“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” – Ephesians 1:3-6
“(God) 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” – 2 Timothy 1:9
” ‘Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’ “ – Luke 12:32
According to R.C. Sproul, the doctrine of election or predestination can be summed up by saying, “From all eternity, before we even existed, God decided to save some members of the human race and to let the rest of the human race perish.” One problem a lot of people have with this doctrine is that they don’t understand why it is that God chooses us. There is the idea that God, being outside of time (is this Biblical?) foreknew that we would choose Him and so He predestined us to salvation through this foreknowledge. There is also the idea that God is just arbitrary and capricious with whom He chooses. I, however, believe that both of these views are incorrect. In fact, if we look to the verses above we see that they clearly tell why God chose those that He did: for His own purpose and pleasure of His will!
But for a lot of people this doesn’t help much. To some it is very confusing to imagine how God could choose us according to the purpose and pleasure of His will. Yet, I believe that this is something that we can all easily understand if we take a minute to think about it. If you have a spouse or a best friend, try and think back as to why you “choose” that person to fill that role for you? What was it that led you to take that person as your husband or wife or closest confidant? Some may say it is environmental, those whom we are in closest contact or shared situations with, but there are a number of people who share environments with, and yet we only choose a specific few of all people for these roles. Why?
I know myself, though I believe that it was God’s action which brought me and my wife together, that I can give you no good reason for why we love each other. This may sound harsh and unromantic, but I argue that in contrast it is actually more pure and deep; that there is nothing save the good pleasure of my will that makes me love my wife! My love for her is not based upon something she has done, or a foreknowledge of something that she will do, nor upon the fact that she chose me as her husband, but solely upon the purpose and pleasure of my will to choose her! And thus, because of this, I long to love her, to care for her, and make her happy, and through this myself am pleased.
Therefore, I believe if we take God’s election in this light it makes the issue of why He choose His elect a little clearer. If the only final explanation for why we choose those whom we love most dearly is that it is somehow pleasurable to our will, then why should we hold God, in whose image we were created, to a more definite standard? Instead we should rejoice, as it says in 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, that it makes God happy to predestine, call, justify, sanctify, and glorify us!
