Unconditional Election

This is a simple definition:

Unconditional election is God’s free choice before creation, not based on foreseen faith, to which traitors he will grant faith and repentance, pardoning them, and adopting them into his everlasting family of joy.

At the core of this are two things:

1.  God gets eternal credit for our eternal salvation
2.  God is supremely sovereign, just, and right in his eternal decrees regarding his creation; man.

Here is why these two cores are so important.

How can man, a finite created corrupted creation take any credit away from almighty, infinite, and perfectly holy God; in something God decrees?  It is an impossibility.  Election is a eternal decree that only God can make and only God is right to make. 

How can God be sovereign and almighty if he has to concede to a condition by his creation?  99% sovereign is not sovereignty.  99% almighty is not almighty.  If God had to take orders from his creation to determine whether or not they are elected; this makes God inferior to creation.  How can God be God if he can not be 100% sovereign and almighty over all things he created?

The difficult truth that a lot of people have a hard time with is this:  It takes away from what we want.  We want some sort of glory, some sort of credit, some sort of feeling of power.  That is natural.  That is in our nature, our sinful nature.  And when we come face to face with something that tells us what our sinful heart does not want to hear, of course our first thought and feeling is to reject it and find ways to justify how we in some small way to tell God what to do.  The unconditional Election of God does just that.

So what about his creation's free will?

This has been discussed and debated for thousands of years.  But no matter what kind or level of free will I may have; God is still completely sovereign and almighty; not me.  I can not out smart or over power God.  No matter how hard people pray or name it and claim it; God is still more sovereign and mighty.  This at the same time does NOT deny the existence free will. 

Pardoning and Adopting

I can not pardon myself from my sins.  I can not adopt myself into God's holy family.  I can not demand and threaten God to pardon me and adopt me.  Well, I could, but I after all the yelling and screaming at God, it is up to him; not me.  There are things that only God can do.  Like making us spiritually alive; we can not do this for ourselves. 

Foreseen faith?

Here I am a believer.  Did God see this moment before the beginning of time and elect me because he foresaw my future faith?  Sounds deep but really it is still stating that I saved myself.  He would have to elect me in order for me to have a future faith.  If his election was dependent on my future faith; how did I get my future faith?  If God created time, how could his election then be dependent on events in time?  That would still make God dependent on his creation (time or man); thus inferior to it and not sovereign and almighty.  God is free.  He is outside time.  Not bound by his creation.  Thus, his decreed election of his creation can not be dependent on his creation.  Unconditional.

God's Word:

Romans 9 is a perfect book and chapter to dive into.  Some Jews were perishing (Rom 9:3) but how could that be if God promised them salvation (Romans 9:6-7)?  Because true Jews were chosen by God not by man, nations, cultures, or worldly conditions (Romans 9:11-13).  God is in his perfect and sovereign just right to choose who he wants to save and who he doesn't; he's God, we are his creation and nothing in his fall creation deserves to be saved; He just freely chooses to. (Romans 9:14-18).

God's purpose for choosing who he would have mercy for and who he would not is for his own glory and will.  It is completely unconditional whereas he is the only condition of the choice.

John 6 is undeniably clear.  The very first thing: God who chooses and gives.  Then they will come to Jesus and Jesus will never lose them (John 6:37).  Then Jesus says it in the reverse.  That none can come to him unless they are first chosen by God (John 6:65).  Jesus then bluntly states that we do not choose him; He chooses us (because Jesus is God, and God does the choosing for salvation) (John 15:16).  Those who genuinely come to faith, came because they were elected to (Acts 13:48).

Much like Romans 9 and John 6, Ephesians 1 is explicit as well.  True Christians are chosen by God before there was anything created and it was for and by God's will (Eph 1:4,11). 

In these three explicit texts it is obviously clear that God does the choosing of his creation and his creation unconditionally responds.  God elects man before any work or deed without any work and deed.  Man is unconditionally elected by God for his will to be done.

The Result and Benefits of God's Unconditional Election:

1. We don't have to fear being an imperfect representative in this life.  We can proclaim his Glory fearlessly (Romans 8:31,33). 
2. We are truly humbled by the fact that God chose us and we did nothing for it (1 Cor 1:27,29,31). 
3. We become more kind, compassionate, and forgiving because we know that we do not deserve God's mercy but he chose us and showed mercy anyway (Col 3:12-13).
4. There is no worst of the worst who can be saved.  Our evangelistic outreach is not limited by the conditions of people's lives.   

When you understand that God is God, you are his creation, and that you do not deserve the mercy he has chosen you to receive; it transforms you.  It is this transformation and spiritual maturity that confirms your election (2 Peter 1:10).