Unconditional election teaches us that God is God. He is free, sovereign, and gracious. He doesn’t choose us because we are worthy—He chooses us because He is merciful. If you are in Christ, it is because He chose you before the world began.

Unconditional Election means that before the foundation of the world, God chose certain individuals to be saved—not based on anything they would do, believe, or become—but solely according to the good pleasure of His will to set his love upon them.

This biblical reality of God’s unconditional choice to set his love upon us, then, has life-giving implications for those who accept this reality.

Unconditional Election Humbles the Sinner

First, unconditional election humbles us. There is no room for boasting. Our salvation is entirely God’s doing. We did nothing.

In fact, even our faith in Christ, which resulted in our justification, was a result of God’s choice of us. As we saw in Acts 13:48, “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”

Yes, you were saved because of your faith in Jesus Christ, but you believed in him because you were appointed to eternal life. Ephesians 2:8–9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

You can’t even take credit for your own faith.

God chose you, and God saved you, not on the basis of any good in you. In fact, 1 Corinthians 1:26 says that God chose the weak and the lowly. God specifically chose to save those who, when you look at them, are the last people you would expect him to choose.

That’s us. That ought to humble us.

Unconditional Election Deepens Our Love for and Commitment to God

Second, unconditional election deepens our love for and commitment to God.

Consider carefully what Scripture teaches about the basis of God’s choice of you. He chose you, because he knew you. Before the foundation of the world, God knew you personally. Before you existed or had done anything good or bad, God set his love on you.

The doctrine of unconditional election is not some dry, lofty, esoteric speculation to be debated in halls of academia. The doctrine of unconditional election assures us that, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:19, “the Lord knows those who are his.”

Don’t overlook this. Do not take this for granted. The sovereign creator of all things, the powerful ruler of the whole universe knew you before the foundation of the world, and on that basis, he chose you to be his, he set his love upon you, he guaranteed your salvation in Christ, and right now he knows you.

This knowledge ought to fill you with an even greater love for him. 1 John 4:19 states, “We love because he first loved us.”

And this knowledge that God knows you and chose you also ought to motivate you to live for him. Remember, he chose you to be holy and blameless before him, he chose you to present you to present you to himself as holy and without blemish.

Paul says in Galatians 4:9 “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”

When you consider that God chose you simply because he purposed to set his electing love upon you, and that he chose you to be holy, that ought to motivate you to flee from those things that displease him and pursue that which brings him glory.

Read More