Every child of God is the object of eternal love without beginning and without end. This is one of the fat things full of marrow. Is it so, that I, a believer in Jesus, unworthy as I am, am the object of the eternal love of God? What transport lies in that thought! Long before the Lord began to create the world, he had thought of me. Long ere Adam fell or Christ was born, and the angels sung their first choral over Bethlehem’s miracle, the eye and the heart of God were towards his elect people. He never began to love them, they were always “a people near unto him.” Is it not so written, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee”? Some kick at the doctrine of election, but they are ill advised, since they labour to overturn one of the noblest dishes of the feast; they would dam up one of the coolest streams that flow from Lebanon; they would cover over with rubbish one of the richest veins of golden ore that make rich the people of God.
Charles Spurgeon, “Good cheer for Christmas,” The Sermons of Charles Spurgeon, Sermons 401-600 (Vol 3)
HL – http://www.bloggingtheologically.com/2012/12/09/christmas-and-the-gift-of-election/
For the Love of His Truth 
One can only be truly eternally thankful for being predestined to receive the gift of the faith that is more precious than gold because we did not ask for it, we did not choose it, we had no merit, we definitely did not deserve it. We were helpless and dead in our trespasses and sins, not able to choose because a dead man cannot make a choice. Some, that kick against election like Jacob Harmenzoon of Oude Water (his Latin name Arminius) because they want to place God in a better light for rational man to understand what is fair. We want to be in control of our destiny, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul” says the poem Invictus by WE Henley. After the fall we have only one preference and that is to hate God from our new sinful, corrupted nature and that is to sin because it is so nice. An Arminian friend told me the following; “So, Nico you say that God is like Chaka the Zulu King that for His mother’s birthday sacrificed some of his Impi’s by letting them stand on the edge of a cliff. Then he walked down the row and at his will pushed some of the cliff to fall toward their death, choosing this one and then that one. Choose one for hell and one for heaven.”
“No, No”, I said. “We are all at the bottom of the cliff, dead, and then God in his mercy raise some from their already eternally judged state and make them alive. Those that stay condemned will also one day confess that they deserve just punishment for their sin. Those that are saved will be eternally grateful for such a gift of salvation and forever praise God. Those that are left in their deserved state will also bow their knee and their tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. All will give glory to God.
God changes our will to be inclined towards Him, the order of salvation (orde solutis) is first we must be made alive, reborn to see the Kingdom, to receive the gift of faith, God commands that there must be light in our darkness, the light of the eternal gospel of Jesus Christ, only then can we see to make a prudent decision in our condemned state and we receive our Saviour gladly. I sometime use a simple explanation for the state of man. In order for God to be “fair” as the Arminians will understand fairness, God must give all a fair choice by showing them what Jesus has done for them. You are presented with Bloody Jesus in God’s arms for you to receive. Will you reject it, spurn such a sacrifice? Will you accept the alternative, the hell fire rather and eternal damnation? For an example: you are in a fire, trapped with no escape and the fireman break down the door to rescue you. You see the saviour and what will your choice be? It will be stupid to decide to stay in the fire and it will be wise to choose to be saved. No one, no one will make such a choice.
Why is it then that some “choose” to go to hell if God was “fair” to give everyone the same revelation when the message of the gospel is preached? This is then also a mystery. The one stay in darkness, the vail is not taken away is the only one answer; sovereign election like the Bible clearly teaches. The other one are made alive in Christ and will receive their Saviour gladly. We are not given an explanation to this mystery as God only reveals as much as He chose to.
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
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Nico, thank you for your explanations. I too believe in sovereign election. But can you please explain to me, cuz I don’t understand. Dead men cannot raise themselves. So even if Jesus reveals himself, like in the example of the burning building, the dead man is still dead. How can a dead man have a choice? It was set from the beginning of time of his damnation. So I can’t get my head around that one. All the pleadings from the apostles, and Jesus, for what? No amount of warning can wake the dead man up, because his eternity is already set. Even though I don’t understand, I just believe what Jesus says. And please explain to me like I am a two year old. Thank you!
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Dalia, Ok baby Dalia, (-: lets see if you can understand. If you read carefully, you cannot see the Kingdom unless you are born again. So, we are like Lazarus, dead, wrapped up like a mummy, until; until; “Lazarus stand up!” He was a type of dead in our sin, but made alive in Christ. The order of salvation, made alive, born again. We receive the faith wich is the light God commands so that we can make a informed prudent decision.2Co_4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
We were taught that we are drowning and God give us a life raft, but we cannot even stretch our hand to take it, we are helpless and Jesus take us from the bottom and raise us.
Is not our will then bonded?, we have really only one choice which we gladly accept when we See with our spiritual eyes which was blind, now we see, we were death but now we hear, we had a veil placed by God but take away in Christ, Haleluja!!
Nico
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Dear Dalia,
Let us call a spade a spade. Some are given faith and rebirth, some are not given faith. Those with faith are saved by that faith by the predetermined will of God. Others stay in their unbelief and do not believe. This also gives us the answer to: at what age are you then accountable for you decision? Eight, twelve, eighteen, when you die at ten years old and did not make a commitment are you lost forever? Or, are you still at the age of no accountability for you actions. You are not innocent; when you open your eyes at three minutes old you scream for milk and are a viper in a diaper. You are predestined like Esau and Jacob before you made any decision, God did not foresee that the one will repent and on that grounds accept him. God did not foresee that Jacob will be the better man to fulfil his destiny. No, Jacob was a wicked man.
I understand what you are really after. It is the spiritually dead in Adam our Archetypal as if it was us in Paradise and broke the creation work covenant. Was it Dalia first in Paradise she would have done the same as Eve. They were in a state of integrity, able not to sin and able to sin. Free choice, not automated creations. God did not hinder the devil and Eve to communicate this fatal conversation, but both were allowed to continue this dialogue to its tragic end. Adam and Eve’s failure was inevitable, because it was given with existence. Tragically man does not want to fail but had to fail. You do not have to fail but eventually want to fail, so it is not his lot but his fault. Man thought that if they sin they will improve themselves, (lie of the devil) but in actual fact; they degenerated to a state of total corruption. The command was that they will surely die if they broke the work covenant and they did. This is a mystery (not a copout) that I think as you say, we do not understand, one day we will, it is enough that it is clearly the teaching of Jesus in Scripture. God is good, God is our loving Father, God is righteous, God is sovereign and almighty that is enough for us to understand. To try to fathom God whom chose to only partially reveal himself is to become mentally unstable. Those dead, cannot hear, cannot see, stay under the vail are not predestined. Some, a remnant out of all nations are reborn, given faith, the light of revelation in the face of Jesus Christ, they believe so it is an act of them, you are saved by faith. Although the Bible state that no one has an excuse for unbelief, because the heavens declare the glory of the Lord they do not believe, so unbelief is an act of man and determine his destiny. It is his lot but also his fault. It is somewhat of a Philosophical explanation.
If you want to get rid of election then you have to tear many pages out of Scripture.
Nico
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“The great fact of the Gospel then is this: that God has actually chosen us in Jesus Christ in spite of our sin, and that in the death of Christ that election has become a fait accompli. It means too that God has chosen all men, in as much as Christ died for all men, and because that is once and for all no one can ever elude the election of His love, as no one exists except by the Word of God by who In as much all things were made and in whom all things consist, and in as much as this is the Word that has once and for all enacted the eternal election of grace to embrace all men, the existence of every man whether he will or no is bound up inextricably with that election—with the Cross of Jesus Christ. Every man’s being is bound up for ever with the one and indivisible act of God’s love in Jesus Christ. How could it be otherwise? The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the final reality of our world upon which everything else depends. All things are summed up in Him, things visible, and invisible, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. The whole universe revolves round the Love of God in Jesus Christ and all its motion depends entirely upon Him.”
~ T. F. Torrance
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Richard
Thank you for commenting here. I’m a little unsure as to why you posted this piece by TF Torrance. On closer inspection it seems to contain strong elements of universalism or Amyraldianism, which are both very misguided and destructive beliefs. I might be misinterpreting what you wish to say by your posting of this piece, and if that is the case then I apologize. Please set me right in that instance, but to understand that Jesus died for those who will never be saved, is simply blasphemous.
The word translated “an unholy thing” in Hebrews 10:29 means “something common, shared by all.” As everyone knows, that which is common is worthless. To declare that there is some sense in which our all-glorious Christ died in common for all, for those who are saved and for those who perish under the wrath of God, is to declare that he died in vain, that his precious blood is not precious at all, but worthless! It is to trample his blood under foot, make it “an unholy thing,” and do “despite unto the Spirit of grace” by denying the gospel He has revealed, asserting that it takes something more than the redemption accomplished at Calvary to put away sin, asserting that man’s faith must supplement Christ’s atonement for the atonement to be effectual.
That is precisely what is now being preached by many who once professed to believe the teaching of Holy Scripture, that the Son of God died for and redeemed his elect, whom he redeemed, not along with all men, but “ from among men” (Revelation 14:4). Regarding the wholesale rush to revive Amyraldianism (Fullerism — the teaching that Christ died for goats as well as sheep, the reprobate as well as the elect) by men who wish to be adored as “reformed” in doctrine, I have moved beyond mere concern to anger.
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Thank you guys for your explanations and your patience. I love how we help one another in our stages of learning and growing. I feel great warmth for who our Father places in my life. God bless!
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