...except after "C"

OK, now that we have come to agree on our own human inability to do anything to change our spiritual condition, we come to the second letter in the acronym - (U)nconditional Election. Some time ago I posted a comment on one of my favorite blogs that read:

"There is an excellent, concise summary of the two positions
in The Nelson Study Bible:
Calvinists define election as the unconditional choice of God
that is the cause of our faith.
Arminians define election as the conditional choice of God
that is the result of our faith."

So the question in the final analysis really comes down to "who moved"? Based on what we learned about our own inability, and demonstrated by what we see in the passages below, we understand a second doctrinal pillar of "Divine Intervention". We are sadly misled about the true nature of grace and mercy if we believe we can initiate it by our own will or effort. For us to be saved, God must intervene in our hearts and make us willing to submit to him in faith and obedience. Consider the following:

John 1:12-13 "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." Verse twelve is a favorite verse of some people who have battled me endlessly over their right to choose God. Unfortunately, many of them fail to account for verse thirteen which clearly sets the cause/effect relationship in the appropriate context.

John 10:25-26 "Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock." Notice it does not say they are not part of the flock because they don't believe, but rather completely the other way around.

Acts 13:48 "And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed." What do you think this verse says about cause and effect?

Romans 8:28-30* "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And he gave them right standing with himself, and he promised them his glory." (NLT)

Romans 9:16 "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy."

Ephesians 1:3-6 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved."

Ephesians 2:4-10 "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

You'll find that the theme in Scripture is consistently about God intervening to correct that which man lacks the ability to correct himself. Grace is first and only a work of God, it is unmerited and not conditional based on something that we do to earn it. Faith is a gift. Repentance is a gift.

Remember in the discussion about human inability we looked at John 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." I mentioned that Jesus' statement was encroaching on another day's discussion. Do you see the Divine Intervention at work? And yet we will still have to wait for another day.

I think the answer to the question of "who moved?" is found as succinctly as possible in 1 John 4:19 - "We love because he first loved us."



*Translation note: if you follow my links, you will find that usually I have selected the English Standard Version for the text of the Bible. The more study I do, the more I find this particular translation to be superior for its blend of readability and accuracy. However, there are some places where I believe the editors have missed the mark and not given the reader the best sense of what the Scripture means. In this particular case, it seems to me the ESV guys made a blunder by relegating the primary verb sunergeo to the footnote. I have thus chosen to link to the New Living Translation for this particular reference. I hope this doesn't open me up to accusations of proof-texting.
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