Why We Can't Just Ignore Election
A few years ago (okay, like 20 years ago—apparently I'm at that age where "a few years ago" could mean anything), there was a pastor who claimed doctrines aren't like blocks you build a tower with. They're more like springs on a trampoline. Take a few springs off a trampoline and you can still bounce. Take blocks out of a tower and it falls over.
His point: Can't we just get away from this difficult doctrine of election and focus on things that bring people together instead of tearing us apart?
I get it. But I'm convinced that election is a load-bearing doctrine. Here's why we need it:
Election Protects Our Doctrine of Grace
If God chooses before the foundation of the world—before you or I exist—then what can we contribute to our salvation? Nothing. This completely cuts us off at the knees when we try to say:
"I got 99% of the way to salvation, and God pushed me over the line."
"I got 1% toward salvation, and God did the other 99%"
"I wanted to be saved but couldn't do anything, so God did 100% based on my initiative."
No. All of that gets cut off. Election shows that I wanted nothing to do with God. I wanted sin. God graciously chose me before time and brought me all the way from death to glorification. I'm not wise enough or strong enough or noble enough. I didn't choose God first.
Election protects all of that and shows that any boasting is illegitimate.
Election Shows Grace Is Powerful and Purposeful
I have two kinds of money: the paper money in my wallet that I can use to buy groceries, and whatever's in my savings account—numbers on a computer screen that go down and occasionally up. They both count as money, but one I can touch and feel and use; the other is abstract.
I think we often treat God's grace like those retirement account numbers—we know it exists, but it doesn't really do anything for us. It's abstract.
Predestination shows that God's grace is active. It does something. The grace of God doesn't just sit there waiting for you—it draws you. God uses His grace to draw you to Himself, change you, transform you. There's a purpose to it: to save individuals.
God's grace isn't random or arbitrary or theoretical. We have a real God with real grace for real sinners.
Election Undergirds Assurance
Am I the only one who prayed the sinner's prayer 30+ times because I wasn't confident in myself? Was my prayer sincere enough? Good enough? True enough? Did it have enough spiritual oomph behind it for my act of getting saved to actually work?
If I can't get on the conveyor belt of God's grace, then it's not His fault—He's faithful. I just never prayed good enough. So I can't have confidence in my salvation.
But what if redemption doesn't start with me praying? What if God actually initiates it? What if the reason I'm trusting in the first place is because God chose me to trust in His Son? The reason I find Jesus beautiful is because God chose me to find Jesus beautiful.
Then I can have assurance because ultimately, salvation doesn't depend on my strength of faith or intensity of prayer. Election depends upon God and His kind and generous grace.
Election gives us a never-ending well of grace to draw from because it's not grace that starts in time—it's eternal, before creation.
Next time, we'll wrap up with some practical pitfalls to avoid when thinking about predestination.
This series is adapted from a class on God's Work of Redemption. Unfortunately, I lost my notes for teaching, so this is an AI transcription/adaptation of the audio recording. I’m not convinced that it did an excellent job - I know it’s missing several footnotes. But I also don’t have time right now to recreate it. Maybe in the future I’ll come back and edit this series on God’s Work of Redemption.
Footnotes
[^1]: Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics Volume 2: God and Creation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004), 2:393.
[^2]: Andrew David Naselli, Predestination: An Introduction, Short Studies in Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024).
[^3]: Wilhelmus A'Brakel, The Christian's Reasonable Service, trans. Bartel Elshout (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1992), 244-45.