Those men and women whom God has been pleased to choose from
all eternity, He calls in time, by His Spirit working in due season. He
convinces them of sin. He leads them to Christ. He works in them repentance and
faith. He converts, renews, and sanctifies them. He keeps them by His grace
from falling away entirely, and finally brings them safe to glory. In short
God’s eternal Election is the first link in that chain of a sinner’s salvation
of which heavenly glory is the end. None ever repent, believe, and are born
again, except the Elect. The primary and original cause of a saint’s being what
he is, is eternal God’s election.
The doctrine here stated, no doubt, is peculiarly deep,
mysterious, and hard to understand. We have no eyes to see it fully. We have no
line to fathom it thoroughly. No part of the Christian religion has been so
much disputed, rejected, and reviled as this. None has called forth so much of
that enmity against God which is the grand mark of the carnal mind. Thousands
of so-called Christians profess to believe the Atonement, salvation by grace,
and justification by faith, and yet refuse to look at the doctrine of Election.
The very mention of the word to some persons is enough to call forth
expressions of anger, ill-temper, and passion. But, after all, is the doctrine
of Election plainly stated?...
I place these eleven texts[1]
before my readers, and I ask them to consider them well. If words have any
meaning at all, they appear to me to teach most plainly the doctrine of
personal Election. In the face of such texts I dare not refuse to believe that
it is a Scriptural doctrine. I dare not, as an honest man, shut my eyes against
the plain, obvious sense of Bible language. If I once began to do so, I should
have no ground to stand on in pressing the Gospel on an unconverted man. I
could not expect him to believe one set of texts to be true, if I did not
believe another set. The eleven texts above quoted seem to my mind to prove conclusively
that personal Election is a doctrine of Scripture. As such I must receive it,
and I must believe it, however difficult it may be. As such I ask my readers
this day to look at it calmly, weigh it seriously, and receive it as God’s
truth.
From Old Paths,
264.
[1]
Matt. 24:22, 31; Mk. 13:22; Lk. 18:7; Rom. 8:29—30, 33; Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess.
2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; 1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Pet. 1:10.
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