Word of Salvation – Vol. 29 No. 32 – August 1984

 

Election And Outreach – A Choice?

 

Sermon by Rev. S. Voorwinde, v.d.m. on Ephesians 1:4 & 5 & Romans 10:14

(Belgic Confession Art.16)

Scriptures: Ephesians 1:1-10; Romans 10:5-17

Suggested hymns: 116:1,2,3; 398:1,2; BoW.805:1,6,7; 483

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

I want to begin this sermon by giving you a brief lesson in science.  I don't claim to be a scientist, but I'm confident that what I am about to tell you is true.  It's about the nature of light.  I am sure that some of you know this already: Light consists of waves and light consists of particles.  That's what the evidence shows – particles and waves.  And scientists simply cannot understand how light can consist of particles and waves at the same time.  You can't rule out one in favour of the other.  You can't explain one in terms of the other.  And the one cannot be reduced to the other.

Here are two facts that are incompatible and yet they must both be held together and they must both be regarded as true.  In our minds it is a complete contradiction, and yet in reality both are true – light consists of particles and waves.

A few years ago I talked about this problem to a teacher of Physics at a tertiary college, and this is how she put it: "A Physicist believes that light consists of particles on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; and he believes that it consists of waves on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; and then on Sundays he prays for more light."

So there you have it two facts both true and yet in our minds they seem completely contradictory.  There's a special word for such a situation; it's called an "antinomy".  This is how "The Shorter Oxford Dictionary" defines the word "antinomy".  It is "a contradiction between conclusions which seem equally logical, reasonable or necessary.”  Or, to put it simply, an antinomy is a mystery.

So in science you have the antinomy of light consisting of waves and particles; and in the Bible you have the antinomy of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.  Now, of course, in science and the Bible there are more antinomies, but these are certainly foremost examples.  They are mysteries which the human mind simply cannot work out.

God is sovereign!  Paul says in Ephesians 1:11, "He accomplishes all things according to the counsel of His will;" all things.  Jesus says to His disciples: "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's will; and even the hairs of your head are all numbered," (Matthew 10:29).  So if God is sovereign, if God has absolute control, even over the minute details of our lives, where is there room for human responsibility?  How can I be held responsible if God controls everything anyway?

Logically you would have to say that if God is absolutely in control of everything (which He is) then I am just a robot with no mind of my own; I'm just a pawn that gets moved about.  Ultimately I have no say in what happens in my life.  But to all of this the Bible answers with a big, loud NO!  That is not true; you are not a pawn, you are not a robot and you are genuinely responsible for the things you do and don't do.  If you make a wrong choice or a wrong decision you can't hide behind the sovereignty of God.

God is totally sovereign and yet we have a genuine responsibility for our actions.  How that can be is beyond me; I can't understand it.  Yet the Bible teaches both, sometimes in the same verse.  Remember what Jesus had to say about Judas on the night before the crucifixion: "For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined (God's sovereignty); but woe to that man through whom He is betrayed!"  Judas was still entirely responsible for what he was about to do.

And then on the positive side you have the words of Paul to the Philippians: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (that's your duty), for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure", (Phil.2:12,13).

So here are two truths that pose such a problem to our minds and yet in Scripture they very naturally stand side by side.  That's especially so when it comes to the salvation of people.  God elects them and yet we must bring them the Gospel.  The Bible teaches both.  We dare not make a choice between election and evangelism.

Election is God's sovereignty in salvation.  When it comes to saving men, God could have done one of two things:

(i)  He could have saved all.  After the sin of Adam and Eve all of mankind became involved in sin.  As the Confession says: "all their descendants fell into perdition and ruin."  God could have saved them all.

(ii)  On the other hand He might have decided to save none.  That would have been His divine right and prerogative.  He is sovereign and that's what He could have done.

(iii)  But in fact God took neither of these alternatives.  Instead He chose to save some and not others.  That is the doctrine of election – that God from all eternity chose certain people to be saved – not because they deserved it, but because He planned it.

As Paul says in our text: "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.  He destined us in love to be His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will."

So you're a Christian?  You're a believer?  You love the Lord Jesus Christ?  Then praise God because He elected you.  He chose you.  He wrote your name in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world!  He set His love on you; He planned your salvation even before the events that are recorded in Genesis 1:1.  What a stupendous thought!  You may have been a Christian for two months or two years or 20 years, whatever the case may be, God chose you in Christ before the foundation of the world.

That's the doctrine of election.  That's the comfort, the assurance that it brings.  My salvation was not my idea.  It was something that God had in mind, even before the world began.

So we can't use this doctrine to say that God is unfair.  We have no right to point the accusing finger at God.  We can't blame God that not everybody is saved.  If that's what we're doing we are twisting this doctrine terribly; and perhaps it shows that we've never really understood it properly.  Because, when you read Ephesians 1 it's all so positive; there's not a negative word in it.  From beginning to end it just echoes with praise to God: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.....!"

And why did He predestine us?  Why did He choose us?  Listen to verse 6: "It was to the praise of His glorious grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”  And again in verse 12: "We who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of His glory."  And so it goes on, a whole chapter resounding with praise and thanks for the majesty of God's ways with us.  And when we stop to think, surely this should be our reaction as well: How can we praise God enough for choosing ordinary, sinful people like you and me?

Here I am with all my guilt and all my failures and yet God loved me from before the foundation of the world!  Here we are, no better, no more deserving than anybody else, and yet God from all eternity planned that the blood of Jesus Christ should cover all our sins.  C.S. Lewis once said that God's love is so great that when He created the world He could already see the cross.  If that is so, can we ever thank Him and praise Him enough?  God's election is not just a matter of picking and choosing; it's a matter of loving, loving us in Christ, loving us through what happened on Calvary's cross.

So there, very briefly, you have the doctrine of election, a glorious and splendid doctrine.  It's no wonder that John Calvin called it "the foundation and first cause of all blessings."

So what we have seen so far is God's sovereignty in our salvation.  If you are a Christian it's because you have been chosen by God.  from before the foundation of the world.

But that's only one side of the coin.  If you are a Christian it's also because of something you have done.  And, please, let's never forget that.  There's also the side of human responsibility.  Sometimes I come across people who say: "Well, I'm not a Christian yet, but I'm waiting for it to happen.  I've been told that if I wait around long enough God will do something in my life.  If I keep going to church and sort of do the right things one day it will happen.

This kind of thinking is so wrong.  Here's somebody totally ignoring this whole side of human responsibility.  "I'll just be passive, because God's going to do it all.  If He has chosen me He'll do it and if He hasn't He won't."

But the Bible never talks that way.  It puts the responsibility fairly upon our shoulders.  Yes, there are things that we must do and it's a matter of urgency.  The same Paul who wrote Ephesians 1, also wrote Romans 10.  And in that chapter the emphasis falls so clearly on what we must do.  How is a person saved?  Listen!  Verse 9: "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."  Verse 13: "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved,"  So if you are not a Christian you have the distinct responsibility to do these three things:

(i)  To confess that Jesus is Lord;

(ii)  To believe that He rose from the dead;

(iii)  To call on the name of the Lord.

But if you are going to do this, then you also have the task to make the Gospel known.  It is the responsibility of every Christian to evangelise to the best of his ability.  This doesn't undercut the doctrine of election; not at all.  Our evangelism is an instrument that God uses for His saving purpose.  Yes, God elects people, but He doesn't do it in a vacuum; He doesn't do it out of the blue.  He uses means, and the means He has chosen to use are the evangelistic efforts of His church.  He could speak through the thunder as He did at Sinai.  He could send legions of angels to dazzle mankind with His message, but in point of fact He has chosen to use the humble efforts of people like you and me.  This places upon us a tremendous responsibility.

As Paul says in our text: "But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard?  And how are they to hear with- out a preacher?"

The obvious answer is: They won't.

Preaching Christ, proclaiming the Gospel, evangelism, is the God-ordained way of saving the elect.  There is no other way.  Does God save people or do we save people?  Imagine cutting a piece of cheese with a knife is it the knife cutting the cheese or are you using the knife to cut the cheese?  Similarly God is the controlling power and we are the instruments He has chosen to use.

Now from what Paul says, it may sound as though this is the responsibility of the ministers only, the preachers of the Word, or those who have a gift for evangelism.  Well, of course it is their duty, but it is also the responsibility of every Christian.  In fact I would go so far as to say that one of the reasons God chose us was that we might evangelise.  As Peter says in his first letter: "You are a chosen race... God's own people that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light," (1Peter 2:9).

Now granted some may be able to do that better than others; yet it is the responsibility of all.  Again it is Peter who states this so clearly, and perhaps you could say this is the basic minimum requirement for every Christian: "Always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence" (1Peter 3:15).

Now surely this is the least that can be expected from every Christian, that when someone asks you about your faith you don't duck for cover, you don't feel ashamed, but rather in a humble and pleasant way you simply say what you believe and why.  That too is evangelism, and God can use it.

So in the mind of God and on the pages of Scripture, there is no conflict between the doctrine of election and the command to evangelise.  God calls His elect through the proclamation of the Gospel, whether that be publicly from the pulpit or privately in a person's living room.  In His sovereign wisdom God has chosen to use us and the words that we speak.  This is so clear in the case of the Ephesians themselves.  Paul reminds them that they were chosen by God before the foundation of the world.  He adressed them as God's elect people.  Nowhere does he speak more strongly about election than in Ephesians 1.

But these same Ephesians, how did he approach them before they were Christians?  Listen to Luke's account in Acts 19: "He entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and pleading about the kingdom of God" (vs.8).  After that he encountered some opposition and had to withdraw from there.  But his work went on, and he argued daily in the hall of Tyrannus.  "This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks" (vs.10).

Yes, the Ephesian Christians were God's chosen people.  They were elect, but that didn't mean that Paul didn't have to speak and argue and plead with these people.  God may be sovereign and yet it was still Paul who had to make every effort to proclaim the Word of the Lord.  And so it is with us.  God has His chosen people here in Tasmania and He will save them, but it is still our God-given responsibility to make every effort to make the Gospel known.  It's a joyful task and a solemn responsibility.

In the study of science there is this antinomy in the nature of light.  It consists of both waves and particles, and scientists have to learn to live with these two conflicting truths.  Also in the light of the Gospel there is the antinomy of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

As Christians we must learn to live with both truths.  God is sovereign: He has chosen His people from before the foundation of the world.  We are responsible: Non-Christians must repent and believe the Gospel and Christians must make that Gospel known.  It's a mighty task that Christ left to His followers.  I am reminded of the words of a contemporary hymn:-

"Facing a task unfinished,
 That drives us to our knees,
 A need that, undiminished,
 Rebukes our slothful ease,
 We, who rejoice to know Thee
 Renew before Thy throne,
 The solemn pledge we owe Thee,
 To go and make Thee known."

Amen.