I believe the Bible teaches Sovereign election, where God chose certain individuals for salvation before the foundation of the world—because not only does the Bible specifically say so in Ephesians 1:4, but it’s taught throughout the Bible, especially in the New Testament. When we consider all the plain statements of Scripture about election, I don’t believe we can rightly come to any other conclusion, except to make it mean something it doesn’t really say—and of course Christians do that very thing because of a positional bias. I should know, because I was one of those who did that for most of my long Christian life. As an Arminian, I was passionately opposed to the idea of Sovereign election, because in my own limited understanding, I believed such choosing would make God unjust, because it leaves the non-elect without any hope of salvation.
However, I now believe that to understand Sovereign election, we must try to understand God, to try and see His election of sinners through all of His combined attributes.
We must begin with the fact that God is all-knowing. Thus, there’s never been a time when He didn’t know each of His redeemed. He has known each of us throughout eternity. He’s also known throughout eternity, those who are NOT His redeemed. That’s the first thing we must consider.
Choosing certain individuals for salvation before the foundation of the world should be understood in the context of His knowledge of all things, including the knowledge of His redeemed. However, we must understand that God’s attributes all work together in perfect unity, and not one before the other, but rather side by side. This is true of the choices He makes, which includes the choosing of sinners for salvation. It’s not that He chose us first, and then knew us as His redeemed. Nor is it that He knew us first and then chose us. We must realize that the two do not operate independently of each other, but in total harmony as one, and occurring as one.
The choices God makes, and His knowledge of all things, function in a way that is completely foreign to us. We don’t choose the same way He does. It doesn’t look the same, and that’s because we’re not all-knowing like He is. Thus, we’re not able to understand something that we have no way of understanding. Did God make a choice about who gets saved? Yes. The Bible tells us that He did. But it also tells us that God is all-knowing. That means He has always known His redeemed, and has always known those who are not His redeemed.
We can’t begin to understand how this works with our finite minds. All we can do is accept the clear statements of Scripture about election, as well as the overall teaching of Scripture, and trust God in all of His other attributes—such as love, mercy and compassion. All of these attributes work in total unity and side by side, and not independently, nor one before the other.
The bottom line is, the way we as human beings make choices simply isn’t the same as how God makes choices. We can’t understand how God does it according to how we do it, because we’re not God. Thus, we have to realize that we can’t understand what is impossible for us to understand.
Therefore, when we read that God chose us before the foundation of the world, we can believe it with absolute confidence that it’s in total harmony with His knowledge of all things, as well as in harmony with His love, mercy and compassion. We shouldn’t try to understand the un-understandable, trying to see things through our finite eyes. When we do that, we find ourselves making judgements about God that we shouldn’t, because we’re basing everything on how we ourselves do things. That’s a major mistake.
Therefore, for me personally, when I consider all things about God in all of His attributes, I no longer have a problem with the idea of limited atonement (particular redemption) or Sovereign election, because I know all these other things about God. Therefore, when I consider that God did not choose all others for salvation, I know that it’s in a context that I know nothing about, except that it’s in the context of ALL of His attributes which all work together in perfect unity and perfect harmony, and all side by side, all functioning as one single operation.
Therefore, when we bristle and rebel against the idea of Sovereign election and limited atonement, we do so within our own limited context, in our own limited understanding about God and how He makes decisions. We simply have no way of knowing how it all works together with all of His other attributes. To assume God does things based on how we as human beings do things, is completely senseless. It’s way beyond the realm of understandable comparison.
Therefore, when we see Sovereign election and limited atonement in the Bible, when we hear it being taught, we cannot make judgments about God that we have no capacity for. If we believe Sovereign election and limited atonement makes God unjust, then I believe we are on dangerous ground, because we are drawing a conclusion about God that is based on a lack of knowledge and understanding about God and how He operates as a God who is all powerful, all knowing, everything present— who is infinite in wisdom, knowledge and understanding, infinite in intelligence, who is also a God of love, mercy and compassion.
Trying to understand how God works all this together is light years beyond our human capacity. We will never fully understand it, not even in our eternal state, because we’re not God and never will be. There are some things about God that will be forever a mystery to us.
Conclusion about all this? We’re to believe the Bible when it talks about election, and trust God in all that He does in all things in the context of all His glorious attributes working together simultaneously and in perfect unity, where none of them operate at the expense of another. That’s really THE KEY. Nothing God does is at the expense of a particular attribute. For that to happen, He would be less than who He is in His essence, in all those things which make Him the eternal God of the universe—to whom every human being is accountable.
Christians get upset over the idea of Sovereign election and limited atonement because they’re trying to understand God based on their own understanding about justice and about how choices are made. We can’t do that, for the simple reason we’re not qualified.
Therefore, when we think of the non-elect, we must keep in mind that God knows a whole lot of something that we don’t know. Thus, knowing who God is in all of His glorious and incomprehensible attributes, we can be at perfect peace about Sovereign election and limited atonement. Let’s not try to understand the un-understandable. Instead, let us rest in the knowable goodness of God. Let us rest in God Himself, and don’t allow ourselves to get all tangled up in our own pre-conceived ideas about God and how He operates in a universe we cannot begin to comprehend. If any of our loved ones end up in eternity without God, we can be sure that it’s because He knows something we don’t, and perhaps never will.
When we focus on God Himself, the idea of our loved ones being lost forever is something we can actually be at peace about. I can testify to that. It’s a matter of trust in a God who is absolutely worthy of our trust. Do we trust God to do the right thing? I think because of a lack of trust and understanding, we’re afraid to believe that the Bible actually means what it says when it speaks of election and of God’s elect. Trusting God removes all of our fears.
In closing, let us rest in God’s perfect love and goodness, and not be afraid in regard to the doctrine of election. I don’t believe God ever intended this to be something to be afraid of, or something that should divide us—but rather, something to bring us great comfort, peace and joy.
