DOES GOD CHOOSE US BECAUSE WE ARE MORE DESERVING THAN OTHERS?

Many believe than God chooses us because He foresaw that we would choose Him. In other words, God foresaw something in us that made us worthy of salvation. For some, this understanding of election (predestination) makes God appear to be just. In their minds, if God chose those who were totally undeserving and damned the rest, He would be unjust.

While I appreciate their zeal to defend God, there are many problems with this belief. Worst of all, it is unbiblical. For one thing, the Bible tells us that none of us are worthy of salvation, not even in the slightest:

·       As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:10-18 (ESV)

None even seek after God. Therefore, election cannot be a matter of God choosing us based upon His foreknowledge that we would choose Him. We just won’t!

Besides, He chooses the least deserving candidates:

·       But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)

God purposely elected those who are least deserving. Why? To make it harder for the chosen to arrogantly boast, as if to say, “God chose me because I deserve it.”

I used to believe that God chose me because I was more spiritual than others. However, in retrospect, I now understand that He had to break me down before He could rebuild me (Luke 18:14). He showed me in the most painful ways how undeserving I really am. Had He not performed His spiritual surgery on me, any good thing would then have gone to my foolish head.

God is so intent to deprive us of any basis for boasting that before Jacob and Esau had been born and had done anything worthy of merit, He revealed to their mother Rebecca that Jacob would be the child of the Promise:

·       When Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger [Jacob].” (Romans 9:10-12)

Election is about God choosing without any regard to our “good or bad,” even if it was just a matter of God foreseeing our good or bad. If election is based upon something that God foresees in us, then election is not about His sovereign choice, as Scripture informs us:

·       [God] who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. (2 Timothy 1:9)

·       He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (Ephesians 1:4-5)

The choice is His and not fundamentally ours, as Jesus proclaimed:

·       You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15:16)

Even faith does not start with us and our choice of God but with God:

·       But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13)

But don’t we have to supply the faith? Fundamentally, even our faith comes as a gift of God:

·       For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

He gives us a new heart so that we can receive the truth that is always present (Titus 3:5; Ezekiel 36:25-26; 2 Thess. 2:13)

A Problem Verse

There is a single verse that seems to claim that God choses us based upon His foreknowledge:

·       Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father… (1 Peter 1:1-2)

However, it is apparent that “foreknowledge” means something else here. In the same chapter, Peter claims that the Father had also “foreknown” the Son in like manner:

·       He [Jesus] was foreknown [“prognosko” in the Greek] before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:20-21)

Is this verse (20) saying that the Father knew about the Son before the world was created? If this sounds absurd, it is because it is. The three Persons of the Trinity had always been interconnected. Therefore, it could not be a matter of the Father foreknowing the Son “before.” Why not? There is no “before” when it comes to the Persons of the Trinity. Besides, the understanding that the Father had prior knowledge of the Son does not accord with the context, where the Father is sending His Son.

Instead, some translations have recognized that “prognosko” can be also translated as “destined” or “appointed”:

·       He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. (1 Peter 1:20; NRSV)

Therefore, for the sake of consistency, the New Revised Standard Version translated “prognosko” in verse 2 in the same way:

·       who have been chosen and destined [“prognosko”] by God… (1 Peter 1:2 (NRSV)

Besides, the NRSV understanding accords with the rest of Scripture.

Well, what does election say about the justice or righteousness of God, who choses only certain people? Nothing at all!

Election is not about justice but mercy. As we have seen, the entire human race will reject God if left to our own devices. In view of our rejection, God’s justice means our death:

·       For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

We all reject God and deserve to die. This is a matter of justice. If anyone is going to be saved, it must be by God’s “free gift.” This is a matter of mercy.

While justice must be indiscriminate – the same standard for all – mercy can discriminate. This is what we do when we get married. We choose a single partner over the rest. No one can justifiably condemn us for not marrying all women, or at least the women on the block.

Think also of inviting guests to your party. You are free to invite whomever you chose. You can be merciful to whom you choose, and so can God.

Well, why isn’t God merciful to all? We cannot answer this question exhaustively. However, I am convinced that He has His good reasons. We’ll just have to wait and see what they are.

IS ELECTION/PREDESTINATION UNJUST?

Paul gives us a very clear “No”:

• Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad--in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls--she was told, "The older will serve the younger." Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." (Romans 9:10-15)

But wasn’t it unjust to choose Jacob over Esau? Doesn’t God illegitimately discriminate? Jesus addressed this very question in a parable. The vineyard owner (God) hired several in the morning to work his vineyard. Throughout the day, he hired more workers. However, at the end of the day, he gave everyone the denarius he had promised to give the first workers. However, these were angry with the owner that he had given everyone the same, in light of the fact that they had worked the longest. However, the owner responded:

• "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'” (Matthew 20:13-15)

Certainly, we also have the right to be merciful to only those to whom we want to show mercy. If you only invite your friends to your party, a neighbor would not charge you with being unjust for not inviting him.

If the owner had only given the first workers half a denarius, he would have been unjust by violating the terms of their agreement. But he gave them the agreed-upon wage.

The question then is not about justice but about mercy. While justice cannot discriminate, mercy certainly can and does!

However, for many, the doctrine of election is appalling:

• It is the ultimate act of cruelty to condemn those of us who want to be saved to damnation, simply because we are not among the elect.

In fact, it might even appear that this is what God is doing:

• It [salvation] does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. (Romans 9:16-18)

It seems that even before the unfortunate Pharaoh had been born, God had damned him and hardened his heart. However, when we examine the Exodus account, we find that God didn’t harden the heart of an innocent man but one who had already hardened his own heart (Exodus 3:7-10). Besides, the account also reads that “Pharaoh hardened his heart (8:15). The fault then doesn’t belong to God but to Pharaoh and to all who reject His mercy.

Sadly, all humanity rejects God (Romans 3:10-16) and are “without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20) in refusing to come to Him (Matthew 23:37). Therefore, if God acted according to what justice required, we would all be killed. (This might be hard to see, but consider, perhaps we are only seeing superficially!)

It is not a matter that there are seekers who want God, but this “unmerciful” God turns them away. Instead, He cries out for His people to return to Him:

• “Go, proclaim this message toward the north: "'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the LORD, 'I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,' declares the LORD, 'I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt-- you have rebelled against the LORD your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,'" declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 3:12-13)

However, coming into the light and acknowledging our guilt is precisely the thing that we will not do. However, God remains merciful to all who call upon Him:

• For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:12-13)

In light of this, the fault is not with God’s elective decisions to save some of the unworthy but with the unworthy themselves, who have rejected God! Salvation is entirely a gift from our merciful Savior. And this is something that is necessary to acknowledge for the sake of our spiritual maturity – our relationship with our Savior.

Once we take credit for choosing Him – the credit that God alone deserves (Eph. 2:8-9; 1 Cor. 1:26-29; John 15:16) – we distance ourselves from Him.

DOES PREDESTINATION MEAN THAT WE LACK FREEWILL?

A former student wrote me to ask about the doctrine of election:

• How can we have freewill and be accountable before God if we were chosen from the foundation of the world (Eph. 1) and can only come to God if He draws us (John 6:44)?

There are many verses that claim that we cannot come to God unless He draws us. Here are several prominent ones:

• There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Romans 3:11-12)

• The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. (Romans 8:7)

• The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Yet there are other verses that indicate that we do have freewill but refuse to choose to come to God:

• Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." (Genesis 4:6-7)

Had Cain lacked freewill to do right, he could have justifiably answered, “Sorry God. I just don’t have the freedom of choice to do the right thing. After all, I’m a child of the Fall.” If Cain could have gotten away with such an answer, he might have tried. Instead, we cannot blame God for our sins:

• When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt [or “entice”] anyone;  but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. (James 1:13-14)

Clearly, we have to take responsibility for our sins. We cannot blame God or the Fall.

The Old Testament always declares that Israel’s problem was not that they lacked free choice but that they chose wrongly:

• "I [God] myself said, "'How gladly would I treat you like sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.' I thought you would call me 'Father' and not turn away from following me. But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel," declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 3:19-20)

Likewise, Jesus looked over Jerusalem and lamented:

• "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37)

The problem belonged to the Jews and not to God. Likewise, Paul declared that we have “no excuse” for passing judgment:

• You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. (Romans 2:1)

Evidently, pleading “no freewill” wouldn’t have been an acceptable excuse.

Jesus also indicated that those who saw His miracles had “no excuse”:

• If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. (John 15:22)

Even without the miracles, we have so much evidence of God’s existence and character that we are without excuse:

• The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)

How then do we reconcile these two different sets of verses. If we continue in Romans 1, we will find our answer:

• Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.  Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. (Romans 1:22-28)

Despite the Fall, we still bear the image of God and freewill along with this image (James 3:9). However, as we harden ourselves against God, we lose our freedom to do right and come to God. God allows us to harden our heart, giving us over to pursue our desires.

Consequently, Jesus gave the verdict that we have become lovers of the darkness and hate the light:

• This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." (John 3:19-21)

Well, can we help it if we have become lovers of the darkness? Yes! We could have repented of our sins, but we refused. We run and hide from God as did Adam and Eve once they sinned. Consequently, we are self-condemned.

Since we do not come to God on our own, God must come to us, as He had elected from the foundation of the world.

God and Election: A Defense

In response to my defense of the doctrine election (predestination), one dear brother wrote:

• It's fatalistic, and, for the reprobate, hopeless. If I'm not a member of the elect, no amount of trying or praying, good behavior, or anything else I can do will save me. I was doomed from the beginning of time by powers beyond my comprehension.

While it is true that the non-elect are doomed, it is not fair or even biblical to conclude that God had doomed them. Instead, Scripture places all of the blame on us:

• As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. (Romans 3:10-12) 

• For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are WITHOUT EXCUSE.  (Romans 1:18-20)

The Hebrew Scriptures also indicate that God beckons everyone:

• Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity. (Proverbs 1:20-26)

God’s wisdom is available to all, but all reject it! The Prophets consistently proclaimed the same divine indictment on Israel:

• “Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt,    that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 3:12-13)

The problem was invariably with Israel and not with their God. This is why He sent them the Prophets, pleading with them to confess their sins, but they would not:

• I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider… They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. (Isaiah 1:2-4)
  

So many verses indicate that God had given them everything that they needed, and therefore, their rebellion (and also ours) was unjustified. It is not God who led Israel astray, but their own desires and self-justifying lies:

• Thus says the LORD… Because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept His commandments. Their lies lead them astray, lies which their fathers followed. (Amos 2:4)

Why then did Israel disbelieve and rebel? Was it because God hadn’t done enough for Israel? There is no indication of this any place in Scripture. Instead, God had given Israel everything:

• What more was there to do for my vineyard [Israel], that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? (Isaiah 5:4)

What then is the doctrine of reprobation about? It is a matter of God giving us what we want! In contrast, you claim:

• If I'm not a member of the elect, no amount of trying or praying, good behavior, or anything else I can do will save me.

This is just not biblical! Any who truly seek will find:

• But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice.  For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them. (Deut. 4:29-31)

• “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8) 

However, we refuse to seek (Romans 3:11). We hate the light and love the darkness (John 3:19-20). We are therefore “self-condemned” (Titus 3:11) in rejecting what is already so clear (Romans 1:18-20; 2:14-15).

Therefore, those who are damned are those who want to be damned and removed from the Presence of God:

• For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3:17-20)

If Jesus didn’t come to condemn us, how then are we condemned? By our own rejection of the Son – the Light of God! We are self-condemned by our rejection of this Light and our willful embrace of the darkness!

This is where election comes in. While we all rightfully deserve condemnation, God mercifully rescued His elect. However, in the end, there will be swinging wide of the doors of salvation (Joel 2:28; Romans 11:15; Isaiah 45:22-25; 66:22-23; Zechariah 14:16-18; Matthew 24:30), when our Lord will vindicate Himself.