Many times, the doctrine of election is hard to swallow. It’s often called cruel because it would give people no capacity to choose according to their will. It’s very easy to for non-Calvinist Christian ministers to preach, “The man who is elect is the man who selects.” Well, that’s partly true because the man is known to be elect because he selects God. However, what’s often overlooked that people left to themselves will never choose God. It’s easy to say that when I talk of Jacob and Esau, a non-Calvinist brother or sister can give me the friendly rebuke, “You’re looking for a comparison.” I guess non-Calvinist Christians can agree that Charles H. Spurgeon was a great man of God. However, they can say, “Spurgeon? He was just a man. Many Calvinists gave us good sources but I’ll disagree with election.” I don’t mind too much about that since Calvinism vs. non-Calvinism is never an issue. The issue is the doctrine of regeneration. The issue is preaching the right Gospel.
Today’s devotional by Spurgeon made me rethink of the doctrine of election, which I resisted for so many years before I started planting tulips in the figurative sense:
“Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.”
Many persons want to know their election before they look to Christ, but they cannot learn it thus, it is only to be discovered by “looking unto Jesus.” If you desire to ascertain your own election;-after the following manner, shall you assure your heart before God. Do you feel yourself to be a lost, guilty sinner? go straightway to the cross of Christ, and tell Jesus so, and tell him that you have read in the Bible, “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” Tell him that he has said, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Look to Jesus and believe on him, and you shall make proof of your election directly, for so surely as thou believest, thou art elect. If you will give yourself wholly up to Christ and trust him, then you are one of God’s chosen ones; but if you stop and say, “I want to know first whether I am elect,” you ask you know not what. Go to Jesus, be you never so guilty, just as you are. Leave all curious inquiry about election alone. Go straight to Christ and hide in his wounds, and you shall know your election. The assurance of the Holy Spirit shall be given to you, so that you shall be able to say, “I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him.” Christ was at the everlasting council: he can tell you whether you were chosen or not; but you cannot find it out in any other way. Go and put your trust in him, and his answer will be-“I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” There will be no doubt about his having chosen you, when you have chosen him.
“Sons we are through God’s election,
Who in Jesus Christ believe.”
How can a person be sure that he or she is one of the elect? Spurgeon’s devotional for the morning today can be summarized as this. A person can know he or she is of the elect when they obey the command to come. Sure, one can say John 5:40 has Jesus saying, “Ye will not come.” However, John 6:44-65 tells us that no person can come to Jesus except if that person was drawn by the Father. If you’re saved and reading this, maybe you need to recollect the number of times you rejected the Gospel until you became that person who selects.
1 Thessalonians 1:5 says that the Gospel came unto the brethren not by word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost. 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 talks of predestination and the calling, by the calling of the Gospel by the apostles. The Gospel is the good news by the apostles. The only way we’d know who are of God and who is not of God is by the preaching of the Gospel.
To close, I’d like to share this quote by Spurgeon:
If God would have painted a yellow stripe on the backs of the elect I would go around lifting shirts. But since He didn’t I must preach “whosoever will” and when “whatsoever” believes I know that he is one of the elect.
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