2 Thessalonians 2:13
"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the LORD, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:"
God, being Sovereign, has determined on whom He will have mercy and compassion and those He will harden. Such is the God of the Bible. If any say, "Well, then God is unrighteous,” the Apostle Paul addressed that objection in Romans 9:14, "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?" The simple answer is, "God forbid. For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." The conclusion is found in Romans 9:16, "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." Such is God's prerogative to show mercy to whom He will.
Election is a subject of thankfulness, not of contention. Where you see contention, where you see railing accusations that are brought against this doctrine, in reality, it's brought against God Himself. The God of the Bible is a Sovereign God. Why do people rebel against imHom? The reason is that they've never seen their absolute guilt before God. If they did, their mouth would be stopped (Romans 3:19) and they would be utterly cast upon His mercy that He be pleased to save them if He will.
The word "beloved" means "loved above all others." As you consider the world, made from one fallen mass, there are those whom God has loved above all others—those He has chosen from eternity, purposed to save, and sent His Son, the LORD Jesus Christ, into the world to accomplish their salvation by His work at Calvary. In time, the Spirit Himself draws His beloved ones to Christ.
Passing by some and causing others to believe, what can we say of that? For the LORD, it was a subject of thankfulness, because He said in Matthew 11:25,26, "I thank thee, O Father, LORD of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent," that is, wise and prudent in their own eyes, "and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight." That's where our mouths are stopped. If any is to question, "How can God do this?" The answer is, He's God and our LORD bowed to His will. When He prayed in the garden in John 17:9, He didn't pray for the world. He wasn't praying that everybody would be saved. He said, "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine." Even our LORD Jesus Christ bowed to the will of the Father that He would save not one more or less than those that the Father had given Him. "All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him" (Matthew 11:27).
What is the source of this election? Some will take this doctrine of election and pervert it in their rebellion because ultimately they make it man's choice and not God's alone. It's not I that have made the decision, it is God that has chosen as Paul says, "We are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the LORD, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation." It's not God looking down through time and seeing who would choose Him and so then He chose them. No! All that God saw from eternity was a fallen, depraved, and hardened, condemned world as a result of Adam's fall. So election then is God's way of determining who it is He would save. His justice would condemn all of humanity because of their sins, but His mercy and His grace determined that there would be those He would save and not utterly cast away.
Paul writing in Ephesians 1:3,4 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as He hath chosen us," but notice, "in Christ." Now, when was this choice done? Some say, it’s when the sinner believes. No! Here it says, "before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:4-6). It all has to do with Christ and His glory. Any that are saved are the beneficiaries, but the glory belongs unto Christ alone.
We see salvation in God's purpose but only in connection with redemption by the blood of the LORD Jesus (Romans 5:9-11). When He came to this earth and lived His perfect life, working out the righteousness that God required to be just and to declare sinners righteous, we see salvation in that redemption. It is by His blood and righteousness.
All salvation is of God, and we have nothing whereof to glory. A person who in some way still tries to find a reason to glory in himself, attributing any part of his or her salvation to initiating it or maintaining it, they have not bowed to the Truth in Faith (Romans 10:1-4). Where God has revealed Christ, there is a deep humility, a bowing of that sinner, and an acknowledging of our sin before a Holy God. Should God condemn sinners, He is just in doing so. Yet if the LORD has paid their debt, the Holy Spirit points out their sin and worthiness of condemnation, and will direct their heart to the Savior and causes that sinner to look outside himself to the Savior, to the One Who has paid the debt and to Whom all the glory belongs.
Salvation is of the LORD from beginning to end! "Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah" (Psalm 3:8).
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