We've all been there, up to our eyeballs in the malaise that is election. No matter what road I take to a answer I can live with, I always end up in the same place, embracing the mystery. Each time I read or discuss or even think on this subject which extend far beyond my mental abilities, I must not only find an answer I can live with, but also a God I can love and respect.
Several options are available to me, J.I. Packer in his excellent little volume, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God calls the classic struggle between God's choice and Man's Choice an antinomy, by definition something that appears to be in disagreement, but actually is not. His uses an illustration of a person standing between railroad tracks, the rail on the left is Sovereign Choice and the other is Man's Choice or as some call it free will. From our limited perspective they appear at odds, but just look down the track and see how the rails become one in the distance, that is the mind of God. So we admit we don't understand, we are encouraged to believe both things and life goes on.
Another option which I confess problems with are those who relish election, they are immediately comforted by the idea that God passed over millions, but chose them, this gives them immediate comfort and joy, the problems that come with it seem to fade into the midst. What comes with this very confident concept of election is that God has tied up all the loose ends, it makes who gets in and who is out, very tidy with no moral dilemmas. It slams the door of dilemma behind it and moves on to Christian growth issues. My problem is that the God of this plan would have knowingly created humans realizing that they would fall and need saving, He would then call upon them to be saved, but only give the ability to a few to actually be saved. His offer of salvation is to be preached to all, but it is not a legitimate offer, because the majority hear the message for the purpose of their condemnation. The idea that it all belongs to God, even his creation, and that he can do anything he pleases , even destroy us, to be of little consolation as to my understanding of God or my relationship to him. Since as instructed by the New Testament, when I think about God, I think about Jesus.
Another approach is to take the Leslie Newbigin approach, also espoused by many emergent leaders who are looking for a way around the whole controversy, to consider that the election of the saints is for service, and not for salvation. Nice try, but it doesn't pass muster. I have read, prayed, and studied this many times and I continue to find that the real issue for me is, 'what is true?' But my ability to know absolutely the truth is overwhelmed by the mystery of it all.
I have chosen to believe that God's love and offer of salvation is legitimate, that His heart is to save everyone, and that the mystery is not only in the counsel of his own will, but in the mystery of the human heart. We don't even have time to talk about the pre-christian era in this limited space, but that and this all are based upon the kind of person God is. I choose to believe he is a person of his word and therefore, I rest and find comfort to my questions in loving embrace.
