In my last blog, I gave our “homeschool testimony” and explained how it changed our life by bringing about a personal revival in our family and set us down a new path. The next thing I would like to address is the doctrines of grace, also referred to as Calvinism or Election, although that is just a part of it. Coming to understand the doctrines of grace was the first step that eventually led us to Reformed (or Covenantal) Theology. I feel the need to share this, because as someone who has been saved for roughly 25 years, I finally feel that I have a handle on the “big picture” aspect of Christianity because of Reformed (Covenantal) Theology. My faith is no longer “piece meal”, thanks to sound doctrine. This gives me more confidence to share and defend the Gospel. I also feel more humble and in awe of the God we serve.

I know many godly people who love the Lord and serve Him well. While I realize they don’t need to believe election in order to love God and serve Him, I would still say that all things being equal, the better we know and understand God, as He has revealed Himself in His divine Word, the better we can appreciate, worship, and serve Him. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, ‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.’ The doctrine of Election is not a secret thing. The words chosen, elect, and election are used many times in scripture and for a reason. We cannot ignore it, but must study and understand it because God is revealing something about His working in us for a reason!

So, how did this doctrine start to change my life? It was subtle at first. As this concept started to take hold, I realized that there were too many teachings I held to, that I just took for granted to be true because it was what I had been taught my whole life. It’s not that everything I was taught was wrong, much of it was right, and I’m grateful for having so much truth given to me in my formative years. However, now I’ve stopped taking doctrine for granted and started taking a fresh look at the Scriptures. Also, understanding the fact that God, for His own purposes, chooses those who He will redeem and He is the one who enables them to understand the Gospel and repent is incredibly eye opening and reassuring. It’s reassuring because now I realize it doesn’t depend on me to be persuasive, or eloquent to somehow convince people of their need for Christ. I only need to be faithful to the Truth of God’s Word and trust the Holy Spirit to do His work. I don’t need to beg or make emotional appeals or try to make the Gospel somehow more palatable. This happens so often and we have so many false converts who mar the name of Christ and His bride, the Church, because they profess Him with their lips and yet constantly deny them with their lives. They don’t understand the need for repentance and the process of sanctification, due to the fact that they’ve been given a watered down version of the Gospel. Too many are concerned with getting “decisions” for Christ, that they downplay how serious that decision is! Jesus told potential followers to count the cost! How often do we hear that kind of preaching today? The doctrine of election rests in the power of the Gospel, that it will be effective to draw the elect, without needing any gimmicks!

It’s also eye opening, because when we realize that true believers are only believers because God chose them before the foundation of the world, then we start to realize how God has very specific intentions for us and for this world, and He is not leaving the “fate” of this world in the hands of mankind. We start to see His incredible Sovereignty, and His Immutability (meaning He cannot change). He is perfect in His knowledge, He can’t learn, He’s not looking down the “corridors of time” to see what we are going to do, so He can react accordingly. For me, it helped me to understand the Covenants. There are three major covenants. There is the first one that we see implied in Scripture called the Covenant of Redemption. This covenant was between the Trinity to effect the salvation of man. The Covenant of Works was only offered to Adam, but this was not for salvation! It was only to stay in right relationship with God. Adam was created in good standing with God, and he was the only one who was “born” (prior to Christ) who had the ability to Not Sin. Once he did though, the next covenant was put into effect by God…the Covenant of Grace. It was God’s Grace that offered anyone salvation, and therefore reconciliation to Himself. God did the work!! Genesis 3:15 says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” At the moment after sin entered the world and God had every right to destroy mankind, He revealed that He would rectify the situation. He says ‘I WILL PUT ENMITY’–When man was created, he was made innocent. He was the first and last one (except Christ) who had the ability to CHOOSE God or Satan. After he chose wrong, he effectively sided with Satan and had enmity with God. Consider Romans 8:7-9 : 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. We see in vs. 7 that in our natural state we are enemies of God and simply can’t make ourselves subject to His Law. God called out Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, then the nation of Israel to preserve His intention to bring about the Messiah promised back in Genesis to redeem His elect. His covenant with Israel was a physical example of a spiritual reality. They were also a lesson to us that we could never choose God and follow Him of our own accord. Left to their own devices, they would always fail and turn away. Jeremiah 31:31-34 explains the new and better covenant to come, where God does the work within us, by giving us a new heart. There is much to understand here. God CHOSE Israel, they did not choose Him. Even when Joshua tells them to choose who they will serve and they claim the obvious choice…the near future after that claim shows their hearts weren’t truly with God, because the knowledge wasn’t important enough to them to pass down and for most of the people, God became the one they turned to only after He brought judgment on them. For most of them, even this is only lip service and not true repentance.

When we go to the New Testament, we get more insight into this. Jesus tells the disciples in Luke 22:20, that the new covenant is here. The book of Hebrews explains how all of the Old Testament imagery is fulfilled in Christ and how even the sacrifices were not able to save anyone, but pointed to the One who could. The teachings of Jesus and the writings of the Apostle Paul tell us plainly that while we are all sinners and commanded to repent, we are so corrupt that we need God to quicken us to new life in order for us to accept the Gospel. I want to just share some of the references with you, so that you realize that only God gets the glory for our conversion. While some of us believe God in His “love and fairness” allows us to freely choose Him, they don’t understand the doctrine of Total Depravity (which I’ve been told is a better place to start from for this topic, and it probably is, but I see the teaching of election as being so clearly taught, I feel confident in the strength of the scriptural evidence to start here). The other issue that they must ignore, is that the Bible says we have no reason to boast. However, if we work synergistically with the Holy Spirit to accomplish that salvation, whatever small part we play, we are doing what the unbeliever does not, and for that small part, whatever you want to call it ..whether it be smarter, more spiritual, or more sensitive, makes us somewhat better than the next guy. The Bible gives us no room for that though. We are saved because God draws us to Himself with Irresistible Grace.

Jesus tells us plainly in John 6:44, 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” People want to say that the word “draw” means ‘to woo’. But Scripture interprets Scripture and the Greek word used here for “draw” is used several other times in the Bible. It is translated draw in not only John 6:44, but also in John 12:32, 18:10, and 21:6. The same Greek word is translated “dragged” in John 21:11, Acts 16:19, 21:30, and James 2:6. In all these verses, does the word indicate the idea that the object (person or thing) being acted upon is passive or active? I think the Word speaks for itself. And this is huge. We cannot rely on a poor English translation to excuse us from understanding the truth taught here and elsewhere. The original languages were inspired, the translations are not! But we are not dependent on one verse to understand election. Later in the same chapter, Jesus responds to the negative reaction His so-called disciples had to His difficult teaching regarding His flesh and blood. In verse 63, He says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” In vs. 65: And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” I shared above a passage from Romans about how those who are in the flesh cannot please God or be subject to His law. Jesus says the flesh profits nothing, it is the Spirit who gives life and He reiterates what He said back in vs.44, by repeating and further clarifying it by saying it must be granted. We need the Father to allow it and the Holy Spirit to give us new life. THEN, we can come to Christ in faith and repentance.

In Romans 9:11-16, we have another passage that teaches the doctrine of election with amazing clarity: 11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”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. Please note that Paul could have mentioned in vs11 that God knew that Jacob would be faithful and Esau would not. However, that’s not stated, but rather it seems to stress that regardless of what they would do, God chose Jacob over Esau according to His purposes. Then in vs16, we have the clincher, it is not of our will! I posit that is because our will is so corrupt, that the only way we could choose God is if, in His mercy, He gives us a new heart so that we can have the desire to choose Him. Scripture bears this out. These are only a few verses to whet your appetite to give this matter further study if you have never considered it before. These are some of the ones that I simply couldn’t in good conscience ignore and try to pretend they mean something other than what they clearly say. You will find an abundance of passages in Scripture of God telling people to choose, to repent, to obey and so on. This is our responsibility and our failure to do so is why we stand condemned on judgment day. And we would all stand condemned if God had not chosen to show mercy to some of us and quicken us to new life by the Holy Spirit to be able to turn to Him. As Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3, ‘unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.‘, and in vs6, ‘that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.‘ Our first birth was not of our choosing, nor is our second birth.

This is long enough at this point and I’ve really only scratched the surface. As I mentioned, the pages of the Bible are filled with this doctrine. Once you see it, you will wonder how you missed it for so long. I pray this has challenged you to reconsider your views if you do not believe in election already. I may share more in the future, but if you are curious, I will be happy to further discuss this with anyone. I will also share some links to resources that you may find beneficial. God Bless!

Resources:

For a very in-depth study of the Scriptures regarding the doctrines of grace, you can go here:

http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/gracelist.html

For some great teaching you can listen to, you can go here:

http://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/chosen_by_god/?sort=popular

or here: http://www.ligonier.org/learn/conferences/houston_2003_conference/