The Apostle Paul famously argued that by the grace of God alone, and not by anything we human beings do, all people are made righteous before God (that is, God forgives the sins of people), if they believe in Jesus. This view of Paul’s came to be known as justification by faith.
In the Letter to the Ephesians, which is attributed to Paul but is more likely the work of a student of Paul writing in his name, it is written, “. . . just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:4-6 NRSV)
This passage from Ephesians, and Paul’s idea of justification by faith, both influenced the theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin – two of the most notable figures of the sixteenth-century Reformation.
Luther believed that one outcome of declaring justification by faith alone was that not only grace, but also faith must be given to human beings by God. He is quoted as saying, “We can do nothing ourselves. Whatever we do, God works it in us.” Essentially, this means it was God who decided who would be saved, and therefore it must be God who decided who was to have faith and granted it to them. This particular idea became known as the doctrine of predestination, or election as Calvin preferred to call it.
Calvin developed his ideas about election – the idea that God decides who is saved and who is damned – in response to the question of why, when the Gospel is preached, it is not received or accepted in the same way by all who hear it. Calvin believed that the response of each individual person to the word of the Gospel must be God’s choice.
The notion of election has proven to be a source of trouble for many Christians because it presents a number of difficult questions. Does God choose to bestow His grace on some people and not on others? If so, why? That would seem to suggest God is somewhat inconsistent and perhaps even cruel. Does it mean that the gospel is good news for some people and bad news for others? Or does it mean that all people are saved? If that is true, if salvation is universal, why then do we need to worry about discipleship and mission?
As already mentioned, the Apostle Paul says in the Letter to the Ephesians that God “chose us in Christ”. The renowned theologian Karl Barth emphasised that God’s election is always “in Christ”. He argued that Jesus alone is the only one who is elected. So if we believe in Jesus, we can say that we have been elected by God, because God has chosen us in Christ.
This reminds us that we are adopted children of God. Those chosen by God in Christ belong to God not because of blood or family; but because God “destined us for adoption” (Ephesians 1:5). This once again comes back to the point made by Karl Barth; Jesus is the one elected by God, so if we believe in Jesus then automatically we have been chosen by God, therefore we are children of God. Our inheritance comes without any strings attached. As adopted children we belong to God not through any family connections or law, but solely by the goodwill of God.
