The Doctrine of Election

Extract

The Doctrine of Election
A. W. Pink

As the doctrine of Election is a part of the wider subject of God’s Sovereignty, a brief word on this first. In Rev. 19:6, we are told, “The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” In heaven and earth He is the Controller and Disposer of all creatures. As the Most High, He ruleth amid the armies of the heavens and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest Thou? He is the Almighty who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. He is the Heavenly Potter who takes hold of our fallen humanity like a lump of clay and out of it fashioneth one as a vessel unto honour and another as a vessel unto dishonour. In short, He is the Decider and Determiner of every man’s destiny and the Controller of every detail in each individual’s life, which is only another way of saying that God is God.

Now, Election and Predestination are but the exercise of God’s Sovereignty in the affairs of salvation, and all that we know about them is what has been revealed to us in the Scriptures of Truth. The only reason why anyone believes in Election is because he finds it clearly taught in God’s Word. No man, or number of men, ever originated this doctrine. Like the teaching of Eternal Punishment, it conflicts with the dictates of the carnal mind and is repugnant to the sentiments of the unregenerate heart. And like the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the miraculous birth of our Saviour, the truth of Election must be received with simple, unquestioning faith. Let us now define our terms. What does the word “Election” mean? It signifies to single out, to select, to choose, to take one and leave another. Election means that God has singled out certain ones to be the objects of His saving grace, while others are left to suffer the just punishment of their sins. It means that before the foundation of the world, God chose out of the mass of our fallen humanity a certain number and predestined them to be conformed to the image of His Son. “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name” (Acts 15:14). We cannot do better than here amplify our definition of Election by quoting from a sermon by the late C. H. Spurgeon on ‘Things that Accompany Salvation.’ …