We’ve been thinking a lot about God’s sovereignty over who becomes a Christian and who doesn’t (the doctrine of election) as we work through Romans 9. Let’s pause and consider three reasons that election is good news:*
1. Election means his love is unconditional and secure. If he based his love on our will or exertion, it would come and go. (Actually, it would just go. See Romans 3.)
Think of a wife asking her husband why he loves her. If he says, “Because you’re beautiful,” she will know that if her physical beauty fades, his love will fade. If he says, “I love you because I love you,” she is secure. Thankfully, God loves his people because he loves his people.
I tell my children nearly every night, “I love you and I will always love you. I love you when you’re good and I love you when you’re bad. Nothing will ever change my love for you.” I want them to know that my love doesn’t depend on their performance. It comes from within me and my will. God is able to love us this way because his love is founded within himself and not us..
2. Election means there is hope for even the most unholy sinner. Think of someone who murders Christians. There is hope for even this person because salvation isn’t based on his will or exertion but on God who has mercy. (By the way, Paul murdered Christians before God saved him.)
Maybe you feel like you are beyond hope because of things you’ve done or had done to you. You are never beyond hope because God is powerfully in control of dispensing his mercy. Praise God, it doesn’t depend on us.
2. Election isn’t cold and detached. He works it with his nail-riddled hands.
He came down here to us. He lived among us. He gave himself up for us. Jesus, “God with Us,” was the only sinless man who ever lived, the only one who deserved the love God gave Jacob. Yet on the cross he became rejected like Esau. He cried out, “Father, why have you forsaken me?” He became Esau so that we could become Jacob. He was forsaken so that we could be chosen.
*I am aware that not everyone agrees with me on my interpretation of Romans 9 and the doctrine of election/free will. I’m open to discussion about it. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section or email me at matthewbroadway@gmail.com if you would like to interact about all this.
