Human Desire and Divine Election
August 10th, 2007
(From a sermon by Charles Spurgeon)
“But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2Thessalonians 2:13-14).
If there were no other text in the sacred word except this one, I think we should all be bound to receive and acknowledge the truthfulness of the great and glorious doctrine of God’s ancient choice of His family. But there seems to be an ongoing prejudice in the human mind against this doctrine, and although most other doctrines will be received by professing Christians, some with caution, others with pleasure, yet this one seems to be most frequently disregarded and discarded. . . .
My friends, I think that this overwhelming mass of Scripture testimony must stagger those who dare to laugh at this doctrine. What shall we say of those who have so often despised it, and denied its divinity, who have mocked its justice and dared to defy God and call Him an Almighty tyrant, when they have heard of His having elected only so many to eternal life. Can you, O rejecter! tear it out of the Bible? Can you take the penknife of Jehudi and cut it out of the Word of God? Would you be like the woman at the feet of Solomon, and have the child cut in halves, that you might have your half? Is it not here in Scripture? And is it not your duty to bow before it? To receive it as the truth even though you can’t understand its meaning?
I will not attempt to prove the justice of God in having thus elected some and left others. It is not for me to argue with my Master. He will speak for Himself, and He does so: “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” Who is he that shall say to his father, “What have you procreated?” Or to his mother, “What have you brought forth?” I am the Lord your God, I create light and I create darkness. I the Lord do all of these things. Who are you that answers back to God? Tremble and kiss His rod; bow down and submit to His scepter; do not challenge His justice, and do not accuse His actions before your bar, O man!
But there are some who say, “It is hard for God to choose some and leave others.” Now, I will ask you one question. Is there any one of you here this morning who wishes to be holy, who wishes to be regenerate, to leave their life of sin and walk in holiness? “Yes, there is,” says some one, “I do.” Then God has elected you. But another says, “No: I don’t want to be holy; I don’t want to give up my lusts and my vices.” Why should you grumble, then, that God has not elected you to it? For if you were elected you would not like it, according to your own confession. If God, this morning, had chosen you to holiness, you say you would not care for it. Do you not acknowledge that you prefer drunkenness to sobriety, dishonesty to honesty? You love this world’s pleasure better than religion; then why should you grumble that God has not chosen you to religion? If you love religion, He has chosen you to it. If you desire it, He has chosen you to it. If you do not, what right have you to say that God ought to have given you what you do not wish for?
Supposing I had in my hand something which you do not value, and I said I shall give it to such-and-such a person: you would have no right to grumble that I did not give it to you. You could not be so foolish as to grumble that the other has got what you did not care about. According to your own confession, many of you do not want religion, do not want a new heart and a right spirit, do not want the forgiveness of sins, do not want to be holy, you do not want to be elected to these things: then why should you grumble? You count these things as worthless, and why should you complain of God who has given them to those whom He has chosen?
If you believe them to be good, and desire them, they are there for you. God gives liberally to all those who desire; and first of all, He makes them desire, otherwise they never would. If you love these things, he has elected you to them, and you may have them; but if you do not, who are you that you should find fault with God, when it is your own headstrong will that keeps you from loving these things–your own simple self that makes you hat them? Suppose a man in the street should say, “What a shame it is I cannot have a seat in the church to hear what the preacher has to say.” And suppose he says, “I hate the preacher; I can’t stand his doctrine; but still it’s a shame I don’t have a seat.” Would you expect a may to say such a thing? No: you would quickly say, “That man doesn’t care for it. Why should he trouble himself about other people having what they value and he despises?” You don’t like holiness, you do not like righteousness: if God has elected me to these things, has He hurt you by it?
“Ah, but,” some say, “I thought it meant that God elected some to heaven and some to hell.” That ’s a very different matter from the gospel doctrine. He has elected men to holiness and to righteousness, and through that to heaven. You must not say that He has elected them simply to heaven, and others only to hell. He has elected you to holiness, if you love holiness. If any of you love to be saved by Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ has elected you to be saved. If any of you desire to have salvation, you are elected to have it, if you sincerely and earnestly desire it. But, if you don’t desire it, why on earth should you be so incredibly foolish as to complain because God gives that which you don’t like to other people?
(To read all of Spurgeon’s sermon on election, click here)
This was very helpful and hopefully will end some of the confusion on what reformed theology really teaches about election. I don’t understand christians who get so emotionally upset and then misunderstand and misquote what is really being stated. I have been listening to John Macarthur for over 30 years and I have never understood him to ever teach that men have no responsibility in regards to where they will spend eternity. Quite the opposite!
Read the writings of a man like Richard Dawkins and it is very easy to see that by his own choice he is a God hater and loves to be one, and wishes to convert the whole wide world into God haters. Apart from God Himself shedding light into that kind of darkness there is no hope of salvation.
I think Spurgeon declares it so well. Unfortunately, as do many unbelievers, those who oppose the doctrine of election always focus on the reprobate.
What about those who never hear?, says the unbeliever
How can God be genuinely calling all men to repent then?, says the believer.
Those who oppose never focus on themselves and ask: what made me so special that I did receive and accept the truth?
Can they so brashly claim that it was something within them? Something that God did not give?
Some empowerment, some enablement, even some complusion to cling to that which their very fallen nature loathed and despised?
If that is the case then I truly have reason to boast because I had the intelligence, the fortitude, the confidence, my own created desire to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as to be saved. And even more outrageous none of those things came from GOD!!
Does not Romans 4 and Ephesians 2 and countless other Scriptures argue against this?
Do we not see that these very thing questions are due to the sin that remains?
When we oppose the doctrine of election we are really saying “I oppose the doctrine because I came to the Lord of my own free will. I made the choice not God”
Let us not plays games and seem like we really care about the lost when we oppose this beautiful doctrine!
Is that not sin?
“Ah, but,” some say, “I thought it meant that God elected some to heaven and some to hell.” That ’s a very different matter from the gospel doctrine. He has elected men to holiness and to righteousness, and through that to heaven. You must not say that He has elected them simply to heaven, and others only to hell.
***********
I’m having a hard time understanding what he’s saying. Is Spurgeon denying reprobation?
The true matter that answers that question Mike is why are there any regenerate?
When all Scripture shows the unbeliever as a rellious, hard hearted, stiff necked, stubborn, foolish, hater of God, lover of darkness.
How does anyone like that suddenly love God and desire to turn to him?
How would anyone like that turn to God when the only way they would see Him is, like Luther before he was saved, as a vindictive judge who is looking down at the life style that they enjoy?
We were all reprobate before God regenerated us, but His decision was made as a result of His will and purpose before we were even created.
Choosing those who will be saved necessitates an active decision to not save all, but why so much focus on the reprobate?
Otherwise, if foreknowldge truly means that He looked and saw those who would choose Him and thereby He chose them as a result, then God is disengenuous because He is calling those he has seen will never chose them.
How is that explained?
Mike,
If I am correct, what Spurgeon is saying in that statement is that the believer isn’t only elected to heaven, but is elected to live a holy and righteous life while here on earth. the other because he hates God is going to hell, not simply that he was elected.
This answers the statment that many have made regarding their incorrect view on the Doctrine of Election that there are those who really want to go to Heaven, but have no chance because they were not elected.
Hopefully to finish and to clarify; the reprobate as Spurgeon stated doesn’t want Heaven, never wanted Heaven and will never want Heaven. Not because God created Him to, but because He by His very fallen nature is.
I believe new maturing Christians get confused with the drawing process of election. Many ask: Is everyone drawn and only the elect respond or are only the elect drawn? Today’s post could add to this confusion.
“If God, this morning, had chosen you to holiness, you say you would not care for it. Do you not acknowledge that you prefer drunkenness to sobriety, dishonesty to honesty? You love this world’s pleasure better than religion; then why should you grumble that God has not chosen you to religion? If you love religion, He has chosen you to it. If you desire it, He has chosen you to it. If you do not, what right have you to say that God ought to have given you what you do not wish for?”
To me this makes a better a point for those who believe that God chooses based on the will of man (foreknowledge). It would assume the man knew the difference between right and wrong (by God standards). The confusion is, if he knew the difference, does it mean he was drawn. If he was drawn, was he able to willfully choose between the two? If I live my hole life in iniquity it is because I was never drawn. If I was never drawn how could I make a distinction between what’s righteous and unrighteous? If I am not drawn, naturally I would prefer “drunkenness to sobriety, dishonesty to honesty”, etc. This is what people claim is confusing and/or unfair.
I hope this comment isn’t confusing!
Nevergall,
That is exactly what Spurgeon is arguing. If you have any inclination to go to God it is because you are of the elect.
If not then what does it matter to you because you don’t care anyway.
I think that Spurgeon likes to use sarcasm when he is speaking to the reprobate.
He is basically arguing that those who have been chosen will desire to come to God, not as some mistakenly say that they are forced into heaven because they were chosen by God.
I hope this helps
“If you believe them to be good, and desire them, they are there for you. God gives liberally to all those who desire; and first of all, He makes them desire, otherwise they never would. If you love these things, he has elected you to them, and you may have them; but if you do not, who are you that you should find fault with God, when it is your own headstrong will that keeps you from loving these things–your own simple self that makes you hat them?”
I tread carefully, but I would like to ask of Spurgeon, which I cannot for he is no longer amongst us,the following:
If he gives salvation to those who desire it and they desire it because as Spurgeon says “He makes them desire, otherwise they never would”, then should I not “find fault with God” for not making me one who desired salvation? There is none that seek after God on their own according to Romans 3. If God must give us the desire to make us seek him, why are then we faulted for not seeking Him if he does not give us the desire?
An honest question. I believe the answer is: He would not.
Spurgeon seems to use a lot of parabolic speech here. What would be derisively called “a human argument” if used by the other side. I agree with the poster from a few days ago (late, if you missed it) that Calvin’s is “a” doctrine of election not “the” doctrine of election.
Bill Toothman,
Is that a real name. I like it.
You asked: If God must give us the desire to make us seek him, why are then we faulted for not seeking Him if he does not give us the desire?
We are not faulted for not seeking him, we are faulted for being in Adam when he sinned. If you want someone to fault, fault Adam. You are what you are because of him, as a matter of fault, sin. That has been done so that God might make his power known. In other words, for His name sake, to glorify Himself.
The fact that men ask “Why have you made me this way?” Is proof that this doctrine is correct. There are two ways that men ask this, however. One is, “Why? Curse you for having done so.” The other is, “Why? Have mercy upon me a sinner.” Both of these proclaim the creator God, who does according to his own will whatsoever he has purposed for his own glory with his creation. You see, there is one creator who has created the creation to be what it is, and as Paul so poetically says, referring back to Isaiah, “Shall that which is formed say to him who forms it, what are you making? And, he has already told us that God has done this to make himself known as a merciful God. Why then, as Spurgeon asks, would those who do not care for his mercy, question how he has made them, except for the fact that they do fault God. Their very action is evidence that he is sovereign over his creation, and is by nature, without fault, making them who they are.
I thought each man was to die for his own sin. Adam’s sin caused us to inherit a sin nature, surely, but to automatically preclude any hope os salvation except by the imposition of God is a stretch.
It’s not that the term “elect” is not in the Bible, but its meaning is often misconstrued to conform to our own natural (and limited) territorial mindsets. Some of Jesus’s commands are directed towards those chosen as shepherds while other commands are given for sheep. The elect are chosen and groomed by God for martyrdom and exhibit a remarkable relinquishment of proprietary pursuits, even that of justice, in exchange of expressing faith and asserting the boundaries of heaven.