The Five Points of Calvinism (2): Unconditional Election

As we noted last time, all men are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1) and will not, of their own free will, chose to trust in Christ for salvation (1 Cor. 2:14). Consequently, we must agree with Steele and Thomas that: ‘It would have been perfectly just for God to have left all men in their sin and misery and to have shown mercy to none. God was under no obligation whatsoever to provide salvation for anyone’ (The Five Points of Calvinism – Defined, Defended and Documented, 3rd edition, page 27). Keeping that in mind should help us to understand the doctrine of unconditional election.

Unconditional election simply stated is this: that God, before the creation of the world, chose to save a fixed and unchangeable number of men. This was an act of God’s undeserved kindness (grace) because His choince was not based upon anything foreseen in the sinner; in other words, God did not elect us to salvation because He foresaw that we would believe the gospel. His choice was based on His own good pleasure and Sovereign will. Because of man’s depravity, if God had not Sovereignly chosen people to be saved, then no one would be saved, and all of mankind would have perished in sin. Arminians, however, believe in a conditional election, and claim that it is because God knew who would believe the gospel He elected them. Therefore, on Arminian logic, God is giving men what they deserve for choosing, of their own free will, to believe on Him. In election, according to Arminianism, God merely ratifies the Sovereign choice of man to be saved.

Which view is the Biblical one? Well according to Arminianism God chose sinners because He knew they would believe, however, according to Acts 13:48 ‘as many as were appointed to eternal life believed’, therefore faith was not the cause of their election, but the result of the fact that God Sovereignly ordained and appointed them to receive eternal life. Moreover, aacording to Paul, God ‘chose us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world’ not because God foresaw we were holy but ‘that we should be holy and blameless before him’ (Eph. 1:4); and he tells us that the Lord elected Jacob instead of Esau even though ‘they had done nothing good or bad’ (Rom. 9:11). So it is clear that God elected us for salvation, not because He knew that we would believe, but in order that we would believe: ‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works’ (Eph. 2:10) – notice it is ‘for’ good works, not because of them, that God chose to save an elect multitude.

The Arminian view teaches that God chose to save people because He saw something good in them, so, on an Arminian basis, those who are saved deserve to be saved, because they were better than the rest who did not have a strong enough free will in order to believe. This means that Arminianism does not teach salvation by grace; grace is God’s undeserved favour and kindness, but on Arminian reasoning the sinner deserves to be saved. However, the Bible teaches ‘by grace you have been saved through faith, And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast’ (Eph. 2:8-9). Consequently, Arminianism is not the gospel, it is salvation of account of works, not of grace.

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