Chosen by God (Eph. 1:4)

It is important to understand the will of God in election.

1. What God wills to have happen
The Bible tells us that God does not have pleasure in the death of the wicked (Eze. 33:11), but rather they turn and live.

God wills to have happen is for His gospel to be preached to the world, and all to come to repentance (Acts 17:30). God never authors people to reject His Son, God is not the author of sin, God is holy, and He commands all to come to repentance because that is the only right thing to do. This is a genuine call by God.

2. What God will do
God will save a people for Himself in Jesus (Eph. 1:4)

The Bible tells us as we have seen, God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather they turn and live, but the same Bible tells us no one seeks after God (Romans 4:11), no one is righteous (Romans 4:10), no one does good (Romans 4:12), which means no one can turn and live within their own strength, because the heart is desperately wicked, and deceitful above all things, who can know it, and will continue to have pleasure in unrighteousness and not in the truth, and will never desire to believe the gospel. God's call is genuine, but man who is wicked rejects the call.

So what God will do, He will save a people for Himself, by the preaching of the gospel, and by the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, will enable them to seek and to believe on the Lord Jesus.

The reason a person comes to repentance and asks for mercy, is because of the mercy of God, because the Holy Spirit makes them repentant (2Tim. 2:25). Before the Holy Spirit intervenes, we can do nothing good before the Lord (Rom. 3:10-11).

Let me put this simply, when a person comes to the Lord Jesus by faith, it is because of God and His goodness, not man, but when a person rejects Christ and goes to hell for all eternity, it is because of man and his wickedness, not God, they are responsible. God gives a genuine call to repentance, but many reject His call to salvation, but the ones who come is because of the Lord.

God did not look down the corridors of time and elected us based on whether you and I put faith in the Lord Jesus, No. The reason you and I put faith in the Lord Jesus is because God chose us in Jesus before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), and by His grace enabled the chosen to be able to come to repentance and faith in Jesus, and be saved.

Remember God is God, and God does not answer to anyone. Never get the idea God is fair, because then you will think God owes you something. God does not owe us anything, absolutely nothing, except His righteous judgment. God is not fair, God is just. In Romans 9, the Bible teaches God is free to punish, and God is free to pardon. He is God, and God will pardon according to His Sovereign will.

If God decided to save nobody, or 1 person, who are you and I to reply to God. If God decided to save a remnant (which He has), who are you and I to reply to God. He is the potter, we are the clay. What right as the clay to reply to the potter. Grace is the undeserved merit of God (not deserved), what right as anyone have the right to demand God what to do with His Grace, or demand His Grace, or where His Grace should go, when we deserve His wrath, His judgement. God does not owe us His Grace. When a person receives Grace, he receives something he does not deserve, when a person receives judgement, he receives what he deserves. He is only getting what he deserves.

If you are not saved, come to the Lord Jesus by repentance and faith, and you will find Him to be a perfect Saviour, and thank the Lord for saving you by His saving grace, because without God, no man would come, because man rejects God's truth.

What do Calvinists Believe?

I have heard the statement that Calvinists believe that God loves the elect and hates the non-elect. The trouble with this statement is that it is not true. This is a misrepresentation; Calvinists do not believe that. 

One of the problems is that if we have the understanding that God loves everybody with the same kind of love because the Bible says 'God is Love', then no wonder some people will come to that conclusion that Calvinism believes God loves the elect and hates the non-elect.

There is no argument that God is love. The Bible makes it very clear that God is love, and Calvinism does not teach any different, but they recognize (rightly so)that the Bible teaches that God has different kinds of love; one for the elect and another kind of love for the non-elect. If we interpret 'God is love' to mean that God loves everybody with the same kind of love, then you will find it difficult to explain the clear scriptures that teach on the different kinds of love God has.

If you would like to, please read a previous blog post I did on the different kinds of love, with scripture showing God's love for the believer (elect) and God's love for the unbeliever (non-elect).

Think about this for a moment.  Let me give you an example about different types of love that the Bible teaches that we should have. You and I have different kinds of love. I love God with a love I do not love anybody else with, and the same with every believer. Every believer loves God as God, and we do not love anybody else as God, and we should never love anybody else as God! (Matthew 22:37-38) That type of love is for God alone. I have a love for my wife, but I do not love anybody else as my wife; that type of love is for my wife alone (Eph. 5:25). I have a love for lost as the lost (Matthew 5:43-44 and Mark 16:15), and I another type of love for my brothers and sisters in the Lord (John 13:34-35), and you will have different kinds of love too.

The same with God. The Bible makes it very clear that God has different kinds of love. This is what Calvinist believe. They will say that God has a kind of love for His elect, and another kind of love for the non-elect. One example would be in the prayer of Jesus in John 17, when Jesus prayed specifically for the elect and not for the non-elect. In v. 9, Jesus prayed for the disciples, "I pray for them: I pray not for  the world, but for them which thou hast given me: for they are thine." Then later on in the prayer, Jesus prays for all those who will believe in Him in v. 20. Jesus prayed, "Neither I pray for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." It is very clear in this prayer that Jesus is loving His elect in a way He is not loving the non-elect. This is seen with Peter who denied Jesus, Jesus prayed for him, but Jesus did not pray for Judas when he betrayed Him. Peter went to heaven, and Judas went to hell.


So to say that Calvinist believe that God hates the non-elect with no kind of love towards them would be incorrect because they will teach God does have a kind of love towards the non-elect.  Not the love that the Father has for His own children (Ephesians 1:4; Hebrews 12:6-8; John 17:9, 20, 23; Romans 8:28; Philippians 4:6-7 and other scriptures (Calvinists will include John 3:16), but yet loves them with a different kind of love. God gives those who reject Him air to breathe, food to eat, and receive many blessings from the Lord, even though they do not thank Him for them, but reject Him (Matthew 5:45; Luke 6:35 and other scriptures).