Some have thought over the years and centuries that God elects some to salvation and its blessings but that He does so on the basis of a choice, a response of faith, or some other good that he foresees in them. Inasmuch as this is a quite recent view (that is to say, it is not the historic, New Testament, viewpoint) the major flaw with this thinking is that it credits way too much good to human depravity.
When people have trouble with God’s sovereignty in election, their real problem is not with the doctrine of election—although they want to think that it is—but it is really with the doctrine of depravity that makes election necessary. They want to think that there is some good that motivates or causes God to choose us. This is quite a high view of anthropology!
John Calvin has it right when he states: “How should God foresee that which could not be? For we know that all Adam’s offspring is corrupted and that we do not have the skill to think one good thought or doing well, and much less therefore are we able to commence to do good. Although God should wait a hundred thousand years for us, if we could remain so long in the world, yet it is certain that we should never come to him nor do anything else but increase the mischief continually to our own condemnation. In short, the longer men live in the world, the deeper they plunge themselves into their own damnation. And therefore God could not foresee what was not in us before he himself put it into us.”
Therefore, let us glory that “salvation is of the LORD” (John 2:9) for He chose us according to the “kind intention of his will” (Eph 1:5).
When people have trouble with God’s sovereignty in election, their real problem is not with the doctrine of election—although they want to think that it is—but it is really with the doctrine of depravity that makes election necessary. They want to think that there is some good that motivates or causes God to choose us. This is quite a high view of anthropology!
John Calvin has it right when he states: “How should God foresee that which could not be? For we know that all Adam’s offspring is corrupted and that we do not have the skill to think one good thought or doing well, and much less therefore are we able to commence to do good. Although God should wait a hundred thousand years for us, if we could remain so long in the world, yet it is certain that we should never come to him nor do anything else but increase the mischief continually to our own condemnation. In short, the longer men live in the world, the deeper they plunge themselves into their own damnation. And therefore God could not foresee what was not in us before he himself put it into us.”
Therefore, let us glory that “salvation is of the LORD” (John 2:9) for He chose us according to the “kind intention of his will” (Eph 1:5).
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