ELECTION OF GRACE
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ELECTION" OF GRACE
or, as St. Peter expresses it, ' elect according to the foreknowledge of God, through sanctification of the Spirit.' Tliis election I as hrmly believe as I believe the Scripture to bo of God. But unconditional elec- tion I cannot believe ; not only because I cannot lind it in Scripture, but also (to waive all other considera- tions) because it necessarily implies unconditional rep- robation. Find out any election which does not imply reprobation, and I will gladly agree to it. But repro- bation I can never agree to while I believe the Scrip- tures to be of God, as being utterl}' irreconcilable to the whole scope of the Old and New Testaments" (Works, N. Y. edition, vi, 28, 29).
2. The following summary statement is from the Rev. Dr. Whedon : "All God's choices are elections. Some of these elections are unconditional, viz. those which relate to material objects, the absolute disposing of which violates no free agency. But there is also a class of conditional elections or predeterminations by God, which are so far contingent as that they are conditioned upon the actual performance of certain free acts b}^ the finite agent as foreseen. Those free acts, required bj' God as conditions to this election, are by divine grace placed in the power of every responsible agent, so that the primary reason why any are not elected is that they do not exercise their power of meeting those conditions. And since everj' responsi- ble agent has the power to make his own calling and election sure, and ever}' elect person has full power to reject the conditions, so it is not true that the number of the elect can be neither increased nor diminished. Every man has gracious powers to be elected accord- ing to the etervial purpose of God. All men may be saved. Every individual, by grace divine, maj' place himjelf in the number of those who are chosen from before the foundation of the world. The reprobates are those who, abusing the conferred grace of God, re- sisting the Holy Spirit, reject the conditions of salva- tion, and so fail to present the necessarj' tests to their election. The elect are chosen unto good works, to holy faith, to pev'severing love, to a full manifestation of the power of the Gospel during their probationarj' life, and upon their full performance of this their work and mission, they attain, through grace divine, to a rich, unmerited salvation" {Bibliolheca Sacra, April, 1862, p. 2G8).
3. The following statement and argument is chief!}- abridged from Watson, Theological Jnsfifnies, pt. ii, ch. xxvi. Three kinds of election are mentioned in Scrip- ture, viz. :
i. The election of individuals to perform some particu- lar service, which has no necessary connection with their salvation. Cyrus was God's chosen servant to promote the rebuilding of his Temple. The apostles of our Lord were elected to their office : " Have I not chosen you twelve ?" This was an act of sover- eign choice for which Christ gave no reason. He made no apologies to those disciples who were not chosen, and he never allowed any one who had the call to refer to anything meritorious in himself as the cause. He is the Lord of his Church. Great mis- chief has been done by confounding this election to office, which in its nature must be unconditional, with personal election to salvation, dependent upon faith and perseverance. St. Paul had an unconditional elec- tion to the same office from which Judas fell. He was a "chosen" vessel to be the apostle of the Gentiles.
ii. The second kind of election is that of communi- ties or bodifs of people to eminent relir/ious privileges to accomplish, through their means, the merciful purpo- ses of God in benefiting other nations. This was once applicable to the Jews, as it is now to the Chris- tians. " You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth." "The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth." This fact may iu part account for the frequent and familiar use of IlL— I
the terms elect, chosen, and peculiar in the New Testa= ment, when the apostles are writing to the churches. This, however, does not explain fully the reason for the use of these terms. The abrogation of the church- state of the Jews, and the admission of Gentiles to an equality with Jews as the people of God, will account for the adoption of this phraseology. The reason of their peculiar existence as a nation ceased with the coming of Christ, for he was a light to lighten the Gentiles, as well as the glory of his people Israel. There was a new election of a new peojjle of God, to be composed of Jews, not by virtue of their natural descent, but by faith in Christ ; and of Gentiles of all nations, also believers, and placed on an equal ground with the believing Jews (see llom. xi). It is easy, therefore, to see what is the import of the ' calling' and ' election' of the Christian Church, as spoken of in the New Testament. It was not the calling and the eleciing of one nation in particular to succeed the Jews, but it was the calling and the electing of believ- ers in all nations, wherever the Gospel should be preached, to be in reality what the Jews typically, and therefore in an inferior degree, had been — the \'is- ible Church of God, 'his people,' under Christ 'the head;' with an authenticated revelation; Avith an ap- pointed ministry, never to be lost; with authorized worship ; with holy days and festivals ; with instituted forms of initiation ; and with special protection and favor.