Election
선택
Election is God's gracious choosing, before the foundation of the world, of a people in Christ to be his own, to save them and make them holy. God chose Israel not because they were greater but because he loved them, and he has chosen the church freely in Christ. Traditions differ on what that choice rests on.
The God who chooses in love
Election runs through the whole of Scripture. God called Abraham and chose Israel "to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 7:6). The reason lay not in Israel: the LORD did not choose them "because you were more numerous than the other peoples" (Deuteronomy 7:7), "but because the LORD loved you" (Deuteronomy 7:8). The New Testament opens that election to the church in Christ. He is the one Isaiah called "My Chosen One" (Isaiah 42:1), and the Father's voice said, "This is My Son, whom I have chosen" (Luke 9:35); in him we too are chosen.
For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence.
Ephesians 1:4
Election has a purpose: holiness, and service. Peter calls the church "a chosen people", chosen "to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). Jesus told his disciples, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit" (John 15:16). As Matthew Henry put it, "All who are chosen to happiness as the end, are chosen to holiness as the means" Matthew Henry.
The word eklogē (ἐκλογή) means a selecting. Paul speaks of "a remnant chosen by grace" (Romans 11:5): election is grace traced back to its source in the heart of God. God's purpose concerning human destiny as a whole is called predestination.
What does the choice rest on?
Every tradition confesses that election is of grace and leaves no one room to boast. The difference lies in its ground. Reformed and Presbyterian churches confess unconditional election. The Canons of Dort put it this way:
Election is the unchangeable purpose of God, whereby, before the foundation of the world, He hath out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of His own will, chosen, from the whole human race, which had fallen through their own fault from their primitive state of rectitude into sin and destruction, a certain number of persons to redemption in Christ …
Canons of Dort, First Head, art. 7
The Canons teach that God chose not because he foresaw faith but in order to bring people to faith, and that he effectually calls the elect by his Word and Spirit. Those who follow Arminius, and the Wesleyan tradition, confess that God determined in Christ to save those who believe and persevere in faith, and they connect election with God's foreknowledge of who will believe The Five Articles of Remonstrance, art. 1. Lutherans confess that election is wholly of grace and that no one is predestined to damnation Formula of Concord, art. 11. Scholars in several traditions also stress that Scripture speaks of election first of all as the choosing of a people in Christ. Which of these views is right is a question evangelicals have long debated among themselves.
Election is not given for prying into who is chosen. Peter urges, "strive to make your calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10). Augustine warned against deciding whom the Father draws and why, and counselled: "if you are not drawn, pray that you may be" Augustine. The views are set side by side in the lesson Grace and election.
Source
- The Remonstrants, The Five Articles of Remonstrance 1610
- Lutheran churches, Formula of Concord 11 (1577)
More in this app
- Grace and electionChristian Doctrine
- God's decree and predestinationThe Reformed Faith
- The five heads of DortThe Reformed Faith
- What is predestination?Questions
- The Westminster Confession of FaithCreeds and Confessions
- The Belgic ConfessionCreeds and Confessions
- The Canons of DortCreeds and Confessions
- Wesley's Explanatory NotesCommentaries and Reference Works
Scripture quotations: BSB.