Covenant and Election

Are people saved because God decided, long before they existed, that these specific people should (1) hear the Gospel, then (2) receive the faith to recognize and accept the truth, and furthermore (3) receive the spiritual power to preserve and produce the fruit of faith?

For humans it does not come natural to see reality from God’s perspective, but once we come to know God, we cannot deny that everything hinges on God’s plans.  If God is truly God, he must be all-knowing and all-powerful, and He will not leave any outcome to chance; he will certainly not leave things to the fickle decisions and actions of sinful people.

Nevertheless, if we use God’s perspective as our primary perspective, we easily get in trouble.  If we see people as either destined for salvation (to go to Heaven) or for continuation on their road to perdition (Hell), we would likely become …

• ·         paranoid about our position (Are we among the elect or not?),
• ·         passive and fatalistic (We cannot change anything, for God has decided our destiny!), and/or
• ·         proud in false assurance (As member of the true church, my destiny is assured!).

Although the Bible confirms the reality of unconditional election, it is also very clear that we are still addressed as beings with personal responsibility, which must make the right decisions (implying that we do have options to choose from).  Therefore all people must seriously seek God (Acts 17), and when they hear the truth (about their spiritual state in the face of a holy God, and God’s rescue plan through Christ’s suffering and death), they must repent and believe. 

When we have been regenerated by His Spirit our perspective changes.  We realize that we cannot take credit for good acts such as believing the Gospel, since we could only do this through the (regenerating) work of His Spirit.  Also, our responsibilities do not end there. We are called to put Christ in the centre of our lives and to show our thankfulness in our obedience to the teaching of Jesus and his apostles.  If we have truly experienced God’s amazing grace, there can be only one outcome: we will become mirrors of His love.  Over time our election must become evident in growing godliness and in perseverance of our faith.  Even if we are surrounded by hostility or hypocrisy, we must prayerfully persevere in living as true follower of Jesus Christ, “walking just as Jesus walked”.

Throughout this development, it is pointless to wonder whether or not we are truly elected unto salvation. We must obey the way of Christ, not to please our parents, pastor, or peers but out of true thankfulness for God’s amazing grace.  When we continue to walk the way of Christian faith, it is obvious that this is the work of God, and we may be confident that God, who began this work in us, will continue to provide for us so that we can run the race until the finish line.

Although the Bible clearly shows us the way of salvation and our responsibilities in this regard, that does not make it easy to comprehend.  After all, in our human understanding (or rather, in our lack of understanding) if God has already decided the outcome of events, there are no real choices or options left for us. Conversely, if we have real responsibility and there are really options that we can choose from, then God cannot have predestined the outcome in advance.  Or, perhaps, as authors like Philip Yancey have suggested, God has relinquished some of His Power, taking a huge risk by letting us decide what will really happen in the time to come.

Either way we pretend that we can comprehend the ways of God.  Whether we deny God’s true sovereignty (for instance, by suggesting that he has put it on hold) or the existence of choices that people need to make (by denying that faith is an action performed by (regenerated) humans, or by denying the need to accept Christ), we end up twisting the truth and getting off the biblical balance!  

The reality is too complex for our simple minds to fully grasp.  It is like trying to force the earth’s spherical (or ellipsoidal) surface into a two-dimensional projection like a map.  If we insist on right angles between parallels and meridians, the areas and shapes of the continents get badly distorted.  On the other hand, if we are determined to keep the areas in proportion to reality, then we end up with twisted angles or with a fragmented picture of the whole.  Similarly, we create a distorted view of God if we (1) insist on human choices and responsibility, and then conclude that God has relinquishes his control, or (2) insist on God’s sovereign power, and then conclude that humans actually have no options left, since they are either elect for heaven or doomed for hell.  We must learn to accept with humility that we cannot always give a neat and accurate doctrinal description that does justice to the full truth, revealed to us in Scripture.  I understand that men like John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards grasped this reality of truth in tension, pleading for a balanced perspective.

Skeptics might easily dismiss this teaching, claiming that the apparent contradiction proves that it cannot be true.  Yet, in modern science there are also situations where we face similar dilemmas and apparent contradictions.  Many scientists believe (!) that everything is determined by scientific laws that control all cause-effect relationships.  Consequently, the outcome of events has been predetermined (by the conditions at the beginning), and the natural events just run as they have been programmed in the laws of nature.  Yet, no responsible human being can consistently dismiss human responsibility for their actions, for the categories of good and evil would become meaningless.  It has been said that a scientist, convinced of the predetermination of all things will still check for traffic before crossing a busy road!