Scriptures about Election
Thought I would post the scriptures that we talked about on Sunday regarding the Doctrine of Election as we explored Ephesians 1:4. Even though this is a controversial and somewhat challenging doctrine to grasp, we can't let that trip us from the central core truth of election -- God chose us to be In Christ from before the foundation of the world, solely by His grace and mercy, not because we deserved it -- and that should cause us to rise and worship him even more.
Ephesians | Divine Disclosure
Part 4 – Chosen
Ephesians 1:3-6 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,4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Wayne Grudem defines the doctrine of Election as – an act of God, before creation, in which he chooses some to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleasure.
Election in the Bible
If we look at the Old Testament, In God’s sovereignty, he chose for himself a people – The Israelites. Beginning with Abraham, God chooses Abraham to be the progenitor of this new godly nation, of whom God says in Genesis 12, that they would be a blessed people who will in turn bless all of the nations of the earth.
Abraham’s descendants would be a people marked by God, to bring about God’s rescue plan for humanity. God enacted this plan, from before the foundation of the world; it was not a Plan B.
The covenant God made with Abraham, caused him to bless Abraham’s descendants, and demonstrate his great power by delivering them from bondage in Egypt, giving them his divine law and establishing them in the land that He had promised them.
However, we see that God did not choose Israel because they were holy, because they loved God, because they were a great people – God choose them because it was his good pleasure to do it and to receive for himself a people that would be his treasured possession.
Deut. 7:6-8 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deut. 14:2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Deut. 32 – The Song of Moses
Election in the New Testament
Who does God choose?
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,31 so that, as it is written, Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
God chose the least, the nobodies, the weak, the rejected, the broken, so that no one but God could take credit.
There are so many passages in the Bible that speak of God choosing us, that it was solely his divine discretion, pleasure and sovereign will and purpose to elect some.
Paul – Romans 9:6-13 – Jacob and Esau – before they were born, God chose that the older would serve the younger. God says that he has a sovereign right to do whatever he wants to do with those that he created.
Romans 8:29-30 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Romans 11:5-6 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
1 Thess. 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 Thess. 2:13 -14 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.14 To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Timothy 1:9-10 who 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,10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
1 Peter 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Revelation 17:8 -- says that there are some whose names were not written in the Book of life from before the foundation of the world
What does Jesus have to say about Election
Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
Mark 13:20 And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days.
John 6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
John 6:60-65 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, Do you take offense at this?62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.64 But there are some of you who do not believe. (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)65 And he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.
John 15:15-16 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
There are many other passages in the Bible regarding God soveriegn choosing of a people for Himself. This is not some hidden message in the Bible, this is stated and declared throughout all of Scripture that this was God's purpose and will.
