Ten Reasons You Need Unconditional Election
00:00:00.000 | Unconditional election.
00:00:06.240 | Isn't this just a dry doctrine for eggheads to discuss and debate?
00:00:10.840 | No, it's not.
00:00:12.300 | We all need this doctrine, unconditional election.
00:00:15.740 | And that's why unconditional election is a theme we've studied a dozen times on the
00:00:19.480 | podcast over the years.
00:00:21.200 | It's this precious fact that God's choice of one person and not others is not based
00:00:27.040 | on any good deeds or any bad deeds in the persons themselves.
00:00:31.520 | Let me say that again.
00:00:34.840 | God's choice of one person and not others is not based on any good deeds or any bad
00:00:40.200 | deeds in the persons themselves.
00:00:43.640 | God chooses his children unconditionally.
00:00:48.440 | That's unconditional election.
00:00:50.600 | But what practical value does such a doctrine hold for my life?
00:00:54.120 | That's Chase's question today.
00:00:55.640 | Shadran, hello and thank you for this podcast.
00:00:57.680 | My question is this.
00:00:58.680 | Can you tell me why believing in unconditional election matters?
00:01:02.920 | Isn't this doctrine nitpicking and divisive more than edifying?
00:01:08.320 | Yes, it matters.
00:01:10.880 | No, it is not nitpicking.
00:01:13.920 | Yes, it could be divisive, but that's not the fault of the doctrine.
00:01:20.060 | It's the fault of the human heart.
00:01:22.960 | And yes, it is edifying.
00:01:26.080 | So let me give 10 reasons to answer Chase's question, "Does it matter?"
00:01:34.480 | What we mean by unconditional election, you could use the word "selection" if election
00:01:41.000 | has political sounds to you, is God's free, gracious choice before creation of who it
00:01:53.840 | is that he will give faith and repentance to and thus pardon their sin, adopt them into
00:02:03.760 | his everlasting family, an election or a selection not based on anything, not anything in us,
00:02:15.520 | not foreseen faith, not good works, not parentage, not national origin or race or ethnicity,
00:02:23.840 | not religious ritual like baptism or the Lord's Supper.
00:02:28.760 | God's selection is unconditional based only on his all-wise good pleasure or, as Ephesians
00:02:37.960 | says, the counsel of his will.
00:02:41.280 | So just like you can pack an atom bomb into a very small missile, let me pack 10 reasons
00:02:51.600 | that unconditional election matters into 10 minutes.
00:02:56.360 | Number one, it matters because it's true.
00:03:00.240 | It's what the Bible teaches.
00:03:01.560 | Romans 9, 11, "Though Jacob and Esau were not yet born and had done nothing either good
00:03:08.120 | or bad," they admit no conditions, "in order that God's purpose of election might stand
00:03:14.760 | unconditionally."
00:03:15.760 | I added that word, but that's implied.
00:03:19.480 | Not because of works, but because of God who calls, Rebecca was told, "The older will
00:03:24.920 | serve the younger."
00:03:26.680 | Ephesians 1, verse 4, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
00:03:33.920 | Jesus said, "All that the Father gives me will come to me.
00:03:39.360 | Yours they were, and you gave them to me."
00:03:43.720 | John 6, John 17, "They were the Father's, and he gave them to Jesus."
00:03:48.960 | Number two, it matters because the aim of unconditional election is that we are destined
00:03:55.340 | for eternal joy and praise of the glory of the grace of God.
00:04:01.960 | That's our destiny.
00:04:03.480 | Grace is the very meaning of unconditional election.
00:04:08.320 | God's free, gracious choice, not our qualifications.
00:04:14.080 | The whole design of election is to get joy for our souls and praise for God's grace.
00:04:25.040 | Ephesians 1, verse 6, "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world unto the
00:04:30.880 | praise of the glory of his grace."
00:04:35.880 | That's the whole design of unconditional election.
00:04:39.760 | Grace, grace, glorious grace will be praised forever.
00:04:45.080 | Number three, it matters because it humbles our proud hearts.
00:04:49.680 | 1 Corinthians 1:27, "God chose what is foolish in the world.
00:04:54.640 | God chose what is weak in the world.
00:04:56.760 | God chose what is low and despised in the world so that no human being might boast in
00:05:04.480 | the presence of God."
00:05:06.360 | God gets praise.
00:05:07.440 | We get humbled by unconditional election.
00:05:11.720 | Number four, it matters because it makes clear that our faith is a gift of God, a gift of
00:05:17.580 | grace that follows election rather than grounding it.
00:05:23.480 | Acts 13, 48, "The Gentiles began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord.
00:05:29.820 | And as many as were appointed," that is chosen, elected, "as many as were appointed
00:05:35.260 | to eternal life, believed."
00:05:38.360 | They believed because they were appointed.
00:05:40.480 | No one can boast that he originated his own believing and so won his election.
00:05:47.360 | No.
00:05:48.360 | As many as were chosen, as many as were chosen, appointed, elected, believed.
00:05:55.400 | They believed.
00:05:56.700 | Faith is a gift rooted in the eternal, unconditional election of God.
00:06:01.800 | Number five, it matters because it secures the reality that no one can successfully bring
00:06:08.060 | any charge against us.
00:06:10.240 | Romans 8, 31, "What then shall we say to these things?
00:06:14.320 | If God is for us, who can be against us?
00:06:17.800 | He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with
00:06:23.520 | him graciously give us all things?
00:06:26.040 | Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?"
00:06:30.000 | Let me say that again.
00:06:32.360 | Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
00:06:37.720 | And the answer is nobody.
00:06:40.240 | God's chosen are secure from all accusation.
00:06:44.160 | Number six, it matters because it is the deepest ground of our own compassion for other people.
00:06:52.280 | Paul calls for compassion from Christians like this in Colossians 3, 12, "Put on then
00:07:00.040 | as God's chosen ones, elect ones, holy and loved, compassionate hearts."
00:07:09.380 | Precisely because we are aware of being freely, graciously, undeservedly chosen, owing to
00:07:17.800 | nothing in ourselves are we moved to treat others the way we've been treated.
00:07:24.560 | Number seven, despair at being unsavable is torpedoed by the doctrine of unconditional
00:07:33.840 | election.
00:07:34.840 | If a person says to me in my office as a pastor, "Pastor, I'm just too evil to be saved.
00:07:43.240 | God could never, never set his favor on me.
00:07:46.160 | You don't know what I've done.
00:07:47.940 | What I have done is all so terrible."
00:07:51.280 | To that person, we can say, "God did not choose anybody because of what they had done
00:07:59.480 | or not done."
00:08:01.360 | Your history of sin is absolutely irrelevant for the question whether you can be one of
00:08:09.080 | God's chosen ones.
00:08:11.200 | God's choice was unconditional, absolutely.
00:08:15.440 | The only question is, will you believe?
00:08:19.560 | If you will believe, you will be saved and you will confirm your election before the
00:08:26.180 | foundation of the world.
00:08:28.920 | Number eight, unconditional election matters because it puts an end to racism among God's
00:08:36.160 | people when they grasp what it means.
00:08:39.880 | Racism is rooted in a sense of ethnic or racial superiority.
00:08:44.180 | God ignores all such conditions and chooses his people from every ethnicity and unconditionally
00:08:51.720 | he chooses them.
00:08:53.320 | Peter wrote, "You are a chosen race, a holy nation."
00:08:59.680 | Christianity is a new race of people.
00:09:03.120 | No others, no other races, no other ethnicities are the basis of belonging.
00:09:08.520 | He ransomed people from every tribe, every tongue, every people, every nation.
00:09:14.280 | He stops the mouth of all ethnic boasting by choosing unconditionally.
00:09:21.780 | Number nine, it matters because we can know we are chosen with all the blessings that
00:09:28.040 | implies.
00:09:29.040 | 1 Thessalonians 1.4, "We know, brothers, we know, brothers loved by God, that he has
00:09:37.080 | chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in
00:09:42.920 | the Holy Spirit and with full conviction."
00:09:45.800 | And number 10, finally, it matters because God shapes all of history for the sake of
00:09:52.600 | his elect.
00:09:55.120 | To make sure that we come safely home into his presence, he controls the world.
00:10:01.280 | Jesus said about the end of history, and I think it applies to all of history in principle,
00:10:08.040 | he said this, "If those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved,
00:10:16.160 | but for the sake of his elect, those days will be cut short."
00:10:22.240 | Matthew 24.22.
00:10:24.880 | So Chase, in answer to your question, yes, it matters.
00:10:30.880 | It matters a lot.
00:10:33.520 | And the church would be stronger if pastors fed their people on this rich food for our
00:10:41.600 | faith.
00:10:42.600 | Amen.
00:10:43.600 | Yes, it's meant to strengthen the saints.
00:10:45.760 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:10:46.760 | And speaking of God choosing the foolish, God gets the praise.
00:10:50.360 | We get humbled by unconditional election.
00:10:53.360 | Amen.
00:10:54.360 | But why does he choose the foolish when he could get a lot more done in this world if
00:10:58.240 | he saved the brilliant and the innovative and the famous?
00:11:01.080 | Remember, that was APJ 1965, two weeks back.
00:11:05.560 | It's related to this one.
00:11:06.840 | If you missed that, you can go back and find it in your podcast feed, APJ 1965, on why
00:11:13.080 | God uses the foolish in this world.
00:11:16.040 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for joining us today.
00:11:19.360 | If you want to ask Pastor John, email your question to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:11:27.480 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:11:28.480 | We'll see you Thursday.
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