Unconditional Election
This audio is from a teaching recorded at our Wednesday Gathering on November 29, 2023.
Key Terms
Contradiction:
when a thing is what it is and not what it is at the same time and in the same relationship. (The law of non-contradiction says that “A cannot be non-A in the same time, place, and manner.”)
Paradox:
an apparent contradiction that upon closer scrutiny can be resolved
Mystery:
that which is true but which we do not fully understand.
God’s moral will (will of command):
God’s will as it is revealed to us in Scripture. He has given us clear instructions on what we ought to do and what we ought not to do.
God’s sovereign will (will of decree):
God’s will that he actually brings to pass. This is his will that has decreed from all of eternity.
Unconditional election:
Before the foundations of the world, God chose for himself a people in Christ, the elect, not based upon some foreseen condition that they would meet.
Effectual call:
the Spirit’s internal work in the elect when they are drawn, at God’s appointed and accepted time, to believe the gospel of Christ.
Key Texts & Quotes
Ephesians 1:11–12,
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
Proverbs 16:33,
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
Proverbs 19:21,
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
Proverbs 21:1,
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
Psalm 33:8-11,
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. 10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
Psalm 115:2–3,
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
Psalm 135:6,
Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
Lamentations 3:37-38,
Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
Isaiah 45:6–7,
… I am the Lord, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the Lord, who does all these things.
Isaiah 46:9–10,
… I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
… I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
Job 42:2,
I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
R. C. Sproul:
To say that God foreordains all that comes to pass is simply to say that God is sovereign over his entire creation. If something could come to pass apart from his sovereign permission, then that which came to pass would frustrate his sovereignty. If God refused to permit something to happen and it happened anyway, then whatever caused it to happen would have more authority and power than God himself. If there is any part of creation outside of God’s sovereignty, then God is simply not sovereign. If God is not sovereign, then God is not God. (Chosen by God, 26)
Kevin Vanhoozer:
When it comes to divine mystery, between prideful speculation on the one hand and slothful skepticism on the other, there is reverent studiousness in regard to God’ word. That is what we should do with our created intelligence.
Joni Eareckson Tada:
God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves.
London Baptist Confession of 1689, Chapter 10:
10.1 Those whom God hath predestined unto life, He is pleased in His appointed, and accepted time, effectually to call,1 by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ;2 enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God;3 taking away their heart of stone, and giving to them a heart of flesh;4 …
10.2 This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, nor from any power or agency in the creature7, being wholly passive therein, being dead in sins and trespasses, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit8 …
Resources for Further Study
30-minutes of reading:
Effectual Calling, by Matthew Barrett
Unconditional Election and Invincible Purpose of God, by John Piper
Ten Reasons You Need Unconditional Election, by John Piper (audio)
2-hours of reading:
TULIP and Reformed Theology, by R. C. Sproul
God Is Sovereign, by Kevin Vanhoozer (video)
5-hours of reading:
Five Points: Toward a Deeper Experience of God’s Grace, by John Piper
Chosen by God, by R. C. Sproul
