The author of this article wrote another on predestination and its two elements, election and reprobation, titled “Two Elements of Predestination: Election and Reprobation,” and you may want to read it, too.
However, this discussion focuses on election as it applies to salvation.
Before the foundation of the world, after the Trinity developed the Plan of Salvation (often called the Plan of Redemption), the Father designated the human beings who would receive its benefits. Theologians call these humans the elect, and the Father’s choosing them is called election.
Scripture bears this out when the apostle Paul wrote:
even as 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 to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (Eph. 1:4-6, emphasis added).
THE CONCEPT
God knew in eternity that the humans He planned to create would sin. Therefore, He would have no humans living with Him forever in the new heaven and earth. Because of this, He would have to develop a plan to cleanse and forgive their sins (Tit. 1:1, 2).
Our triune God did this when He formed the Plan of Salvation. This process involved choosing those who would be with God and those who would not (Rom. 9:18). Those who will be godly and live with God in eternity are called the elect and are chosen by God in the process known as election (Eph. 1:4); those who remain are called the reprobate and are involved in the process called reprobation. These two events are elements of God’s predestination.
Election has been “defined as that eternal act of God whereby He in His sovereign good pleasure, and on account of no foreseen merit in them, chooses a certain number of men [people] to be the recipients of special grace and of eternal salvation.”[i]
God’s foreknowledge is involved in all of God’s decrees, including election. This foreknowledge is the English interpretation of the Greek feminine noun πρόγνωσις, transliterated as prognosis.
This is not God’s mere foreknowledge of future events, which He does in fact have. In the Doctrine of Election, this word refers to God’s personal knowledge of individual humans before they existed.
ITS CHARACTERISTICS
Berkhof lists the characteristics of election and all God’s decrees in general.[ii] Election has the following characteristics;
- The Will of God;
- It is immutable and certain;
- It happened before the foundation of creation;
- It is unconditional;
- It is irresistible; and
- It is just.
Election is part of the Plan of Salvation. The Father chooses the elect as part of the Plan of Salvation. Consequently, it cannot precede the Counsel of Peace, because that is when the triune Godhead consulted among themselves about the Plan of Salvation before the foundation of the world.
But the author of this article disagrees with Berkhof’s claim that election logically precedes the Counsel of Peace. The author has also written an article titled “The Counsel of Peace,” which you should read as well.
Election depends on the Will of the triune Godhead. By the agreement of these three divine persons, the Father chose, in the Plan of Salvation, those human beings who would receive the benefits of the divine plan that would save them. Therefore, election depends only on God and is certain.
Of course, election occurs before creation. In addition, election does not depend on humans’ future acts and doesn’t require God to override human willpower. Moreover, humans cannot ultimately change it.
No person has the right to expect God to forgive their sins and grant them eternal life. Since no human being has that expectation, God is just whether He grants the benefits of the Plan of Salvation to no one, to everyone, or to only some.
THE REASON
The immediate reason for election is saving the elect. In the Plan of Salvation, God the Father has chosen certain human beings to receive salvation and everlasting life with God (Rom. 11:7, 8; 2 Thess. 2:13).
There’s also another reason. In fact, it is greater than the first reason and is greater than everything else. All things God does is for His glory. Election itself is for God’s glory (Eph 1:6, 12, 14). However, Scripture clearly teaches that the elect are predestined to receive salvation and do good works (Eph. 2:10; 2 Tim. 2:21), but even this is for God’s glory.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is not a plenary discussion about election. But it is sufficient for Christians’ salvation.
God is perfectly just. He owes no one the benefits of the Plan of Salvation. However, by His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13), He chose certain people before the foundation of the world to receive these benefits. They are called the elect, and the process of choosing them is called election. Because God created election by His good pleasure, it eliminated any consideration of good works by any human being.
John Calvin wrote about the Doctrine of Election in his Institutes as follows:
Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction. We maintain that this counsel, as regards the elect, is founded on his free mercy, without any respect to human worth, while those whom he dooms to destruction are excluded from access to life by a just and blameless, but at the same time incomprehensible Judgment.[iii]
This is the first step in the Plan of Salvation God developed to save the elect and for His own glory.
[i] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, combined ed. (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2021), p. 104.
[ii] Berkhof, p. 104-06.
[iii] John Calvin, “Institutes of the Christian Religion,” trans. Henry Beveridge (Hendrickson 2017), p. 613.
