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The Elect Were Predestined
Summary
You can go into any church today and ask, “How can I become saved?” and they will tell you how you can get yourself saved. Every church has a salvation plan that says, “You do this and you do that, and that’s how you can get yourself saved.” A common example is, “You say this prayer and get yourself baptized and you’ll be saved.”
However, that’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that man is spiritually dead (see Study on Man Is Spiritually Dead). In order to become saved he must be brought to spiritual life. God is the One who saves someone, and that salvation is given totally independent of anything that person has done:
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
To grasp the magnitude of this statement, we need to make sure we understand a few salvation principles, but first a summary of what we will discover regarding salvation...
Before time began God chose certain people for salvation, not based upon anything those individuals would do in their lives. Christ paid for the sins of just these individuals, not every single human being. At some point in each of these individuals lives God gave them spiritual life and began to draw them. God only draws those whom He previously chose for salvation and every single person He draws does become saved. Their faith and obedience to God's commandments are the result of having been saved. In no way have they done anything of their own will to get themselves saved. This salvation is permanent; it cannot be lost.
I grew up under the free-will doctrine so I am quite aware of how inaccurate the above paragraph sounds to anyone who has been raised in the church in this generation. We will work through the Scriptures to see how God saves someone, but first let's begin with the fact that the elect were chosen before time even began...
Before Time Began
The Bible teaches that God chose the elect before time began. These individuals were elected to salvation before the earth was even created:
"According he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." (Ephesians 1:4)
"But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." (2 Thessalonians 2:13)
"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." (Ephesians 1:11)
Those whom He chose He wrote their names in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world:
"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (referring to Satan), whose names are not written in the book of the life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Revelation 13:8)
"The beast that thou sawest, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that swell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beat that was, and is not, and yet is." (Revelation 17:8)
Foreknowledge of God
There is a popular doctrine which mixes free-will with predestination by stating that God chose His elect based upon knowing in advance who would choose Him. There are plenty of verses that make it clear that God chose His elect out of grace, not based on what they would do in the future. Their good works are the result, not the cause, of their salvation. Their faith is a result of God giving it to them, not the cause for their election. God's election program is not based upon some foreseen merit.
God's elect were chosen before they were born, not taking into account any future actions of theirs:
"(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;") (Romans 9:11)
God's salvation plan has nothing to do with our own will or whether or not we would run to or from God on our own:
"So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." (Romans 9:16)
It is because of God's good pleasure that anyone is elected to salvation; it has nothing to do with their own actions:
"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." (Ephesians 1:5)
It is purely because of God's grace that anyone becomes saved. Again, it has nothing to with their own actions:
"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." (2 Timothy 1:9)
Their future good works were a result of being ordained to perform them; they were not the cause of their salvation:
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that should walk in them." (Esphesians 2:10)
The fact that the elect's faith is a result of, not the cause of, their salvation is developed further in our Study on Saved By Grace.
God clearly indicates that our salvation is based upon a decision He made, not a decision we may feel like we made:
"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you." (John 15:16)
Anyone who has been previously chosen for salvation will eventually believe:
"And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." (Acts 13:48)
We find out from other passages that this is a result of God causing them to believe. It is not an indication that God saw in advance that they would believe on their own and so He elected them.
So it can't be that our election is based on something God knew we would do. In fact, the Bible teaches that if God did leave it up to us and looked down through the corridors of time no one would be saved because on our own there is none that wholeheartedly seek after God:
"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." (Romans 3:10-11)
This is a result of being born spiritually dead (see Study on Man Is Spiritually Dead).
Then What Does "Foreknow" Mean?
God indicates that He "foreknew" the elect:
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." (Romans 8:29)
When we read the word "foreknow" here we should not be relating it to knowledge of future events. The verse that follows tells us that those who God "foreknew" have been predestined for salvation. Since God knows everything we can easily conclude that just simple knowledge of events is not what this verse is talking about. Often when God talks about knowing someone He means that He has a special regard for them:
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)
The meaning here is not that God knew about Jeremiah but that He had a special regard for him before he was born. We learn that God uses the term "know" in reference to His elect:
"The Lord knoweth them that are his." (2 Timothy 2:19)
And remember that near the end many will cry out to God, but God will say, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:23) The Lord cannot be understood here as saying, "I knew nothing about you," but rather that He didn't have a special regard for them.
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