Election
How is it that Jesus has only shed his blood for the elect, yet John says he takes away the sins of the world? How is it that God desires all to be saved yet doesn’t elect all to be saved?
Our church has been studying Revelation this summer, but there was one phrase in a recent passage that I was unable to address in the sermon. It is found in Revelation 13:8:
“… And all who dwell on earth will worship [the beast], everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.”
This is a startling verse. It says that what determines if a person will faithfully trust in, worship, and follow Jesus is whether, before the creation of the world—before they even existed—God wrote their name in a book. That means that they are not chosen because they will eventually believe in Jesus, but the other way around; they believe in Jesus because they were previously chosen by God.
Unconditional Election
We call this doctrine unconditional election, meaning that our election to salvation is not conditioned on our merit or future decision to believe in Christ. God did not look into the future, see who would have faith, and then choose them. Rather, in eternity past, he chose specific people by grace (not based on anything they had done), and he gave them faith in accord with this eternal decree. This doctrine is summarized in the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 3.3-5:
3. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men
and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others
foreordained to everlasting death.
4. These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are
particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so
certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or
diminished.
5. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the
foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and
immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His
will, hath chosen in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of His free
grace and love alone, without any foresight of faith or good works, or
perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as
conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto; and all to the praise of
His glorious grace.
Jesus died for the sheep that were given to him by the Father. They hear his voice and come to him. That means he died for those whose names are written in the book of life—the elect.
The clause “their number is so certain and definite” in paragraph four touches on a second aspect of God’s sovereignty in our salvation, one we also see in Revelation 13:8: particular atonement.
Particular Atonement
Typically called limited atonement, but better named particular atonement, this Calvinist doctrine says that Jesus died particularly and only for God’s elect. In Jesus’ dying to save a person, he doesn’t try to save them. He saves them through and through. If Jesus died for you, then he is going to give you faith to believe in him so that you will receive the benefits of his work on the cross. In Revelation, the book of names is the book of the Lamb who was slain. That is, it is the book of the names of those for whom the Lamb died. As Jesus says in the Gospel of John:
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep … My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:14-15, 27-30; bold added).
Jesus died for the sheep that were given to him by the Father. They hear his voice and come to him. That means he died for those whose names are written in the book of life—the elect.
Election and Grace
These doctrines are often troubling to people for at least two reasons. One is that they are hard to understand as they can seem to go against the Bible itself:
“[God] who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4).
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
These words may be difficult to hear, but the reality is that there is no deeper answer to the “why?” of things other than the ultimate glory of God.
How is it that Jesus has only shed his blood for the elect, yet John says he takes away the sins of the world? How is it that God desires all to be saved yet doesn’t elect all to be saved? The Scriptures simply don’t say. The Calvinist position is to hold both of these paradoxical beliefs—God only saves some, but also, God desires that all people be saved. (John Piper has a treatment of this question here.)
A second reason these doctrines can be troubling is that it can be difficult to accept that God saves some and not others. The Bible is often reticent to demand that God explain why he does what he does. Much about God’s ways is beyond our figuring. But there is one verse that gives an answer to why God passes over some:
“You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?”
(Romans 9:19–24).
These words may be difficult to hear, but the reality is that there is no deeper answer to the “why?” of things other than the ultimate glory of God. God has created this world and directs all of history for the sole purpose of displaying the beauty of his love, wisdom, justice, holiness, and grace.
Election is essential doctrine for any church that is really built on God’s grace. If it is not our own wisdom, strength, or righteousness that saves us, then it must all be God’s work. It is a doctrine that leads us to worship God and give him glory. It is grace that chose us, grace that sent Jesus, grace that first led us to repentance and faith, grace that transforms our character, and grace that will lead us home to glory. Though election is mysterious, the grace-centered church will always celebrate such a precious truth.
