Today we will turn our attention to the fifth and final of the garden variety doctrines. But first, we need to brush up on some latin terms: sola gratia and sola fide. Before we go any further, if you know what they mean, take a minute to explain it in your own words. At first, they can be hard to tell apart.
Was that a minute? Seemed like 25 seconds. Oh well, batter up: sola gratia. This is one of the five ‘solas’, one of the five ‘onlys’ that can be used as a testing tool to see if the Christianity you profess is Protestant or not. Sola Gratia insists that what you deserved justly from God was punishment. It would have been God’s great mercy to withhold that punishment, and simply leave you there. However, God did one better, and decided to show you positive blessings on top of his withholding punishment. So, you deserved punishment, and didn’t get it. This was mercy. You deserved nothing, and he went the extra mile to adopt you into his family. This is grace. You didn’t deserve it and he didn’t have to do it.
To use a crude example, think of it like stealing a TV: you stole God’s TV, and so it would have been right and just for God to demand from you two TVs as restitution, or perhaps restitution equal to the value of two TVs. Mercy would be God saying, “I forgive you, I will bear the expense of replacing my TV, you don’t need to pay me anything.” In so doing, he has restored you to neutral. You don’t owe him anything, he has been kind to you, and that’s that. However, the grace God has shown us is a positive blessing on top of that. As well as bearing the expense of replacing his own TV, and not requiring the payment for restitution from you, he has then purchased a TV for you, and it is one with a lifetime warranty! That is what we mean by a positive blessing on top of the mercy he has already shown. So in summary, sola gratia is saying that God has saved you, and that you thoroughly didn’t deserve it. You deserved the opposite, but God who by nature is merciful and gracious, showed you mercy and grace.
Ok, sola gratia has hit a home run. Batter up, sola fide. This doctrine goes hand in hand with Sola Gratia, understandably. Sola Fide says that the only way you can take hold of Christ’s efficacious work on the cross, which caused your salvation, is simply by trusting that Christ did that work for you, and that his resurrection is the proof of it. Simply put, Sola Fide says that all you need to do is trust (or ‘have faith in’) Jesus. As someone once said, this isn’t simply ‘believing in God, it is believing God’.
Your actions count for nothing where your election and standing with God is concerned. Neither do your good works offer you more security than your stumblings in sin jeopardise your position. What’s more, the faith with which you take hold of Christ isn’t yours to begin with, it is a gift from God (Phil 1:29) so that no one may boast (Eph 2:8-10).
A man named Flowers once let slip the phrase ‘choice meats’ in a discussion with a man named White. Flowers was rejecting the idea that God chooses who to save randomly, as if God were not thoughtful or intentional in who to save, as if God just used a random number generator to pick just anyone and save them. He was right to reject that, but his alternative was no more correct. His alternative was to suggest that God didn’t randomly choose that meat (like a customer at the butchers), but rather that there was a reason for the choice of that meat, hence ‘choice meats’. Dear reader, though Flowers did choose a fun illustration, we must say in no uncertain terms that this idea is deeply wrong, and that his choice meats have a foul smell to them.
That brings us to the next question, which is the centre of what we will look at here: Scriptures clearly teaches that God chooses a people to save, but on what basis does he choose those people, and not others?
Some say (a) that God avails himself of his timelessness to see which people would, in future ages, freely choose to place their faith in him, and then on that basis, he chooses those people to be his elect people, predestined unto salvation. Another detail that is tied in with some versions of this perspective is the idea that instead of God choosing people individually, he chooses a category to save: the people who place their faith in God. That is the difference between saying ‘I have chosen Janet, Jackson and Jake to get on the bus that leads to heaven’ and saying ‘I have chosen that whoever gets on the bus should go to heaven’. In the first example, God chooses people by name. In the second, God chooses a plan, and the people make their own way into it.
Others say, (b) that God looks down the corridors of time, but instead of choosing people based on foreseen faith, that he is looking for certain actions, attitudes or attributes, and that he will choose on that basis. This might mean God passes over the kings and rulers of the earth to choose all who are poor, or that he passes over the firstborn in order to choose the runt, or that he chooses those of excellent moral character to be the recipients of his blessing.
Before we go further to see what Scripture actually says on this matter, recall what Paul wrote to the Ephesians. On what grounds could someone boast in their election? If he saved Garry because Garry was born second, after Barry, then Garry could boast of his preferred position as second child. Even though Garry didn’t choose to be born second, he could still take pride in being chosen based on his highly esteemed birthing position. He could even say that it was appropriate for God to choose him, what with him being born second and all.
What of the outcast? If God’s election was based on choosing those in the lowest rungs of society, as a way of flipping the script and shaming the rulers of the world, wouldn’t that fit the way he acts in the rest of Scripture? Well, it is certainly true that God uses the foolish things to shame the wise, that he uses those of questionable moral character or social standing or lacking ability to be the hero of the story (Moses who stammered, Paul who persecuted the church, Mary Magdalene who had been a prostitute). However, if God’s election of these sinners, or any others, was based on their being despised by society, then it would make total sense for them to say ‘See! God has seen that the way the world is treating me is wrong, and he is making it fair by giving me what I deserve!’
In fact, if God chose people for salvation on the basis of any action, any moral behaviour, any attitude, any ethnic belonging, any physical prowess, any status as firstborn or otherwise, any foreseen faith*, then these would all amount to giving the elect people a reason to say that they deserved to be chosen, or that it was fitting, or appropriate. This author hopes that he should not have to demonstrate that no redeemed sinner should ever be saying that they deserved salvation. If they do think that, then the faith that they profess is badly in danger of not being Christian at all.
Let’s quickly address that annoying elephant in the room, the well-debunked theory of ‘foreseen faith’. In short, the problem is this: People have saving faith in God because he softens their hearts and grants them the gifts of repentance and faith. Therefore, since saving faith is something that people don’t generate by themselves, without God’s giving, then if God were to look down the corridors of time to see who would believe in him, he would see precisely no one.
He would see what Ezekiel saw in his 37th chapter, a valley of dry bones. A world of spiritually dead people who were actively suppressing their knowledge of God (Rom 1:18), unable to follow God’s law or please him (Rom 8:5-7).
Therefore, the only faith that God would ‘foresee’ if he were to look down the corridors of time would be faith that he powerfully granted to his chosen people. It makes no sense to say that God granted some people faith, then looked down the corridors of time to see who would believe, and then chose to predestine those people. That’s like a card dealer selecting his hand from the deck, putting it in front of himself face down, then picking up his hand and acting surprised.
Lastly, the astute reader might like to defend foreseen faith with one of these two objections: (a) God grants everyone faith, or (b) God puts everyone in a kind of morally neutral position where they are no longer prevented from trusting in God by their sinful nature. The former objection necessarily leads to universalism (the belief that all people are saved) because all that the father calls and justifies are raised up and glorified at the last day (John 6:44, Rom 8:29). The latter objection is an argument for ‘prevenient grace’, a doctrine that has no biblical basis whatsoever, and belongs in the Roman Catholic system of salvation, not the Biblical system.
So, you might be saying, you still haven’t answered the question. How does God choose who to save? What is it based on, if it isn’t random, but also isn’t based on anything about us? Well, what is revealed in God’s word?
God’s εὐδοκία, his ‘kind intention’ or ‘good pleasure’ or ‘desire’ and the counsel of his will (Eph 1:5, 1:11) are what Scripture says that God took into account when he choose who to save. That’s right. Dear reader, if you are trusting in Christ, ultimately he chose you because doing so pleased him. His own good will, his focus on his own glory, this is what he considered and took into account when he chose.
What is not revealed in Scripture, and neither should be upset that the Spirit of all Wisdom chose not to reveal it, is why this particular selection of some and not others brings God the most glory. It is not written, and as Calvin wisely said, we ought to speak where Scripture speaks, and remain silent where Scripture remains silent. Dear reader, if you bristle at this lack of a clear answer, we counsel you to remember who is the potter, and who is the clay. Who is the eternal God, and who is the mere creature, made by him. It would not be wise to bring a challenge against the True and Living God and suggest that he ought to have been more clear and detailed in his word.
The brilliant and wonderful news, the shining truth in which we glorify God all the more, is that we can now live in the light of being people who ticked no boxes, and were yet chosen.
Have you ever been given a position, whether in a team, or a promotion at work, where you felt that the one promoting you overestimated your merit or ability? How fragile does a person feel in that situation! Or worse yet, if you did deserve it at the time, but later you lost your skills or merit, and became undeserving of the promotion or position you had received. The good news is that we have no such reasons to fear: just as we had no salvation-worthy actions, attitudes or attributes on the way in, neither can we run the risk of having damnation-worthy distractions, desires or disasters.
So, just as you have no reason to boast, so also are you freed of having any reason to fear that your position before God could change. You ought to be happy about that, because if you are anything like this author, you do about 15 things every day that would give God every reason to drop you at the next bus stop and get the heck out of there, and disappear forever like the 703 to Middle Brighton.
Again, how beautiful it is to be chosen freely. God did not need you, nor did he need to save you. He didn’t have to choose you because you met some criteria. Neither is there hierarchy in how deserving the elect are of their election. Just as not one of us earned a single point on the board, not one of us can hold a single spiritual pedigree over another. Everything we have, from election before time to earthy strengths, are all gifts.
Unconditional means that there are no strings attached and no End User Licence Agreements. There isn’t a void clause, upon which your membership always hangs in the balance. Your entry wasn’t dependent upon any conditions, there was no fine print. In the same way, there are no secrets or secret clauses you need to fear. If God has set his saving love upon you, that is the end of the story. You were uniquely and particularly desired and set apart by God for the things he has called you to work in (Eph 2:10). What could possibly be better? Do you really think that God ‘looking forward in time’ and just choosing whichever random people happened to make the right decision for one reason or another is better? That God didn’t choose you in particular, he just chose a category that you happened to find yourself in?
Truly truly, we abhor the thought. Rather, this doctrine which is sometimes called Unconditional Election, this fifth of the flowerbed doctrines, is one that should remind Christians of their security in Christ, the wisdom and grace of their God, and their jubilant freedom from performance metrics or KPIs.
If you have not yet trusted in Christ, what you need to hear is this. Jesus was hung on a cross in the public square (symbolically speaking), so it is in the public square that both his death and resurrection are proclaimed. If you come to see your sin, your helplessness outside of Christ, he welcomes you to trust in him with open arms, and no resume. Do not come with anything in your hands, come simply trusting. We can tell you truly, that you will find him to be a perfect saviour. He does not need whatever it is that you think you bring to the table, but when you come and embrace him in faith you will find that it was simply you that he wanted. So come. Come, and welcome to Jesus Christ.
Distilled Orthopraxy 