal. 1.16).

Jesus was “the Messiah,” the man sent from God. To what end? To seek and save the lost, to reconcile the world to himself.

We also are agents of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5.18-20). The point of our election is to go out into the world and preach the gospel to all creation (Mk. 16.15).

Does our election give us special privilege. Yes. Is it unfair? No, because the whole reason we have been elected is to go and make disciples of all nations—to invest in lives by building relationships of influence through which the Holy Spirit transforms people into the likeness of Jesus.