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"So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy."   Romans 9:16

Romans chapter nine has always been a subjuect of great interest to me and of much controversy to the christian world. Does God indeed choose whom He will save and reject the rest? Did not God create us with a will to choose? Does God violate our will through election?

These are just a few questions about God's election that seem to go unanswered, but I believe Paul gave man an answer to end all his questions about election when he said,

"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?   Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?   What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:   And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,"   Romans 9:20-23

Few however, really understand this work of God's election. How does it effect my salvation and will to choose? After all, doesn't scripture say, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."   Philippians 2:12

The issue of election is in direct proportion to the issue of God's sovereignty over His creation. "But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased." Psalm 115:3

Election though, is not predestination, rather God's choosing, as in a path for our individual lives, to be saved and live for Him. Does that mean we will walk the path God lays before us? Not necessarily, but it is none the less God's preordained path for our good and His purposes.

If we are to keep within the contents of Romans chpt. 9, Paul was actually talking about Israel's election as a nation. Paul was saying in short, that God intends to preserve Israel as His elect even though they are backslidden at heart. That was God's choice, His election for the nation of Israel was that she should endure to the end. Note here though, that many souls from that nation did not make it to the end. "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."   Hebrews 3:19. There was a personal choice, a free will.

Our election to salvation works with God's sovereignty in this way;

"First, then, DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY AS EXEMPLIFIED IN SALVATION. If any man be saved, he is saved by divine grace and by divine grace alone; the reason of his salvation is not to be found in him, but in God. We are not saved as the result of anything that we do or that we will, but we will and do as the result of God’s good pleasure and the work of His grace in our hearts. No sinner can prevent God; that is, he cannot go before Him, cannot anticipate Him. God is always first in the matter of salvation. He is before our convictions, before our desires, before our fears, and before our hopes. All that is good or ever will be good in us is preceded by the grace of God and is the effect of a divine cause within."   Charles H. Spurgeon

"The Sovereignty of God is the stumbling block on which thousands fall and perish; and if we go contending with God about His sovereignty it will be our eternal ruin. It is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God as an absolute sovereign, and the sovereign of our souls; as one who may have mercy on whom He will have mercy and harden whom He will."   Jonathan Edwards

"Therefore, it is not irreverent, inquisitive, or trivial, but helpful and necessary for a Christian, to find out whether the will does anything or nothing in matters pertaining to eternal salvation. If we do not know these things, we shall know nothing at all of things Christian and shall be worse than any heathen. Therefore, let anyone who does not feel this confess that he is no Christian. For if I am ignorant of what, how far, and how much I can and may do in relation to God, it will be equally uncertain and unknown to me what, how far, and how much God can and may do in me. But when the works and power of God are unknown in this way, I cannot worship, praise, thank, and serve God, since I do not know how much I ought to attribute to myself and how much to God. It therefore behooves us to be very certain about the distinction between God’s power and our own, God’s work and our own, if we want to live a godly life."   Martin Luther

In spite of God's election of grace to bring us to salvation, we do still have a will to choose. "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."   Hebrews 4:1

The election of God is to provide, by His grace, the only means to personal salvation. But like Israel, we can choose through our unbelief not to enter in. This in no way effects God's sovereignty through election.

Election
By Andrew Murray

"Ye Did Not Choose Me, But I Chose You, and Appointed You That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit"   John 15.16

The branch does not choose the vine, or decide on which vine it will grow. The vine brings forth the branch, as and where it will. Even so Christ says: 'Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.' But some will say is not just this the difference between the branch in the natural and in the spiritual world, that man has a will and a power of choosing, and that it is in virtue of his having decided to accept Christ, his having chosen Him as Lord, that he is now a branch? This is undoubtedly true. And yet it is only half a truth.

The lesson of the Vine, and the teaching of our Lord, points to the other half, the deeper, the divine side of our being in Christ. If He had not chosen us, we had never chosen Him. Our choosing Him was the result of His choosing us, and taking hold of us. In the very nature of things, it is His prerogative as Vine to choose and create His own branch.

We owe all we are to 'the election of grace.' If we want to know Christ as the true Vine, the sole origin and strength of the branch life, and ourselves as branches in our absolute, most blessed, and most secure dependence upon Him, let us drink deep of this blessed truth: 'Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.'

And with what view does Christ say this? That they may know what the object is for which He chose them, and find, in their faith in His election, the certainty of fulfilling their destiny. Throughout Scripture this is the great object of the teaching of election. 'Predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son.' (to be branches in the image and likeness of the Vine). 'Chosen that we should be holy.' 'Chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit.' 'Elect in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience.'

Some have abused the doctrine of election, and others, for fear of its abuse, have rejected it, because they have overlooked this teaching. They have occupied themselves with its hidden origin in eternity, with the inscrutable mysteries of the counsels of God instead of accepting the revelation of its purpose in time, and the blessings it brings into our Christian life.

Just think what these blessings are. In our verse Christ reveals His twofold purpose in choosing us to be His branches: that we may bear fruit on earth, and have power in prayer in Heaven. What confidence the thought that He has chosen us for this gives, that He will not fail to fit us for carrying out His purpose! What assurance that we can bear fruit that will abide, and can pray so as to obtain! What a continual call to the deepest humility and praise, to the most entire dependence and expectancy! He would not choose us for what we are not fit for, or what He could not fit us for. He has chosen us; this is the pledge, He will do all in us.

Let us listen in silence of soul to our holy Vine speaking to each of us: 'You did not choose Me!' And let us say, 'Yea, Lord, but I chose You! Amen, Lord!' Ask Him to show what this means. In Him, the true Vine, your life as branch has its divine origin, and the power to fulfill His purpose. From Him to whose will of love you owe all, you may expect all. In Him, His purpose, and His power, and His faithfulness, in His love let me abide.

I chose you. Lord, teach me what this means-that Thou hast set Thy heart on me, and chosen me to bear fruit that will abide, and to pray prayer that will prevail. In this Thine eternal purpose my soul would rest itself and say: 'What He chose me for I will be, I can be, I shall be.'

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