Preface
This paper is the result of a message from John 17, which I preached at the Berean Bible Church on February 22, 1998. I have taken the notes from that message and expanded them into a paper dealing with the subject of salvation and how God’s election fits into this program.
This paper is not an exhaustive study of every verse dealing with the subject of election. It is my intent to explain some verses and then present God’s overall plan of salvation.
Like most writers, I am indebted to the help of other works on this subject. I have tried to be faithful in representing others, who have wrestled with this truth down through the years. A bibliography will be given at the end of this paper.
This paper is written to try and counteract the teaching of Calvinism. It is the hope of the writer to Biblically communicate the whole truth and nothing but the truth concerning God’s saving program.
Furthermore, it is not my desire to avoid that blessed truth, concerning how God must first move to convict the sinner of their lost condition and need for Christ. It simply is not within the scope of this paper to deal with this matter.
A person certainly has the capacity to believe or reject God’s call to salvation (John 5:40, Acts 7:51), but only after the Lord first reaches out to them with His general call to lost humanity.
(John 16:8)
“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”
No person in the world would seek salvation without the Holy Spirit first convicting them of their sinful condition before God and need for Christ.
Furthermore, no person would ever be saved unless God first acted in their lives and sought to win them to Christ.
(John 6:44,12:32)
“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
The picture that is related to the word “draw” is of a fisherman dragging a net into his boat, which is full of fish. Without reading more into the picture of dragging then is intended, God lovingly pulls us unto Himself by the conviction He brings upon our hearts. God must begin to pull us in a different direction then we are going. He does this by His inner conviction of our sinfulness and our wayward direction, which we are traveling in life.
The Lord moved first and opened up the heart of Lydia through His inner conviction, which was aroused by Paul’s preaching (Acts 16:14). God did not force Lydia to salvation, but He did make the first move to bring conviction upon her heart. We thank God for His desire to seek out and convict the entire lost world of their need for Christ!
(Luke 19:10)
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
God first sought us, who were part of a race headed toward Hell. Out of His own love He convicted our hearts and drew us unto Himself.
“Though I knew Him not, still He sought me. Though I sought Him not, still He loved me. He was seeking for me.”
May God use this paper to help us piece together the truth about His own sovereign program of salvation. In the end, may we be able to view God’s plan of salvation as something that is understandable and not mysterious or unknowable.
May the philosophical speculations and conclusions of all other systems of thought, such as Calvinism and Arminianism be placed aside, so that we might see the simplicity of what the Bible teaches on this subject.
May the real sovereign God be seen in all of His infinite wisdom and majesty as we contemplate His saving program for our own lives.
May God be glorified as the God of all, grace, love and mercy.
(Ephesians 1:12)
“That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”
“God’s Sovereign Plan of Salvation”
(By Pastor Kelly Sensenig)
She loves me, she loves me not? She loves me, she loves me not? Probably most of us at one time or another really wondered if the sweet heart that we were dating would really love us, as we wanted them to. We would look into his or her eyes and really wonder if they had those same feelings of love for us.
Well, in a much similar fashion, there is a teaching today that wants us to play the daisy game, where we pull off the petals and see if God really loves a certain person or does not love a person.
"He loves me, He loves me not. He loves me, He loves me not?"
This teaching that plays the daisy game with God's love is called Calvinism, which teaches a distorted view of God's sovereign program of salvation. Today, I would like to use John 17 as a springboard and have a lesson on God's true sovereign program for mankind.
Now in reality, John 17 is the real Lord's prayer. In John 17 we have the high priestly prayer of Jesus. Jesus is seen as the intercessor that is
praying for His disciples and you and me.
This prayer can be divide into three sections.
1.Jesus prays for Himself – 1- 5
2.Jesus prays for the disciples – 6-19
3.Jesus prays for all future believers –20-26
Today we are going to look at the second part of Jesus' prayer with an emphasis on just one particular phrase repeated over and over again.
Within these verses, the words “gave” and “given” are repeated over and over again (see verses 2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 22, 24).
What did Jesus mean when He kept repeating these words? Well, Jesus was acknowledging that the Father actually gave certain people to be His
own followers or disciples among all those masses of people within the world. He is saying that the Father chose people among the great throngs of humanity to be His own children and followers.
This once again brings the matter of election into the forefront. When people talk about election today there is a preconceived opinion in the minds of many that we must term ourselves as a Calvinist. This simply means that we must follow the teachings of John Calvin. Calvin was the reformer who taught a philosophy on election, which he claims to have received from the Bible.
Heated debates have been witnessed down through the church centuries and even today, concerning the doctrine of the Fathers election of certain people out from among humanity.
One preacher said that this subject of God’s election has caused more heat then light! (more angry discussion then real Biblical understanding)
See John 6:37, 39 = These verses address that same truth about election, which confirms even further that the Father has given certain people to be disciples of the Son. This is exactly what Jesus has said in John 17. The concept that the Father has given certain people to the Son in order to be Christ’s saved followers cannot be overlooked.
Since the teaching of election comes up at this point again, allow me to say that I have always tried to clearly present what the Bible seems to teach on election. I will not even argue with those who teach a rigid Calvinistic philosophy or those who follow the conclusions of the reformer, John Calvin on this subject.
Today’s message will center upon the truth of God’s sovereign program of salvation as it deals with election.
If I may, allow me to read something that strikes at the very core of the philosophy of true historic Calvinism. True and historic Calvinism teaches that God does not love everybody and that Jesus did not die for everybody. It also teaches that God does not want everybody to be saved and to go to Heaven and that He actually has predetermined for a great mass of people to go to Hell.
Now what I am about to read cuts at the very core of this Calvinistic philosophy. None the less it is true. A man who was trying to counteract the errors and unbiblical findings of historic Calvinism wrote these words:
“The sovereign god of the Calvinist planned in a past eternity that billions of men, women, and children would be tormented in the Lake of Fire forever. He had no desire that any of them would be saved. This god was well aware that because of the sin nature received at conception, they could do nothing but become Helldeserving sinners by the very fact of their existence.
This same god said that the basis for their condemnation would be a failure to believe in the Saviour and His atoning work. But this god provided no Saviour for them, and no atonement was made available in which they could believe. He sent forth people into all the world to command these billions of men, women, and children to believe in a Saviour who was not their Saviour. He commanded them to repent knowing that he had personally selected them to burn in Hell before they ever received their sin nature.
This god of the Calvinist created billions of vessels of wrath fitted for destruction commanded them to do what he had willed them to be unable to do then sent them to Hell for not doing it. If this is your god, you have my sympathy.”
Who are these people in John 6 and 17, which the father gave to Christ? Well, they were those who were chosen by the Father’s sovereign determination.
The question is:
Who really were the people or “all” that the Father chose to give to Christ? Who are these people mentioned in chapters 6:37 and 17:2?
Were they a select group of people which the Father decided to choose over other people, because He wanted certain people to be saved and did not want the rest to be saved? Were they a select group of people, which the Father chose because He loved them more then other people?
The answer to these questions is “No!” The strict Calvinist says, “Yes.” “Yes, God has chosen some to be saved over others, that God loves and only wants to save certain people.”
I have spoken to Christians who strictly follow the teachings of John Calvin. They believe that God does not love everyone in the world and that God only chose certain people out of all the masses of humanity, because He loved them more then someone else He created.
As I have stated at the beginning of this message, the petals on a daisy have long demonstrated the way a Calvinist believes. They have been the way for a person to see whether or not God loves them. As you pull the petals you must say, “He loves me, He loves me not, He loves me, He loves me not?” Hopefully when you get to the last petal you will end on that beautiful saying, “He loves me.”
But what if you end on the other note, “He loves me not?” Then according to a strict follower of the teachings of John Calvin, God does not love you, will not love you and did not die for you on the cross and will not give you to the Son in order to be saved.
I must say that If the Bible truly taught that philosophy I would have to believe it. But the Bible does not view election in this way. The Bible views election as a program, which God has designed out of His own sovereign, will and plan.
The election of God (or those who the Father gives to the Son) is not based on the arbitrary choice of the Father apart from the rest of His sovereign plan. When it comes to election we must consider God’s entire sovereign plan.
If you want God to be sovereign, let God be sovereign in His own way.
Believe in His own sovereign plan and not the plans, philosophies and ideas of other people such as John Calvin or James Arminius.
I recall trying to build a puzzle many years ago. It was a puzzle of a beautiful scene in nature. After finishing the puzzle, I noticed that one piece of it was missing. It was a sad day for me. I discovered that the whole picture would never be finished, because one piece of the puzzle was lost.
Dear friend, you cannot build a puzzle without all the pieces of the puzzle. Likewise, you cannot build the teaching of God’s sovereign plan of salvation, without all the pieces of that particular program or plan.
Many people today talk about the sovereignty of God. We should ask ourselves a very important question.
What does the sovereignty of God really mean?
Webster defined sovereignty as:
“a monarch or other supreme ruler, a person who has sole power or authority, having supreme rank, power, or authority, supreme; preeminent; indisputable power”
My friend, God is the superpower of the universe and He can do anything that He pleases, when He pleases, with whomsoever He chooses to do it.”
Many years ago, I heard Lehman Strauss say:
“God does what He wants to do, when He wants to do it, with whomsoever He wants to do it with.”
Several verses bring out the sovereign purposes and plans of God. God does as He pleases and makes His plans, as He wants to make them.
Psalm 115:3
“But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.”
Job 9:12
“Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?”
Since God is the superpower of the universe, He does everything after His own counsel and decrees. God’s plan of salvation is also centered upon His own decrees (see Ephesians 1:5, 9, 11).
God’s entire plan for saving man is done:
“according to the good pleasure of His will”
“according to his good pleasure which He hath purposed in himself”
“according to the purpose of him”
“after the counsel of His own will”
As the supreme superpower of this world, God has made a plan, which can be pieced together like a beautiful puzzle. And it is not John Calvin’s plan or your plan or my plan. It is God’s plan. So we should become familiar with His plan.
There are three pieces to the puzzle of God’s sovereign plan:
- God in His own sovereign program has provided a sacrifice for
everyone.
see John 3:16-17 = Please do not read into the Bible or add to this text of scripture by telling me that the term “world” does not mean all people. Calvinism adds to the Bible and says that God only loves the “world” of the elect or those who He chooses to love. Now that is distorting the clear teaching of the Bible. It is trying to redefine what the extent of this word really means.
There is an old saying that I learned while studying in Bible Institute. It is rather simple, but is also makes a very important point.
The old saying goes like this:
“When the plain sense of scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense!”
The only sense of this verse is that God loves everybody and wants everybody to be saved, not just some select group of people. God sent His son into the world and gave the sacrificial provision of His Son’s death in order to save the entire world of lost humanity.
This is God’s sovereign plan, which He has accomplished. You cannot overturn the sovereign plan of God!! You cannot throw this piece of the puzzle out of the picture.
To say that God does not love everybody and that His son did not die for everybody is to spit in God’s face and attack the very character of God’s love!! It is a terrible thing to say that God does not love ever person in the world and that Jesus did not die for all people whom He created as the eternal God.
“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow black and white, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world!” Yes, I’m still singing it my friend!
If you do not believe that Jesus loves everybody, then you cannot teach that song to your child and if that is the case I pity you! If you are not able to look at your three and four-year-old child in the face and tell them with complete assurance that God loves them, then I pity you! You have my sympathy! That’s all that I can say today my friend. I pity you! May God open your eyes to His tremendous love for every lost soul in this world!!
My friend, God loves everyone who has ever lived and will live! And if you go to Hell you will have to jump over the love of God in order to get there!!
See 1 John 2:2 = “Us” - This pronoun refers to all those people who are now saved and know what it is to be saved (John and his readers who were Christians). Looking back, John sees that the sacrifice of Jesus was for them personally. It was for all those Christians who are now saved. They can look back and remember when Jesus had saved them. The death of Jesus Christ was sufficient to forgive the sins of every believer that is now in the church (Ephesians 5:25). Christ’s death actually became personal and sufficient to all those who now believe on Christ.
The reference to “us” is not used to suggest a certain elect group of people, which God decided to select over others. John is simply talking to believers from their perspective in life, since they are saved. How else could he talk to them or address them? To invent a theory that “us” is a reference to some kind of select group of people is to put words in John’s mouth. It is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill or trying to find a needle in a haystack! All these Christians were once part of that unsaved mass of people within humanity for whom Christ died. When they came to Christ in simple faith, God saved them, making them His child and part of the church. This is true of all that respond to His offer of salvation.