Making Your Calling and Election Sure

http://www.heatandlight.org/slj/new_testament/2peter/tape1b.htm ^ | S. Lewis Johnson, Jr.

[drstevej]

NOTE: This is the conclusion of a sermon (see url for entire sermon.)

=======

The Calling and Election by God

Let us stop for a moment to consider this word, "calling."  To what does Peter refer when he speaks about our calling?  The apostle Paul has referred to our calling in the epistle to the Romans.  Our calling is the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.  The apostle Paul wrote, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." (Ro 8:29-30 KJV).  So we have five great acts of God:  foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification.  Calling then is the work of the Holy Spirit and is always efficacious when it is written about in the epistles.  That is, it is always a calling to which its recipients respond.  Calling is the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us to faith in the Lord Jesus and to justification of life. 

There are two types of callings found in the Bible.  There is the general calling of the preaching of the gospel to the whole of the world.  Then there is the special calling by which the Holy Spirit speaks to the hearts of the elect.  Here in 2 Peter 1:10, this is of course is a reference to the special calling.  Make your calling and election sure.  Peter talks about calling first and election second and I will address this in a moment, but let us look first at the word election. 

The Tremendous Doctrine of Election

Election is a word that causes such a great deal of controversy.  I don't know why.  It is one of the greatest doctrines in the Bible and has been a great deal of comfort to me all through my Christian experience.  I never have thought that anyone ought to be angry over the doctrine of election.  Surprisingly, there are people who get very incensed over the doctrine of election. 

I was so pleased about two weeks ago when I got a letter from a businessman which was eleven pages long.  He was apparently a very wealthy businessman who was president of a large corporation.  He was interested in the Five Points of Calvinism.  He had heard on tape a message or two that I had given on efficacious grace.  He was so thrilled over it that he wrote me these eleven pages and asked me to criticize his doctrine.  He was rejoicing in the doctrine of election, having become a real student of the Bible.  He had only been converted a few years ago, but is evidently a man of some age.  Why people don't love the doctrine of election, I simply don't know.  John Calvin wrote, "They who shut the gates that no one may dare seek a taste of this doctrine, wrong men no less than God."  So I would not want to wrong you, by not saying something about the doctrine of election.  I want you to enjoy it.  It is one of the great truths of the Word of God.  It is the fountain from which all of our blessings come.  They all go back to that choice that God made in the councils of eternity.  So why should we not love the doctrine of election?  I believe all the true saints, when this doctrine is presented as it is in the Word of God, do in fact love it. 

Unfortunately, election is often presented in such a way that it is no wonder that people do not like it.  I traveled home after the message Sunday morning at about 1:20 PM.  I got in my car just outside the church building, turned on my radio and listened to a program that came on in which the teacher spoke on election.  He referred to election, but his doctrine of election was disturbing.  He said, "Election is very simple.  In election, God is voting for you, and the Devil is voting against you.  And which ever way you vote - that's the election."  That is what the man said.  Now it is no wonder that a person doesn't get any joy out of that particular doctrine of election because if you know anything about the nature of Man, you know that we will never vote the right way.  That is not the doctrine of election.  What this man was teaching comes straight out of the mouth of Pelagius (who was a heretic during the time of Augustine).  Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who have that idea of election.  They think of it just as Pelagian as that, i.e., that the source of our salvation rests with Man rather than with God.  That is horrible doctrine.  That is strongly anti-biblical doctrine.  If you have some ideas like the kind that this man put forth, they do not come from God, I assure you. 

Election is election to the church of the first born who will be in heaven.  Incidentally, if you think that I am stretching this a little bit by telling you that you should rejoice in the doctrine of election, then I refer you to someone who told me to rejoice in election.  I will just read his comments:

²⁰Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. (The words of Jesus, Lk 10:20 KJV)

Who said this?  The Lord Jesus said this, and He told them to rejoice because their names are written in heaven.  Hallelujah!  I am rejoicing because my name is written in heaven.  Election is a tremendous doctrine.  Our text in 2 Peter says, "make your calling and election sure."  After all that I have said, it seems that we are stooping to a very human plane.  After stressing that election comes from God, and then to read in this text, "make your calling and election sure," it demands some explanation.

The Human Perspective on Divine Election

In the first place, this is no question that this is something that we are to do.  In the Greek text, the expression in the tenth verse, "give diligence to make…"  That verb in Greek is in what we call the middle voice.  It can be translated most accurately as, "give diligence to make for/by yourselves…"  So the stress rests upon what we do.  Make for yourselves your calling and election sure.  How can we possibly make our calling and election sure? 

Did you notice the order of the words in verse 1:10?  He did not write, "make your election and calling sure," rather "your calling and election sure."  Now calling occurs in time.  Election occurs in eternity past.  So you can see here at the beginning, that there is a kind of order that suggests that what we are dealing with here is the human side of election (God's choosing).  The way we experience or come to the knowledge of election is by coming first of all to the knowledge of our calling.  In other words, we come to know that we are elect after we come to know that we have been saved. We do not know that we are elect before we know that we are saved.  We come to know our election after we come to know our salvation.  That is the Christian experience.  We come to know that we are saved, then we come to know from the Scripture that we have been elected in eternity past.  Not the time of our election, but our knowledge of it follows our knowledge of our salvation. 

This is a substantial clue.  You can see then that Peter is not talking about this from the divine perspective, rather he writes from the human standpoint.  He is concerned about how the person comes to the knowledge of his or her election.  To make my divinely decreed election certain for myself is simply a matter of assurance.  How do I make my calling or election sure?  I do this through the demonstration in my life of the products of salvation.  That is what Peter goes on to say.  "Make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble" (2 Pe 1:10). 

One of the evidences that we are truly elect of God is the product of our life.  That is what Peter is speaking about when he tells us to make our calling and election sure.  He is simply telling us to give all diligence to make sure that the virtues about which he had just previously mentioned issue from our lives.  When these virtues issue from our lives as a result of our salvation then it is through this that we have assurance in our calling and election.  The apostle John says the same thing except with a slightly different emphasis when he writes, "¹⁴We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren…." (1 Jn 3:14 KJV)  Or as James says similarly, "Faith without works is dead."  (James 2:20)  Or when Paul writes, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹Not of works, lest any man should boast. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:8-10 KJV)

So when we make our calling and election sure it means nothing more than that there should be a demonstration in our lives of the product of divine grace.  It is through the product of divine grace that we recognize the reality of the source, i.e., our election and our calling.  This is a very needed and necessary thing.  In fact, the one who does not have any evidence in his Christian life has no reason to think that he does really belong to God.  Let me read you something from Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield, who says:

Accordingly, Peter exhorts us to make our calling and election sure, precisely by diligence of good works.  He doesn't mean that by good works we may secure from God a decree of election on our behalf.  He means that by expanding the germ of spiritual life which we have received from God into full efflorescence (full flowering), by working out our salvation.  Of course, not without Christ but in Christ we can make ourselves sure that we have really received the election to which we make claim.  The salvation of God being a salvation and sanctification of the spirit ought, when worked out, to manifest itself in such forms as faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly love and love.  By working out the salvation which we have received into such a symphony of good works, we make sure that it is the very salvation to which God has chosen His people.  Good works become thus, the mark and test of election.  And when taken in the comprehensive sense in which Peter is here thinking of them, they are the only marks and tests of election.  We can never know that we are elected of God to eternal life except by manifesting in our lives the fruits of election:  faith and virtue, knowledge and temperance, patience and godliness, love of the brethren and that essential love that does not put limits to its object.  He that gives diligence to cultivating such things in his life will not stumble in the way, for it is with such things in their hands that men enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  It is idle to seek assurance of election outside of holiness of life. 

Now there is one correction I would like to make to this, one slight correction.  It is possible for a person who has believed in the Lord Jesus - for that settles the question of salvation and is evidence for election, for only the elect believe - and for us to see no evidence in the life.  We must never forget this.  We must not, as a matter of fact, look around and test the fruit in the lives of others.  God has not called us to check the fruitfulness of other trees planted by the Lord.  However, in the final analysis the man who has truly believed must manifest in his life, whether it is seen by us or not, evidence of the reality of the decision that has brought life. 

Now then, Peter says in verse 1:11, "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Pe 1:8-11 KJV)  Those who do these things shall not fall.  That is, they will not lose fellowship, but shall have an abundant entrance into the Messianic Kingdom of the Lord Jesus.  What great words to excite a weary pilgrim! 

I do not want in any way to suggest, that these words that I have conveyed to you would create any doubt about your election.  If you have truly believed in the Lord Jesus, that is the proof that you are elect, that you have been called.  But we cannot ultimately have any real assurance if this does not manifest itself in a transformed life.  Both of these emphases are in the Word of God, and we must not forget them.  This then has to do with assurance. 

There is no contradiction between the election of God and our making it sure.  One is the Godward side, the other is the manward side.  There is a contradiction between mere intellectual appreciation and no moral application of the truth.  The cure is if you do these things.  There may be some of you who cannot make your calling and election sure.  You have not been called; and not having been called, you have no assurance.  You cannot make your calling and election sure until you have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Your responsibility is to come.  In receiving the Lord Jesus, who died for sinners; in that act of faith produced by God the Spirit, is the consummation of your calling and the evidence of your election.  Then our Lord's word for you is, "Rejoice! Rejoice!"

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

It scares you huh MACK?

Oh please Mom tell me it ain't so, I'm scared, my whole world is upside down now. :)

BigMack

[american colleen]

Dt. 31:19
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live...

Heb 10:26-27
26 If we sin deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins 27 but a fearful prospect of judgment and a flaming fire that is going to consume the adversaries.

Prv. 1:24
Because I called and you refused, I extended my hand and no one took notice;

1Cor 9:17-18
"If I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if unwillingly, it is a stewardship entrusted to me. What then is my reward?"

1Pet 5:2.
"Tend the flock of GOD which is among you, governing not under constraint, but willingly, according to GOD."

Deut 10:17
"For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who is not partial and takes no bribe."

2Chron 19:7
"Now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you; take heed what you do, for there is no perversion of justice with the Lord our God, or partiality, or taking bribes."

Job 34:17-19
" Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty, who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’ and to nobles, ‘Wicked man’; who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?"

And my two favorite verses:
1Tim 2:4
"This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

1Pet 1:17
"And if you invoke as Father him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile."

[american colleen]

#115

LOL :-)

[american colleen]

The non elect do NOT want it..

I'm confused... Salvation is a free gift. You say some do not want it... doesn't "want" denote free will?

[RnMomof7]

Colleen how many people do you know that have ZERO interest in spiritual things? How many people joke they want to go to hell with their friends?

Men were given a free will at creation..they still have that will..but it is bound up because of the sin of Adam..man can and does chose all the time..but man will always naturally choose the lesser of two evils..not Christ, because he can not without the grace of God . Man needs to have his will re engineered to desire God.(regenerated)

[RnMomof7]

Besides Mom told me I'm in and God loves me, you on the other hand are screwed...LOL

I do not know if Dave is an elect child of God..he has not expressed a belief in the atonement. YET

Do you believe he is saved RIGHT NOW? If you do you need to leave the man alone and stop bothering him..

[RnMomof7]

Oh please Mom tell me it ain't so, I'm scared, my whole world is upside down now. :)

Yes it is Mack cause you like the feeling that your will is stronger than the grace of God . You like being the one in charge..it is scary that maybe you are not the tough biker you think you are..just maybe God really is in charge of Macks life..and just maybe HE has a plan for you that He WILL carry out..

I hated it because it meant I could not save my family and friends ..are you hearing me Mack I COULD NOT SAVE MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS.....Me me all about me..

God foreordained you Mack..His hand guided EVERYTHING in your life..yes even your salvation ...say Thank You God for loving me

[american colleen]

I am truly, honestly confused. My understanding from your posts and/or Ambassador's posts is that you do not believe man has free will. What am I missing?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Do you believe he is saved RIGHT NOW?

I think hes on his way, only he and God will know at some point in time, I've told him more that one time if he holds to what the catholic church teaches, hes not saved. I held to what the church of christ folks teach for 10 years, and I made it, God called me one day and said, Mack, you need to read my Words and see what I have to say, not some man.

BigMack

[american colleen]

I hated it because it meant I could not save my family and friends ..are you hearing me Mack I COULD NOT SAVE MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS.....

Who thinks they can "save" anyone??? I don't know anyone who thinks that or ever thought that. We can help them find God by living a Christian life as an example and praying for them to have open ears to hear Him calling.

[RnMomof7]

Most born agains think the right combination of music and a good tract or sermon will save someone..foolish

Some think correct doctrine or traditions will save people..foolish..

It is Gods grace + nothing

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I hated it because it meant I could not save my family and friends ..are you hearing me Mack I COULD NOT SAVE MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS.....Me me all about me..

I don't believe that I can save anybody, God does the saving, He also calls us all, some accept, some don't, pretty simple to me.

BigMack

[american colleen]

Your ability to know the thoughts and beliefs of others always astounds me.

[american colleen]

I don't believe that I can save anybody, God does the saving, He also calls us all, some accept, some don't, pretty simple to me.

I think you speak for most Christians, Mack.

[RnMomof7]

I think hes on his way, only he and God will know at some point in time,

So who is in the drivers seat Mack..you or God?

I have held the position that those that seek after Christ are most likely elect..BUT until the moment that God claims HIS property it is not for sure..

He has saved you and sealed you so YOU I know .I suspect Dave is..but I have no evidence....so I did not answer

But I do know this IF Dave is elect of God he will be saved BEFORE he dies..in Gods time not mine

[RnMomof7]

I study people's words and doctrine. For instance I know what you believe because I know your church

I have been a protestant so I know what they teach. ( inspite of protestations).

You believe your church will save you by its traditions (sacraments) and your desire to live a good life...neither of those beliefs is biblical

[RnMomof7]

I don't believe that I can save anybody, God does the saving, He also calls us all, some accept, some don't, pretty simple to me. I think you speak for most Christians, Mack.

So why would anyone refuse the free gift of an eternal heaven and "choose "to burn in hell for eternity Colleen?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Mom, I know you're heart is right and you will die believing what you believe, so will I, its been fun fussing with ya, and I do love you :)

BigMack

[RnMomof7]

I love you Mack and you can teach me to ride a hog in heaven:>)..But that will be AFTER you have to admit you were wrong:>)))

Are you REALLY going off line? Wow I will miss you

[SoothingDave]

I do not know if Dave is an elect child of God..he has not expressed a belief in the atonement. YET

You are quite delusional. I believe MORE FULLY in the Atonement and in the Incarnation than you ever will.

You really should remember that the measure you use, will be used against you. That should make you tremble.

And, for the record, it has been said more than once that one who "searches after God" can only be one of the elect. What am I doing here if not looking after the things of God?

SD