Taken from the the larger article, Biblical Soteriology (Doctrine of Salvation), by Dr. Edward Dalcour.     


Election.
How one sees election and God’s sovereignty will effect every dimension and method of how one evangelizes. The term “election” is from the Greek noun eklogē (ἐκλέγω, from ek, “out” and legw, to speak or reason). Linguistically, it denotes a “marking out,” or “choice” or “the act of picking out, choosing” (Thayer). The noun is used in the NT 7 times.[1]

 

Romans 11:5, for example, “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice (eklogē chritos, lit., “election of grace”).   

 

The verb being, eklegomai-eklegw (“I chose, mark out”) appears twenty two times in the NT, and always middle voice (gram. subject does the action to or for himself). Note the verb’s usage in Ephesians 1:4-5, for example:

 

4 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (John 15:16, 19; etc.).

Theologically, it refers “to the electing” of those whom The Father gave to the Son, whom He called and choose for salvation before the foundation of the world (John 6:37-39, 44; Acts 13:48; Eph. 1:4-5; 2 Thess. 2:13). According to Romans 9:22-23 – Election is God’s way of “making known” to us (vessels of mercy) – “the riches of His glory.”

 

 Two Views: Conditional Election and Unconditional Election

 Conditional Election – asserts that God elects those for salvation based not His free and sovereign choice; rather, it is based on the foreseen future actions of men (faith-act), which is the “condition” of God electing him. In this sense, salvation is solely based on God’s foreknowledge of what He sees in man, that is, what men will do with His Son.

In this view, Jesus’ death on the cross produced a “universal” hypothetical atonement—i.e., it asserts that Jesus died and paid the penalty of sin and took the wrath of all men. Further, in this, view, God really desires all men to be saved, but the mighty force of man’s will stops God from doing what He desires—viz. from actually saving “all men.” Those who hold to this view include Roman Catholics, and most modern evangelicals—most of the professing Christian church. Salvation then in this view, is purely SYNERGISTIC (lit., “together works)—namely, God and man working together; man cooperating with God.      

 

Unconditional Election asserts that God’s election of men unto salvation was based not on the foreseen actions of men (as a condition), but rather, based on God’s immutable sovereignty and freedom (unconditional) over the clay. In this view, Jesus’ atonement was not hypothetical, but definite; He died specifically for all the ones the Father gave Him (John 6:37-39, 44; Acts 13:48; Rom. 8:29-30; 9:5-23; Eph. 1:4-5; 2 Thess. 2:13).

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Salvation in this view is purely MONERGISTIC (“alone working”)—namely, God working alone in salvation—man’s eternal destiny then is in the hands of the sovereignty, grace, mercy, and justice of God, and not in the hands of sinners. Those who hold to this view include the entire Reformed tradition (including the Puritans), early Baptist tradition, and present-day Reformed and Sovereign Grace churches, and most standard Systematic Theologies.           

[1] Acts 9:15; Romans 9:11; 11:5, 7, 28; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; and 2 Peter 1:10.

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