Our Election and Predestination By Harry Ironside
NEW BOOKLET: OUR ELECTION AND PREDESTINATION – Lighthouse Trails Research Project
Our Election and Predestination
By Harry Ironside
In Ephesians 1:4-5, the apostle Paul carries our minds back to the past eternity that we may be brought to realize that salvation is altogether of God, not at all of ourselves. An old hymn puts it this way:
’Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For, Lord, that could not be,
This heart would still refuse Thee,
But Thou hast chosen me.
(Josiah Conder)
And again in another hymn that we know well, we are taught to sing:
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wand’ring from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
(Robert Robinson)
It was God Himself who purposed our salvation in the past eternity. It is Jesus Christ who accomplished our salvation on the Cross when the fullness of time had come. It is God the Holy Spirit who convicts us and brings us to repentance and to a saving knowledge of the grace of God as revealed in Christ. We cannot take any credit to ourselves for our salvation. A little boy was asked, “Have you found Jesus?” He looked up and said, “Please, sir, I didn’t know He was lost; but I was, and He found me.” We did not have to do the seeking after Him, He sought us because of the love that was in His heart from eternity.
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). This, of course, is the truth of election. Again and again believers are spoken of as elect people, as children chosen of God. He set His love on us in the past eternity. This troubles people sometimes; and yet, how could it be otherwise? God who is infinite in wisdom, with whom the past and the future are all one eternal now, purposed in His heart before the world came into existence that He was going to have a people who would be to the praise and glory of His grace for all eternity. He looked down through the ages and saw us as those for whom He would give His Son in order to add to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is wonderful to see how intimately the joy of Christ and our salvation are linked together.
Notice, that it is God who purposes salvation this way; it is God who plans; it is God who chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Notice, it is not that He chose the church as such, but he chose every individual who was to be a member of that church, to be one with Christ for eternity. You say, “I do not understand that.” I don’t either. Whenever I consider a subject such as God’s electing grace and predestinating love, I remind myself that the Word says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). But it may help us a little if we consider predestination apart from the question of the fall of man. Before the world was made, before sin came in, God chose us in Christ to be with His Son for all eternity. The fact that sin came in did not alter God’s purpose. He is still going to carry it out in spite of all that Satan has done to wreck His fair creation.
The doctrine of election has been pictured in this way. Here is a vast host of people hurrying down the broad road with their minds fixed on their sins, and one person stands calling attention to a door—the entrance into the narrow way that leads to life eternal. On this door is plainly written the text, “Whosoever will, let him come.” Every man is invited, no one need hesitate. Some may say, “Well, I may not be of the elect, and so it would be useless for me to endeavor to come, for the door will not open for me.” But God’s invitation is absolutely sincere: it is addressed to every man, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17). If men refuse to come, if they pursue their own godless way down to the pit, whom can they blame but themselves for their eternal judgment? The messenger addressed himself to all; the call comes to all; the door could be entered by all, but many refuse to come and thus perish in their sins. Such men can never blame God for their eternal destruction. The door was open, the invitation was given, they refused. God says to them sorrowfully, “Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life.” But as the invitation is extended, every minute or two someone stops and asks, “What is that?” “The way to life,” is the reply. “Ah, that I might find the way to life! I have found no satisfaction in this old world. I should like to know how to be free from my sin, how to be made fit for the presence of God.” Then he draws near and listens, and the Spirit of God impresses the message on his heart and conscience. As a result, he says, “I am going inside: I will accept the invitation; I will enter that door,” and he presses his way in and it shuts behind him. As he turns about he finds written on the inside of the door the words, “Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.” “What?” he says, “had God His heart fixed on me before ever the world came into being?” Yes, but he could not find it out until he got inside.
You see, you can pass the door if you will, you can trample the love of God beneath your feet, you can spurn His grace if you are determined to do it, but you will go down to the pit, and you will be responsible for your own doom.
There is no such thing taught in the Word of God as predestination to eternal condemnation. If men are lost, they are lost because they do not come to Christ. When men do come to Christ, they learn the wonderful secret that God has foreknown it all from eternity and that He had settled it before the world came into existence that they were to share the glory of His Son throughout endless ages. D. L. Moody used to say in his quaint way when people talked about the subject of election: “the whosoever wills are the elect, and the whosoever won’ts are the non-elect.” And so you can settle it for yourself whether you will be among the elect of God or not.
When asked to explain the doctrine of election, a brother once said, “Well, it’s this way, the Lord voted for my salvation; the devil voted for my damnation. I voted with the Lord, and so we got into the majority.” The devil seeks my eternal loss, and God seeks my eternal blessing, and my heart says, “I will.” I then know that I am among those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Let me link this up with another Scripture, 2 Thessalonians 2:13:
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
There you have the purpose of God in the past eternity. God had from the beginning chosen you unto salvation, and He is carrying out His purpose through the work of the Holy Spirit as the one who hears the message believes the truth.
Then listen to the apostle Peter:
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. (1 Peter 1:2; emphasis added)
There you have exactly the same order. God the Father foreknew us from eternity, but it was up to us whether or not we would yield to Christ. When we did yield in the obedience of faith, we took our places beneath the sprinkled blood of Jesus and our salvation was eternally assured. People try sometimes to put the whole responsibility on God and say, “If God has not chosen me, I cannot be saved.” If you will trust in Christ, you may know that God has chosen you.
You remember the striking illustration that the Spirit of God Himself gave us at the end of the book of Acts. When Paul and his company were on their way to Rome, a terrific storm arose, and they were casting out some of the cargo in order to lighten the ship, but finally they gave up in despair. And then an angel appeared and spoke with Paul, and Paul called for the captain of the ship and said:
I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. (Acts 27:22-24)
There was God’s foreknowledge. Everyone in that ship would be brought through safely, not one of them would be lost. But a little while afterwards Paul noticed something going on among the sailors. They were fitting out a boat and were preparing to launch it into the sea, putting some provisions into it and getting ready to cut away and leave the ship. And Paul said to the captain, “Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved” (Acts 27:31). Had he not already told them that no one would perish? That was God’s side; their side was to “abide in the ship.” They were responsible to see that no one left the ship. And so it is in regard to the doctrine of election and man’s responsibility. Everyone who is saved will be in Heaven because he was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world; and yet every man who is ever saved will be there because as a guilty sinner he put his personal trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You may say, “I can’t reconcile these two ideas to each other.” You do not need to do so; just believe it and go on your way rejoicing.
Look at Ephesians 1:4:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him.
God, who foresaw all who would put their trust in Christ, provided a means whereby all our sin and iniquity could be paid for, in order that we might be presented holy and without blame before Him. This, of course, involves the work of the Cross. Redemption was not an afterthought with God. It was all provided for when He decided to bring into existence creatures who could give Him voluntary love and service.
The questions may be asked, “Why did not God, who knows all things, create a race of people who would not have sinned and rejected Him, but who would always have done that which was right in His sight, who would always have loved and obeyed Him? Is not God in some sense responsible for sin because He created a creature weak enough to sin? Could He not have created one so strong that he could not have sinned?” Certainly He could. He could have made creatures that could not have failed Him. He could have created humanity in such a way that it could not have deviated from the right path. But God’s determination to create a man or woman who could choose to give Him loyal obedience, loving service, and voluntary devotion, necessitated the creation of men and women who could turn away from God if they wanted to and refuse to obey Him if they so desired. Otherwise, there would have been no freedom in their love, devotion, reverence, and affection. God was willing to take all the risk that He did take in order to have beings in this universe who would give Him glad and free-hearted love and devotion. So when sin came in, the Savior was given, and the Seed of the woman has bruised the serpent’s head. Now through the work of Christ, God can present us in His glorious presence holy and without blame in Him. It is not what we are naturally in ourselves, but what we are in Christ Jesus.
Now notice in Ephesians 1:5, we have another word that troubles people: “having predestinated us.” Some translations take the last two words of verse 4, “in love,” and start verse 5 with them: “In love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” Predestination is a manifestation of the love of the Father. As it is, God who chose us in grace, it is the Father who had predestinated us to the adoption of children. Nowhere in the Bible are people ever predestined to go to Hell, and nowhere are people simply predestined to go to Heaven. Look it up and see. We are chosen in Christ to share His glory for eternity, but predestination is always to some special place of blessing.
In Romans 8:29, we read: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Predestined to what? Predestined “to be conformed to the image of his Son.” You see, predestination is not God from eternity saying, “This man goes to Heaven, and this man to Hell.” No, but predestination teaches me that when I have believed in Christ and trusted Him as my Savior, I may know on the authority of God that it is settled forever that some day I am to become exactly like my Savior. It settles the question of the security of my salvation. Whatever my present unsatisfactory experiences may be, some day I shall be altogether like the One who has redeemed me.
“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself’ (Ephesians 1:5). The word adoption perplexes some. They say, “Does it mean that we are only adopted children and not really born into the family? Does it mean adopted in that sense?” This word literally means, the full placing as sons. We might read this verse, “Having predestinated us unto the son-placing through Jesus Christ unto Himself.” It will help us to understand this concept of adoption better if we bear in mind that in the days when our Bible was written, a man might have a number of wives and some who were really his slaves. He would have to select those children among whom he wished to divide his estate for he might not wish it divided among all his various children. He would take those whom he selected as his heirs down to the forum, and there confess them openly before the proper authority as his sons and then go through a ceremony of adoption. From that day on they were recognized as his heirs. We have been born into the family of God by regeneration and thus made children of God. We have received the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of adoption, and God has marked us out as those who will share everything with the Son for all eternity. We are adopted sons and born-again children.
“In love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” Our Lord is the One through whom all this blessing comes. There is a beautiful passage in the Old Testament that speaks of the coming Savior as a “nail in a sure place” (Isaiah 22:23). The simile is taken from the tent-life of the nomadic people. Pegs, on which they hung their garments and blankets, were fitted into the upright poles of their tents, and the women hung the utensils they used on similar pegs. Scripture pictures all kinds of vessels hung on one of these nails fastened in a sure place, and it says, “And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house” (Isaiah 22:24). So the Lord Jesus Christ, having accomplished redemption, has become that “nail in a sure place,” and every one of us are hung upon Him. If the nail goes down, we all go down; if Christ fails, then we all go down together. But since Christ will never fail, He will sustain every one of us right on to the very end. That is the truth that is revealed here.
This truth of election and predestination and of sonship emphasizes the preciousness of our Lord Jesus Christ! Say it over and over to your soul until your whole being is thrilled, “Lord Jesus, I owe it all to You.”
Every blessing for time and eternity we owe to Him. Are those blessings given to us according to our understanding or the strength of our faith, or our devotedness? Not at all! What then? “According to the good pleasure of his will.” You know some people are afraid of the will of God, yet it is the will of God that you and I who put our trust in the Lord Jesus should share the Savior’s glory for all eternity. And in revealing His will to us step by step along the way, He would have us become more and more conformed to Him while here on Earth. Oh, to be able to say from the heart, “I welcome Your sweet will, O God.” The greatest mistake any Christian can make is to substitute his own will for the will of God. Remember, it is the will of God that every saved one should eventually be with Christ and like Christ forevermore.
If you are still unsaved, the most fearful mistake you can ever make is to suppose that if you yield yourself to the will of God it would take away from your peace and happiness and joy. The only real peace, the only real happiness, the only real joy for created beings is found in following the will of God. His will planned our redemption; His will purposed our salvation; and His will secures our place in the glory for all eternity.
Some important questions answered
1. “But what if I am not one of the elect?”
You can readily settle that yourself. Without attempting to delve into the mysteries of the divine decrees and the divine foreknowledge, it is enough to say that all who come to God through His Son are elect. Our Lord makes this very plain in John 6:37. He says:
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
Now do not linger too long on the first half of the verse. Be clear about the latter half, for it is there your responsibility is found. Have you come to Jesus? If so, you have His pledged word that He will not cast you out. The fact that you come proves that the Father gave you to Christ. Thus, you may be certain that you belong to the glorious company of the elect. This is what Scripture teaches:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
The invitation is to all:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
Those who accept this invitation are the elect. Remember, we are never told that Christ died for the elect. But what does the Word say? “Christ died for the ungodly.” Are you ungodly? Then He died for you. Put in your claim and enter into peace. Meditate on the Holy Spirit’s declaration through the apostle Paul:
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)
Nowhere are we told that Christ came to save the elect. The term “sinners” is all-embracing, for “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Are you sure you are a sinner? Then you may be certain there is salvation for you. Do not exercise yourself in matters too high for you. Just be simple enough to take God at His Word.
2. “Sometimes I am afraid I am predestinated to be damned; if so, I can do nothing to alter my terrible case.”
No one was ever predestinated to be damned. Predestination is a precious truth of inestimable value and comfort when rightly understood. Will you not turn to your Bible and read for yourself in the only two chapters in which this word “predestinate” or “predestinated” is found? The first is Romans 8:29-30:
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
The other chapter is Ephesians 1. In verse 5, we read:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
And in verse 11, it says:
Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
You will note there is no reference in these four verses to either Heaven or Hell but to Christlikeness eventually. Nowhere are we told in Scripture that God predestinated one man to be saved and another to be lost. Men are to be saved or lost eternally because of their attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ:
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)
Predestination means that someday all the redeemed shall become just like the Lord Jesus! Is not this precious?
3. “I am trying to believe, but I have no assurance of salvation.”
Trying to believe whom? Would you dare speak of trying to believe the One who cannot lie? Is not this to insult God to His face? Suppose a dear friend of yours related a strange story which he declared to be a fact, would you say to him, “I will try to believe you”? Would not this be tantamount to declaring that you did not believe him at all? Do not then, I beg of you, talk of trying to believe when God has given His own testimony concerning His Son and promised to give eternal life to all who trust Him.
You either do believe Him, or you do not. If you do not believe Him, you practically make Him a liar. If you have been doing this heretofore, will you not go to Him at once and confess this great wickedness of which you have been guilty, and tell Him you will henceforth rest in simple faith upon His Word? It is not a question of feeling or emotion but of “believing God and asking no questions,” as that little boy put it, when asked, “What is faith?”
4. “But the Bible says faith is the gift of God and that all men have not faith; perhaps it is not the will of God to give me saving faith.”
Faith is the gift of God in this sense, that only through His Word is it received. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). All men may have faith if they will: but alas, many refuse to hear the Word of God, so they are left in their unbelief. The Holy Spirit presents the Word, but one may resist His gracious influence. On the other hand, one may listen to the Word and believe it. That is faith. It is God’s gift; it is true because it is given through His Word.
5. “But must I not hold on to the end if I would be saved at last?”
May I, without irreverence, venture to recast a Bible story? If the account of Noah and the flood went something like this, what would you think of it? Suppose that after the ark was completed, God said to Noah, “Now, get eight great spikes of iron and drive them into the side of the ark.” And Noah procured the spikes and did as he was bidden. Then the word came to him, “Come thou and all thy house and hang on to these spikes.” And Noah and his wife, and the three sons and their wives, each held onto a spike, and the rains descended and the flood came, and as the ark was borne up on the waters, their muscles were strained to the utmost as they clung to the spikes. Imagine God saying to them, “If you hang on till the deluge is over, you will be saved!” Can you even think of such a thing as anyone of them going safely through?
But oh, how different the simple Bible story:
And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. (Genesis 7:1)
Ah, that is a very different thing than holding on! Inside the ark, they were safe as long as the ark endured the storm. And every believer in Christ is as safe as God can make him. Look away then from all self-effort and trust Him alone. Rest in the ark and rejoice in God’s great salvation. And be sure to remember that it is Christ who holds you, not you who hold Him. He has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5)” and:
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10)
He who died for you, now lives at God’s right hand to keep you, and the Father sees you in Him. “He hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). Could anything be more sure?
6. “Do I not have to wait for God’s time? I can do nothing about it until He is ready to save me.”
But God’s time is now. He plainly tells us, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2; emphasis added). You need not wait another moment. He will never be any more ready to save you than He is at the very instant you are reading these words, and you will never be more fit to come to Him than at this very moment. Every day you wait, you are adding to the terrible list of your sins. Every hour you continue to reject Him, you are increasing your guilt by refusing to receive His blessed Son. Every moment you stay away from Him, you are sinning against His love. Why not close the present evil record by prostrating yourself before Him now, and owning your need, accept the gift of God, which is eternal life?
7. “But how can I be sure that my faith is strong enough to save my soul?”
It is not faith that saves the soul. It is the One whom God has set forth as the object of faith. It is true we are justified by faith instrumentally, but actually, we are justified by His blood. The weakest faith in Jesus saves. The strongest faith in self, or in good works, or in the church, or in its ordinances leaves you lost and undone still.
James Parker of Plainfield, New Jersey was visiting in a hospital when a nurse indicated a bed surrounded with white screens and whispered, “The poor man is dying. The priest has been here and administered the last sacrament. He cannot live long.” Mr. Parker begged to go inside the screen, and permission was granted. As he looked down upon the dying man, he observed a crucifix on his bosom. He stooped over and lifted it up. The sick man lifted his eyes and looked distressed. “Put it back,” he whispered, “I want to die with it on my breast.”
The visitor pointed to the figure pictured on the Cross and said fervently, “He’s a wonderful Savior!”
“Yes, yes, I love the crucifix. Put it back, please. I hope it will help me to die well.”
“Not the crucifix,” was the reply, “but the One who died on the Cross, the Lord Jesus, He died to save you.”
The man looked bewildered, then his face brightened: “Oh, I see, not the crucifix but the One who died. He died for me. I see, sir, I see. I never understood it before.” It was evident that faith had sprung up in his soul. Mr. Parker replaced the crucifix, offered a brief prayer, and left. In a few minutes, he observed the body being wheeled out of the ward.
Telling me of it later, he exclaimed, “I know God thinks so much of the work of His Son that He will have everyone in Heaven who will give Him any excuse for taking them there!” It is blessedly true. Faith’s look at the Crucified saves, even though it be faith of the feeblest kind.
8. “I humbly hope I am a Christian, but I dare not be too sure. I cannot see how anyone can be certain until after the day of judgment.”
But the day of judgment will be too late! If this matter is not settled before that great assize, you will then be irrevocably lost. Perhaps you are laboring under a misapprehension of what that judgment of the Great White Throne is for and who is to be judged at that time. It will be the judgment of sinners, when all who have lived and died out of Christ will be judged according to their works. Christians will not stand there for judgment. Concerning them our Lord has said:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)
Here is a glorious truth revealed! The believer in the Lord Jesus will never have to be judged for his sins because Christ has been judged for them already. On account of this, God justifies freely and completely all who receive His Son in faith as their Savior. Look again at the verse quoted above. Notice that all who hear His Word and believe in Him have everlasting life. It is present possession. Therefore, it is really unbelief that would lead one to say, “I hope I have eternal life because I believe in Jesus.” Do not speak of humility when you are doubting God. Take Him at His Word and know beyond all question that eternal life is yours.
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