Election

I have struggled with Predestination/Election vs. Free Will my entire life.  I agree with those people who wonder how a God who loves us could create someone He knows will go to Hell and be apart from Him for all eternity. However, the more I study Scripture, the more I see the Truth.  Mainly from Romans 8 and 9.  I memorized Romans 8 back in April, and Romans 8:29-30 says, "For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.  And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified."  Paul goes on to say in Romans 8:33 "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?  It is God who justifies."  Malachi 1:2-3 says that God loved Jacob but hated Esau.  God hates?  What?  God is love right?  It's not fair to Esau!  God is evil.  He is a tyrant.  Given this, we feel justified in our unbelief.  Well let me take you back to the beginning of the story.

Before Man was created, God created the angels to worship Him.  And worship Him they did.  They sang His praises, and couldn't even stand in His presence.  The greatest angel, Lucifer, thought he deserved as much praise as God.  After all, he was the #1 angel so why shouldn't the other angels show some love?  Lucifer felt justified, so God banished him from His presence forever.  Poor Lucifer, right?  He got a bad rap.  Other angels felt the same way, and they were banished too.  They forgot one thing:  HE IS GOD!  How can the creation be anywhere near the Creator?  God then created Man (the timeline is fuzzy as to whether Lucifer rebelled before Man was created, but Lucifer was banished to Earth, so I guess it was concurrent.  I'd like to think Lucifer was jealous that God loved Man more than the angels.)  God created Man in Eden.  He gave Man everything he needed, including Woman, and called it good.  Man had everything he needed.  God gave Man one rule "don't eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil".  Seriously, Man had everything he needed, so avoiding one tree shouldn't have been a problem right?  Well enter Lucifer (aka Satan).  Satan comes up to Woman and questions God's command.  "Did God really say that?".  Eventually Woman eats the fruit and Man joins right in with her.  *BOOM* Man has joined Lucifer in his rebellion.  That act declared war on God.  God is sovereign and has to punish disobedience.  We seem to forget that we declared war on God.  We took His provision and threw it in His face.  We declared war, and we blame Him?!  But you say, "I wasn't there, I didn't eat the fruit!"  Well Romans 5:14 says, "Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, *even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam*, who was a type of the one who was to come."  In Adam, all die.  That is the Truth.  Because of Adam's screw-up, we are to blame.  Adam was Man's representative.  Sorry folks, you lose before you start.

But then in steps Jesus!  God became Man to be Man's representative again.  By Jesus' sacrifice and pure obedience to God the Father, we can be redeemed.  "For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the One Man's obedience the many will be made righteous." (Romans 5:19).  Romans 5:12-21 talks about Death in Adam and Life in Christ.  Matthew 4:17 says, "From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, 'Repent!  For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.'"  So, Jesus preached repentance.  Repentance from what?  What did I do?  I was a good kid.  I don't drink, smoke or chew...or date girls who do.  I go to church.  I don't oppose God.  I'm a moral, upright citizen.  Sorry, Stu, you lose though.  Man rebelled and is at war with God.  That is the Truth.  If I choose not to accept that Truth, then guess what, I am rebelling!  I must REPENT!  I must do an about face, 180.  I need to lay down my arms in an unconditional surrender.  God is God.  I know God, I know the Truth, yet I choose to not believe it.  If I am not for God, I am against Him, there is no gray area.  There are absolutes.  If you want to sound smart and say "There are no absolutes", then you're really showing that you're a fool because you believe that statement is absolutely true.  If that statement is not true, then there are absolutes!  God is God, I am not, that is Truth.  I have rebelled against a God who loves me.  I need to repent and surrender!  Every single day I must repent.  The Christian life is one of repentance, according to Martin Luther.

The great thing is, once we repent, once we surrender, then we are adopted into His family.  God takes us back!  We become heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ!  (Romans 8:17).  We need to stop fighting the Kingdom in order to be admitted into the Kingdom.  Remember, we were in the Garden, but we rebelled and God had to kick us out of the Garden.  He provided a way for us to get back in though.  Poor Lucifer, there is no way for him to get back in.  He is pissed off.  He hates us because we have the opportunity to go back.  He is Hell-bent (literally) on taking as many people down with him as he can before the end.  He wants us to feel justified.  He wants us to harden our hearts.  He wants to paint God as the enemy so that we can die and be apart from Him just like Lucifer has to be.  But do not be deceived, dear reader.  He is a liar.  God is Truth.  God loves you, and it's not too late for you to repent and re-join the Kingdom.  Or, you can continue to harden your heart and fight the losing battle.  You may feel justified, but in the end what does it get you?

I admit, if I say I am Elect then I sound like an arrogant ass.  I, too, have struggled with the concept.  But I read in Romans 9 that me questioning God is like the lump of clay questioning the potter.  God is the Potter.  I am clay.  My opinion means nothing.  If He wants to make me into a vase so that He can take a sledgehammer to me, then I have no choice.  I rebelled against Him, so I deserve His wrath.  But, He took His wrath on Himself at the Cross so that I wouldn't have to.  Now my contention is not "Why am I condemned?" it is "Why would a holy God forgive me?".  That realization is where my life ends, and Christ begins.  Christianity is a relationship with God.  It begins at repentance, which comes from humility.  I had to let go of my pride.  My prayer for you, dear reader, is that you daily relinquish your pride and allow God to be who He is.  He promises salvation and reconciliation, but only after repentance.  And, I've already stated in a previous post that He promises good to us who are reconciled to Him.  He will either use your pride to bring about your destruction for His glory, like He did w/ Pharaoh in Exodus, or He will use your humility to reconcile you to Himself to use you for His glory.  Either way, Soli Deo Gloria.

Many men far smarter or wiser than I am have debated this topic, so I do not claim to be any authority.  I'm just writing out what I've discovered, and what I have grown to believe.  The issue isn't Election, it's a "Yes/No" choice.  You have the ability to say "Yes", but in saying "Yes" to God, you say "No" to yourself.  It does literally cost you your life because you are no longer living for yourself, but for Him.  I can only tell you what I know, and I know that I love God and I follow Him, and for some reason He blesses me.  I don't deserve Him.  But that's the point.  Salvation comes from His mercy, not from anything we have done (Ephesians 2:8-9).

For the Kingdom,
Stuart