How is the Election of God Fair?
As taken from John MacArthur’s Study Bible, Sermons, as well as from Unconditional Election written by Earl Blackburn
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Compiled with comments by Tim Gowens
Before I proceed to write about the Fairness of God in Election, which is a most difficult doctrine, I want to state that I currently struggle with this doctrine – perhaps more than any other – but have come to the place where I am trusting God with it. Here are some questions that I have had regarding Predestination, Foreknowledge, Election, and being “Called” of God, and the Choice of God. I will state the questions and answer them in separate blogs – according to what the Bible has said. It is up to God to convince the fallen heart of man of anything true. My prayer is that He will bring many to a deeper closer walk of Trust in His perfect sinless state.
1. How can God Pass over some and choose others and hold the persons who He did not choose accountable for their sin?
2. If God Elects some and passes over others, how is this Fair? I always thought God was a fair and Just God!
3. Scripture says that He is not willing for any to die but for all to come to repentance. How does this line up with election?
4. The Doctrine of Election must not be true because it goes against man’s free will. Does man have a free will?
5. Isn’t salvation offered to All mankind? Did not God say for us to go into the entire world and preach the Gospel? If predestination and election is accurate, then why should we evangelize, if God has already chosen those who will come to know Him – what’s the point?
6. Has God limited Himself and His ability to know what man will choose? Is open Theism a valid doctrine?
7. There are apparently errors in the Bible since scripture seems to teach both opposing views. Is the Bible without error? If so, then how can there be opposing views in scripture?
8. I have always been taught that God Loves Everybody? How can a loving God predestine anyone to Hell?
9. Since scripture teaches both the Sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, should I choose a Side?
10. If the Doctrine of Election is true, then why and how should I evangelize others?
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Before I attempt to answer any question regard the doctrine of Election, I want to make some very important points as a platform to spring from. If you disagree with these points, you will only find that you will become angry and frustrated. I know that I certainly did – until I asked God to help me, thru the study of His word. I sought after Him and He answered for He is not far from any of us (the elect). You should consider if you really want to proceed because this is a very difficult subject. What was the result of the Lord’s teaching on the subject of election? Did the people rejoice? Did they respond favorably? Luke 4:16-30 tell us they “were filled with wrath” and sought to kill Him.
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1. The doctrine of Election and predestination was almost an assumed position in the early church and Paul’s day. It is stated so often as an assumed position with no explanation or apology. It is most difficult for us now, because we as Americans have been brought up in a society where having a sovereign King is foreign to us. We are the masters of our fate – the captain of the ship, but are we really?
2. What I feel or don’t understand does not change the only source of truth – God’s Word! My mind, will and feelings, and nature are completely fallen. It was completely dead before Christ, but now I am alive in Him. (Romans 8) I still have residual fallen nature – even as a mature child of God. (Romans 7)
3. I cannot design God to be something that I have created in my fallen mind. I cannot make God into my own image. He is completely different and higher than all my ways and thoughts. (Is. 55:8-9) I am to bow to Him! He does not have to explain Himself to me. (Job cp 38-42)
4. Because I am corrupted in all my nature, I must be willing to expose myself to the only source that is uncorrupted – Scripture. I must be willing to spend my time studying it – and submitting to it. If I am not truly a student of God’s word then I really don’t have a place to argue!
5. This doctrine offends many because it is a direct assault to pride and ego.
6. I cannot expect a person who is not a believer to understand this doctrine. Nor can I expect a person who may be a believer – but stuck in his prideful condition, to accept this doctrine. I should expect Persecution to be the end result – since pride is at stake. Pride never dies easily – apart from the work of God in a person’s heart.
The Question?
How is the Election of God Fair?
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What we are really asking is, is there unrighteousness with God?
The Answer as I see it is:
The bottom line is that God does what He does because it ultimately will bring Himself glory. God always does what is Right, Perfect, and what will glorify Him.
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For me to believe anything else is to say that the perfect God who created everything, is somehow flawed and unfair. Well… it is not that He is flawed and unfair! All that He does is right and perfect – because He IS right and perfect in all His ways. I am the one who is flawed and unfair. How can I – or anyone else born of a woman, say to God that because I don’t fully understand, (because we view His actions from a place of fallen ness- even as believers) that He is somehow wrong in His choice?
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My choice and “Free will” will never be independent of God’s will. God teaches all throughout scripture that He alone is the author of life. (Job, chapters 38-42) How can a clay pot say to the one who made it – “Why did you make me this way?” (Romans 9) I have no right to question anything when it comes to the decisions of a perfect God who makes those decisions from a will that is independent from me. I must be fully taught and understand how dead we really are before Christ. Without an understanding of the doctrine of human depravity, we cannot begin to grasp even a little of what the scripture teaches regarding election!
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“Why” is completely bound up in His eternal will. That is a place I cannot go – and perhaps can never fully understand –even in Heaven! I must come to the place where I fully trust Him.
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Here what Paul wrote in regards to this issue in Romans 9. (Emphasis mine)
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.” “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not My people,There they shall be called sons of the living God.” 27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved.
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The correct question to ask is:
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Why would God show mercy on anyone?
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The answer is found in verse 23. Because He wanted to show His great Mercy on those whom He chose, before He ever created the world.
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I have come to conclude that God’s choice to show mercy and to demonstrate wrath, are both equally beautiful – for the both come from Him! How He chooses, and on whom He chooses, is wrapped up in the eternal will of God – and I cannot know that. I am to trust Him, as Isaac did when his father Abraham was told by God to offer him up as a sacrifice.
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Do you trust Him like this? This level of faith is a gift from God. Ask Him to give you the faith to trust Him at His word.
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Want more Study on this topic?
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Look up the following passages and slowly read them. Let them sink into your heart.
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The nature of election
1. Election is the work of God from eternity (Eph.1:4,5;2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9). God’s election did not come into effect after we chose Christ, but before we chose Christ. God’s choice of us preceded our choice of Him and His choice was before the foundation of the world. According to Rev. 17:8 the Lamb’s Book of Life was written before time began.
2. Election is sovereign and unconditional. God did not choose sinners because He saw they would repent and believe (foreseen faith) or in response to any other work they would do; instead He chose sinners to salvation according to His good pleasure (Eph.1:5 and 2:8-9; Rom. 9:11). 1 Peter 1:2 points out that election was “unto” obedience, not because of some act(s) of obedience on the part of sinners.
3. Election concerns individuals (Acts13:48; Rom.9:11).Paul says to the believers in Thessalonica, “knowing, beloved brethren, you election by God,” (1 Thess. 1:4).
4. The final aim of election is God’s glory and it is the work of His delight (Eph.1:4-6). God chose some and passed by others according to His own good pleasure, so that at the last He alone would be glorified (1 Cor. 1:30-31)
5. It is just (Rom. 9:16, 20-21). All that the infinitely holy God of heaven and earth does is just and good. While men in their partiality would choose people because of social status, position, economic state, appearance, etc…, God was not affected by any of these considerations. He did not choose individuals to be recipients of His salvation because of any good or because of any evil He saw in them. He was totally just in His election.
6. Election is not limited to Jews or to any other particular nationality, but extends to people of every race, tribe and language (Rom.9:24). Men may be proud of race, face, place, and grace (as the Jews were), but these things gain no favor with the Almighty. He has His chosen ones in every class and stratum of society, form every nation (Rev. 5:9).
7. The sovereign choosing of specific, unworthy sinners to salvation by God is unchangeable and effectual. The Lord does not add to or delete from His chosen. Their number was immutable fixed in eternity past. All of the elect shall be saved and shall enter into glory at last (Rom. 8:28-30; 2 Tim 2:19) As the Savior has said, “This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” ( John 6:39)
8. This doctrine was taught not only by Paul the Apostle, but by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. As the Savior began His ministry, one of the first sermons He preached was in the synagogue in Nazareth (see Luke 4:16-30). Jesus told of how God passed by all of the widows in Israel during Elijah’s day and sent the prophet to a heathen widow in Zarephath (v.26). What is this if it is not election? It is God passing by a multitude and showing grace and favor to the most undeserving and unworthy! Christ continues to expound the sovereign and distinguishing grace of God in the next verse (v.27) when He declares there were “many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and not of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” Again Christ illustrated the fact that God passes by many to show mercy to one! What was the result of the Lord’s teaching on the subject of election? Did the people rejoice? Did they respond favorably? Verses 28-29 tell us they “were filled with wrath” and sought to kill Him. That same type of response is often encountered today when God’s men and people faithfully proclaim the truth. The spirit that is filled with anger and wrath at the doctrine of election is not the Spirit of Christ, but of the rebellious human heart. Our Lord taught election in other sections of Scripture also (see Matt. 11:25-27; John 6:37, 39 & 15:16,19) One must not try to set Christ against Paul or vice versa; Paul preached that which he received from Christ his Redeemer. As C.H. Spurgeon once said, “It is not novelty, then, that I am preaching no new doctrine. I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines that are called by nickname, Calvinism, but which are surely and verily that revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus.”
9. Election becomes evident in time and affects all phases of a believer’s life. The believers in the church at Thessalonica were told to know and be assured of their election of God. (1 Thess. 1:4). Just as individuals were chosen in eternity past to be saved, they shall in time be called to receive that salvation (2 Thess. 2:13-14), which shall change and affect every aspect of their lives. This is clearly seen in Paul’s injunction to the Colossians “as the elect of God, holy and beloved,…” (Col. 3:12-4:6). Areas which would be wrought upon by God’s electing grace were: the believer’s heart and mind before God, his relationship with his fellow man and brethren, his marriage and family, and his work. Every sphere of life is covered. It must be noted that holiness is a mark of all of God’s elect, blood-washed people. If there is no holiness, there is no salvation, nor election! That is why Peter tells us to make our calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:5-11).
10. Lastly, as the nature of election, it is not only a choosing unto salvation, but also to vocation and service. Christ chose twelve apostles (John 6:70), and Paul was chosen into special service (Acts 9:15,16 & 17:26). We too will be place into our special area of service. We are to shine the light where we can and make sure we fully understand whom it is that we serve – being faithful to study and rightly divide the Word of Truth.
