"Election simply means "choice." The doctrine of election is that, ultimately, it is God's choice that determines whether someone will be saved or lost. To understand this, recall from chapter 1 the biblical emphasis on God's comprehensive control over the world. Nothing happens in the world unless God wants it to happen. Recall also from chapter 2 that God's decree is comprehensive; it covers absolutely everything. Whatever happens, happens according to the good pleasure of his will (Eph. 1:11). If God's control is so profound, then certainly God also has ultimate and absolute control over human salvation. Ultimately, your salvation depends on whether or not God has chosen you in Christ, before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4).
But before we look at this eternal choice, let's look at another type of election that is more historical in its focus. I call it historical election, although even historical election is part of God's eternal plan. Historical election is God's choice of people not necessarily for eternal salvation but for various tasks in history. God chose Saul, for example, to serve as Israel's king for a time (1 Sam. 9:17); but he later rejected Saul. God chose Jeremiah to be a prophet (Jer. 1:5). Jesus chose the Twelve to be his disciples, including Judas (Luke 6:13). He chose, or elected, Judas, even though he knew Judas would betray him. From the examples of Saul and Judas, you can understand that historical election is not election to eternal salvation (Mark 14:21; John 6:70-71). It is merely the choice of someone to serve a temporary purpose in God's program.
The most important form of historical election is God's choice of the nation Israel. God chose Israel from all the nations of the earth to be his special people (Deut. 4:37; 7:6). Scripture emphasizes that this choice was by grace, not Israel's merit (Deut. 7:7-8; 9:4, 6). Israel wasn't larger or better than the other nations.Yet, not all Israelites obtained eternal salvation. Many of them turned away from God, and he sent his prophets to draw up indictments against them (called covenant lawsuits, as Isa. 1:1-17). Only Jesus himself is the true Israel, the one who fully obeys God and who receives all the blessings of the covenant (Rom. 11:1-21) .
We may also say that the visible church today is historically elect. That is to say, church members belong to Christ in a special way, as Israel belonged to God. That gives them great privileges. Hebrews 6:4-6 says that church members "have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come." Nevertheless, some of them rebel against the Lord, and the writer says that it is impossible to restore these to repentance. Like Saul, Judas, and unfaithful Israel, they will be lost. In this historical sense, then, some people who are elect, chosen, may be finally lost.
That is one kind of election, historical election. But there is also another kind of election mentioned in Scripture that we may call eternal election. This is God's choice in eternity of who will be finally saved. We saw that already in Ephesians 1:4. Second Timothy 1:9 speaks of God "who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began" (cf. 2 Thess. 2:13).
As Israel's election comes about through God's covenant with Moses, so eternal election in Jesus comes through the new covenant of Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8:
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jer. 31:33-34)
Here, God chooses a people and promises to give them all the benefits of salvation. They will not be like Judas or like unfaithful Israel, for God will forgive their sins and write the word of God on their heart.
So, eternal election is unconditional, unconditional election, as Reformed theologians like to say. God chooses us for salvation, a choice not based on anything in us, not based on any conditions we have fulfilled. And eternal election is an election of individuals, not just nations or groups. How precious it is to know that God chose me and you before he even made the world. We were in his mind, on his heart. With the doctrine of election, we know that salvation is all of God. It is his free gift. It really is grace, not something we must work for.
Reprobation
Now the question comes up, If God chooses us eternally for salvation, does he also choose who will be lost? God's choice of who will be lost is called reprobation. So, we know God elects; does he also reprobate? It seems logical to say that if God chooses some to be saved, he automatically chooses the rest not to be saved. This doctrine is sometimes called double predestination.
But this is a hard pill to swallow. It is hard to believe that a loving God would choose, before the beginning of time, to send some to eternal punishment, choosing them before they could do anything about it.
This is a particularly difficult form of the problem of evil. So, I'd urge you to review what we said earlier, in chapter 2, on the love of God and, in chapter 8, on sin and evil. Although reprobation is a particularly hard problem, I believe the best answers are the answers I gave earlier: God brings good out of evil even when we can't imagine how he could possibly do it; and he reserves to himself the right to do that, to his own honor and glory. Remember, too, that if God does not reprobate, he does not elect to salvation either. So, the alternative to election and reprobation is for us to try to save ourselves by our own resources. I would not want to try to do that.
What settles the matter is that the doctrine of reprobation is biblical, and not just as an implication from the doctrine of election. We read, for example, that sometimes God acts to conceal the truth from some people so that they will not believe. In other words, he uses his sovereignty negatively rather than positively. God said to Isaiah:
Go, and say to this people:
And he said, "Go, and say to this people:
"'Keep on hearing,but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'
Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed."
- Isaiah 6:9-10
The prophetic word can be powerful in bringing people to faith. But in this case it is powerful to harden their hearts. Following Isaiah, Jesus said that he spoke in parables to enlighten some but actually harden others, to prevent them from believing (Matt. 13:11-14; cf. 11:25-27). Jude 4 speaks about certain men "whose condemnation was written about long ago" (NIV).
But Romans 9 is the chief text about reprobation. There, Paul begins by expressing anguish for his fellow Israelites who have not believed in Christ. Why haven't they believed? Paul says, ultimately, because God has not chosen them to believe. Why was Pharaoh so persistent in his wickedness that he hardened his heart so that he would not let Israel go? Paul answers in verse 17, "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, `For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.' " God hardened his heart, as Exodus also says. Then, at verses 18-24:
So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" But who are you, 0 man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
So, why is it that so many Israelites have not believed? Paul's answer, ultimately, is reprobation. Many Israelites have not believed because God sovereignly determined to prepare them for destruction, as he has prepared others for glory.
We should recognize, as do the Canons of Dordt (one of the Reformed confessions), that election and reprobation are not simple parallels to one another.When God elects people to salvation, he decrees that they will be saved apart from their works. But when God reprobates, he decrees that they will be punished because of their works. Works, then, play a role in the outworking of reprobation that they do not play in the outworking of election."
- John Frame
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