In order to grasp this topic we must focus on what election meant in the Old Testament before we can even try and understand the passages on this topic of the New Testament. Election and Salvation are related topics but they are not synonymous. In the OT Israel was elect, we have a lot of Israelites who are called “elect” but many of them apostasy. They worship other gods. That’s the reason we have an exile. So according to the Old testament, we’re either saying we have Baal worshipers in heaven or we must understand that election is not synonymous with Salvation.
Under the New Covenant we no longer have elect and believers in God, or people of God, in two separate classes. The OT on occasion, had people of God with ethnicity. Jews were the people of God in the Old testament, but there was also non Jews within the family of Israel. To be a people of God you had to align yourself with the Nation of Israel, you had to become a Jew, you had to get circumcised, go through things, do certain rituals, you had to fully become culturally a Jew. But we see that idea change in the New Testament, the people of God are a circumcision neutral body. It doesn’t matter if you’re Jew or Gentile, the era of the New Covenant, all believers are the people of God, so all believers are elect. Not in a Calvinistic sense, because in Ephesians 1 we clearly see the elect in that passage are “the faithful in Christ Jesus”. Those who chose to be faithful in Christ are now “elect” to receive the promises that come to those who claim allegiance to Christ Jesus. But this just shows us this Calvinistic idea of election only comes from NT texts with no background of the Old Testament, and if God is a never changing God, why would the idea of election change post cross?
In Deuteronomy 32 we see where God disinherited the other nations and started his own, God chose a nation to rise up and be his people, but those chosen still had to believe. They had to deny the other gods and pledge their allegiance to Yahweh. The people had to make a choice. Election meant you were put into the Children of Abraham, where the truth of the Most High would be taught, seen, and experienced, you’d learn who the one true God was. Under the New covenant, where all believers get the spirit of God and all empowered to do the great commission and given the power to do that mission via The Spirit, its not tied to ethnicity, Paul could not have been clearer in Galatians 3:29 “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”. If you believe in Christ you are a child of Abraham therefore elect. Belief comes before election, not the other way around. According to the NT writers God does not show favoritism or partiality (Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11) And we see this idea in the Old Testament in verses like Deuteronomy 10:17 “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.” Our God is not partial, not favoring one man over the other. The election of Israel was for all, was to pave a way for the Messiah to come, through the Davidic line, to offer salvation to all who will believe.
Election by no means, means salvation, or has anything to do with salvation. Even the Abrahamic Covenant had to do with Abrahams obedience. He still had to obey what God had told him in order for the covenant to be fulfilled. Biblically there is no case to be made for unconditional Election. Even if we look at Paul, he still had to go to the synagogue and see Ananias. Choice is a very important topic in this discussion. From the beginning humanity was created like God. Which means we share divine attributes with God. Not the incommunicable attributes of God like, omnipresence, eternal, omniscience etc. We share communicable attributes of God like, love, mercy, joy, peace, and of course, freedom. If we were not free we could not be like God, by definition we could not image him if we lacked that attribute, but because we are not him we aren’t going to be morally flawless, God knows that and took that risk. But God deems that preferable over not having humans at all. Because sovereignty is not God choosing what we do but rather being in control of what we freely choose to do. God is able to work his plan with human free will. God is still, even with the failure of man able to work all things together for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). Ezekiel 18:23 shows us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked and would rather them repent and turn from their evil ways. Why would God want them to turn from their evil ways if they did not have the choice to?
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