The question is, do we choose Christ and are saved? Or has God first chosen us?
Few biblical doctrines create as much confusion, debate, and sometimes even fear as election and predestination. Christians hear words like “Calvinism,” “Arminianism,” “sovereignty,” “free will,” “election,” “predestination,” and “foreknowledge,” and it can quickly feel as though we have wandered into a seminary classroom instead of simply reading our Bibles.
But election did not begin with John Calvin. Predestination was not invented by Augustine. These are Bible words.
Paul writes that God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world” and that He “predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4-5). Peter calls Christians “elect” (1 Peter 1:1). Jesus speaks about those whom the Father has given Him (John 6:37). Romans 8 tells us that those whom God foreknew He also predestined, called, justified, and glorified (Romans 8:29-30).
So we cannot simply avoid the subject because it is difficult. The question is what Scripture means when it speaks this way.
Let’s start with something much easier.
Why Did You Believe?
Suppose two people hear exactly the same gospel message. They hear that God is holy, that they are sinners, that Christ died for sinners and rose from the dead, and that everyone who repents and believes in Him will be saved.
One person believes. The other rejects Christ. Why?
The Arminian answer generally places the final difference in the individual’s response. God gives grace, Christ is offered to both, and each person ultimately has the final ability to accept or reject Him. God, in His infinite knowledge and foresight, knows beforehand who will believe, and on the basis of that foreknown faith, and by that, He “elects” them.
The Calvinistic or Reformed answer goes deeper. It asks why the first person wanted Christ when the second person did not. Was the believer spiritually wiser? More humble? More receptive? Did he make better use of grace? Was there something within him that caused him to choose correctly?
Scripture gives a very different explanation: God had mercy upon him.
“So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”
Romans 9:16
That one sentence takes us directly into the heart of biblical election.
Our Problem Is Deeper Than We Think
To understand election, we first need to understand what the Bible says about fallen humanity.
The Bible does not describe unbelievers as basically neutral people standing between God and Satan, carefully deciding which side they prefer. Scripture says we are born spiritually dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1-3). Paul says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:10-11). Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).
Notice the words that both Paul and Jesus repeat: “no one.”
A sinner has a will. He makes real choices every day. He chooses what to eat, where to go, What to spend his or her free time on, whom to marry, what career to pursue, and whether to listen to or reject the gospel. The Bible never portrays human beings as mindless robots.
The problem is that our will is connected to our nature.
Think about a lion and a plate of grass. The lion is physically capable of walking over and eating the grass. Nobody has chained him to the ground. Yet if you place fresh meat beside the grass, you better believe that the lion will choose the meat because that is what corresponds to his nature.
Similarly, fallen man has a fallen nature. He freely chooses according to what he loves, and apart from God’s grace, he does not love God.
Jesus explained this plainly: “The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19).
Our deepest problem is not that sinners desperately want Christ but that God supposedly refuses to let them come. Our problem is that sinners do not want the true God until God changes their hearts.
God Chose Us Before We Chose Him
This brings us to the concept of election.
Paul could hardly make the timing clearer:
“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.”
Ephesians 1:4
Before you were born, before you had done anything good or bad, before you had prayed, repented, believed, attended church, read the Bible, or performed a single good work, God’s choice had already been made.
Paul makes the same point using Jacob and Esau. Before the twins were born and before either had done anything good or evil, God’s purpose of election stood, “not because of works but because of him who calls” (Romans 9:11).
That is why Reformed theology speaks of “unconditional election.” It does not mean that God saves people without Christ or without faith. Everyone whom God saves comes through Christ and believes the gospel. It means God’s decision to save them was not caused by some spiritually superior quality He discovered in them.
Jesus tells His disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). Paul tells the Thessalonians that “God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
God’s choice comes first, and then our believing follows.
What About God’s Foreknowledge?
This is where many Christians understandably object.
Romans 8:29 says, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined.” First Peter 1:1-2 also describes believers as elect “according to the foreknowledge of God.”
So, Scott, doesn’t that mean God looked down through history, saw who would freely choose Christ, and then chose those people?
There are several problems with that interpretation.
First, Romans 8 does not say, “those whose faith God foresaw.” It says “those whom he foreknew.” People are the object of God’s foreknowledge.
In Scripture, the words “know” and “foreknow” can mean far more than simply possessing information about someone. This is important because when modern English speakers hear the word “foreknowledge,” we naturally think of knowing a fact ahead of time. We might say, “God knew beforehand that I would believe.” But we should not begin with the way we commonly use the English word. We need to ask how the Bible itself uses the language of knowing.
One of the clearest examples comes from the Old Testament. God says to Israel:
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth.”
Amos 3:2
The Hebrew verb translated “known” here is yada (יָדַע). At its most basic level, yada means “to know.” It can certainly refer to ordinary knowledge or awareness. But depending on the context, the word can also describe personal, relational, and intimate knowledge. Scripture can use “knowing” someone in a way that involves relationship rather than merely knowing facts about that person.
In fact, the Bible sometimes uses yada for the most intimate human relationship possible. Genesis 4:1 says, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived.” Adam obviously already knew, as in head knowledge, who Eve was. He could recognize her. He knew her name.
The word “knew” in this verse describes the close, intimate marital union between Adam and Eve. The point is not that yada always means sexual intimacy. It clearly does not. The point is that biblical “knowing” can describe a ddep, personal relationship rather than mere intellectual awareness.
That helps us understand Amos 3:2. When God tells Israel, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth,” He cannot possibly mean that Israel was the only nation God knew existed. God certainly knew Egypt. He knew Assyria. He knew Babylon. He knew every tribe, family, king, city, and individual on the earth. God possesses perfect knowledge of everyone and everything.
So what does God mean when He says that Israel alone had been “known” by Him?
He is speaking about a special relationship. Out of all the nations of the world, God had set His covenant love upon Israel. He had chosen them and entered into a unique relationship with them. Moses describes this same reality in Deuteronomy 7:6-8. Israel was God’s “treasured possession,” and God’s choice of Israel was rooted in His own love and faithfulness rather than something impressive He discovered in them. In that sense, God “knew” Israel in a way that He did not “know” the surrounding nations.
We find similar language elsewhere in the Old Testament. God told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). Surely God is saying something more meaningful than, “Before you existed, I possessed information about you.” The verse continues, “and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” God’s knowing of Jeremiah is connected with God’s purpose for Jeremiah before his birth.
The New Testament uses the language of “knowing” relationally as well. Jesus gives us one of the clearest examples when He describes people who will claim to belong to Him on the day of judgment. They will say, “Lord, Lord,” and point to remarkable things they did in His name. Jesus responds:
“I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
Matthew 7:23
Jesus obviously does not mean, “I never knew that you existed.” As the eternal Son of God, Christ knows exactly who they are. He knows their lives, their words, their deeds, and even their hearts. Yet He says, “I never knew you.” Once again, “know” is being used relationally. These people never belonged to Christ. They never had the saving relationship with Him that they claimed to possess.
Jesus uses similar language positively when He speaks about His sheep. He says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me” (John 10:14). A few verses later He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Jesus certainly possesses intellectual knowledge about people who are not His sheep. His “knowing” of His sheep describes something personal and relational. They are His.
Now bring that biblical background into Romans 8:29:
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”
Romans 8:29
Notice carefully what Paul says. He does not say, “the faith which God foreknew.” He does not say, “those whose decision God foresaw.” He does not say that God looked into the future, discovered which people would choose Jesus, and then predestined those people because of the choice He had seen them make.
Paul says, “those whom he foreknew.”
The object of God’s foreknowledge is people.
The Greek word Paul uses is proginōskō, which means “to know beforehand.” The important question, however, is what kind of “knowing” Paul has in mind. When we place Romans 8 alongside the Bible’s broader relational use of “know,” there is strong reason to understand God’s foreknowledge here as more than advance awareness. God knew these people beforehand in the sense that He set His saving love upon them beforehand.
This understanding also fits the rest of Paul’s sentence beautifully. Romans 8:29-30 is sometimes called the “Golden Chain of Redemption”: those whom God foreknew, He predestined; those He predestined, He called; those He called, He justified; and those He justified, He glorified. The same people move through the entire chain. Paul does not describe God passively observing future human decisions. He describes God actively accomplishing the salvation of a particular people from beginning to end.
This is why the Reformed understanding of foreknowledge is much richer than saying that God simply “knew ahead of time who would choose Him.” Of course God knows the future. Reformed Christians have never denied that. The question is whether Romans 8:29 is merely teaching God’s advance knowledge of human decisions. The biblical use of “know,” the wording of the verse, and the entire flow of Romans 8 point toward something much deeper: before these people ever knew God, God knew them. Before they loved Him, He had set His love upon them. Before they chose Christ, God’s saving purpose for them was already established.
There is another problem with the “God looked ahead to see who would believe” explanation. According to Scripture, what would God see if He simply looked down the corridors of time at fallen humanity left to itself?
“No one seeks for God.”
Romans 3:11
If God’s election were ultimately based upon seeing who would independently choose Him, He would see no one.
Jesus Taught Election Too
Sometimes election is treated as though it were mostly a Pauline doctrine. Yet Jesus taught it very clearly.
In John 6:37 He says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me.”
Look carefully at the order. Jesus does not say that everyone who comes to Him will then be given to Him by the Father. The Father gives a people to the Son, and those people come.
Later Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65).
In John 10, Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. He then tells some unbelieving religious leaders, “you do not believe because you are not among my sheep” (John 10:26).
We might naturally expect Jesus to say, “You are not my sheep because you do not believe.” Instead, He reverses the order.
His sheep hear His voice and follow Him because they belong to Him.
Romans 9 Makes the Issue Even Clearer
Romans 9 is difficult precisely because Paul anticipates the same objections people still raise today.
He discusses Jacob and Esau and explains that God’s purpose of election existed before either had done good or evil. Then Paul writes:
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
Romans 9:15
Paul concludes, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (verse 16).
Immediately, Paul anticipates an objection: “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” (verse 19).
That objection is very revealing. If Paul were merely teaching that God looked ahead and chose people because He knew they would choose Him, the objection would make little sense. If this were the case, nobody would respond with the question, “Who can resist His will?”
Paul’s actual answer points directly to God’s authority as Creator: “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” He then uses the biblical picture of a potter having authority over his clay (Romans 9:20-23).
It is important to note that this does not make God arbitrary, cruel, or unjust. Every human being deserves judgment because every human being has sinned willingly, and God is perfectly just in doing whatever He wants with us. Election means God mercifully saves people who deserve exactly what everyone else deserves, as we all deserve hell.
If we truly want fairness and justice to be done 100%, then God would send all guilty sinners, including you and me, to judgment. But only through His mercy are guilty sinners saved, as God owes salvation to no one.
Does This Make Us Robots?
This is probably the most common objection. If God chooses, predestines, calls, and saves, are human decisions real? The answer is still “yes.”
This is where an illustration often associated with John MacArthur is helpful. Ask yourself the question: Who wrote the book of Romans?
- Paul wrote Romans.
- But God wrote Romans.
- (And you can even say that Tertius the scribe physically wrote it down for Paul, as is stated in Romans 16:22.)
Those answers do not contradict each other. Paul was not sitting passively while his hand moved against his will. Paul genuinely thought, reasoned, selected words, had his personality come through, and wrote down words. Yet the Holy Spirit sovereignly superintended the process so that what Paul wrote was exactly what God intended (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21).
Scripture repeatedly places God’s sovereignty and human action together.
Joseph’s brothers wickedly sold him into slavery, yet Joseph later told them, “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Notice that the same event had human intentions and God’s sovereign intention.
At the cross, sinful men freely murdered Jesus. Yet Peter says Jesus was delivered up “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). Acts 4:27-28 goes even further, saying Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the peoples of Israel did what God’s hand and plan had predestined to take place.
Were they responsible? Yes. Was God sovereign? Absolutely.
We, with our small, finite minds, cannot fully comprehend how they fit in with one another, yet they do fit. And the Bible does not feel compelled to sacrifice one truth to protect the other.
What About the Idea of “Free Will?”
Much of the debate comes down to what we mean by “free.”
If by free will we mean that human beings make real voluntary choices and are morally responsible for those choices, Scripture teaches that.
If by “libertarian free will” we mean that fallen human beings possess a morally neutral will capable of choosing God independently of God’s transforming grace, that idea is actually impossible to find anywhere in Scripture. Seriously. Look it up.
Jesus says a bad tree cannot bear good fruit (Matthew 7:18). Paul says the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God and “is not able to understand them“ (1 Corinthians 2:14). Romans 8 says the mind set on the flesh “does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Romans 8:7). Again and again, Scripture describes our inability.
So how does anyone believe? The answer: God changes the heart.
God promised through Ezekiel, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26). Lydia believed Paul’s preaching because “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14). God “made us alive together with Christ” when we were dead in our trespasses (Ephesians 2:5).
As Christians, we were spiritually dead. And dead people do not cooperate in their resurrection.
Lazarus did not hear Jesus calling from outside the tomb, consider his options, and decide that resurrection sounded appealing. Christ called, “Lazarus, come out,” and the man who had been dead came out (John 11:43-44). That physical resurrection gives us a helpful picture of the spiritual power of God’s call.
Then Why Preach the Gospel?
Because God commands us to, and because God uses the gospel to save His elect.
Paul, one of Scripture’s clearest teachers of election, was also one of history’s greatest evangelists. He endured enormous suffering “for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:10). Election never caused Paul to stop evangelizing. It gave him confidence to evangelize.
We do not know whom God has chosen. We preach Christ to everyone. We call every person to repent and believe. We can look any unbeliever in the eye and sincerely say that if he comes to Christ, Christ will receive him.
Jesus promised, “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).
The amazing thing is that the first half of that same verse tells us why anyone comes at all: “All that the Father gives me will come to me.”
Election Should Lead Us to Worship
Election was never intended to produce proud people who enjoy winning theological arguments. Instead, it should produce humbled Christians.
Why are you saved? Ultimately, you cannot point to your intelligence, wisdom, humility, good judgment, or superior spiritual instincts. You were dead, and God made you alive. You were blind, and God gave you sight. You were running from Him, and He brought you home.
Paul asks the Corinthians, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).
Even your faith is connected to God’s gracious work in you. Philippians 1:29 says it has been “granted” to us to believe in Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9 describes salvation as God’s gift so that no one may boast.
This is why the doctrine of election, if properly understood, is deeply comforting.
Your salvation began in the heart of God before you were born. The Father chose a people. The Son came to redeem them. The Spirit gives them life and brings them to faith. Those whom God foreknew He predestined; those He predestined He called; those He called He justified; and those He justified He glorified (Romans 8:29-30). In this passage, Paul leaves no one missing between the beginning and the end.
If you are in Christ, your salvation is not ultimately resting upon the strength of your grip on God. It rests upon His grip on you.
So when you think about election and predestination, do not begin with John Calvin. Do not begin with St. Augustine of Hippo. Do not begin with theological systems. Open your Bible and begin with God.
As you thoroughly study Scripture, ask how the people such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, the entire nation of Israel, Gideon, Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, John the Baptist, the disciples, the apostle Paul, Lydia, and countless others came to the Lord: Did God choose them, or did they choose God first?
Ask who takes the initiative in salvation. Ask who raises the spiritually dead. Ask who opens hearts. Ask who grants repentance and faith. Ask who draws sinners to Christ. Ask who chose His people before the foundation of the world.
Then read the answer Scripture gives again and again.
“Salvation belongs to the LORD!”
Jonah 2:9
That is the heart of the doctrine of election, and it gives every ounce of glory for our salvation to the God who saves.
