I find that most people have the wrong idea of what the biblical doctrine of election is. Most people think that Calvin’s conception of election is synonymous with the biblical doctrine of election. I don’t believe this to be the case. Therefore, I treat the issue in Holiness In Fresh Perspective: Covenant, Cross, and Kingdom (Wipf and Stock, expected 2014). Here is my treatment of that.
Before the foundation of the world, God chose, or elected, to work his World Renewal Plan through a single family, the family of Abraham. Through Abraham, God’s World Renewal Plan would be accomplished (Eph 1:3–6). Herein lays the proper, biblical doctrine of election and predestination. So many get it wrong, unfortunately. The familiarity with Calvin’s doctrine of election and predestination (which is linked to perseverance doctrine as well) temps us to think that it is synonymous with the biblical doctrine of election. This is not the case. The true, the biblical concept of election as pertains to salvation is about a corporate, collective people, not so much about individuals.
Let me first explain what the biblical doctrine of election is not. The biblical doctrine of election is not that God predetermines who does and who does not go to heaven. Election according to Scripture is not about God predetermining where people spend the after-life. This is not a priority concern whatsoever in Scripture.[1] Scripture, especially the Old Testament and Paul (as we will see that Paul is right in step with the Old Testament), is much more concerned with the fact that God predestined that through the family of Abraham his plan would be fulfilled. Christ is the chosen one through whom people can chose to be a part of God’s covenant people by faith. Paul and the Old Testament teach us that, “God’s people is a chosen race (1 Pet 2:9), that is, a chosen group and not chosen individuals.”[2] God chose Abraham and his family. God chose Christ and his church. Everett Ferguson further explains this idea with this:
“All who are in Christ are included in his election. God chose Abraham (and all in him); God chose Jacob (and all in him); God chose David (and his descendants); God chose Christ (and all in him). Just as all who were “in” Abraham, Israel, or David were included in their election, so it is with Christ. The election of Christ entails the election of those in Christ. The plan of God for Christians is spoken of in the same way as for Christ: foreknown (1 Pet. 1:20; Rom. 8:29), predestined (Acts 4:28; Eph. 1:5: Rom. 8:29-30), and loved before the foundation of the world (John 17:24; Eph. 1:4). God continues to choose a category, a group—believers in Christ. Christians are in Christ as Jews are in Abraham and humanity is in Adam (cf. Eph. 1:10).”[3]
This means that God chose, in advance, to overthrow the reign of sin and death through Jesus. Said another way, Jesus was the “elect” one through whom people would be saved. There are God’s people and there are those who are not God’s people. Individuals have the opportunity choose to participate, or not to participate, as members of this corporate people of God. This is entirely different than God predetermining where people will spend eternity after they die.
[1]. For a more thorough treatment of a biblical doctrine of life after death, see Wright, Surprised by Hope.
[2]. Ferguson, The Church of Christ: A Biblical Ecclesiology for Today, 1109–1110, Kindle Edition.
[3]. Ibid., 156–1159, Kindle Edition