Concluding Thoughts
God has no obligation to predestine anyone in the first place. The astonishing reality is not that God has only elected some to be saved but that he would elect anyone in the first place! So, if God has no obligation to save anyone, then why are there folks that object to God’s gracious choice in election? I will let you in on a little secret: These folks down deep inside believe that grace is only grace if its given to all people. Yes, I know what you are thinking, ‘But that defeats the very meaning of grace.’ Exactly, grace is undeserved. So, if God chooses to give one person electing grace, he is not required to give someone else this same grace. ‘But thats not fair!’ someone may object. That’s right, its not fair–its called grace. We don’t want God to be fair! We want him to be merciful. If God was fair with us, we would all get our just due: to perish eternally in our sins.
It is like the guilty man who was just pardoned from death row; rather than praising and thanking the governor for his mercy, he points his finger at him and says, ‘How dare you pardon me and not everyone else!’ What would we say about such an individual? We would say that person is a fool in the most serious sense of the term. Likewise, the Christian is foolish to point his finger at God and demand that he have the same salvific grace on everyone.
Just as the word pardon should be the sweetest of all words for a guilty person on death row, so should it be for the Christian who hears the Biblical words election or predestination. They should be the sweetest and most joyful words to the Christian’s ears! It was for the apostle Paul. And yet, sadly, these precious Biblical words such as election and predestination are disdained by many Christians.
Either God’s freedom in salvation to bestow grace to whomever he chooses is such that is crushes the pride of man, or this truth hardens mans detestation for God’s freedom and builds his pride up even more–there is no neutral effect on any person who encounters this truth (or reading this article).
Most churches (traditions) ignore this most awesome truth, or at best, give lip service to it. But when an individual Christian meets this truth head on, they are either humbled in such a way that they will never see the Creator and themselves the same way ever again, or, they will stiffen their knees and refuse to bow to the freedom of God by making desperate arguments to protect their own so called libertarian free-will.
One day when we are all around the throne of God, there will not be anyone standing up saying, I am so glad that I chose God. My friends, on that day everyone will know who chose who—and they will be on their faces worshiping that One.
Alpha and Omega Ministries is a Christian apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. James White, director, is a professor, having taught Greek, Systematic Theology, and various topics in the field of apologetics for numerous schools.
