3d - Election, God's Fairness and Man’s Responsibility

• Jn. 6:37 All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
• John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
• John 6:65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
• Jn. 15:16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.”
• Acts 13:48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honoured the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
• Acts 16:14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
• Gal. 1:15,16 But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood . . .
• Plus account of Paul’s salvation
• Eph. 1:4,5 He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. 5 In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will . . .
• In particular: Romans 9:11-24 “...For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills...
• Romans 11:5-10 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”

Verses that suggest God does not have a choice

• 2 Pet. 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
• 1 Tim. 2:4 God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Verses that speak of God “forknowing”

• Rom 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
• 1 Pet. 1:1,2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.

Verses that indicate we have a choice

• Josh 24:15 “And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
• Virtually every time the Gospel is preached

Holding Sovereign Grace and Man’s Responsibility in tension

• “Sir, I understand that you are called an Arminian; and I have been sometimes called a Calvinist; and therefore I suppose we are to draw daggers. But before I consent to begin the combat, with your permission I will ask you a few questions. Pray, Sir, do you feel yourself a depraved creature, so depraved that you would never have thought of turning to God, if God had not first put it into your heart?
• Yes, I do indeed.
• And do you utterly despair of recommending yourself to God by anything you can do; and look for salvation solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ?
• Yes, solely through Christ.
• But, Sir, supposing you were at first saved by Christ, are you not somehow or other to save yourself afterwards by your own works?
• No, I must be saved by Christ from first to last.
• Allowing, then, that you were first turned by the grace of God, are you not in some way or other to keep yourself by your own power?
• No.
• What then, are you to be upheld every hour and every moment by God, as much as an infant in its mother’s arms?
• Yes, altogether.
• And is all your hope in the grace and mercy of God to preserve you unto His heavenly kingdom?
• Yes, I have no hope but in Him.
• Then, Sir, with your leave I will put up my dagger again; for this is all my Calvinism; this is my election, my justification by faith, my final perseverance: it is in substance all that I hold, and as I hold it; and therefore, if you please, instead of searching out terms and phrases to be a ground of contention between us, we will cordially unite in those things wherein we agree.” (Moule, 79f)