Yet again we come to one of those posts which has been sitting unfinished for some time - remember the thought of blogging through TULIP, well I made it to T! But I thought it was important to keep going, to ponder my understanding of these points. Anyway… I was thinking that Unconditional Election isn’t really much different to Total Depravity, it’s just the next step…

Why Election?

Universalism isn’t Christian, it’s a heresy - Driscoll mocks it referring to it as “Justification by death”, you get your ticket to heaven when you die. Jesus says there’s a heaven and a hell, and everyone is going to spend eternity in one of these places. Since God is sovereign, then at the very least he has foreknowledge of ‘who goes where’. But Election is more than this, God as sovereign wills and purposes all things to his glory, including salvation. God chooses (elects) those who will come to faith, and by the same logic, the same truth, God also chooses people who will not be saved.

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory… Romans 9: 22-23 ESV

We see two groups here in Romans 9, “vessels of wrath” and “vessels of mercy”. Both groups have been chosen, elected - to say “prepared beforehand” is to choose in advance, to… predestine?? Both groups have been dealt with by God, one with “wrath”, and one with “mercy” to show his power and glory. Wrath is God’s righteous anger and judgement upon sin that all of mankind deserve. Mercy is not for everyone, it’s not universal, although the fact that God has “endured with much patience” is a sign of common grace, of some mercy shown to all. Mercy is undeserved, it’s unconditional because it’s a free gift from God.

That’s my reasoning of Romans 9 - if we don’t accept that then we have to seriously consider what election is? who are the elect? what does it mean to be predestined? The Bible tells us that God elects and predestines, that seems to be what Romans 9 tries to explain…

Why Unconditional?

The mercy shown in Romans 9 is unconditional. Ephesians 2 showed that we’re dead and unable to get to God. So if this is true then our ‘eternal destiny’ cannot be in our hands, we’re dead! We can’t do anything. Romans 8 makes it clear that it’s all God - he forknew, he predestined, he called, he justified, he glorified - we didn’t contribute or by our actions cause any of these things, they were all the free gift of God. It was by grace we were saved, not works.

As I understand, an Arminian position would say that, God in his foreknowledge chooses to save (elects) people based on their response to the gospel - conditional election. Other less acceptable positions might say that God doesn’t have foreknowledge and salvation is unknown until the Day, realistically this is probably going to lead to universalism - everyone is elected, or at least saved in the end.

Conditional election may at first glance be easier to swallow, but it has two major flaws: first the focus is taken away from God and shifted to us, but this is not right, Ephesians 2:8 says that even our faith is a gift of God’s grace. Secondly there is the problem of children who die young, tribes who never hear the gospel, the mentally incapable (is that PC? anyway you know what I mean). If election is conditional on the choice of the individual, then that automatically condemns the above who for one reason or another are unable to hear/understand/respond to the gospel. So in fact, believing in a God who chooses unconditionally, in my mind is much easier to accept!

The Next Step…

At the start I said I thought this was simply the next logical step, following on from Total Depravity. TD says that we are corrupted in every area and incapable of approaching and responding to God. Unconditional Election affirms our state of total helplessness - there is nothing we can do to merit salvation, nothing that might persuade God that we’re not that bad - it’s the story of the God who in his mercy saves people like you and me, who without him are lost, hopeless and helpless.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure - Psalm 40: 2