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In our verse by verse study of Romans last time we completed our Expanded Translation of Rom 9:11; "For though the twins [Esau and Jacob] had not yet been born, and though they had not yet accomplished anything, good or evil, in order that the predetermined plan of God might remain in status quo in relationship to election not of works, but of the one who calls."`
This verse highlights God's plan for believers so we took up a brief study on the doctrine of election.
We noted that election always relates only to those who are believers who have believed in Christ as savior. 2Thes 2:13b, ...God has elected you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit, and faith in the truth.
This election is also related to foreknowledge as described in 1Pet 1:2; who are elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.
By comparing Eph 1:4-5; we see election as it relates to predestination... "just as he has elected us in him before the foundation of the world ... so he predestinated us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ."
These verses explain that election is one of the categories of facts in God's decree regarding the believer. Election emphasizes God's plan for the believer.
Foreknowledge emphasizes the God's cognizance of what is in His decree.
Predestination establishes certainty; therefore predestination or foreknowledge becomes synonymous with the printout of the decree because it shows that there is a definite relationship between what is in the decree that is the predicate for the print out.
The predestination that is revealed in the decree establishes certainty because nothing could be foreknown until it was first decreed. Omniscience places the facts into the decree while foreknowledge acknowledges the facts about those who are in the decree.
That means that election, foreknowledge, predestination all deal with the same facts: the content of the decree regarding believers. But they cover these facts from different perspectives.
In God's Word several words are used for election. In the Hebrew, bachyr as in Isaiah 42:1; 45:4; 65:9,22. In the New Testament there are two Greek nouns: eklektos and ekloge that relate to electron.
Eklektos transliterated as election in Matthew 24:22, 24, 31; Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:12; 1Tim 5:21; 1 Peter 1:2.
Ekloge is translated as choice in Romans 11:5, 7, 28; 1Thes 1:4;
The compound noun suneklektos is also translated choice in 1 Peter 5:13. In addition there are also some Greek verbs: kaleo that means to call or elect. From it we get another noun klisis that is sometimes used for election.
This explains that election that is God's plan for believers was designed in eternity past and entered into God's decree by God's omniscience in eternity past.
God's Word also refers to an election of angels as describes in 1Tim 5:21. Election always takes believers that are in the decree and relates them to their time in human history.
For example, if we had lived in the dispensation of the Age of Israel then we would be in the election called Israel and be associated with the protocols of Israel.
We live in the Church Age so our election relates us to God's royal family and the protocols of the Church. This is why it is so important to know what time it is in God's plan.
Jesus Christ is also described as being elected.
In eternity past the God's omniscience not only fed facts about believers into the decree but He also fed facts about unbelievers, and He also fed facts about the unique Person of all human history the Shekinah glory becoming visible, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 42:1 - "Behold my Servant," a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is called the servant because He has come to fulfill the ministry of God the Father - "whom I sustain; my chosen (elected) one in whom my soul delights. I have put my Spirit upon him."
The words "elected one or chosen one" are important here. The Lord Jesus Christ is called an election. Election is not only related to His birth, His first advent, but it is also related to His work on the cross; Acts 2:23 - "this one, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to the cross."
In other words God's omniscience fed the cross into the decree in eternity past and God's foreknowledge simply discloses what is in the decree.
1 Peter 2:4 - "And coming to him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but elected and precious in the sight of God." Again, Christ is called "elected."
1 Peter 2:6 - "For this is contained in the scripture (Isa 28:16): 'Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elected, also he who believes in him will not be put to shame."
We see from this that the election of the Lord Jesus Christ is the basis for all other elections and that is why elections are comprised only of believers. Matt 7:23;
The dispensation of the Gentiles was a period of time when there were only Gentiles on the earth. The Age of Israel when the Jewish race is added as a new race. The Church Age, the calling out of God's royal family in the pre and the post-canon periods. The Millennium that is the Age of the King, for 1000 years.
Each one of these dispensations contains an election. The election is not the entire population it is only comprised of the believers in that dispensation.
In the is age of the Gentiles the only basis for election was faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, even though Christ had not yet died on the cross. He is the only savior and He was revealed prior to His finished work on the cross. Gen 3:15;
In the Age of Israel we have the election of Israel that it is only comprised of members of the Jewish race that are also believers. Gentile believers were saved but they were not elected.
In the Church Age there are many unbelievers but we also have believers, and this election is called the Church. The same thing is true in the Millennium where all of the believers are all gathered up into an election.
So every election only includes believers and then there is the unique election of the Lord Jesus Christ that is a unique because it only involves one person who is not described as a believer because He is the Lord Jesus Christ and He is not described as believing in Himself.
The election of the Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation for all of the other elections in history. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is a free will choice of non-meritorious self-determination made from free volition is the key to every election.
So faith in "the elect one," the Lord Jesus Christ is the key to all elections of human history.
The predicate for the election of the Church as God's royal family is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that during the church age occurs at the moment anyone believes in Jesus Christ.
At the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ and His life as He is seated at the right hand of the Father. That is described as current positional truth.
We are also entered into union with Christ in His death on the cross, and that is described as retroactive positional truth that is the big divorce from the old sin nature as the ruler of our lives.
No Church Age believer can properly understand God's plan for his life or the significance of his royal status until he understands the election of the Church.
1Thess 1:4; "Knowing, brethren beloved of God, his election for you." The participle is in the imperative mood so a better translation is " Now you know."
You can't learn enough about your election and this is a command to learn about your election as orientation to God's plan for your life. You will never be able to understand God's plan for your life until you understand your election.
You are elected royal family with a specific purpose on earth in time and a specific purpose in eternity in heaven. At this time understanding our purpose in time is more important than understanding our purpose in eternity but both are very important.
2 Thess 2:13;"But we are obligated to give thanks for you [royal family], beloved by the Lord, because God has elected you from the beginning' (from eternity past) for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
There is no election apart from faith in Christ the phrase "to salvation through sanctification from the Spirit" is describing the baptism of the Holy Spirit that enters us into union with Christ creating God's royal family "and faith in truth" all believers are members of God's royal family but to understand it you have to advance in your understanding of doctrinal truth.
1Cor 1:2; approaches it from a slightly different angle "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus (the baptism of the Spirit), saints (royal family) by election, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, theirs and ours."
We see here that election is a printout of the divine decree for believers only, just as predestination and foreknowledge is a printout for believers only.
Col 3:12; "As elected ones of God, holy and beloved, put on the affections of grace compassion."
2 Tim 1:9; "The one having saved us, and having elected us into a holy station of life (royal family), not according to our works but according to his predetermined plan, even grace (the name of the plan), which has been given to us in Christ Jesus before time began."
Eph 1:3-6; "Worthy of praise and glorification is the God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one having provided us benefits by every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ (our election),
v4 even as he has elected us for himself in Him before the world began ... in love
v5 having predestined us to the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
v6 resulting in recognition of glory from the source of his grace, from which he has pursued us in grace in the beloved one."
Eph 1:11; goes onto say, "In whom Christ we have received an inheritance (destiny), having been foreordained according to a predetermined plan (His divine decree) from the one (God the Father) putting into operation all things according to the decree from his own will."
One of the greatest passages on election relates God's plan to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in Rom 8:28-34 - "We know in fact that to those who love God all things work together for the purpose of the good (agathos), to those who are the elected ones according to a predetermined plan."
God's omniscience knew the actual and distinguished it from the probable. Omniscience knows the probable that would have happened if you had made different choices- but only what you actually did was fed into His decree as reality.
The "predetermined plan" takes cognizance of human volition.
v29 "We know that whom he foreknew (foreknowledge), he also foreordained as conformed ones to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren (royal family of God);"
Foreknowledge is a printout from His decree for believers only.
v30 "and whom he foreordained (or decreed), these same one he also elected; and whom he elected these same ones he also imputed righteousness (justification); and whom he justified, these same ones he glorified (glorification is the imputation of divine blessing to imputed righteousness)."
v31 "Therefore, face to face with these things, to what conclusion are we forced? If the God is for us, who is against us?
v32 The God who did not even spare his own Son, but on behalf of us all he delivered him over to judgment; how shall he not with him in grace give to us the all things?
v33 Who will bring accusation against the elect of God? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one having died, yes, rather having been raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."
We see here that the application of doctrinal truth to election is the motivation for God's royal family to advance to spiritual maturity, and momentum is developed from that motivation.
For example, Eph 4:1; - "Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, continue to encourage you to walk in a manner worthy of your station of life (royal family), to which station you have been elected."
Titus 1:1 - ""Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the doctrine of God's elected ones and of spirit taught knowledge of truth according to the spiritual life."
v2 in confidence of eternal life that God who cannot lie promised in eternity past.