On the left-hand side of the column on your paper write 2 Peter 3:9, “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.” And also “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
And now on the right side of that same paper put Romans 9:22, “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” And “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13)
Countless men of God have studied and contemplated these four verses along with John 15:16, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9) And numerous others.
They are labeled under the heading of “Doctrine of Election” and are rarely spoken about from the pulpit, only in private company amongst learned men whose desire it is to find the knowledge of God. I have had those conversations, have read books that touch on the subject, but I have yet, as far as memory serves me, met or read from anyone anything more than their opinions. Those opinions, though desirous to understand the truth in these matters, are generally one-sided, for what we are speaking about is the free will that has been given to all men, and the unquestionable Sovereignty of the Most High God.
Ezekiel 18:4 cannot be questioned, it is unmitigated truth, “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Yet even this example in the Word of God seems contradictory to that Sovereignty, “Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” (Acts 2:4y)
Does God choose who will be saved and who will not, or do we have a choice in this matter, does man have the capability to exercise his free will in deciding whether or not he will believe, repent and be eternally saved. One of the bulwarks, if you will, in this unanswerable debate is Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Grace by definition is unmerited favor, and these verses make it quite clear that absolutely no work of any kind can avail itself to any man towards the salvation of our souls, so then, by default, the question must be asked, is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ a work, an action of the heart, or a response by the one who has been chosen, and recognizes that he is not just being called, but has been since before the foundation of the world, chosen by God to be one of His children for all eternity.
Here then the obvious verse must be brought to bear in our minds, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:14) Chosen because we believed, or chosen before we believed? That is the eternal question, for one states that we have free will in this decision, the other states we do not.
Entire religious organizations are built upon the last question, and I believe you can decipher for yourself which answer men desire, for to leave free will out of the equation of salvation is to deny mankind his ability to choose, it denies him the ability to exercise that which he holds the dearest in his heart, his free will in this life. It also brings about a discussion that few will debate, if the other view is held, that God alone decides who will enter into heaven and who will be sent to everlasting fire, those God has chosen to live apart for all eternity in utter hopelessness in the Lake of Fire, thereby negating all free will in this matter.
Most pastors will debate against this latter statement here vehemently, and will offer words, graphs and charts to attempt to stand for what they want to believe, for to them that statement that before the foundation of the world God chose who will go to hell is unthinkable. Those who have decided that man has no choice in the matter of his salvation are most generally cast aside as Scripturally deficient in their understanding of the key verses of Scripture concerning love. I offer this singular truth, neither one of them knows for sure, and neither one of them is willing to say in all earnestness concerning this Doctrine of Election, “Thy will be done.”
The man who the Lord God has chosen to bless with a modicum of wisdom in this area does not contemplate this area of the Scriptures often or for long, they are not Spiritually discernable to us, it is for God alone to know some things. Suffice it to say, if you are indeed born-again by the grace of God you are to seek the face of God, if you have been crucified with Christ then your life is no longer your own, the things of the world no longer hold any value to you, not even your own life is precious to you any longer, that God is exalted above the heavens, that the name of Jesus Christ is lifted up to all you meet, that you submit fully and with an open heart to the leading of the Holy Spirit is to be the path of your life.
No man who seeks to see the Lord God glorified in his life will complain if he had no free will in this matter of salvation, it is Christ that matters. The wise man will contemplate these verses offered here occasionally, for in all matters he seeks to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, but his only answer at the end of the debate will be, “Thy will be done.”
