Election & Faith

There is no doubt that the Bible teaches that God has an elect people chosen by Him in free and sovereign grace in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. They are known by being brought by the Holy Spirit to hear and believe the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus wherein the righteousness of God (the entire merit of Christ’s obedience unto death as their Surety and Substitute) is revealed to them and received by them. 

They all without exception believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the Gospel (1 Thess. 1:4-5; 2 Thess. 2:13-14), However, the Gospel does not address lost sinners as being either elect or non-elect. It addresses them as sinners who have nothing to recommend them unto God and who are in need of God’s free sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ to save them. 

It addresses them as who are totally depraved, dead in sin, and in need of righteousness they cannot produce. It commands all who hear it to believe in Christ as He is identified in the Gospel and to repent of their own dead works and idolatry. 

The Gospel promises salvation to all (whosoever will) who come to God pleading the righteousness of His Son. All who do are identified in the Bible as “elect according to the fore knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2). 

When we hear the Gospel, then, the question for us to ponder is not, “Am I elect or non-elect?” The question is, “Do I know I am a sinner and that I have only one hope of salvation, of being accepted with God, of being forgiven and having eternal life – Jesus Christ the righteous?” 

-preacher  Bill Parker

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