Order
of Election
By
Nick Bibile
Why
is that many pastors shy away in preaching election? Probably because of the following.
1. Controversial
2. God is not
fair saving some to go to heaven and some to go to hell.
3. Election will
not edify the body
4. Election will
not help in evangelism.
Is
the doctrine of election important? Charles Spurgeon said on the election, "I do not hesitate to say, that next
to the doctrine of the crucifixion and the resurrection of our blessed
Lord, no doctrine had such prominence in the early Christian church
as the doctrine of the election of Grace."
Is
the doctrine of election controversial?
If
it’s controversial why did God the Holy Spirit include in the Bible? Give me an
answer? Elect or election is in the
Bible about 24 times. If it’s in the Bible it needs to be taught.
Acts
20:27 I have not shunned to declare to you the whole council of God.
If
you don’t preach election then you will not teach the whole council of God.
2
Tim 3:16 All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
It
doesn’t say all scripture except election is given by God. But it does say all
scripture is profitable for teaching, then election is profitable for teaching.
Election is not a controversial in the Bible but men’s opinions have made it
controversial. It becomes controversial when men put their opinions into
election. When we see exactly what the scriptures say and get rid of our
opinions and traditions we will see election clearely.
Second
question
God
is not fair saving some to go to heaven and some to go to hell.
If
you say God is not fair you should be above God. We are created by God, he is
the potter and we are the clay and who are we to question God’s decrees.
Romans
9:14
What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I
will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of
him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who
shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this
very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My
power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”18
Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O
man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who
formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the
potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for
honor and another for dishonor?
The
most fairest thing for God to do is to send all of us
to hell, everyone. Because all have sinned. Sinned needs to be punished. God did not have to send his
Son to this earth to save us, God was not obligated to
us for saving us. We are all obligated to God as creatures. None of us deserve
to be saved, only by his pure grace we are saved.
Third
question, election will not edify the body. This is again an opinion of man and
absolutely comes against the word of God. Whenever the Bible speaks on the
elect it speaks to the believer. If you are a believer in Christ Jesus then you
are an elect of God, this is not difficult to understand at all. If you have
put your faith and trust in Christ alone then you are an elect. How wonderful
is to know that God predestined you to be saved before the foundation of the
world. How sweet to hear, God loved us before we were born. How encouraging to
hear when we are going through heave duty hardships and trial God said we are
his elect.
By the way the word elect means a
believer. The Holy
Spirit used different words for the elect but the same meaning.
Elect are the seed of Abraham – Gen 9:9
Peculiar people - Titus 2:14
My Sheep – John 10:26
Holy Nation – 1 Peter 2:9
Body of Christ – 1 Cor
12:27
Lambs
wife – Rev 21:9
Ephesians
1: 3 Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even
as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he
predestined us for adoption as sons through
Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
Rom 8: 33 Who shall bring
any charge against God's elect?
I Pet 1:
1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the
dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for
sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Fourth question election will not help
in evangelism. This is also absolutely untrue.
There
are many who believe that they do not want to preach election because it is a
hindrance for evangelism. It was apostle Paul who
exposed and preached this doctrine more than the others, and also we know that
Paul laid the foundation for the missionary work. Election was not a hindrance
for evangelism but a great motivation for evangelism as Paul said, " Therefore I endure all things for the
elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus
with eternal glory." (2 Tim 2:10)
Great
missionaries and evangelists in the history believed in
the doctrine of election. The following are some of them;
John
Bunyan, who wrote the Pillgrms Progress,
John Knox, the great Scottish preacher,
William Carey, the father of the modern missions to
India.
John Eliot to the North American Indians.
David Brainerd also to the North American Indians.
Jonathan Edwards, the greatest North American Theologian and the preacher, who
preached that famous sermon, "Sinners at the hands of
an angry God."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, called the prince of preachers,
the greatest preacher who ever lived next to Jesus and the apostles, He invited Hudson Taylor to speak in his church, the
missionary to China.
George Whitefield, one of the greatest evangelists.
John Patton, missionary to New Hebrides.
George Mueller and a host of others.....
We are all call to witness and evangelize to
all nations, go to the highways and byways and preach the gospel. But we don’t
know who are the elect. If God put a yellow stripe on
the back of the elect, we would be going and pulling peoples shirts to see if
they have a yellow stripe and we will preach the gospel only to the people who
have a yellow stripe. But God in his sovereignty didn’t do that way. We are to
preach the gospel to all creatures and God will do the saving.
Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they
began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were
appointed to eternal life believed.
Now I have answered the questions
briefly let us go to our subject. Romans 8
When something goes wrong in our life
we go to one of our favorite verse’s
Romans 8:28 And
we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
We usually stop there, have you ever
seen the context, it is my beloved speaking to the elect.
29 For those whom he foreknew
he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order
that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And
those whom he predestined he also called,
and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified
he also glorified.
If you want to see strong doctrine in
one scripture here it is. Here we see
the order of election.
Foreknowledge of God
The foreknowledge of God is absolutely
important for the election. Apostle said, ‘for those whom he foreknew’ here he
is talking of the foreknowledge of God. The enemy has brought a false view on
this subject. Many believe that God looked into the future and saw who would
believe in Christ, and those who believed God predestined and elected them. If
this is true, foreknowledge is based on man’s belief in God. Then salvation is
of man, election is of man. But Jonah said salvation is of God. It is God who
elects not that we elect God. Jesus said, “you did not
choose me but I chose you.” Also the
scripture declares, we
love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:9) Paul also said in Romans 5:10 For if while we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.
So the idea of God looking into the
future and saw who would believe and that is God’s foreknowledge is absolutely
false as scriptures doesn’t support.
If there is anywhere in the
Bible that shows the order of election, the one place you will see is in the
following.
Romans
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 go
His purpose. 29) For whom He fore knew,
He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the first-born among many brethren; 30) and whom He
predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He
also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Here
we see the precise order of election. I have made it bold and underlined the
important doctrinal words and let me give a brief explanation.
1.
Foreknew -
Foreknew has to with foreknowledge. What do you mean by the foreknowledge of God. Let me give the popular answer. What the majority of
churches believe today.
God, from the
foundation of the world foreknew all men's believing or not believing. And
according to this, His foreknowledge, He chose or elected all obedient
believers, as such to salvation. God looks into the future and see who will
chose God, on a foreseen act of man and on the basis of man choosing God, God
in return had chosen man before the foundation of the world. This is
conditional election as election depends upon man and not from God. But this
was not what the majority believed during the time of Protestant reformation.
Amazing Grace
that saved an obedient faithful person like me! NO. NO. That saved a wretched,
wicked person like me
This is a
heretical doctrine that has crept into the pulpits and many are deceived by
this kind of teaching. This kind of teaching did not begin recently but had lot
of influence from Finney and the others.
All have sinned and we have fallen
short of the glory of God but now God removed that sin, made us righteous
before him and one day we are brought to his glory.
Ro 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us.
Col 3:4 When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
'For'
indicates that verses 29-30 are the foundation for verse 28. They give reasons
why we can
KNOW all things will work together for those who are called according to God's
purpose.
In these few verses, we see
the great doctrines of election and predestination and effectual calling and
justification and glorification
The
Greek word for foreknowledge is proginosko. The
medical word prognosis is connected to this word. The prognosis predicts
the outcome of a disease based on diagnosis. This word does not appear in
the Old Testament but appears seven times in the New Testament, and it
relates to God’s foreknowledge. What do you mean by foreknowledge? In our English language foreknowledge means
to have knowledge before it happens.
Biblical
meaning
The
biblical meaning of foreknowledge is never used in connection with action of
the person but to the person. The word foreknowledge does not appear in the Old
Testament, but when the word, "know" is used in connection with
God, it means to "choose" or "set favor upon" or
"acknowledge” It is those whom he chose or set his favor upon. Here
are some texts to show this meaning.
The word foreknowledge means not a general knowledge but a special
intimate knowledge of His people.
Genesis 4:1 state: "And Adam knew Eve his wife..." Adam having a special love and affection only for his wife.
Ex 33:17 And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that
thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by
name.
Moses did not have to introduce himself to God, but God knew him by
name, God knew the person Moses and set his love upon Moses before the
foundation of the world. Why because Moses was better than anyone, no. Moses
was a sinner like anyone else, he was a murderer, he deserved the wrath of God
like anyone else but instead he found grace in Gods sight.
God knew all the people of the earth, but to the
chosen ones, he had a special affection for them, he was intimate with them,
not because they were good, but because of his mercy and grace.
Jeremiah 1:5 states: "Before I formed thee in
the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest out of the
womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Notice how closely the words knew, sanctified, and ordained
are related to one another.
God has a special love for Jeremiah before he was born. He was set apart
to serve God from the womb. It was Gods goodness, grace and mercy toward
Jeremiah, so Jeremiah cannot boast of his ministry as God sanctified and
ordained him before he was born.
The Word
foreknowledge appears only a few times in the New Testament, and it is
never used in connection with action of the person but to the person. God did
not elect you because he foresaw of your repenting and believing. It is
true that God knew that some would repent and believe on him, but that is
not what the scripture is referring to Gods foreknowledge. God knew the persons
who will be saved. He is not looking to the actions of the people in salvation.
Let us look some scripture on foreknowledge and it will be very clear to you
that the word foreknowledge refers to the persons and not to their works or
actions.
Acts 2:23 "Him, being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken,
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Paul is not speaking of
Gods foreknowledge of the action of crucifixion, but the person of Jesus
Christ: "HIM (Christ) being delivered"
Romans 11:2 God has not
rejected his people whom he foreknew. (foreknew are the people and not referring to their actions
on what they did)
1 Peter 1:2
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in
the world,
scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,
2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father,
through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ
and
sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his
great mercy he
has given us.
Who are
elected according to the foreknowledge of the Father? The previous verse
tells us, strangers scattered. Again, it is referring to persons and
not to their foreseen acts.
Joh 10:14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep,
and am known of mine.
Joh 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
2Ti 1:9 Who hath 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 the world began.
If I say
I chose God because of my obedience of faith, let me ask you the question, the
people who got saved during Jesus time were, harlots, thieves, tax collectors,
and murderers. What kind of faith did they have? How about you?
Romans 8:29
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
(Whom he foreknew referring to persons and not referring to their actions on
what they did) The
Greek word for foreknowledge is proginosko. The
medical word prognosis is connected to this word. Prognosis is a
prediction concerning the future course of decease, based on diagnosis.
The Greek word gnosis (and its
cognates) finds its linguistic counterpart in the Hebrew word yada. The Hebrew term refers to knowing with
experience or intimacy. For example, it is used of sexual union (Genesis 4:1,
19:8); of personal acquaintance (Genesis 29:5; Exodus 1:8); of knowing good
from evil (Genesis 3:5,22); and of knowing the true God (1 Samuel 2:12 - 3:7;
Jeremiah 3:22). The Greek noun and verb gnosis and ginosko
have meanings that parallel those of the Hebrew yada.
In Matthew 1:25, the statement
"he kept her a virgin" is literally "he knew her not" (eginosken). Moreover, in Philippians 3:10, the
Apostle states his foremost desire, "that I may know Him" (gnonai). The reference in Romans 11:2 also has the
meaning of the Hebrew yada:
"God has not rejected His people
whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage
about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?" (NASB)
In
this context, "foreknow" is synonymous with "forelove".
Read Romans 8:28-30
In these few verses, we see the order
of election, we see the great doctrines of election and predestination and
effectual calling and justification and glorification
1.
He
set his favor upon us, not everyone but on some.
2.
Predestined - Our English word
predestination comes from the Latin word praedestino.
The word prae in Latin means before and the word destino in Latin means determine or destine. Destined to be
saved. God appointed before hand to be saved. Eph 1:4 According as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before him in love.
3.
We
were born into this world in sin. By nature we were the children of wrath just
like the other unbelievers. (Eph 2:3)
4. Called – Salvation came
here on earth, in our time. You heard the gospel, the words of God and there
was that God’s holy calling for salvation.
5. Justified - The word
justification has to do with justice, that one day we have to face the justice
of God. We all have to stand before the Judge of the universe, as
we are accountable to our Creator. How can we stand before a just God? We
need to be justified. When God called you, he justified you,
he legally made you righteous before him.
6. Glorified - Everlasting happiness: but eternal glory is here
meant, which is what the apostle had been speaking in context. We will inherit
the eternal glory. Read Matthew
25:31-34
29)
For whom He fore knew, He also predestined
Why did God predestined us?
Eph
1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
The
author of predestination is not man but God. It is no way
depended on God’s foreknowledge of human actions but on his divine
foreknowledge. The word predestination is not always used
in the same sense. Sometimes it is used as a synonym of the generic word
decree, other times it is used as the purpose of God and also we see it being
used as the counsel of God. My purpose is to give you the basic understanding
of the scripture and to go verse by verse study on the book of Ephesians.
Let us see some scriptures.
Ac
4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel
determined before to be done.
God’s
counsel determined before to be done: God's decrees are from eternity; there is
nothing comes to pass in time but what he has beforetime determined should be
done.
Ac
2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
Ac
18:9 Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a
vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy
peace:
10
For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to
hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.
11 And he continued there a year and six
months, teaching the word of God among them.
Ac
13:44 And the next sabbath
day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
Ac
13:47 For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I
have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest
be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.
48
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the
Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
Some
translations say as many as were pre-ordained to eternal life believed.
Here
we see very clearly the commandment of the Lord is to preach the gospel to all
ethnic groups, many came to hear the word of God almost the whole city but only
the ones that were ordained to eternal life believed. Now we cannot twist the
scriptures or play spiritual gymnastics here to put our opinion, we are
declaring the word of God just as it says.
Ro 9:11 (For the children being not
yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
13 As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated.
One was chosen, and the other rejected
before they were born, before they did anything good or evil which means he did
not elect Jacob because he was good, he was a deceiver anyway. Good works are
not the cause of election but the sovereign will and secret counsel of God.
My friends this is simple English but
many have difficulty understanding simple English as it is contradicts the
opinions of men and to the majority of the church. Many will not like it, when
Jesus spoke of election many did not want to hear him and many left him.
Joh 6:65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come
unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
66 From that time many of his
disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
67 Then said Jesus unto the
twelve, Will ye also go away?
68 Then Simon Peter answered
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of
eternal life.
7.
We
were born into this world in sin. By nature we were the children of wrath just
like the other unbelievers. (Eph 2:3)
Called – Salvation came
here on earth, in our time. You heard the gospel, the words of God and there
was that God’s holy calling for salvation
General
calling
General
calling or the external calling is
where God invites people, and there are many scriptures in the Bible to show
the general call of God. This is the duty of all the Christians to call souls
to Christ, without any distinction. We need to preach the gospel to
everyone sincerely.
Isaiah
45:22, "Turn to me and be saved all you
ends of the earth; for I am God and there is no other."
Isaiah 65:12, "For I called but you did not
answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and
chose what displeases me."
Mark 16:15-16, "Go into all the world and
preach the good news to all creation."
Luke 14:23, (the invitation for the banquet)
John 7:37-38, "If a man is thirsty, let him
come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within
him."
This
call is sincere on Gods part, but man is opposed to God and man turns his back
on God, the call is not effectual. Man rejects this universal call. The sinners
hear the bell of the gospel ringing in their ears daily but they cover their
ears and go on to their own business. The Church becomes a place of religion
instead of having a relationship with God.
Effectual
Calling
God
chose certain individuals eternity past, but due to
sin they were lost and they became dead in their sins. They cannot save
themselves on their own as they are spiritually dead. Jesus came on a mission
to seek which was lost. Then by Gods grace he calls the chosen ones to
repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. "For the Son of Man came to seek and
to save what was lost." (Luke 19:10)
"He
shall save His people from their sins." --Matthew 1:21
Matthew
22:14, " For many are invited (called) but few are chosen." The
many refers to the general call of the gospel message. The few refers to the
chosen ones, as the gospel message will be effectual to them,
as they will be brought to repentance and faith.
Romans
8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who
love him, who have been called according to his
purpose."
1
Corinthians 1:9 "God who has called you into fellowship with his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."
1
John 3:1 "How great is the love of the Father has lavished on us, that we
should be called children of God!."
The
word effectual call has the meaning of "summons"
It is a command by the authorities to appear in a court of justice. In
the biblical sense God in his sovereign authority has commanded us into the
fellowship of Christ. We will see from the following examples, that once the
effectual call is given by God to the sinner there is a great result.
Examples
and illustrations of the effectual call.
Lazarus
(John 11)
Lazarus
was dead for four days, and Jesus said, "Take away the stone."
Then Martha said, "But Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has
been there for four days." (John 11:39)
Martha
is correct, by this time his body is rotten, and the worms are having a buffet
on his body. Jesus cried out in a loud voice saying, Lazarus come out! (verse 43) Yes the body was dead for four days and the
worms are having a great meal of the body, but
out of the tomb comes Lazarus, the dead body was raised to life!
The
effectual call is the same. The sinner is dead in sin. Totally
corrupted. Worms have crept into our flesh and have become totally
filthy in the sight of God. The dead in sin has no power to raise himself unless God in his grace will rise the dead sinner
alive.
.
Paul (Acts 9)
Saul
of Tarsus was an enemy of God. He did not have any power to obey God. He
was hunting like a wild lion to devour the Christians. His heart was against
Christ and he used his energy to destroy the Church. On his way to
Damascus he heard a voice say, "Saul, Saul, why
do you persecute me?" Then Saul replied,
"Who are you, Lord?" Then the voice said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."
What
was the result of this effectual calling? The same
energy that he used to persecute the Church he used now to win souls for
Christ. Paul was the hardest hearted man, but
the effectual calling broke the hard heart, took away his
spiritual blindness and became obedient to Gods call. We were all in
darkness and God said, let there be light, and the
darkness in vanish now we can see as we are in the light. The hardest sinner
melts before the effectual call of God.
Zaccheus (Luke 19)
Jesus
entered Jericho. There was this chief tax collector by the name of Zaccheus. He was wealthy, sinner by all means, stingy a
thief and a crook. There was a great crows to see Jesus,
Zaccheus being very short climbed a sycamore
tree to see Jesus. He was pretty safe and secure up there. He wanted to
see this great man, Jesus who was turning the world upside down. But he did not
know that he was to be turn too. Jesus comes to the very spot, under the tree, looks up straight at Zaccheus, and calls by his name saying, "Zaccheus come down immediately. I must stay at your
house today." The effectual call was so powerful Zaccheus like a bird in the tree fell into the arms of the
Savior. There were many better people than Zaccheus,
but why him? Zaccheus does not deserve anything. God
is sovereign and he will choose whom he will.
Abraham
(Genesis 12)
Abraham
was content in his fathers household. He had his
family and his friends. But suddenly the Lord said to him, "Leave your
country, your people and your fathers household
and go to the land I will show you." When effectual calling
comes, it will single out that man. That man is compelled to obey God, more
than his family and friends. He will come out from his very close friends where
he was partying together. He was going to leave
all that was so dear to him. The effectual call will make you a pilgrim in this
world like Abraham.
8. Justified - The word
justification has to do with justice, that one day we have to face the justice
of God. We all have to stand before the Judge of the universe, as
we are accountable to our Creator. How can we stand before a just God? We
need to be justified. When God called you, he justified you,
he legally made you righteous before him.
Martin
Luther cry out and said, "Justification
by faith alone (sola fide) is the article where the church will stand or
fall." The Roman Catholic church
justification is based on the infused righteousness of Christ, and the reformers
disagreed on this as they said the justification is based on the imputed
righteousness of Christ.
The
reformers said that the justification is forensic in nature, meaning judicial
and legal in it's context. It is the concept of legal
declaration. It is a legal issue where the sinner stands or falls before the
Judge of the universe.
Ephesians
2:10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith--and this not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God--
9 not by works, so
that no one can boast.
10 For we are God's
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Augustus
M. Toplady, wrote included the following in his hymn.
Nothing
in my hands I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.