Introduction
“Free Will” and “The Elect”, this is a subject that is heavily debated among many Christians. In this article we will examine Romans 5:8-21 and some other passages to see what God’s word has to say on this topic. I believe the Bible teaches that all men are offered salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and all humans have free will to accept or reject that gift of grace.
Here is our main study passage of Romans 5:8-21
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Some Definitions
To understand a relationship, we must first know the things that are to be related. In a family we have relationships like parents to children, brothers to sisters, aunts and uncles to nieces and nephews, cousins to cousins and the like. For this study we will be looking into the relationship between the act of free will by humans and because of that free will, their choice to accept the gift of salvation and become the elect of God.
A good definition of “Free will” is the ability to make choices spontaneously. Simple, right?
“The Elect” is a little harder to define when we do not study it properly. For example, some people confuse and convolute “The Elect” in the New Testament as a replacement of “The Chosen (Israel)” in the Old Testament. They teach that The Church is now the new Israel formerly known as God’s Chosen People. This teaching is commonly called Replacement Theology. It is true that Israel are God’s Chosen and God has not forgotten them (Isaiah 44:21-28). It is not true that the Church has replaced Israel. There are three groups of people in the Bible; The Jew (Nation of Israel), The Gentiles (those not born Jewish) and The Church (those Jews and Gentiles that have accepted Jesus as their Savior). But for this period of time (the time in which we live, before the tribulation) because Israel rejected the gospel, they are set aside for a season and salvation is offered to the Gentiles. There remains a remnant of Israel (those Jews who will be saved after the tribulation, Romans 9:27, 11:5). Most Jewish people have been blinded to the truth and really have no idea they are lost and destined to hell (Acts 28:27-28, Romans 10:1-13).
A good definition of “The Elect” in the New Testament refers to those that accept the call to salvation. The Bible teaches that God calls and draws all men, but not all men are saved (John 6:44, 12:32, Romans 8:30). So, since some may choose of their own “free will” we can say election to salvation is not universal because not everyone is going to choose to accept the gift of salvation.
First Things First
But first, I think we need to talk a little about salvation and God’s gift of grace and why we need it in the first place. Bear with me because this is foundational to any other doctrine in the Bible.
Salvation. We hear that word often in church. But do you really know why salvation is a need for every human on earth? When we look in the Bible at Genesis 2:15-3:20 we see the origin of sin:
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
So, to summarize, God made a perfect place and then He put living creatures in this perfect place. Among those creatures was the first man, Adam. God gave him only one rule and that was to never eat from the tree that was in the middle of the Garden which was called the tree of knowledge of good and evil because if he did, he would die. After that God, made a woman called Eve to be Adam’s wife. And as we read on into chapter 3 of Genesis, we see how Eve was tempted by the serpent and ate from the one tree God said not to eat from and she shared that fruit with Adam, and he ate too. This was the beginning of “sin” – a missing of the mark which is the “law” that God gave to Adam.
Because of that first sin, death was brought upon all of Adam’s offspring. We did not inherit sin from Adam, rather before we were born, we were sinners because of Adam. We will all die physically (the separation of the body from the spirit) which comes to man because of Adam’s sin. In addition, we are all alienated from God because of Adam’s rebellion and we all can suffer eternal separation from God, which the Scriptures call the second death (James 2:26, Revelation 20:14, 21:8).
There is Good News!
The good news is that God is full of grace, and He offers that grace to “any”, “all”, “whosoever”, “the world” and everyone who believes in the promise that His perfect Son Jesus died as the perfect blood sacrifice for our sins (Matthew 10:32-33, 16:25, John 3:15-16, 6:40, 51, 10:9, 11:6, Acts 1:36, Romans 3:22, 1 Corinthians 15:22). It is by God’s grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ that we are saved from the penalty of sin. It has nothing to do with anything we do, it is all about what Jesus has already done (Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5). Because Jesus was without sin He is justified in the eyes of God. And through his death Christ turned away the wrath of God and made it possible for the believing sinner to be forgiven. At that moment we believe in what Jesus did for us on the cross we receive the power of the Holy Spirit which helps us to become more like Jesus every day. Holy Spirit also helps us understand the Bible and even know how to pray (Romans 8:26-39; Ephesians 1:13; 1 Corinthians 2:10; Acts 2:38). The amazing great promise of this whole thing is, as I heard one great preacher say: “One transgression plunged mankind into sin and one act of obedience and the death of Christ on the cross makes it possible for man to be saved”.
As mentioned earlier, God’s grace is available to everyone. And as we have also discussed, man has the free will to accept or reject God’s grace. Some teach that this grace is “irresistible” and if this is so, then we cannot believe that man has free will, because free will makes this grace totally “resistible”. Some also teach that only some men are “predestinated” to go to heaven and others are unable to become “the elect” and so they will be damned to hell.
Don’t Lose Sight
Not only do we get blown off course in the doctrine of salvation when we follow these non-biblical views, we can also be easily swayed when we don’t understand the meaning of some words in the Bible. One such word is “predestinate” and or “predestination” which are often used with the words “Free Will” and “The Elect”. Consider the following Scripture which is frequently twisted and misunderstood:
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)
Verse 28 above sets up who Paul is talking about. Two times “to them” – first, to them that love God – this is from man to God. Second, to them who are the called according to his purpose – this is from God to men (God’s will) and you must read the next verse to know that will! In the context of this passage, we can clearly see that the word predestinate has nothing to do with salvation.
The first use of predestinate in this passage appears in verse 29, where we are told that God predestinates us to be “conformed to the image of his Son”. And why not? Jesus was and is perfect, as we walk through life on earth God’s will for us is to be like Jesus. We will never be perfect on earth, but as we grow closer and closer to God we are progressively conforming to the image of Jesus.
God Knows and He Promises Too
God knew before the foundation of the world who would accept the salvation of Jesus, and this would be acceptance by man’s own free will (Ephesians 1:4). But this does not mean that God chose only a certain few to salvation and they were all pronounced saved by Him before the foundation of the world. Rather, salvation happens specifically at a certain period of time for each individual. And you can accept God’s call to salvation (you choose) only after you hear the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and after you believe that gospel (Ephesians 1:9-13). According to the Bible when you choose Jesus as your personal Savior you become one of “the elect” and this is the one and only way to be elected to salvation.
Finally, in verse 30 we see that God calls and draws all men, but not all men accept that call (John 6:44, 12:32). Predestination speaks of what God calls us to do as we are on this earth. It really speaks to sanctification and not salvation at all. Now that does not mean that we are working to become perfect … Jesus’ perfection is all we need! We are first justified (saved) by the blood of Jesus and then we are sanctified. Sanctified means that we are set apart for something. And indeed, God sets us apart to be holy because He is holy. We see this in the Bible:
16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:13-16)
The Bible teaches that the only way that we can be holy is by the sanctifying grace of Jesus (Hebrews 2:10-11, 10:10). Positionally, once we are justified (saved), we are already in heaven and nothing can separate us from God, it is everlasting life. We see this promise clearly in the Scriptures (Read John 3:16; 10:28 and Ephesians 4:1-14).
Through sanctification our life progressively changes as we let the Holy Spirit produce fruit. James calls that fruit “works” (James 2:20). Those good works are a result of the influence of the Holy Spirit in our life and men see our good works as evidence of our life with Jesus. God doesn’t need our good works because He already knows we are saved because He gave us that salvation through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, “free will” and “the elect” are related in that God offers salvation through Jesus to everyone and everyone has the free will to accept or reject that gift (2 Peter 3:9, Romans 3:23, Romans 3:21-22, John 3:16, 1 John 2:2, 1 Timothy 4:10, Hebrews 2:9, Isaiah 53:6). God’s way of giving salvation to sinful humans is singular, it is simply by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:4-9, Romans 4:16, 8:3-4, John 1:11-13, 3:18, 19:30, 1 John 5:9-12). When the gift is accepted the blood of Jesus serves as the remission of our sin and we become one of “the elect”. There is nowhere in the Bible that says anyone is predestined to hell, though if we reject God’s gift of salvation that is surely our destination.
