This article is the seventeenth installment in our series "Christian, What Do You Believe: The Belgic Confession of Faith." Find the whole series here.
The Bible’s story moves briskly from the heights of the glory of creation to the depths of despair and corruption because of sin. When Adam exercised his free will contrary to God’s will, he and his descendants fell “into perdition and ruin.”
But even at this low point in mankind’s brief history, God was at work. He had eternally and unchangeably committed to save sinners “without any consideration of their works.” God had “elected and chosen in Jesus Christ our Lord” a people to be his very own. That should sound to us like good news.
Not everyone thinks so, though. Some people dislike the idea of election, what Scripture sometimes calls predestination (Eph. 1:5). They think it reduces humans to manipulated objects, cancelling human freedom. But election is clearly biblical. According to Jesus, God has his “elect,” those “whom he chose” (Mark 13:20). God chooses some and not others (Rom. 9:10–13). The question isn’t, Does God elect? but, What is election? and What difference does it make?
Many objections to unconditional election can be overcome when we consider the doctrine in light of the tragic and damning reality of original sin. If original sin is “So vile and enormous in God’s sight that it is enough to condemn the human race” (art. 15; see Rom. 5:18), then only the sovereign choice of almighty God could rescue people from their calamity. That is just how the Belgic Confession frames the doctrine of election.
The Facts about Election
Here are several biblical truths about predestination.
Election Is Necessary
What Jesus said of his disciples is true of all his children: “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). By nature we were “dead in our trespasses” (Eph. 2:5). No one can come to Christ unless the Father who sent him draws him (John 6:44). Our natural depravity is a pit so deep that we can’t withdraw ourselves. But God is merciful in “withdrawing and saving from this perdition” his elect. Those whom the Father has given to the Son will come to him (John 6:37).
Election Is Eternal and Unconditional
Some people claim that God elects to save sinners because he foresees their future faith. But election “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16; cf. 9:11). Through predestination, God “works all things”—including his promise of grace and the obedience of those whom he elects—“according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11).
Election Reveals God’s Justice
We might wonder why God didn’t decree to save everyone. But how, then, would the just God make his justice known? “As all have sinned in Adam, lie under the curse, and are deserving of eternal death, God would have done no injustice by leaving them all to perish and delivering them over to condemnation on account of sin.” By leaving only some “in their ruin and fall into which they plunged themselves,” God honors his just character and proclaims the heinousness of all sin and the horror of going to hell for rejecting Jesus.
Election Reveals God’s Mercy
In response to doubts about the fairness of predestination, Paul writes that, in election, God makes “known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Rom. 9:23). God chooses the weak to show his glory (1 Cor. 1:26–31; cf. James 2:5). If you come to Christ in humble faith, God will receive you in mercy, and your salvation will prove his gracious election.
Election Is Rooted in Christ
Speaking of the elect, Paul writes that God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). God eternally decreed to give some people to his beloved Son as a sacred trust (John 17:6, 9, 12, 24). Christ is our representative, our champion—a greater David triumphing over a greater Goliath. Election is not a cold and impersonal truth, it is the promise of genuine saving union with Christ.
The Fruit of Election
Election is a plain and wonderful Bible truth. God’s sovereign and eternal choice of his elect is a powerful work that inevitably produces wonderful fruit.
Election Produces Comfort
Many people who don’t know the truth of divine election fear the loss of their salvation. That’s a hard way to live. I once saw a freeway billboard that showed an anxious face with this caption: I’m afraid of losing my home. People living in fear of foreclosure might feel scared, depressed, angry, and embarrassed. How much more dreadful is it to live with the nagging fear that you might lose your soul forever! But God never goes back on his choice to save. The elect will surely obtain the salvation they seek (Rom. 11:7).
Election Produces Thankfulness
Have you ever wondered, “Why do I, and not others, trust in Jesus and find myself resting in his goodness and following his good commandments?” Am I somehow better than other people? Election teaches that God saved us “not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Tim. 1:9). Election teaches us not to be proud but grateful. “God’s chosen ones” must “be thankful” (Col. 3:12, 15).
Election Produces Faithfulness
Jesus told his disciples, “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” (John 15:16). Those whom the Lord elects are called “chosen and faithful” (Rev. 17:14). Why? Because “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 brethren” (Rom. 8:29). Believers work out their salvation trusting that God is working in them “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12).
Election Produces Confidence
Confidence implies eager anticipation of the future, something only an elect child of God can truly have. In his sermon on the end times, Jesus promised to “send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:31). In a similar context, Jesus pledged that God will “give justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night … he will give justice to them speedily” (Luke 18:7, 8). The elect are both comforted in this life and confident about the life to come.
Because of sin, humanity’s story took a dark turn. But even this tragedy did not cancel God’s eternal plan for those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28). Don’t just agree with the doctrine of election. Trust the God who elects, and work to “confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall” (2 Peter 1:10).
Footnotes
Canons of Dort, 1.1.
