“Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.”
(1st Thessalonians 1:4)

Recently a young mother I know made this comment. She said, “The one thing about the election of God, that concerns me the most is the fact that my children may not be the elect of God.” So many people think and believe that “the election of God” shuts sinners out of salvation and redemption. It does no such thing! It actually makes salvation certain for the beloved of the Lord.

With the doctrine of election, many people often get the “cart before the horse” as the old saying goes. God doesn’t reveal election to a lost sinner in order to save them. God reveals to them Christ as the only deliverance of sin. It is only after the chosen sinner is saved that God reveals to them why. They see that the reason they are saved is because God, before the foundation of the world, chose them, called them, and justified them IN CHRIST by His sovereign grace. God’s preachers don’t just preach election. They preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Election is the teaching of scripture that causes and enables them to rejoice that the mercy and grace of God in Christ was behind their coming to Christ.

How people can find more comfort and assurance in a “free will decision” that they make, I will never understand. Salvation is by the sovereign choice that God makes. That’s what our Lord said. “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you….” (John 15:16) To fear and worry about the election of God is ridiculous when you understand that God has never turned down or turned away a true needy sinner who desired mercy. If someone truly desires deliverance from sin and seeks that deliverance and forgiveness of sin, the only place it can be found (in the Lord Jesus Christ), they will most certainly be saved and discover that they are and were always THE ELECT OF GOD. I love knowing my election of God. Don’t you?

D. Eddmenson