Think Wink.

The first objection that I want to tackle in my series on “Objections to Calvinism” is that of Election and Pride. Now this is not an objection that has personally been raised to me. No one has actually said to me, “I am not a Calvinist because it makes you prideful and arrogant.” But I have heard of people raising that issue with others and so I’d like to tackle this issue first before getting into some objections that have been raised to me personally.

First before going to the answer, I want to kind of identify this objection as I have heard it raised. It stems from election, God’s choice of man for salvation. In Reformed soteriology, election is unconditional. But this can have and adverse effect. Namely, a person can become prideful in thinking that God chose him over all of the reprobate, thus that makes him or her a wonder to marvel at, someone that must be looked up to, this person becomes arrogant in their election.

Now I cannot say that I don’t understand how this happens, how this objection is raised. I can see this very easily. As I reflect upon my theological growth over the last eight years, this might have been one reason that I rejected the doctrines of grace at first: pride and arrogance. It does make sense for a person to see election as a point of pride in thinking that a person will hold themselves on a pedestal because God chose them and not someone else, like they earned their election or something. I do see how one could arrive at this line of thinking.

Having said that I would respond by saying that this line of thinking is not biblical, holding oneself on a pedestal because of their election to salvation, nor does it understand the whole point of unconditional election. I will argue from two passages of Scripture to show that this line of thinking is unbiblical and missing the point: Romans 9:11 and 1 Corinthians 1:20-31 (You can use the following website to help understand the Greek that I use in this post, Studylight.org
).

Paul writes in Romans 9:11, “though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls.” This text is part of Paul’s defense of the Word of God not falling as a result of Israel’s apostasy and failure to recognize Jesus as the Messiah/Christ. The issue at stake in this is: can the Gentiles, the large majority of Paul’s audience in Rome, trust the promises of God in Scripture that the Messiah will save them? If God’s covenant people, Israel, are not being saved but going to hell (Compare Romans 9:3, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed [ἀνάθεμα] and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh,” with 1 Corinthians 16:22, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed [ἀνάθεμα]. Our Lord, come!”), then how can they know that the gospel of Jesus Christ will save them? So Paul is arguing that there is two Israels. One is of a physical decent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel), and one is of a spiritual decent from Abraham–namely those justified by faith (Romans 9:6-7). To prove this point, Paul reaches back into the Old Testament and uses Ishmael/Isaac and Jacob/Esau as illustrations that their is the physical decent and spiritual decent. Now Paul’s argument does not center around faith but rather being born of a promise made by God. Ishmael was born first, but God promised that through Isaac Abraham’s offspring will be named. Isaac was born because of the promise of God (Romans 9:9). But the objection to this argument that Paul anticipates is that Isaac and Ishmael have different mothers, Ishmael the son of Hagar and Isaac the son of Sarah. So he turns to Jacob and Esau, to whom God promised to Rebekah that Esau would serve Jacob before they were born (Romans 9:12), who were twins. They had the same birthday (separated by mere seconds as Jacob was born holding Esau’s heel) and the exact same parents, Isaac and Rebekah (Romans 9:10).

This brings us to the text of Romans 9:11. Let us read Romans 9:10-13 to get the flow of Paul’s thought in using Jacob and Esau,

10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ 13 As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’”

The language of election is a parenthesis of Paul to explain why Rebekah was told by God before the twins were born that Esau would serve Jacob, why God said in Malachi 1:2-3, “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.” You can see that in the “in order that” clause. In Greek the word is ἵνα, it is a word to indicate purpose. So what is the purpose of God, according to Paul, in telling Rebekah before the twins were born? Why did God reveal his predetermined, predestined, plan to Rebekah at this time? Paul says, “in order that God’s purpose of election might continue.” I like the Greek here and how it connects purpose and election. This literally reads “the according to election purpose of God (ἡ κατ’ ἐκλογὴν πρόθεσις τοῦ θεοῦ). The closest parallel to this construction is found in Romans 11:21 where Paul says, “For if God did not spare the natural branches (τῶν κατὰ φύσιν κλάδων), neither will he spare you.” The Greek construction makes the accusative “nature” (φύσιν) and makes it an adjective of the genative “branches” (κλάδων). So in Romans 9:11, election would become an adjective of the purpose, thus making it God’s “electing purpose.” The purpose accords with God’s election. God’s purpose is an electing purpose.

Back to the text at hand. The reason why God said this, the ἵνα (if you will) for God predetermining it this way was so that God’s electing purpose “might continue.” The Greek word for “continue” is μένῃ, which means to remain or to abide. The present tense aspect of the verb, continuous and unending action, reinforces the idea that God worked to ensure that Esau served Jacob so that God’s purpose in choosing Jacob and rejecting Esau would not come to an end. God sovereignly worked to protect his purpose.

But the question becomes, “On what basis does God’s electing purpose stand or continue?” The answer Paul gives is in a negative-positive manner, “not because of works but because of him who calls.” The basis, the ground, of God’s choice was not found in any work of Jacob or Esau. He did not look down the proverbial hall of time and see what each would do and then made his choice. Their works had no influence as to which one God would choose. Rather, to keep the election of God intact, he refuses to make his choice of Jacob and Esau on those grounds. Rather, Paul grounds the choice within God and his purpose by using the present aspect, substantive adjectival participle, “him who calls” (τοῦ καλοῦντος; “of-the of-calling one”). Couple this with Paul’s earlier statement rejecting the birth of the twins as a ground and you have Paul ruling out any human merit to God’s election of that person, namely Jacob over Esau. It was not Jacob’s birth nor his actions in life that granted him God’s election. Instead, it was the sovereign work of God to choose Jacob over Esau. There is no room for pride in this verse in regards to election.

Now look at 1 Corinthians 1:20-31 as Paul writes,

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Paul here is rebuking human wisdom by showing its folly compared to God’s wisdom revealed in the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18). God chose a foolish message, a crucified Messiah and Christ, to save a world. There is no wisdom in this, this does not compute with the leading philosophers of Paul’s day (nor today for that manner). God hid himself from man’s wisdom so that he might reveal himself through Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 1:20-21). Why is this message foolish and so rejected by men? Paul says that the “Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:22). But Christ preached to these Jews and Greeks Christ crucified. And the Jews stumbled over him and the Greeks thought him folly (1 Corinthians 1:23). “But to those who are called (τοῖς κλητοῖς), both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). Now notice what Paul did in this text and what was done to the Jews and Greeks in this text. Paul preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to both Jew and Greek. The Jews and the Greeks rejected the message, except for one particular group: “those who are called.” It is a simple Greek adjective that Paul uses to describe these Jews and Greeks who found the message of Christ the power and wisdom of God, κλητός . It means to be invited or divinely appointed. But which one? It seems evident from 1 Corinthians 1:23 that this is not just some invitation, like at the end of a Billy Graham sermon. In this sense all of the Jews and Greeks are called to Christ. But the group in 1 Corinthians 1:24 are called in an effectual manner. They are different because they accepted the message and did not stumble over it or find it foolish. Thus Paul calls them τοῖς κλητοῖς.

It is this “calling,” this effectual call to faith by God, that Paul is wanting to consider in 1 Corinthians 1:26. Paul calls these “called” foolish and weak and not of a noble birth in the world’s eyes. They were low and despised by the world. And it was for this reason that God called them. These weak and ignoble fools were called by God to shame and despise the wise and powerful and noble. God chose the humble to humble the proud. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:29, “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” Election and effectual calling is not to give a cause to pride and arrogance but to destroy pride and arrogance. To become prideful is to defeat the very purpose of the election and effectual call of God. I would argue that your pride is evidence of either ignorance, sin, or that you are not truly of the elect for they would be humble if they understood their election.

I will conclude on the ultimate purpose of God in election and the irresistibly beautiful call of God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” The beginning of 1 Corinthians 1:30, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus,” literally reads like this, “out of/from him but/and you are in Christ Jesus” (ἐξ αὐτοῦ δὲ ὑμεῖς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ). The NIV reads, “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus.” The NASB reads, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus.” The emphasis is how we got to be united with Christ by faith, namely it was not by human effort but a work of God. We are in Christ by God’s power and work. The question becomes, why? 1 Corinthians 1:31 gives us the answer in the “so that” (ἵνα) clause. The answer is “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord,” which Paul quotes from Jeremiah 9:23. Election and effectual calling is not to bring honor and glory to man, it is to manifest and declare the glory of God! It takes the honor from man and places it squarely and solely upon God in Jesus Christ. We get to declare the honor of God in our election, but we take no honor because our boast is to be in the Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah, Jesus Christ. That is why God elected us, so that his honor and glory might be made manifest to all. Isaiah 48:11 says, “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” God does all things for the sake and honor and glory of his name. If God were not to unconditional elect men to salvation, he would not be acting for the glory of his name (I know I sound an awful lot like Piper, but he is so right on this issue).

Objections to Calvinism Part 1 of 5

Objections to Calvinism Part 7 of 5

My Comfort in Romans 9