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Sunday School

Lesson 8: Sovereign Election, Overview

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Greg Ho

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

This lesson examines the doctrine of sovereign election and predestination from multiple passages of Scripture. We are reminded that salvation is entirely God-centered — not about our choice, but about God’s eternal purpose to glorify Himself by choosing a people for Himself before the foundation of the world.

Key Lessons:

  1. Salvation exists for the praise of God’s glory, not for our benefit — the ultimate purpose is God-centered, not man-centered.
  2. God’s election is unconditional — He chose us not based on foreseen faith or works, but according to the kind intention of His will.
  3. The word “foreknew” in Romans 8 means God “foreloved” His people — election is not cold or arbitrary but flows from God’s love before the foundation of the world.
  4. God is sovereign not only over salvation but over every decision and good work in our lives, as Ephesians 2:10 teaches that even our good works were prepared beforehand.

Application: We are called to respond to these truths with trembling awe at God’s power, wonder at His choice of us, rejoicing in our security, and worship — giving Him glory forever. We should let this doctrine inform how we view God, ourselves, our evangelism, and our eternal security.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does understanding that salvation is for “the praise of His glory” rather than primarily for our benefit change the way we think about our faith and daily lives?
  2. Romans 9 uses the analogy of a potter and clay — how should this shape our posture when we struggle with difficult doctrines we find in Scripture?
  3. If God sovereignly chose us before the foundation of the world, how should that truth affect our evangelism and our confidence in sharing the gospel?

Scripture Focus: Ephesians 1:3-14 (election by the Father, redemption through the Son, sealing by the Spirit — all to the praise of His glory), Ephesians 2:8-10 (salvation as a gift including faith), Romans 8:28-30 (the golden chain of salvation), Romans 9:11-24 (the potter’s right to choose), John 6:37-44 (no one comes unless the Father draws him), Revelation 13:8 (the book of life written before the foundation of the world).

Outline

Introduction

Back way back when I was still considering these topics and unsure. It does take some wrestling with.

What are we talking about here?

Did that work? Did I just mess everything up? Is it up or down? Okay, here we go. Did this actually work?

The Big Question: Why Are We Saved?

Oh, down. That’s very unintuitive. Okay, the big question is why are we saved?

That’s the question. That’s no, that was up. Okay, this is going to be a bad morning. Here we go.

The big question is why are we saved?

There are two options. Well, there are actually many more than two options, but the two options that we’re going to consider in our limited time today is number one: because God chose us for salvation. Okay, and obviously we know that, well, we believe in our church, or the second option, which is because God gave us the choice to believe and we accepted that out of our own free will.

“God chose us for salvation — before the foundation of the world.”

So these are the two big choices out there today. The majority of the churches out there today in America would believe the second one.

This is the old free will versus predestination debate. Every high schooler, in fact, I think in my high school in English class, in history class, we actually talked about this even though nobody was a Christian.

But even the secular world thinks about this question. Is there true free will or is everything predestined?

The Scriptural Answer: Predestination

So the scriptural answer to keep you not in suspense is predestination. We are chosen before the foundation of the world.

This is not new if you’ve been around in the church for a while. We are unashamedly in this camp. And what this means is before the foundation of the world, God picked or God elected. And this word elect doesn’t mean you’re voting like we would vote on November.

It’s basically selection. He selected a certain group of people to be saved before they did anything right or wrong, before they could even have the ability to choose.

“He selected a group of people to be saved, before they did anything right or wrong.”

Separate from all of that and before they could even have faith, he selected a group of people for salvation. Okay. In the second sort of option, the picture is God does not select you individually, but Christ died so that you could have the opportunity to be saved.

And then that offer can be denied or accepted depending on your own free will. Certain apologists, a very popular apologist out on YouTube, will couch it this way and this argument would seem familiar and it also will seem reasonable on its face. And which is this: God wants you to love him, but forced love is not true love.

That’s what they’ll say, right? So they’ll say that if God forces you to love him, then that love is no love at all. That’s under compulsion. And so a loving God would never do that.

I don’t necessarily want to spend a lot of time on this. Normally if we had more time today, I would probably ask you guys what the problem with that is, but I’ll just tell you the answer because we’re at 9:08 and we have like 15 pages of single-space notes. So the answer, the problem with this really is that the Bible never says that.

That’s an interpretation from our human sense of right and wrong. Also, the other thing is the word forced. The word forced is a pejorative word. It’s a word that sort of implies that I’m like tying somebody up, right?

And like forcing them to do something, sort of almost like in a crime, like I’m tying somebody up in my basement. But words matter. And here the more scriptural word to use is created for you to love him.

So instead of saying he forced you to love him, he created you to love him. That’s really the more biblical way to look at it.

And here salvation in scripture, we’ll note, is less about our love for God and more about God’s love for us, right? God’s love for us is the way that God saves us. It’s not because of our love for him. So anyways, those are sort of a few reasons why if you see that argument out there on YouTube or wherever you go, that argument doesn’t hold water.

Predestination and Free Faith Are Both True

All right, I’m going to get into the scripture, but before we do that, I want to clear up some confusion around this topic. Predestination and free will are often misunderstood. I just want to address one point of confusion: the fact that we say God chose us, the fact that we say our election or our selection as Christians is predestined, is not to say that our faith is coerced. It’s not to say that God is forcing you or putting a gun to your head against your will.

How could it be that we are both chosen for predestination and the fact that we freely repented and believed? Both of those two things are actually true at the same time. We have to be very clear about this. They’re both true at the same time. How can it be that we are both chosen and yet we also can say we freely repented and believed?

The answer to this question: first of all, you have to understand that just because something is difficult to understand doesn’t mean it’s not true. This is just one of maybe a long line of scriptural seemingly paradoxes that are true. For example, is God three or one? We just talked about that last week. Even after you’re saved, are the good works that you do from God or from you? Is Jesus fully God or fully man? Is the Christian life easy or hard? Is the Bible written by man or by God?

You see, all of these questions—the answer is both. The answer is actually both, but it’s complex. And it’s the same here. Just because it’s difficult for us to understand does not mean it’s not true. And that is where a lot of people who oppose Calvinism will fall down.

“Just because something is difficult to understand doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

So what is sovereign election and predestination? Let’s just define a few things and then we will go to the scriptures.

So predestination is that you would freely believe.

TULIP: The Five Points of Calvinism

All right. What is this? What is tulip?

When we talk about sovereign election, I can’t not mention this.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this acronym. But everybody who studies this topic runs across this acronym. These are, as we like to call, the five points of Calvinism or the doctrines of grace.

And you might see them in slightly different forms, but this is sort of the classical way of talking about it. Total depravity. Man is born totally depraved, unable—actually unable, not just unwilling, but unable to respond to God’s call.

Unconditional election. He elected you or he selected you before the foundation of the world. Not because of anything you have done. Absolutely nothing. Not even because he looked down the corridors of time and he knows that you’re going to have faith.

There’s nothing like that. God selected you unconditionally. Limited atonement. That is the one that everyone misunderstands and also, I guess, in some sense really fights against. Limited atonement means that God came and died for the elect.

Okay. His sacrifice was sufficient for everyone, but it was applied to the elect. Okay. And irresistible grace is the fact—is the idea that when God selected you or God elected you, that election is irresistible.

Not that you would want to resist it. It’s a little bit of a weird term because it seems like maybe you’re trying to resist it, but that’s not how it is. It’s irresistible grace just means he calls you, you’re going to come, right? I think of the disciples. He called the disciples and they came and that was the end of it, right? Perseverance of the saints.

This is also sometimes known as once saved always saved. Basically, once you are elected, once you are selected, that’s it. That’s the end of the story.

“He calls you, you’re going to come. Once you are elected, that’s the end of the story.”

There’s nothing that can snatch you out of the hand of God. Okay, these are controversial topics. Each one of these is a big fight theologically. And we will see a few of these things in scripture as we go along today. I’m not going to necessarily address all of them. We still have time. Each one of these is a separate class. But if you have any questions about any of this, we can. Yes.

Just a quick question.

Okay.

What is the origin of the five?

Interesting.

Historical Origin of the Five Points

All right. Okay. Very very quick. So I’m not going to because 15 pages of single face notes. So n uh608 I want to say there was this like huge fight in the Netherlands. Okay. And there was this guy named Arminius who obviously is the father of Arminism.

Why Should You Care?

Arminianism, which we’re not going to talk about a lot today but maybe next time, basically believes the opposite of these five points—every single one of them. So he comes out with, I think, the Remonstrant Strands, the Points of Remonstration or something like this. Exactly. It’s basically the opposite of these five points.

And then they convene this council in a place called Dorchester or whatever. I can’t remember the name, but it’s called the Canons of Dort, which is a really fun thing to say. The Canons of Dort. Okay.

A bunch of people from all over Europe came and they sort of hashed out these five points. The actual acronym TULIP is an English acronym. Obviously, they weren’t speaking English; they were speaking Dutch.

So they came out with something like this in their own language. And then around the 1900s, some guy—you can look it up if you want—was the first person to put it in this acronym. So the acronym itself is only from like the 1900s, but the actual points were from the 1600s, and those were the Canons of Dort.

Okay, we could go into a lot of the history. However, I think that all of these points are biblically supported. So last thing before we get into the scripture, and I want you to prepare yourselves because there’s a lot of scripture and it’s important that you actually pay attention to them if you want to understand this topic.

Why should you care? Lots of people say that this is just sort of inside baseball. It’s not really that important. Let’s just get to the business of evangelism. I think it does matter, and I think it influences everything. First of all, God put it in the Bible. I think it’s pretty clear that God put it in the Bible. He wants us to know these things. Some of these things he tells us are very difficult to understand, but actually amazing to behold. Hopefully we’ll see it.

It also informs our view of God. There’s nothing more important than that. It informs our view of ourselves. Are we totally depraved or not? That informs our view of ourselves. It informs the source of our faith and our works.

Does our faith and our works come from the fact that I was good enough to have faith? Like maybe I was just a little different than you guys, and I was like, “Yes, I’m humble enough to really understand this and behold this, right?” It informs our evangelism.

How do we evangelize? Do we sort of try to trick people into saying the prayer? And also, it informs our eternal security. So these are pretty important things to think about.

“God put it in the Bible. He wants us to know these things.”

Okay.

The Weight of Scripture

The Bible—okay, let’s state it this way. When Khalif was talking about the Trinity a week ago and maybe three weeks before that, one of the problems he said was that it’s difficult to deal with this topic because the word “trinity” doesn’t appear in the Bible by itself.

Here we have the opposite problem. We have the fact that there are too many scriptures. There’s just too much scripture. There’s too much to go through, and the Bible is very explicit on all of the terms.

So we don’t have that problem. But our opposite problem is that we have too many scriptures. We can’t possibly go through them all. The ones that are highlighted are the ones I’m going to try to go through, okay? If I can.

But I want to just say at the outset: I did not start out as a Calvinist. I did not start out like this. It took me maybe three years—two or three years after I was saved. And the only reason that we believe any of these things is because it’s in the Bible. This is not a doctrine that man would come up with. Really, it is not.

“The only reason we believe any of these things is because it’s in the Bible.”

It doesn’t really make any sense to natural man.

So these are 18 Bible verses. I don’t want to say these are all the Bible verses. There’s more that I missed, but these are the 18. I’ll maybe send this out later so you guys don’t have to copy anything down.

Ephesians 1:3-14 — Chosen Before the Foundation of the World

Let’s talk about these themes in order. Ephesians 1:3-6. If you have your Bibles and this is a topic you want to struggle with, if you want to wrestle with it, I recommend that you actually open it and look at the text in the Bible.

Ephesians 1:3-6. In fact, I’m just going to get a Bible and read it. Let me see if I can find it.

This is a hymnal.

Okay, there we go.

So I was saying before that these are the main verses, and the few that I want to go through are the ones that I think address it in depth. Some of the other ones are like maybe one or two verses that are important, but this is like entire passages. Okay, so this is obviously the book we’re going over in men’s Bible study. All the men, this is all easy for you. You guys all know this already.

Okay, so I’m going to read it. It’s going to be very familiar. It says, “Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us—okay, there’s that word—to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us.

Ephesians 1:4: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”

In all wisdom and insight, he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his kind intention which he purposed in him with a view to the administration suitable to the fullness of the times. That is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on the earth. In him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his will.

To the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be for the praise of his glory. In him you also, having listened to this message of faith, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who was given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession to the praise of his glory.”

Okay. So you have to read that like twenty times to really get everything in your head. I’m going to make a few observations, and we will run to the next passage. So the first is Ephesians 1:3.

This is where we have to start. We have to start with this: “Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Salvation Is God-Centered: To the Praise of His Glory

The ultimate purpose of salvation is always God-centered. Okay? And this is where a lot of competing theories of salvation start out wrong.

A lot of competing theories of salvation says God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. He wants you to be saved. And you don’t come to these conclusions of the doctrines of grace unless you start out with this particular fact, which is that salvation is not ultimately about you at all.

Okay? It’s really not about you or me. It is about God. Salvation is about God. And what is it about God? Well, I just want to notice one thing about you. Verse 1 through verse 4, Paul—or I guess read to verse 4 here—Paul is talking about election by the father.

Okay? The father elected you. He chose you before the foundation of the world. Verses 7-12, he’s talking about redemption through the son. Okay? By him you have redemption through his blood. And then you already know where this is going.

Verses 13-14, he’s talking about sealing by the spirit. Okay? So if you remember back last week when we’re talking about the trinity, all three members of the trinity are here. But that’s not what I want you to notice.

What I want you to notice is after every section, he says something. He in fact repeats the same phrase over and over again. He talks about the father and then he repeats a phrase. He talks about the son. He repeats a phrase. And he talks about the spirit. And he repeats a phrase. And what is that phrase?

To the praise of his glory. To the praise of his glory. To the praise of his glory. To the praise of his glory.

The ultimate purpose of your salvation is not you, but is to the praise of the glory of God. Okay. Now, everything we talked about from now to the end of the class will make more sense because this is all about God. It’s not about you.

“The ultimate purpose of your salvation is not you, but is to the praise of the glory of God.”

It’s not about me.

He Chose Us Before the Foundation of the World

Psalm 106:8 says, “Nevertheless, he saved them.” This is talking about Israel, “For the sake of his name that he might make his power known.” We have to start here to make any headway at all.

Verse four, he chose us. This word chose. He chose us in him. And notice where this choice happened. This choice happened before the foundation of the world. This is not even a moment in time. This is like before time even existed. And not that even makes sense, but this is not saying what this is not saying. This is not saying that God chose you to have an offer extended to you. He’s not saying I chose you to have this pamphlet handed to you and you can sort of decide whether or not you want to do it or not.

Psalm 106:8: “Nevertheless, He saved them for the sake of His name, that He might make His power known.”

No. He chose you before the foundation of the world for all of the rest of the stuff that comes after this. That is to be saved. Now the other thing I want to say is we say he chose us in the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him.

In Him: Chosen in the Sphere of Christ

And let’s see, it keeps saying “in him, in him we have redemption in him. In him, in him.” And when the scripture, when Paul talks about “in him,” he’s talking about everything happening in the sphere of Christ. Okay, so all of this is in the sphere of Christ. What does that really mean? Sometimes I look at commentaries and they say that a lot, right? And you’re like, “What does that mean? Is Christ the sphere?” Well, actually, what this means is a very deep and amazing truth: that before the foundation of the world, God loved Christ.

How do I know that? John 17:24 says this: “Father, I desire that they also,” Jesus speaking, “who you have given me be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory which you have given me. For you loved me before what? The foundation of the world.” Okay, so before the foundation of the world, God loved Christ.

What else happened before the foundation of the world? He chose us. In the sphere of Christ means all of those things happen. We can’t say at the same time, but all of that happens before time. All of that happened in one logical thing.

Okay, before the foundation of the world, the whole story was created, the whole story was written before the foundation of the world in Christ.

“The whole story was written before the foundation of the world in Christ.”

Predestined According to His Will

And Christ was—the Father loved Christ before the foundation of the world. God the Father loved Christ, but at the same instant, moment. Okay, you understand? He chose us. This is a crazy thing to think about. And then verse five we see the word that we base all of this on, which is the word “predestined.” This word actually, if you look in the Greek, is literally “before determined.” That’s what it means. That he determined beforehand, or he decided in advance.

Now, how did he decide this in advance?

See, Paul tells us a lot in this, and you really have to sort of tease this out. How does he decide us? How does he decide in advance? Well, the word “according to” is actually going to tell you the answer. The “according to” implies that what’s going to come next is the standard or the basis by which God is going to do the thing he did. So, why did he predestine us? He predestined us according to what? On the basis of what did he say? On the basis of good works.

Does he say on the basis of our future faith or the foreknowledge that we would have faith? No. He says on the basis of what? His kind intention of his will. Right?

So it is all about his will.

And then even in verse 11, which you can skip to if you’re looking at it, it makes it even more clear. He says the same thing again, just in case you didn’t quite get it the first time, okay? Predestined according to the basis of the purpose who, just to be completely clear, works all things after the counsel of his will. So that’s it.

“It is all about His will — predestined according to the purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.”

That’s the reason. Not because he looked down the corridors of time and saw what you’re going to do. Not because you’re such a great person or because you’re humble enough to accept his faith.

All right? So this is all about God. And the reason he chose you is his will, and that’s it. All right, okay. Let’s flip over to Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2:8-10 — Salvation Is a Gift

And this I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this. If you were at men’s Bible study on Wednesday, Ian Pang very capably took us through this and gave us a very complete picture. If you’re a woman, you can maybe ask one of the men to sneak you a bootleg copy of that. But anyways, I didn’t say that by the way.

Ephesians 2:8-10. I’m sorry, I completely forgot about these slides.

Let me see if I… Okay. Right. Okay. All right. Good. Ephesians 2:8-10. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so we walk in them.” All right. Familiar passage. We probably memorized this all in Sunday school.

If all the Sunday school kids memorize this verse. Now let’s make a few quick observations.

At Iron Man, Ian told us what is or asked us what is the gift of God, right? What is exactly the gift? Is it faith? Is it grace? What is it, right? And he set us up a little bit. That was kind of nice. And then the answer is actually the whole thing is salvation, okay. But salvation does not exclude grace and faith.

Salvation actually includes the whole thing, right? So just want you to notice that. Salvation is grace and it’s faith. So then all of that is a gift of God.

“Salvation includes the whole thing — grace and faith. All of it is a gift of God.”

Let me see what did I say here.

No One May Boast

Okay. Just to be totally clear, that’s the case. He says so that no one may boast.

“So that no one may boast — how does that make sense unless the whole thing is a gift from God?”

Okay, let’s pretend that salvation is sort of given and I can sort of decide or whatever, and in the grand cosmic reality I could say yeah, I mean, I could say Ian, okay, so like Ian, you were confronted with the same gospel I was and you didn’t really believe, and that’s just kind of on you. And like I did, I read it and I kind of understood it and I wrestled with it and then I came to faith, and I think I am a little better than you in that respect. Right? So there you go. Okay.

God Is Sovereign Over All Our Works

No one may boast. How does that even make any sense unless the whole thing is a gift from God? The faith, the means of God’s grace, is included in the gift. All right. And another thing about this that I want to show you is in that next verse.

People who oppose the idea of predestination sometimes will say this. They’ll somehow make the salvation decision categorically different than the other decisions you make in your life. They’ll be like, “Yeah, there’s something different about that decision that has to be completely free. Everything else may be God influences or whatever, but there’s something about it—they call that out as a special decision that you are able to make without any coercion.”

But this verse is showing us something pretty amazing, and that is that the choice of salvation God is sovereign over is not the only decision he’s sovereign over. In fact, he’s sovereign over every decision you’re going to make. Even after you’re saved, all your good works. Did you decide to do it? You didn’t actually decide to do any of those things. Well, I mean, in a cosmic sense, you did decide, but God is sovereign over all of those too.

So we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. What does that say? Which God prepared beforehand. How does that make any sense? How can he prepare all of my good works beforehand? So if I get up and I decide to do a good work, was that me deciding or is that God? And in a sense, that’s exactly the same decision as your salvation decision. All right, that decision was totally under the sovereign control of God.

“Even after you’re saved, all your good works — God prepared them beforehand.”

Okay, we’re doing okay on time. I think we have a chance.

Romans 8:28-30 — The Golden Chain of Salvation

All right, let’s move on quickly to Romans 8. Romans 8:28 is sometimes called the golden chain of salvation. I like that term. Let me just read it really fast if you turn there.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called, and these whom he called, he also justified, and these whom he justified, he also glorified.

This golden chain is detailing for us, really pulling back the curtain to show us how God’s overall plan of salvation actually works. Let me just back up a little bit and tell you what the context of this verse is because it helps you understand. If you go back up to verse 18, he’s talking about how the believers are suffering, right? And the suffering is not to be compared with anything that’s going to come out.

Romans 8:29-30: “Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined… called… justified… glorified.”

Every bit of it’s all worth it. It’s all worth it. Suffering is not to be compared with the glory that’s coming.

And in verse 28, he’s going to tell them why their suffering is not to be compared and why they should be okay with that. Why they should trust in this. His answer is that God has a purpose for your suffering. Your suffering is not for nothing. God has a purpose for it. God has planned this out all along from the beginning. He has a grand plan that ties everything together.

Now, even in the secular world, people don’t have a problem with this. They’ll come back and say, “God has a purpose. There’s a purpose for everything, right? God has a purpose.” But this is saying something much deeper than this.

All Things Work Together for Good

It’s actually saying if you look at what it’s saying, he says, “All things work together for good for those who love God.” Now, all things is a completely encompassing word. All things. All right? Everything works together for good to those who love God. All things.

You think about it and you think about that. It’s like, how can I be sure that all things work together for my good? How is that possible?

Like something that happens over in Singapore or something like that—is that gonna happen for my good? Like is all the suffering in my life, is all the sort of problems in my life actually all for my good? How can you guarantee that, God? How can you guarantee that? And the only way that anybody can guarantee that is if God is in control of every minutia of your life. If there was any one variable he was not in control over, this could not be said. This could not be said because how would that thing work out for your good?

Maybe that thing will not work out for your good. But the point is this is a declaration of God’s complete sovereignty, exhaustive control over every aspect not only of your life but the entire universe. This is God’s sovereign control. It’s a mind-boggling statement that’s difficult actually to believe. How could God control every single atom in the universe in this way?

“If there was any one variable God was not in control over, this promise could not be made.”

Now Paul is going to have to justify himself. He can’t just say something like that, right? He’s going to justify it.

Here it is. Here’s a justification.

The Chain: Foreknew, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified

Here’s some supporting evidence. How do we know that God was in control? How do that, Paul? How do that? Well, here we go.

God has planned all of it out from the beginning. He’s going to show you this. Actually, God has planned the entire thing out from the beginning. From the beginning to the end. Watch this.

He foreknew you. Okay, I’m going to do this this time. Right, here we go. He foreknew you. Right now, he predestined you. We’ll talk about all these terms just really briefly. He called you.

Those whom he called, he will justify. And those whom he justified, he will glorify. Now he’s not saying some of which I justified I will glorify. He’s not saying some of whom I called will be justified. He’s not saying some who I predestined will be called. All right, these will be justified. These will be glorified.

Now the word foreknow—this is the word that a lot of Armenians or a lot of people who oppose Calvinism will hang their theology on. They’ll say aha, that means that God just knows what you’re going to believe. He just understands like your decision. He just looks down the corridor of time and sees yeah, Greg is going to say yes there. So I’m just going to like sort of plan the universe around that. Okay.

“He’s not saying some whom I called will be justified — all whom He called, He justified.”

Foreknew Means Foreloved

But which would be great, but that’s not what he does. He foreknows. Well, notice the object of foreknow. What is he knowing? Does he know a decision? Is that what he’s saying? Is he foreknowing a decision? What is the object? The person. He’s talking about people.

What does that mean to foreknow a person?

Well, he gives us clues. There’s lots and lots of clues here. I’m just going to give you one. First Peter 1:20.

See if you can tell when I read this who he’s talking about. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you. Who is he talking about?

Jesus. Okay. He’s talking about Christ.

So is he saying I’m looking down the corridors of time and seeing what like Christ is going to decide? No, there’s nothing to do with that. That means he loved Christ as we already read that verse. He loved Christ before the foundation of the world.

It’s a foreknow is a word about how he loved you. In fact, you could actually say this is foreloved. He foreloved you before the foundation of the world. Okay, this is a lot of people sometimes think Calvinism or the doctrines of grace is like a very cold and callous doctrine, right?

But this word rightly understood completely just like blows that away because what does this mean? He loved you before the foundations of the world. It’s not cold or callous. This is a choice made out of love. He loved you.

“Foreknew means He foreloved you before the foundation of the world. This is a choice made out of love.”

He didn’t just say, “I’m just going to choose them out of some. I’m going to roll some dice and like, okay, it came out six.” So, like, Cheryl, right? Like, he actually it’s like, “Cheryl, I love you. That’s why I’m going to do this for you.” This is a bad analogy. And Keith told me to not do analogies last week. But anyways, you have I have two girls and they have like maybe altogether they have like maybe a thousand stuffed animals in the house.

Something like this. And like not all of them come out to play. They have like maybe four that consistently make it. Okay.

And like the other ones, we just sort of put a net up and sort of keep them up there. They’ve been up there maybe for years.

But why do they love those four?

Well, it’s hard to say, right? To me, they look exactly the same as the others, but they made a choice. And just like we’re kind of like God’s favorite ones. And this is like really weird to talk about. In fact, you can’t even necessarily say that without feeling a little bit weird about it, right?

He foreloved you. Okay.

What’s chilling is that he uses the same form of this word in this verse. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles? And I will declare to them, I never knew you. All right? I never knew you.

Predestined to Become Like Jesus

You who practice lawlessness. For no is he loved you. He for loved. Okay. The word predestined. We already talked about this same word as in Ephesians. But what did he predestine you to do? And this is a very deep thought. We could just talk about this for the entire rest of the lesson. He predestined you to become like who? Like Jesus.

He predestined you to become like Jesus.

God, this verse is amazing because he’s peeling back the curtain of the universe to let you see his entire plan.

And one of the things that people always ask unbelievers is what is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of all this? Why are we here? It seems random. Why are we here? It doesn’t seem like there’s a purpose. Well, God is telling you what the purpose of life is right here. This is the purpose of the entire universe. This is why you exist.

“God is peeling back the curtain of the universe to let you see His entire plan — this is the meaning of life.”

The Meaning of Life: Copies of Christ

This is why I exist. This is why the entire universe exists. This is the meaning of life. The father says to his son in eternity past, he says, “Out of my great love for you, I’m going to give you a gift. And the gift is, I’m going to make you a bunch of copies of yourself.” That’s what it says here. I’m not saying anything heretical.

And I’m going to adopt them into our family as children. And we’re going to make you the big brother.

“God told His Son: I’m going to give you copies of yourself and adopt them as children. You’ll be the big brother.”

Effectual and Irresistible Calling

That’s the meaning of life. That’s what the entire creation is for. That’s why it’s all moving towards. That is the whole point. It’s not about your salvation. Actually, it’s about Christ and the gift that God is giving Jesus Christ. That is the purpose of God in creation. The entire verse could talk about that for months.

There’s this idea that we talk about when we talk about the gospel of grace of effectual call. Effectual call means it’s different than a general call. A general call is you stand up and you say all who believe in Christ will be saved and you talk to maybe a thousand people and then like most of them will ignore you, right?

But the effectual call is like Jesus calling the disciples. He says, “Hey, you come follow me.” And then you don’t see the disciples go, “Yeah, I don’t know. I’m kind of busy right now. Like, I have stuff to do.”

Right? No. You just get up and follow them. You drop what you’re doing and get up and follow them. And this is the effectual call.

So the effectual call is the same call we get who are believers.

This is an irresistible call. This is where we talk about irresistible grace back in Tulip. It’s an irresistible call. It is not resisted by anyone who is called. Irresistible again doesn’t mean I really don’t want to do this, like I’m going to be dragged into it. No. It’s not that I’m not going to resist it.

“The effectual call is like Jesus calling the disciples — you drop everything and follow.”

That’s what it means. I’m not resisting it. I’m going with this.

So how do I know this is an irresistible call? Well, these whom he called. Everyone here whom he called is justified.

It’s a complete, all-encompassing thing. Called, justified. It’s not some of these who I call will be justified. All of them are. Be very clear. It’s very important.

God Will Not Waste Your Suffering

Just going back, what is Paul’s original plan point? God is not going to waste even a minute amount of your suffering. That’s the whole point of this whole thing, by the way. He’s not going to waste any amount of your suffering, but he’s completely in control in eternity past. And he has a plan for you and the universe. And that plan, by the way, isn’t about you. It’s about Jesus, which is awesome.

Because God’s not going to give up on a plan that he has for Jesus. And that plan is moving inexorably—nobody can stop it. From your justification to your glorification.

“God is not going to give up on a plan He has for Jesus — it moves inexorably and nobody can stop it.”

Romans 9:11-24 — The Potter’s Right to Choose

From your calling, justification, glorification, right? Okay, we are going. Keep going. Romans 9:11-24.

This verse, again, it’s one of these verses we can spend an entire sermon series on, but Romans 9:11-24 I sort of think about it as the potter’s right to choose. Now there is a right to choose in the Bible, but it’s not our right to choose. It’s God’s right to choose.

Okay. And this again is Paul. In this section, we actually kind of see Paul justify why this is okay for God, right? Because the calling of Calvinism or the doctrine of Calvinism is hard to accept for people because of the fact that it seems unfair to people, right?

It’s like why are some people called and some people aren’t? Well, because of the good pleasure of his will. Some people just aren’t okay with that, right? Okay. Potter’s right to choose. We’re going to move fast. Fasten your seat belts.

Verse 11: For though the twins, talking about the twins, talking about Esau and Jacob, were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad. Okay? So that God’s purpose according to his choice would stand, not because of works, but because of him who what? Who calls. Okay? Notice how he doesn’t say not because of works, but because of their faith.

Romans 9:11-12: “Not because of works, but because of Him who calls.”

Doesn’t say not because of works or because of their eventual faith looking at the course of time. Didn’t say any of that stuff. Okay? Not because of works but because of him. He could have said faith. In fact, you kind of expect Paul to say faith, right? But no, him who calls—very important. And that calling, of course, is an effectual calling.

Jacob I Loved, Esau I Hated

And then one of the most chilling verses I think in Romans, just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

Okay, very chilling. If he just left it at Jacob I loved, it wouldn’t be so chilling, but he had to add that little phrase at the end. Esau I hated.

Romans 9:13: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated — before anyone did anything good or bad.”

And remember, this is before anyone did anything good or bad. Not because of their works, not because of their eventual faith. And there are deep implications to this verse that we just don’t have time to talk about today. But just sort of mark that in your mind as an important thing. Verse 14.

It Does Not Depend on Human Will

Paul anticipates your argument. He knows that you’re going to say, “That’s not really fair. Why why did you hate Esau? Why did you love Jacob? You didn’t seem like they did anything.” Well, he has to answer. This actual argument only really makes sense if he knows that you’re going to be like, “That’s unfair.” Okay, what shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

That verse over here, verse 16, should put an end to any argument about Calvinism or about the doctrines of grace. Here it is: So then, it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

It is not any human will. It is not any effort that saves you. It is all the mercy of God. It is all the mercy of God. It is not anything about your will. It’s not anything about Jacob’s will or Esau’s will.

Romans 9:16: “It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”

But he kind of goes further than that.

God Hardens Whom He Desires

It keeps going. Okay, here we go. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed through the whole earth.” Again, is it about Pharaoh? No, it’s not about Pharaoh. But this is really chilling because it says, “So then he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires.” And he keeps hardening Pharaoh’s heart, right?

Like, wow, that’s not very Arminian. What about giving Pharaoh the sort of free will to believe? That doesn’t seem like what God’s doing. God’s kind of messing around with Pharaoh’s free will there a little bit, isn’t he? It does not sound very fair. And it flies completely in the face of the free will theory of salvation.

“He has mercy on whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires.”

Doesn’t seem to be much free will for Pharaoh. And you realize after you look at this and you think about it a little bit that this is not the only time God does this.

In fact, he’s done this even in Isaiah 6. He says, “Lest I’m going to proclaim to them, eyes are going to be blinded. You’re going to be so that they will, unless they turn and believe and be saved.” It’s like, well, doesn’t seem like you actually want that to happen. And why did Jesus start talking in parables? Is it because Jesus was afraid for his life? Actually, no.

People say that sometimes, but Jesus has no fear. He walks through people, right? Those crowds try to grab him. He just walks right through them. I don’t know how he does it, but maybe he turns into a mist. I don’t really know what it is, but he just walks through them. He’s not afraid of anybody. What is it? It’s judgment.

Who Are You to Answer Back to God?

What about the free will of the Pharisees? Interesting, right? You still want to argue. Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up.” Then you will say to me, “Then why does he still find fault?” I mean, you have to understand Paul is taking you through this, anticipating all of your arguments. Why do you still find fault? On the contrary, who are you, a man who answers back to God? You still want to argue, and Paul says actually you have no right to argue. You’re just like a pot. Why is the pot going to argue to God?

This is very clarifying. The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this?”

Romans 9:20-21: “Who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this?”

Will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? Now, this translation does not do this text justice.

He’s talking about plates that you would serve a guest, right? So you come over to our house, I’m going to serve you some dinner. I’m going to give you a plate, right? Common use back then—they didn’t have toilets. So this is talking about those types of pots, chamber pots for common use. This is very graphic stuff, right?

So think about this. What is he saying? He’s saying God can make both of those pots and you have no right to tell him why he’s doing that. He wants to do it. He wants to make some of these pots for common use. You kind of need them around the house to be honest, back then. If you don’t have them, you’re in trouble. And you also have pots you use to serve guests. God wants to work and make one or the other. Who are you, the pot, to say to the potter, “I didn’t think you should do that”?

Vessels of Mercy Prepared Beforehand for Glory

They’re—this is even worse because it says, sorry, I’m sorry, Potter. What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath, to make his power known, endured with patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and he did so? Listen to this. Why did he do this?

Why did he make vessels of wrath? Don’t you ever wonder that question? You’re like, “Ask why are there so many unbelievers that have never heard the gospel?” Oh, that is a hard question. Like, why are there people out across the world with no missionary?

Why does God allow that? Why does God allow all these people here who have heard the gospel, maybe, to not believe? And we wrestle with that. And God answered your question. This is your answer. You might not like it, but this is the answer.

And he did this to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy. To make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy. That’s why—which he what?

Prepared beforehand for glory. Beforehand. He prepared before the foundation of the world. He prepared vessels of mercy. That’s you and me if we believe. He prepared vessels for mercy. But why did he prepare the other ones?

So that the riches of his glory would be known more. And somehow I can’t say this. It’s not me who’s saying this, okay? I want you to understand this. The fact that there are vessels of destruction makes it more known, makes it more glorious, makes it so that God gets more glory by showing mercy to you.

“He made vessels of wrath to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, prepared beforehand for glory.”

Because I don’t know, maybe it’s they look at these vessels of destruction and they say that’s what they deserve. Or whoever the witnesses are, that’s what they deserve. And now look at what they’re doing to you. Now look at what God does to you. The contrast.

How does he lavish the grace upon you?

That’s the purpose. Okay, that’s the purpose.

John 6:37-44 — No One Comes Unless the Father Draws Him

Okay, we’ve talked about all of the glories of the universe. I just want to really, really fast. Okay, John 6. I’m sorry this verse is another five sermons, but John 6:37-39.

Five minutes left. We can do this. Jesus raises all or son the son. Okay, this is very clear to say that the son saves those who the father gives. The son does not save anybody the father does not give.

Both of those things are true and shown in this verse. All that the father gives me will come to me. Jesus saying, we talked about this when pastor Dave preached about this. All that the father gives will come to me. Okay. Now again here we see sort of the unity of the trinity. We talked about the trinity last week. We see the unity of the trinity. It’s not that the father gives the son a few people and then the son comes and like tries to get more people on himself independent of the father.

John 6:37: “All that the Father gives me will come to me.”

No, actually the father prepares beforehand a group of people and he gives those people to Christ. Those people. Okay, now it’s very specific these people. And the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the father. So he’s not the son is not on a separate mission of salvation that’s separate from the father. Father gave him these vessels of mercy. The son takes these vessels of mercy. Right? This is the will of him who sent me that he has given of that he has given me.

I lose nothing. Of what? That he has given me. Okay. Prepared beforehand, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my father that everyone who beholds the son and believes in him will have eternal life.

Those the Father Gives Will Believe

What is the clear conclusion from this verse? If you look at that verse long enough, you’ll come to this conclusion.

You’ll come to this conclusion that the people who come to believe in Jesus are the same people who God gave beforehand.

The people who God gave beforehand will believe. And the people who believe are the people who God gave beforehand. Same people, all right? It’s the same people.

“The people who come to believe in Jesus are the same people God gave beforehand.”

Verses 6:30, 37, and 39 make it even more clear. Let’s look at verse 44. No one can come to Jesus—is that really what you’re saying, Jesus? Well, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

John 6:44: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

No one can come to me. He’s basically saying, okay, just so you’re clear.

Father gave me these people. I’m going to raise these people up in the last day. I will not fail because I’m obeying the Father completely in that mission.

And by the way, just to be totally clear, no one who’s not in that box can come to me. No one. They cannot come to me.

Revelation 13:8 — The Book of Life from the Foundation of the World

Total depravity. Okay? You cannot come to God. You cannot come unless you’re drawn, unless you’re appointed to eternal life. I am sorry. One minute more. Revelation 3:8. This also was in one of these verses that closes the book on this whole thing. The book of life from the beginning.

All who dwell on the earth will worship him. Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who has been slain.

He’s talking about the beast by the way.

So there’s a book and it’s written and they have names in it and it was written before the foundation of the world. And if you’re in it, you’re good. But if you’re not in it, well, it says here that you’re going to be worshiping the beast.

“There’s a book with names written before the foundation of the world — if you’re in it, you’re good.”

Conclusion: What Shall We Say to These Things?

It’s pretty clear to me. I think we’re actually good on time. Next week I’m going to talk about objections and questions. This is basically my theological overview of all of these verses. So if you have specific objections or questions, please send them to me over email and I will try to get to those specifically. I’ll try to send these slides out if I remember.

But I just want to conclude. I think we’ve seen through all of these verses that we’ve only gone through maybe a third of the ones I even tried to go through, and there’s more besides. This is just the New Testament. There’s much more even in the Old Testament. The clear weight of scripture is that God’s completely sovereign intellection—not even in our choice for salvation, but our choices even after we’re saved and the ones before.

We’ve seen some great and mysterious truths of the universe. And what do we say to these things? This is what I always want to leave you with: what do we say to these things?

I think we first tremble in fear at the power of God. What kind of God can do this? What kind of power is this? We wonder in awe how we are selected and not all these other people, and we rejoice. This should bring you a lot of joy, and it also should bring you a lot of security that those God elected before the foundation of the world are the people who will be glorified, sealed by the Holy Spirit.

“We tremble in fear at God’s power, wonder in awe at our selection, and rejoice in the security of His sovereign election.”

These heavenly truths are both terrifying and too wonderful for us. And again we say with the Apostle Paul, what shall we say to these things? We say to him be the glory forever.

“What shall we say to these things? To Him be the glory forever.”

Amen. Let’s close in a word of prayer. Next week I will try to interact more.

Father, we thank you for allowing us to study this and the great clarity of your word. It’s just so clear from these verses and also even more verses besides. This is not a doctrine that’s being hung on one or two verses, one or two proof texts.

Even though we sometimes don’t want to believe these things, we see it and we see it and we see it and we see it, and you just keep driving it home and we must come to believe it. Because you have told us these things. You want us to know.

You want us to have faith. And thank you, Lord, that you are completely in sovereign control. We need not fear anything because those you called you will justify, and those you justify you will glorify. Christ, we pray. Amen.

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