Two kinds of election - 21 June 2010 |
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The word “election” is customarily used by Reformed evangelicals to refer to God’s eternal and irrevocable decree of salvation. God has “elected,” or chosen, certain people for salvation, and these people will certainly be saved. This is, of course, a perfectly biblical way of speaking.
However, “election” does not always have this meaning. The Bible forces us to recognise that there is more than one kind of election, and indeed a failure to recognise this will open the door to the unravelling of Reformed soteriology. Calvin highlights this distinction in his discussion of the preservation of the saints in his Institutes, III.xxiv.9.
Calvin first points out that in John 6:70 Jesus says that he has “chosen” all twelve of the disciples, including Judas, whom he immediately describes as “a devil”. Here the term “election” refers to Judas’s “apostolic office.” In this sense, election is revocable.
By contrast, Jesus is clearly speaking of a different kind of election in John 13:18, where he uses the term to distinguish Judas from the other eleven disciples. In this case, Calvin says, Jesus “banishes [Judas] from the number of the elect: ‘I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen’” (Calvin, Institutes, III.xxiv.9).
The distinction between these two kinds of election is critically important in Calvin’s mind: “If anyone confuses the word ‘election’ in the two passages, he will miserably entangle himself; if he notes their difference, nothing is plainer” (Calvin, Institutes, III.xxiv.9). It’s easy to see why: only by maintaining this difference can the Reformed doctrine of the preservation of the saints be upheld.
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog, Theology