A Deeper Look: Unconditional Election

“At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. ‘All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’” --Matthew 11:25-27


We now move onto the second point of “TULIP”, which is Unconditional election, or, as some know it, predestination. As I said in “A Brief Overview of Calvinism”, this is the belief that God, before the foundations of the earth were laid, chose certain people to be saved, and chose certain people not to be saved. This view is not to be confused with, nor compared to the doctrine of pre-science, which is the belief that God knew before hand who would choose Him, and chose His people according to the choices He knew they would make. This is also known as the “fore-knowledge of God”.

One might ask, how do the two differ? Do they not both essentially mean the same thing? Is not God choosing his people in both cases? The answer is, no, they are not the same. Unconditional election is based on the belief that we, as fallen men, are totally depraved, as defined by Sola Gratia in the last post. If man is in fact totally depraved, he would be incapable of making the decision to follow Christ.

“he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” --Ephesians 1:5

This would leave us with but one choice: God chose us according to His own good pleasure, based on nothing but His own sovereign will. Not according to anything He knew we would do, or any choice He knew we would make (since as fallen men we are incapable of making that choice), but simply according to His sovereign will. After all, we know for a fact that God chose us before hand by simply looking into His word.

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love” --Ephesians 1:4

--Sola Gratia had the honor of writing the post on total depravity, and I would highly recommend you look back on it frequently. We will probably have more posts on it on the future, simply because it is the most important to fully grasp out of the five points. It is the basis of the Calvinist doctrine.--

So we find that the doctrine of unconditional election can be summarized by saying: God, before the creation of the world, chose certain people to be saved according to His good pleasure and will. Note that this has nothing to do with anything we have done.

This raises a question though. Wouldn’t the doctrine of unconditional election make God arbitrary? RC Sproul answers this question by saying: "To be arbitrary is to do something for no reason. Now, it is clear that there is no reason found in us for God to choose us. But that is not the same as saying that’s God has no reason in Himself. God doesn’t do anything without reason. He is not capricious or whimsical. God is as sober as he is sovereign."

The doctrine of unconditional election depends not only on total depravity, but also largely on the sovereignty of God. This doctrine simply takes into account just how powerful and sovereign God is, and how powerless we are as subjects to His will. One could never argue that god would not be justified in saving only a few the He chooses, because He is the creator. To say He does not have the right to do what He wants with His creation is most unreasonable. If you spent weeks constructing a house, and then, as soon as it was finished, proceeded to tear it down, would that be wrong of you? Absolutely not. That house was your creation, and you would be justified in anything you chose to do with it. So it is with the relationship between God and His creations.

“One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?’ But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? ‘Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?’” --Romans 9:19-21

Some look at Calvinism as a confining doctrine. They look at it as a doctrine that limits us, and takes away our free will and freedom. I think this is a terrible misunderstanding. It would seem that unconditional election is a depressing subject, because God only chooses some, and not others. Although this is the way we are tempted to look at it, it is not the way we should look at it. The doctrine of unconditional election is in fact very FREEING.

We have already gone over how man is totally depraved and is, in and of himself, incapable of seeking out God. Since this is the case, how, without God electing us, would we ever be saved? The answer is we would not. We could not. Without the divine intervention of God we would have no other way of salvation, because any other way is dependant on something from us, that we need to do. The doctrine of unconditional election frees us from that responsibility.

Why some and not others?

None of us deserve the reward of eternal life. God, because He is a loving God, chose to save some people. Those He did not choose to save are getting nothing they do not deserve. They are getting nothing you and I do not deserve. We all deserve it, but God chose to show mercy to some, because it pleased Him to do so. We do not, however, know who God has and has not elected, and are therefore commanded to preach the gospel to all men.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." --Matthew 28:19-20


“And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” --Mattehew 28:19-20

Thanks for reading!

Renzzy