The Nature of Divine Election - Jude 1

JD01-02

Election

Predestination

Foreknowledge

It does not mean that God looked down the corridors of time, and because of His omniscience, knew who would believe the Gospel and who would not, and on that basis decided to choose some for salvation who would believe, and decided not to elect those who would not believe. That it is not the meaning of foreknowledge. It is a common error, and people often try to ascribe that meaning to it. Foreknowledge in the Bible is never what God knows, but it is whom He knows. It does not mean what He foreknew, but whom He foreknew He did predestination. The Bible does not say what He foreknew, but whom determined His predestination.

Purpose

God's Decretive Will

God's Perceptive Will

There are no surprises. There are no unknown factors to God. Everything is in the present to Him. There is nothing that is going to frustrate the will of God. Sometimes we tend to use that expression, "frustrating the will of God," but it is not true. God is in complete sovereign command. God has a material world which He has created, and He has a plan for that world. He has decreed that He is going to preserve this world, and He does. That's what Colossians 1:17 tells us. Daniel 5:23 tells us that our very breath is in His hands. You have no assurance of the next breath you are going to take, or the series of breaths you're going to take during this study. Every one of those breaths is in the hand of God, and at some point, God is going to say. "That's all. You have taken breath number last." This is in His sovereign determination also.

God's Providence

Now who decided this? Who is the sovereign mover behind the fact that of all the angels God created, some are elect, and some became fallen. This is also in the decretive plan of God. The immaterial world includes man, of course. Among mankind, some are reprobate, and their end is perdition, and there is no way to escape that destiny. Some thus are going to be separated from God forever in eternal death. God knows those who, because of His love and because of His good pleasure, are going to receive his grace. He predestines them to be like His Son. So God chooses these for salvation whom He has thus predestined. That's his aim--to make them like His Son. In time, these people are born into the world. They're given an effectual call by God the Holy Spirit. That means a call to which they respond. They respond to this call, and they're justified. The ultimate end of these believers is glorification; a resurrection body; entrance into heaven; and, bringing glory to God.

So here you have the decree of God. This is an overall plan that God, out of all possible combinations of events and circumstances and relationships of people and things, has put together His overall plan--His purpose. Within that purpose is a purpose for material things, and He's going to execute it. Now it has all been determined. Everything that has ever happened in the material universe God has determined. It has all been laid out, and the plan is in operation. Nothing will frustrate it. And everything in the immaterial world, relative to angels and men, has been laid out, and nothing will frustrate that. It's fully in operation.

Romans 9:1-23

In the first eight chapters of the book of Romans, God has dealt through the apostle Paul with the plan of salvation. He explains what God is doing by grace relative to our sins. Now this naturally raises a question concerning God's dealing with the nation Israel. When you understand anything about the church age, you very quickly discover that the church is a distinct body of believers. It is not the same as Israel, as we learned in the last session. It is a totally different ballgame. And what has God done with Israel? Well, the problem lies in the fact that God has made promises to Israel that have the word "forever" involved. God says, "I'm going to do something for you as a nation forever." One of the things is that there will be a nation forever.

Now the question comes up, "What has happened to God's promises to Israel?" Therefore, in Romans 9:10-11, the apostle Paul takes up that question of God's unconditional promises to this nation, and gives the answer. Israel is part of the decree of God, is what he is going to point out, and Israel has a place. So we begin at Romans 9:1: "I say the truth in Christ. I lie not; my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsman, according to the flesh."

Apostasy

Beginning with Romans 9:6-13, he points out that biblical history itself should have clued the Jews into the fact of what was going to happen to them. It should have given them some insights concerning the doctrine of election. Romans 9:6: "Not as though the Word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel." Israel's current loss of national blessing doesn't mean that God is unfaithful to His promises. This is the problem with the idea of amillennialism which says that Jesus Christ will never come back to this earth to set up an earthly kingdom. You would read the Old Testament as the people of the Old Testament read their Old Testament Bible, and as the Old Testament prophets wrote those Old Testament books, they never thought of a heavenly kingdom. They always thought in terms of an earthly kingdom. And when Jesus Christ was here on earth, he never refuted that idea. They were quite correct in looking for an earthly kingdom.

Well Paul says, "What about those promises to us as a nation? Is God unfaithful to His promise? And Paul is pointing out that not everybody who is a Jew is indeed part of Israel. The promises of the Abrahamic covenant were to the believing Jews only. These are viewed as true Israelites. There are other Israelites who are unbelieving Jews. To them, the promises were not applicable. He is not saying here that some gentiles are true Israelites as if Israel had become the church. Romans 9:7: "Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall your seed be called." Only the Jews who are born in the line of Isaac are under national blessing. The line of Ishmael, for example, did not come under this national promise of blessing. But not all the Jews born through Sarah and Abraham. Not all of them are in the seed of blessing either. There is something more involved. There comes in this factor of the election of God.

Romans 9:8: "That is, they who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as seed." Physical Jews are not automatically the children of God. Only those who come under the promise are counted as Jewish seed. God is involved in choosing those who are under the promise who constitute the seed.

Romans 9:4: "This is the word of promise. At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son." The promised son to Sarah, Isaac, was to be the means of the seed who was destined for the divine blessing. God has a plan. He had an orderly arrangement, and He said, "This nation is going to find blessing, and it is going to come through a certain part of the nation. It will be to the Jews who are descended through the line of promise, and this line of promise is from Sarah. It is from Sarah through Isaac.

Romans 9:10 "And not only this, but when Rebecca (Isaac's wife) also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac." The expression 'by one' is an emphasis here to point out that these twin sons that Rebecca and Isaac had (Jacob and Esau), that they both had the same parents. It was by this same father who was the line of the seed. Now you would automatically say, "Alright, God has promised blessing to the nation Israel. He has promised this blessing through Sarah, through Isaac, and here Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob and Esau are both going to be under the promise." You're wrong.

Romans 9:11: "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil (that is, anything worthless), that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him that calls." Here are two twins, a set of twins born from the same parents. Yet before these two sons are born, God makes a decision concerning their destinies. What is the basis of this decision? The verse says the purpose of God according to election, not of works but of Him that calls. It had nothing to do with what either one of these boys had done, because they hadn't even been born. It didn't have anything to do with what they were going to do--any of their works. It is simply that a sovereign God looked upon two boys in the womb of their mother, and God made a decision, and this is election. According to His love; according to His plan; and, according to His good pleasure, he made a purpose concerning Jacob and Esau.

Here is the purpose. Romans 9:12: "It was said unto her, the elder (Esau) shall serve the younger (Jacob). As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." On the divine side, there is God's election. On the human side, Jacob becomes a believer, and Esau does not. Now that's the way it stands. On the divine side, God elects Jacob. Jacob is born, and becomes a believer. On the divine side, God does not elect Esau. Esau is born, and he remains an unbeliever. For some people there is a problem in this expression, "Esau have I hated." And has often been pointed out, it is equally a problem to understand how God could have loved Jacob--that sneaky conniving maneuvering operator. He reminds you of many of your Christian friends. You wonder how God could have loved Jacob. This is as much of a problem as how He could say, "Esau, you I hate."

Hate

Now what is the Lord Jesus saying here? Is he telling us that if you are going to be a true disciple of his, a believer who is on solid positive volition signals, you are going to have to bear animosity towards your parents and toward your relatives? Surely, that is not what he means. If you will hold that for just a moment, we will look at Matthew 10:37 where we have a parallel passage which gives an explanation. Matthew 10:37: "He that loves his father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. He that loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." And from this passage, we discern a definition for hate in a way that it is often used in the Scripture, and that is in the sense of "prefer."

Matthew says the issue is that you do not love your husband more than Me; that you do not love your wife more than me. That is, that you do not put the interests of your husband or the interests of your wife ahead of the interests of God. If you're going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, I don't care what the interests are of your husband or of your wife. If the interests of God conflict with that interest, God comes first. It is up to every individual priest, since you are your own priest, to decide when the interests of God conflict with the desires and interests of your husband or wife. Then you must make the choice as to which you put first. The same goes relative to your children; to the family; to your friends; and, to everybody that you deal with.

So when God says, "Jacob have I loved," He is saying, "I prefer Jacob." When He says, Esau have I hated, He is saying, "I do not prefer Esau relative to Jacob." "Jacob I prefer over Esau." The basis of this preference is the sovereign choice--not on anything that either one of them had done. Actually He blessed Esau, although he was a very carnal man. He did bless Esau, but in his dealings with the promises to the nation of Israel, Jacob is the one he preferred.

The Fairness of Election

Now if that feeling is in your heart, I can tell you that it is there because of your old sin nature. And it is there because you are a little negative toward doctrine relative to the essence of God. If you know the essence of God, the qualities and characteristics of God, among which is the fact of His justice and His fairness, then you will never ask the question, and you will never suggest that God is being unfair. It takes indeed a spiritually true believer to be able to study the doctrine of election, and not get all torn up about it, and not run around saying, "That's not fair." Paul's point is that God is fair. His essence ensures that He would be just and that He would be fair. But you have to be spiritually mature in order to handle this doctrine.

But Paul knows that some of us were going to think that. So, in Romans 9:14, he takes the question head on here. He takes up the whole subject of the fairness of God in election in Romans 9:14-29. And he begins in versus 14 through 18 where he looks at God's aspect of fairness in election. Romans 9:14 says, "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." And this is a very strong expression in the Greek. It means, "May it not come to be." And it is a very strong, "No." Is God unfair? Is God unrighteous? Paul says, "God forbid. Nothing could be farther from the truth."

Now, actually Paul raises the question, "Is God unfair?" And you will notice that he doesn't really answer the question. He simply says a categorical "No." He says it on the basis of doctrine. We know the essence of God. And God's essence includes fairness and justice, and therefore we know that the answer is, "No, God is not unrighteous. He is absolute perfect righteousness. That's part of his character."

Romans 9:15: "For he said to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.'" God has the sovereign right to decide to whom to direct His mercy and His compassion, and He's justified in doing it.

Romans 9:16: "So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy." God's expression of blessing is not governed by human will. Positive volition in salvation is the result of God having already moved that human will toward salvation. "Whosoever will may come." That is a perfectly true statement. But who is going to come? The one upon whose will God has moved to move that person to come to positive volition toward the gospel. It is not governance by the one who runs--the one who tries harder because he is number two.

Receiving Christ

You have heard some very big name evangelists, as have I, stand up in vast stadium rallies, and say, "It is not enough to believe. You must receive Christ. It's receiving Christ. Believing is not enough." And when you hear that, you should recognize that here you have again the poor sad condition that most evangelists are pretty poor when it comes to a knowledge of Bible doctrine, or they would not be making statements like that. For the Word of God stresses and emphasizes (and this book of John especially emphasizes) that salvation is a matter of believing. This verse tells you that it is true that you do receive Christ into your life as your Savior. But how do you receive him? By an act of faith toward the gospel--by believing what the gospel says that God has done for your sins. You cannot receive Christ except by believing.

Heart Belief

Dear friend, when the Bible uses the word "heart" it is using that in terms of the directive side of your mentality. And the only way you can believe with your heart is to believe with your mind. This is the thing right up here in your head. This is what you believe. But this empty emotion area which is supposed to act as a responder as a woman does to her right man, this is the area to which a lot of evangelism is directed. And sure enough, people act on this empty shell area of the emotions that has no information except what's drawn up from the old sin nature. So a lot of people act on those emotions, which is what people mean by heart, and they are not saved. It is a person who acts up here on his directive side of his mentality that is the individual who is really born again.

So here in John 1:12: "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name, who were born not a blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Now you notice that man does exercise positive volition, but it's because God initiated the action in him. They were not born again because of themselves, of any human move towards salvation, because it is not in us to move towards salvation. We do not seek God. There is nothing in us that inclines us to seek Him.

Also, Philippians 2:12 "Wherefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Now that really panics people. "Work out your own salvation." Now there you've got a verse in the Bible that says that salvation is by good works. And all the Roman Catholics breathed a sigh of relief. Take another breath, friends, because the next verse says, "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." What he means by "working out your salvation" is to respond to that influence that God places upon your heart and moves you with an effectual call to salvation. To work out your salvation is to work out what God has previously, by His good pleasure, moved upon you to do.

If it was merely our human will that moved us to salvation, then the one that goes positive has got something special. The one who goes positive must have something special about him that he went positive, if it is just your human will deciding. But the Word of God says, "No one has anything special.

In Romans 3:10, Paul writes, "As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understand it. There is none that seek after God." So by our ordinary human wills, there is not a single one of us who would seek God and reach out to Him in eternal life. Remember that all the actions of your will are the expressions of what you already are. When your will acts, it acts upon what you already are. And what are we already? We are people who don't give a flip about God. Therefore, we would never reach out to him in eternal life. It's only when God moves in upon our wills and changes what we are, in that respect, that we reach out and go positive toward the gospel.

Now back to Romans 9:17: "For the Scripture said unto Pharaoh, 'Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show My power in you that My Name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore He has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and hardens whom He will harden." Now this is the other side of the election. It is God not moving the will to positive volition. Pharaoh was not moved, and God, in the process of not moving Pharaoh to positive volition, used him to demonstrate the power and the glory of God. Thus, in effect, God hardened him.

Alright, that's the God aspect of God's process of election. Beginning at Romans 9:19-29 is man's aspect of the process of election: "You will say then unto me, 'Why does He then find fault, for who has resisted His will?'" He takes up the question of how God can hold a man responsible who rejects salvation, in view of the doctrine of election. How can you judge a person responsible for unbelief if the reason he has that unbelief is because God has passed him by? Who can be said to have resisted the will of God if God has not moved upon his will? Paul again doesn't answer the question, but he strongly rejects it. This is another expression of the carnal nature within us that accuses the character of God.

So in Romans 9:20, Paul says, "On the contrary, O man, who are you that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, 'Why have you made me thus?' Doesn't the potter have power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" God, as sovereign Creator, has the right to determine who of His fallen creatures serve His purpose, His decree, by going to heaven. And those who serve His purpose are those that He calls.

Why can He do this? Because He is sovereign God. He doesn't have to save a single one of us. Every one of us is guilty because of our own sin, and He, as sovereign God, can do as He pleases with what He has made. You and I can understand this on a human level. What we have; what we make; and, what we create we can do with as we please. But God does the same thing.

Romans 9:22: "What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" God does exercise patience toward those meriting destruction, and thus reveals His mercy. Romans 9:23: "And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He has before prepared unto glory, even us whom He has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles."

Remember that God does not have to save anybody. All are under the wrath of God because of their own sins. So God is fair and just even if nobody were saved. If God never saved a single person from Adam on, God would still be fair and just. But the fact that in His grace He does save some does not make Him unjust or unfair to those who are left unregenerate. This is what people think: that they have a right to eternal life. The only right that you and I have is a right to a place in hell. And if God, in His sovereignty, removed that from us, He is not to be declared unfair because of those that He has not called. He is not obliged to transform any of us. And I realize that, for many, that is a hard saying. Verse 22 says there are vessels of wrath fitted to destruction by the person's own sin.

Romans 9:23 says, "There are vessels of mercy which He has before prepared unto glory." God, by his sovereign election, has made this choice. This is what we call "single predestination." We won't press it too much here, but the verses seem to demonstrate that God, in verse 22, is talking about vessels upon which he is willing to show His wrath and His power. And in patience he endures them, and they have been fitted to destruction. But He did not fit them for destruction. They fitted themselves by their sin. But verse 23 speaks about those whom He has prepared for glory.

Ephesians 1

The words "according as" may also be translated as "because." And when you tie that to verse three, you're saying, "We who are in Christ because He has chosen." Why are we in Christ? Because "He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Chosen is in the middle, and that means that God chose for Himself. He did this before the earth was created, having predestined (that is, marked us out beforehand), and that's the reason He chose us. The reason for this was God's foreknowledge, His predestination, and out of this came His election. Remember that predestination deals with the goal of the process; and, election with the selection and foreknowledge with the intimate relationship that's involved. And verse 5 says that it is done according to the good pleasure of His will. It is done according to the good pleasure of His will.

So here is the crux of the doctrine of election. It's the question of why God elects anyone to salvation. Now there are three possible answers as to why God elects anybody to salvation. Number one: God likes those who are good. However, the Bible tells us that none are good by God's divine absolute standards of righteousness, so that can't be the reason. Two: God elects those who He foreknew would believe. However, nothing in man moves him to positive volition toward the gospel because everybody is equally dead. And the word "foreknow" means a choice to an intimate relationship on the part of God. It does not simply mean knowledge beforehand of what a person would do. So that can't be the basis. A third basis is that God likes those whom he has purpose to save through faith in Christ Jesus, and the reason for this is His sovereignty and His love. And this alone is behind our call to salvation. It is indeed of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord in the fullest sense of the word.

There is a position that places man's will in prominence called Arminianism, named after a man who proposed that view. The Arminian says, "He chose me because I first chose Him." However, the Word of God says we loved Him because He first loved us. That's the right order.

If you are a believer right now you may breathe a great sigh of relief because God has elected you. You may have a question, and you're saying, "Well I wonder, am I one of the elect?" I can tell you how to get squared away right now. All you have to do is believe the gospel. You may say, "No, I don't want to do that. I'm not willing to do that." If that's the case, then you shouldn't object to the doctrine of election, should you? If you have a question about it, all you have to do is accept that Savior, and you will very quickly discover that whosoever will may come.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1973

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