Understanding Election

John 6:35-40, 61-65

Main Idea: Jesus teaches that God has chosen a people for himself.

1. The Elect Have Been Given to Jesus by God.
2. The Elect Will Come to Jesus Because the Father Draws Them.
   1. We are unable to come to God on our own.
   2. God uses the gospel to draw the elect to saving faith in Jesus.
3. The Elect Will Be Raised by Jesus on the Last Day.
4. Application
   1. Let the doctrine of election encourage you to examine yourself.
   2. Let the doctrine of election encourage you to exalt God.

Every couple of years in the United States, we have an election. We go to a polling place and choose which officials we want to represent us. That’s what an election is—it’s a choice. In fact, the word election is defined as “the exercise of deliberate choice” (Dictionary.com). During seminary I discovered that election and choice were not just talked about every four years in American politics, but they were scattered throughout the pages of Scripture. I had been in church all my life. I added it up, and by the time I was twenty, I had heard more than three thousand sermons and one thousand other Bible lessons. Yet I was shockingly unfamiliar with how frequently the term election or elect was found in Scripture. Here’s a quick sampling:

He will send out his angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. (Matt 24:31; emphasis added)

But he cut those days short for the sake of the elect, whom he chose. (Mark 13:20; emphasis added)

Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. (Rom 8:33; emphasis added)

This is why I endure all things for the elect: so that they also may obtain salvation, which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. (2 Tim 2:10; emphasis added)

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness. (Titus 1:1; emphasis added)

Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. (2 Pet 1:10; emphasis added)

I was talking with a lady who had been a Christian for many years, and she told me she didn’t believe election was in the Bible. I didn’t know what to say. You may disagree with a certain view of election, but there’s no denying it’s in the Bible. You find the word used over and over, and the truth of God’s sovereign election is present in numerous passages that don’t even use the word. What she was objecting to was not the word but the theology behind the word. What does the Bible teach about election? Wayne Grudem defines election this way:

Election is an act of God before creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleasure. (Systematic Theology, 670)

Election—God’s absolute sovereignty in salvation—can be difficult to embrace. When I was first confronted with this teaching, I wasn’t sure I could believe it, but the more I studied God’s Word and the more I committed myself to digging into Scripture, the more my eyes were opened to the truth God had chosen a people for himself. That was the only way I could explain passages like these:

When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and honored the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48; emphasis added)

Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. (Col 3:12; emphasis added)

For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you. (1 Thess 1:4; emphasis added)

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? (Jas 2:5; emphasis added)

As the Spirit of God opened my eyes to this truth, I began to understand how vital it is for us as Christians to embrace God’s sovereignty. In John 6 Jesus clearly states that God has chosen a people for himself. In just a few short verses he delivers three God-exalting truths of sovereign election.

The Elect Have Been Given to Jesus by God

There is a people—a group of men and women—that have been given to Jesus by God (vv. 37, 39). We see this spelled out again in chapter 10. In that passage Jesus refers to his sheep, and he says, “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (10:29; emphasis added). The verb has given is in the perfect tense, which means a past action has present results. In the past God gave Jesus a specific group of sheep that are his and remain his in the present. In chapter 17 we see Jesus again emphasize the Father has given him a group of people.

I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. (17:6; emphasis added)

I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours. (17:9; emphasis added)

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am. (17:24; emphasis added)

In eternity past God chose people, not based on any merit of their own, and gave them as a gift to his Son. Paul told the Christians in Ephesus they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4). I love John MacArthur’s explanation of this mind-boggling, Christ-magnifying truth:

The plan of God from eternity past was to redeem a segment of fallen humanity through the work of the Son and for the glory of the Son. There was a moment in eternity past when the Father desired to express His perfect and incomprehensible love for the Son. To do this, He chose to give to the Son a redeemed humanity as a love gift—a company of men and women whose purpose would be, throughout all the eons of eternity, to praise and glorify the Son, and to serve Him perfectly. (“Foreword,” 15)

The Elect Will Come to Jesus Because the Father Draws Them

The context of Jesus’s teaching on election is the response of the Jews. Jesus just fed five thousand men, as well as women and children. After he feeds them and crosses the sea, they find him and begin to ask him questions. Jesus tells them he is the bread of life. They don’t understand, and more than that, they don’t believe. Their lack of faith doesn’t discourage Jesus. He’s not wringing his hands and shaking his head, concerned his coming to earth is a failure. He’s confident and expresses his confidence that all whom the Father has given him will come to him because the Father will draw them (John 6:37). Jesus’s confidence is supported by two reasons.

We Are Unable to Come to God on Our Own

Apart from the effective working of God, we are completely and utterly unwilling and unable to come to Jesus (vv. 44, 64-65). Down to our core we are rebels against God. Nothing in us wants to turn from our sin and come to Jesus for salvation. The Bible describes every one of us as unrighteous and says none of us seek God (Rom 3:10-11). We don’t seek God because we can’t. We’re not free to seek him. As much as we like to trumpet our freedom, we’re not free. Many people talk about free will. Your will isn’t free. You are a slave to sin (Rom 6:6). Sin enslaves everyone. That’s why we can’t come to God. The chains of sin hold us so tightly that we cannot, will not, and have no desire to break free. We think we’re free, but what we think is freedom is actually slavery. It’s impossible for us to come to Christ on our own.

You may struggle with the biblical teaching of God’s sovereignty because you feel it invalidates the invitation extended by Jesus. You think, Don’t the Scriptures say, “Whosoever will may come”? That’s a good question. The Bible does teach that, but that leads to another question: Who wills to come? Jesus makes clear in John 6:44 and again in 65 that no one comes to the Father because of their own will. The doctrine of election is easier to embrace when you understand your own slavery to sin.

The great nineteenth-century preacher, Charles Spurgeon, was preaching about God’s sovereignty from Romans 9, explaining verse 13, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.” Afterwards a woman came up to him and said, “I don’t understand how God could say he hated Esau.” Spurgeon responded, “Ma’am, I find it more difficult to understand how he could love Jacob” (cited by Davey, “Sovereignty”). The real mystery of election is not that some are not chosen but that God would choose anyone at all. It’s the doctrine of God’s sovereignty that allows us to come to the place where we can say, like the apostle Paul before us, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor 15:10; emphasis added). Salvation does not glorify me. It glorifies him.

God Uses the Gospel to Draw the Elect to Saving Faith in Jesus

The word translated “draws” is interesting (John 6:44). John later uses it to describe the disciples’ action when they were pulling their nets, filled with fish, onto the deck of the boat (21:11). Like fish swimming in the murky waters of sin, we are graciously drawn to salvation by God. But the means he uses is not a net; it’s the preaching of the gospel and the life-giving work of the Spirit (v. 63). God uses means to accomplish his purposes. We could think, wrongly, that since God will draw the elect to salvation we don’t need to preach the gospel. To say that would be to deny the clear command of Scripture and to misunderstand the work of God. Just as God has ordained the result, so also he ordained the means. The only way the elect will come to him is through the proclamation of the gospel (Jas 1:18).

Election is wholly a result of God’s mercy, but we’re responsible to respond. Divine sovereignty doesn’t negate human responsibility. As fiercely as Jesus proclaims the sovereignty of God, he also welcomes sinners to come to him for salvation. If you immerse yourself in this Gospel, you will discover it written by an apostle who is a staunch defender of the biblical doctrine of election, and you will hear him repeatedly call sinners to turn from their sin and come to Jesus Christ for salvation. You see, it’s not our duty to try to guess who the elect are but to share the gospel faithfully and to believe it ourselves.

The Elect Will Be Raised by Jesus on the Last Day

Jesus came to the earth to secure salvation for the elect (John 6:37-39). This is God’s will, and Jesus will certainly accomplish it (v. 44). Jesus doesn’t hesitate or equivocate. He says simply and with complete certainty that every single one whom God has given him will come to him and will not be cast out but will be raised with him on the last day. Martin Luther, commenting on this passage, wrote,

Here Christ says: “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing.” He will not only refrain from expelling and rejecting anyone, but He is also resolved to keep them with Him and prevent anyone else from taking them from Him. (Cited in Boice, John, 2:500)

The security of your eternal future rests in the hands of Jesus. The basis of your eternal security is election. Jesus connected the security of believers with the sovereignty of God when he said,

My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one. (John 10:27-30)

A. W. Pink wrote,

Our coming to Christ is not attributed to man’s fickle will, but as the effect of the Father’s drawing to the Saviour each one given to Him in the counsels of that Father’s love before the foundation of the world! So, too, the reception of them is not merely because of Christ’s compassion for the lost, but as the obedient Servant of the Father’s will, He welcomes each one brought to Him—brought by the unseen drawings of the Father’s love. Thus our security rests not upon anything in us or from us, but upon the Father’s choice and the Son’s obedient love! (John, 331)

Application

Let the Doctrine of Election Encourage You to Examine Yourself

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election” (2 Pet 1:10). How do I know if I’m elect? That question may be rattling around in your mind right now. The answer is fairly simple. Have you turned from your sin and believed in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? “For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40). Who will be raised up on the last day? In this passage we get two descriptions: the first description is the elect (v. 37), and the second is those who believe in the Son (v. 40). How do you know if you’re elect? Those whom the Father has given to Jesus have turned from their sin and believed in him.

Let the Doctrine of Election Encourage You to Exalt God

John Piper tells the story of Peter Cameron Scott:

[He] was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1867 and founded the African Inland Mission. His efforts to take the gospel to Africa met with tragedy and discouragement. His brother John had joined him in the mission, but within months John fell victim to fever. Alone in the jungle, Scott buried him, and at the grave rededicated himself to preach the gospel. But, to compound his heartache, his health broke, and utterly discouraged, he had to return to England.

In London, something wonderful happened. Scott needed a fresh source of inspiration and he found it at a tomb in Westminster Abbey that held the remains of a man who had inspired so many others in their mission to Africa. The spirit of David Livingston seemed to be prodding Scott onward as he knelt reverently and read the inscription [on Livingston’s tomb]:

OTHER SHEEP I HAVE WHICH ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD; THEM ALSO I MUST BRING. (John 10:16)

He would return to Africa and lay down his life, if need be, for the cause for which this great man had lived and died. It is the truth of election (“I have other sheep”)—the sovereign freedom of God in saving a people for Himself—that guarantees the triumph of the gospel and the universal fame of God’s grace. (Piper, Pleasures of God, 151)

The fame of God’s grace will grow in our eyes as we embrace his sovereign grace. We need to cling to this truth, so that we can with awe and amazement and assurance declare, “God is sovereign. He’s in charge. He has a plan, and it will come to pass!”

Reflect and Discuss

1. What three truths about the elect do we see in this passage?
2. What difficulties do you have in embracing the doctrine of election?
3. Who are the elect?
4. Why are you unable to come to God on your own?
5. Why do the elect come to Jesus? Why is this good news?
6. How does election glorify God?
7. What means does God use to draw the elect to saving faith? Can we neglect mission because of election?
8. What promise does Jesus make about the ultimate fate of the elect?
9. How does election provide security for a believer?
10. How does the doctrine of election encourage believers?