Divine Election: Conditional or Unconditional?

The word “election” refers to the process of choosing. The Bible teaches that God chooses those who believe. But is God’s choice unconditional, based only on his own will? Or is God’s choice conditional, based on some quality or action of the person who is saved? Calvinists hold that God’s choice to save people has nothing to do with them. To Arminians, God chooses people because he knows in advance that they will have faith in Jesus. 

Unconditional Election

Because of our fallen human condition, we are completely dependent on God to initiate salvation for us. Calvinists believe that God did this in eternity past by choosing to save some, without any condition, work, or effort on their part. Those whom he has chosen (called “the elect”) will eventually be made alive spiritually by the power of the Holy Spirit. As a result they will come willingly to put their faith in Christ. Does God’s choice of some and not others make him arbitrary? No, because God chooses people for reasons we don’t know or understand. 

The choice to save some and not others rests solely in God’s own sovereign plan and purpose. God is the absolute king over his entire creation, with complete and absolute rule over all things. So in the end, his choice of the sinner – not the sinner’s choice of Jesus – is the ultimate cause of that person’s salvation. 

Related to this is the idea of “predestination” where God pre-determines a person’s final destiny. Some Calvinists believe in “double predestination” – meaning that God chooses certain individuals to save and chooses others to condemn. But all human beings are already under God’s condemnation, not because of his decision, but because of their sin. God doesn’t have to save anyone. He can righteously condemn all sinners for their sin. But thankfully God graciously does select some for eternal life.

Calvinists point out that unconditional election preserves the glory of God in salvation, assuring that salvation is 100% a work of God. God does not provide something essential while humans also provide something essential (faith). According to Ephesians 2:8-9: “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” If salvation is based on a person’s faith decision, that person has something to take credit for. If one person has something another person doesn’t have, which allows him or her to exercise faith, then salvation ultimately depends on something meritorious about them – not on the merits of Christ alone.

Calvinists have been criticized for not engaging in evangelism. But God’s plan is that the elect come to faith through the preaching of the gospel. In fact, election provides great encouragement when we tell others about Jesus, knowing that some will, in fact, accept the message we share. This gives us confidence to cast our lines in the water, knowing that some fish – God’s elect – will bite. 

Calvinists tend to emphasize biblical texts that speak about God’s choice and God’s action in salvation:

• Luke 10:21,22 (NLT) My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
• John 5:21 (NLT) “For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants.”
• John 6:44 (NLT) “For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me…..” 
• Acts 13:48 (NLT) When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers.
• Ephesians 1:4-5 (NLT) Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 (NLT) As for us, we can’t help but thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation—a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth.”

Conditional Election

For election to be conditional means that God’s choice of those he will save has something to do with them. While Arminians agree that election to salvation is not based on works or merit, it is conditional because it is based on God’s choice to have mercy on those people who believe the gospel. Election is conditional on faith in Christ.

This involves the foreknowledge of God. As an infinite being, God sees all events across all time. He can know in advance who would choose Christ, and in response to this act of human free will, God in turn chose them and called them the elect.

In the Five Articles of Remonstrance (1610), Arminian theologians suggested five corrections to Calvinism. Article 1 reflects Arminius’ belief that predestination is “the foundation of Christianity.” Arminians believe that predestination is God’s purpose, before the foundation of the world, to save believers in Christ and to condemn unbelievers outside of Christ. But because God desires all people to repent and be saved, and is not willing that any should perish, God does not limit salvation to just some. He wills all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, but the fulfillment of his will depends on each person’s choice.

It follows that God has equal and impartial love for all individuals. God does not have some sort of particular love that actually secures a person’s redemption in advance. 

One Arminian view of election is known as corporate election. Mirroring the election of Israel in the Old Testament, this view holds that election to salvation is primarily of the Church as a group. Just as God’s people in the Old Covenant were chosen in Jacob/Israel, so God’s people in the New Covenant are chosen in Christ.

Arminians tend to bring up Bible passages that stress God’s desire to save all people, and faith as the human cause of salvation.

• John 3:16-18 (NLT) or God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
• Romans 10:9-13 (NLT)  If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
• Romans 8:29 (NLT) For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
• 1 Timothy 2:3-4 (NLT) This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:13 (NLT) But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
• 1 Peter 1:1,2 (NLT) To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
• 2 Peter 3:9 (NLT) The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Takeaway

Both sides of the debate will underscore God’s gracious initiative in salvation towards sinful people who absolutely do not deserve it. This encourages humility before the amazing grace of God, and worship to him who sacrificed his own Son to provide for our salvation. All praise and glory to God alone for the great cost paid by Jesus, who died so that we could be chosen by God.