God's Dynamite: You Cast the Deciding Vote



Elton Trueblood once said, "All truth contains a measure of paradox."  That's certainly true of the doctrine of election.  It contains a measure of paradox.  And mystery!

The latter part of Romans 8 and the first part of Romans 9 is one of the classic passages about election.  In 8:29-30, Paul said that those God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.  Those he predestined, he called, those he called, he justified, and those he justified, he glorified.  He followed this statement with scripture references to Malachi's prophecy about Jacob and Esau and to the Exodus account concerning Pharaoh.  

Historically, Christ followers have fallen into two camps: Calvinistic (Reformed) and Arminian.  

The Calvinistic camp emphasizes God's sovereignty in electing those who would be saved.  People don't have free wills or free choices about following Christ.  God determined their decision before he created the world.  Christ died only for those whom God elected.  Since they had nothing to do with their salvation, they can't lose it.

The Arminian camp also affirms God's sovereignty, but says he allows people to have free wills and free choices about following Christ.  They also believe that since we can decided to follow Christ, we can decide to stop following him, thereby losing our salvation.

Both camps have a high view of the scriptures.  Both believe Christ died on the Christ for our sins and rose from the dead.  The extreme forms of both can take us to bad places.  Both camps can claim scriptural proof, though they must "explain" passages that don't fit their views.

How do we decide? (If God hasn't already determined our decision!)  We need to embrace ALL the Bible, even those passages that don't support our views.  That brings us to paradox.  A paradox contains opposing statements that produce a truth, or different sides of a truth.  For example, God is all love and all justice.  

We have to hold biblical statements on election in tension with each other.  Plus, we need to focus on the overarching truths in it: that God loved us before we loved him and provided for our salvation before we were born.  We receive that salvation as a free gift that we can't lose.  

At the same time, we can't presume on that gift.  We need to live in a manner worthy of it and seek God's strength to persevere until we stand before him.

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