Out of all of the truths that defined the cause of the Protestant Reformers, it was the gospel itself that was at stake. Underneath every other controversy with Rome was the world-changing message that salvation belongs to the Lord. No merely human priesthood, no external works, no amount of will power, can possibly render to God the honor due him or atone for sin. The very idea of salvation is fundamentally alien. It is outside of ourselves. In other words, God saves, from first to last. As Paul put things: “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (Titus 3:5).

It strikes me that the people who understand this the best are those at the brink of death, or even those who feel as though their sin has brought them down to that same place. Those who have exhausted all options and are poor in spirit. Those who are far from God and know it. Those who are tired of living but afraid to die.

Jonah was such a man. At least for a moment. Now, it is true that he was also being very disobedient. As a prophet of God, he ought to have known better than anyone that one cannot hide from God as he attempted to do. More than that, to be part of God’s chosen people meant that he had been the recipient of mercy by this very lineage. The notion that those outside ought to be kept out was foreign to the call of Israel (see Genesis 12:1-3 and Exodus 19:5-6). God made them special, yes, but as a kingdom of priests to lead the nations into the presence of the true God.

And although it is a frequently debated point, it is not entirely clear that Jonah had learned all of the lessons of grace by the end of the book either. Having said that, in his prayer from the belly of the whale, he saw that his sins had taken him to the place of the curse:

I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever (2:6)

Jonah was brought to the end of himself. No freedom of the will could avail in such a place. The confession he lands on was this: “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” (2:9) Psalm 3:8 uses the exact same expression. This is the essence of the doctrines of grace. This was the heartbeat of the Reformation. If it could be boiled down to one verse it would be this one.

God’s Sovereign Choice in Salvation

That God is sovereign in salvation means that he is free to save or to not save. Most Christians would not stumble over this. But then comes the next implication. If God is not bound to save anyone at all, then he is also not bound to save all if he chooses to save some. Certainly we cannot say that the reason not all are saved is that God lacked any power to save all. God is omnipotent. He can do all things. If he was determined to save all, then no one and no-thing could ever stop him from doing so. 

While most Christians will again affirm the point—that is, they will affirm God’s power being limitless—yet there is still a misgiving. There is still a hesitation to affirm that God purposefully saves particular individuals and, just as purposefully, passes over other individuals. Many of the same people will even realize that the words “election” and “predestination” are in the Bible. But what they will do at this point is to recast the meaning of those terms. 

The alternative that Arminian doctrine supplies them is called The Prescient View. That is, that election is God’s choice, but that he bases that choice on his knowledge (scientia) of what we would do before (pre), so that it is foreseen human faith that causes divine election. In fact, my choice is what causes God’s choice.

Now there are several problems with this, but the first and most disastrous to the gospel is that salvation is no longer by grace. Think about it. If something I did caused God to choose me, then I earned that choice. One’s faith becomes a meritorious work. We may not like to think about it in this way, but what other way is there to think about it?

There is the test question that any Calvinist has heard of, and which many were likely helped along by: Why are you a Christian and your unbelieving brother or friend is not? A series of answers and follow-up questions ensue. There is no escape from the end of it. At long last, one will have to land on either one of two conclusions. Either God made the difference, or else something about me (something I am or something I did) is what made the difference. In short, either salvation belongs to the Lord or it belongs to me. There is no middle ground or third option. But then that will mean that what we call unconditional election will be indispensable to the very notion of salvation by grace.

God’s Reasons for Saving: Hidden and Revealed

If we did not cause God to choose us, then does unconditional election mean that God has no reason at all? Is it random? Is it a divine game of picking one petal at a time off the flower: “I love him … I love him not”? That is the picture given by opponents of the biblical doctrine. Needless to say, it is a false picture. 

That the reason is not in us does not mean that there is no reason in God. Our trouble might be a strong dose of narcissism, never seeing a reason for anything if it is not found in ourselves.

On the other hand, even pastors can err here into a false humility that shies away from teaching such truths because they get the idea that the mystery of predestination means that no reasons are given in Scripture, or that the Bible has very little to say about this except for the vague hint that it is so.  

In fact, we can list the biblical reasons given for God saving by his sovereign grace, and for revealing that to us, as being: 1. for his own glory (Isa. 48:11, Rom. 9:11-24), 2. by his grace alone (Rom. 11:6), 3. according to his counsel, or good pleasure (Eph. 1:4-5, 11), 4. because he loved us (Deut. 7:7-8), 5. not because of anything in us (1 Cor. 4:7), 6. so that no one would boast (Eph. 2:9, 1 Cor. 1:30), 7. so that we would credit him for doing so (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14), and 8. so that our hope and faith would be in his performance rather than our own (Heb. 13:9, 1 Pet. 1:21).

We want to avoid saying that predestination may be true, but that it ought never to be talked about in the open. Calvin exposed this false humility in his day:

It is plain how greatly ignorance of this principle detracts from the glory of God, and impairs true humility … Those who preclude access, and would not have any one to obtain a taste of this doctrine, are equally unjust to God and men, there being no other means of humbling us as we ought, or making us feel how much we are bound to him.1

There are wrong ways to handle any doctrine, but let us not attempt to be wiser and gentler than God by diluting this glorious truth. God knows what his children need to hear. Salvation belongs to the Lord. The joy of receiving it belongs to any who know good news when they hear it.

______________

1. Calvin, Institutes, III.21.1