There are two primary ways to understand the doctrine of election:
Unconditional Sovereign Election — This is God’s choosing of certain people, chosen “before the foundation of the world, according to His own good pleasure” (Eph 1:4-6). God’s choosing of certain people guarantees that the one chosen will respond to the gospel of Christ in faith. This is totally a work of God’s grace.
Free Will Choosing — This is the choosing to receive Christ according to one’s own free will, where salvation is available to everyone who hears the gospel of Christ, where the decision to receive Christ is totally left up to the sinner. They’re totally free to choose Christ or reject Him. Election is, therefore, God’s choosing of people He knew would choose His Son as their Savior. Or, according to another view, one is “made elect” at the time of their conversion by virtue of their union with Christ, the true “elect one” (Lu 9:35).
Our Text:
(Ephesians 1:4-6 – BSB) — [4] For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love [5] He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, [6] to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.
This passage, written by the Apostle Paul, provides what I consider to be the strongest biblical case to be made in favor of unconditional Sovereign election, and the strongest case against free-will election.
In this second view, where the decision to receive Christ as Savior is totally up to the will of the sinner, there is no true election by God Himself. This type of election is a non-actual, inauthentic type of election. Because in the Bible, election of sinners to salvation is always stated as something that God Himself does—not something done by the spiritually dead sinner. Furthermore, in the Bible we’re referred to as “the chosen” or as “the elect.” We can’t be called “the chosen or the elect” and be the one who does the choosing at the same time. That makes absolutely no sense. Yet, that’s the reality of this position on the doctrine of election. The fact that there is no actual choosing by God Himself in this type of belief system, already demonstrates a serious weakness in that position on this doctrine.
However, there’s an even stronger case to be made against this free-will type of election. It’s in the same context of verse 4, where Paul tells us that we’re “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.” It’s in the very next statement that unconditional Sovereign election is confirmed:
“[5] He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, [6] to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.
What Paul says in verse 5 is huge, where it confirms and strengthens the idea of being chosen unconditionally by God “before the foundation of the world.” I’m referring to what Paul says about being “adopted as His sons.”
Under the Roman law in which people lived in the days of Paul, adoption was a legal term that gave the one who was adopted (slaves) all the same rights and privileges of the one who was born into it biologically. Legally, there was no difference between the two.
What we must understand is that this adoption of slaves was totally up to the will of the slave-owner. The slave had no rights of their own. Thus, it was solely up to the “good pleasure of the will” of the slave-owner. The slave had absolutely no say in the matter. It wasn’t something he or she could agree to or not to agree to. It was a decision of “grace” that the slave-owner gave to his slaves, as he saw fit.
This reality is important to understand because we as sinners are slaves—”slaves to sin” (Ro 6:6,16,17), under the penalty of death. We’re all on death row, and have no say in being released from this judgment against us. It requires God to intervene, which He did “before the foundation of the world.” God chose to set free certain people from slavery before He even created us. We had and have no say in the matter. It was strictly according to “the good pleasure of God’s own will” who He adopted into His family.
Furthermore, God as the Creator and Ruler of the universe, we are slaves in that sense too. He’s the Creator and we are the created. He’s the Potter and we are the clay (Ro 9:20-21). We’re fully subject to and accountable to Him. We have no rights of our own. And in context, that includes being “chosen” unto salvation. That also includes being “predestined” by God to become adopted into His family. We cannot choose ourselves for salvation, and we cannot predestine ourselves to adoption anymore than a slave can.
This matter of adoption in the context of election is so strong that there’s simply no biblically accurate argument to be made against unconditional Sovereign election. Our predestined adoption into God’s family, as those without any rights or say in our adoption, invalidates any attempt to disprove this position on the doctrine of election. Such an attempt requires one to try and force a meaning that contradicts the revelation of this passage of Scripture (Eph 1:4-7). Forcing a meaning into one’s doctrinal position is not the way to interpret the Bible.
Over the years I’ve learned that the harder I have to work to try to disprove a certain doctrinal position, the more likely it is that I’m wrong. In the context of spiritual adoption, I know that one would have to work really hard to explain away all the implications of our adoption. But again, such an approach simply doesn’t work. We end up fighting against the truth. We have to allow the chips of truth to fall where they may.
Corporate Election
I would like to finish with one final point. For those who believe the Bible teaches corporate election, and not the election of individuals, this matter of adoption disproves that position—because adoption is something that applies to individuals, not to a collective group of people. The choosing of the body of believers, must be the same for the individual members who make up the body.
For those who believe that corporate election is merely the choosing of Christ (Lu 9:35), and that we enter into His election at the point of faith, is disproved by the whole context. Paul gives no hint whatsoever that he’s referring to the choosing of Christ. He’s clearly referring to the choosing of individual believers. His focus on the individual adoption of believers proves it. What Paul says in verse 7 supports that:
(Ephesians 1:7 – BSB) — In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.
Forgiveness of sins is granted to individuals, not to a collective body of sinners. Nowhere in Scripture do we ever see the idea of forgiveness of groups of people. Forgiveness and salvation is provided for individuals sinners. That’s something we should all agree on.
But again, even if Paul is talking about the corporate body of Christ (the Church), what’s true of the body, must be true of the individuals who comprise the body. In other words, the choosing of the collective body must be the same for the individuals who make up the body. The two cannot be separated. We can’t have the election of one be different from the other. That wouldn’t make any sense.
Furthermore, Christ’s election is not the same as our election. Jesus was chosen to be our Savior, while we were chosen to be saved. Therefore, it’s not possible to enter into His election.
There’s nothing in this whole passage of Ephesians that would lead us to any other understanding except that Paul is talking about the Sovereign election and Sovereign adoption of individual sinners — ”chosen before the foundation of the world.”
