Making Your Calling and Election Sure

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.

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.

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!"

If one is not 'elect' they will not want it to happen. - If you have a true interest in the things of the Lord, then you are elect.

How does one define a "true" interest in the things of the Lord? There are many who spend their lives searching. Are you saying they are all elect?

***My goal is sanctification, and I will get there, with the grace of God. ***

Why so confident?

Well, cause with God all thigns are possible, right? I know what needs to happen in order to acheive salvation. All I need to do is to persevere, with God's grace to allow me to do just that.

Especially in view of the preposition "with" the grace of God. God's grace + your free will = no assurrance. Isn't that the RC formulation?

No, I don't think so. If I choose to ignore God's grace, I can be assured that He will disavow knowing me. If I choose to cooperate with God's grace, then I know that I will acheive salvation.

******My goal is sanctification, and I will get there, with the grace of God. ***

Shouldn't you say, I may get there."

***If I choose to cooperate with God's grace, then I know that I will acheive salvation.***

If you make it, you will have something to boast about, then!

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Shouldn't you say, I may get there."

"I will" is an expression of intent and determination.

***If I choose to cooperate with God's grace, then I know that I will acheive salvation.***

If you make it, you will have something to boast about, then!

Please. I thought you were above this silly type of arguing?

I threw in a handful of "with the grace of God"'s into my post. Do I need to get pedantic and use them everywhere?

Don't you know any better?

If I say that "I" am doing something, this is with the undersanding that it is actually God working through me.

Do you honestly think, after all I have said that I am some sort of Pelagian?

The point is... your view is synergistic, semi-Pelagian.

***If I say that "I" am doing something, this is with the undersanding that it is actually God working through me***

You are also saying you can frustrate the working of God or cooperate with it with the result effecting your eternity. You then are ultimately the deciding factor. Thereby, giving you reason to commend yourself.

Call this argument silly if you wish. I consider it highly substantive.

***"I will" is an expression of intent and determination.***

intent = I want to
determination = I will try to

When I say I will make it, it is a fact based upon God's promise and dependability. It is a matter of His intent and His determinatiuon.

If one is not of the elect, according to Calvinism this cannot happen. ~ BigMack

Let's just suppose for a moment that you hate cheesecake and let's just suppose for a moment that I absolutely love cheesecake. Let's suppose that you absolutely love a big thick mesquite grilled rib eye and let's suppose that I love a good rib eye, but not as much as I love cheesecake. Let's also suppose that by lot (lanchano in the Greek) the cheesecake falls to me and the steak falls to you. You really have no cause to complain about not getting the cheesecake for what right do you have to complain about not getting something which you hate anyway?

The point is... your view is synergistic, semi-Pelagian.

Nope. Wrong. Sorry. I know you'd like it to be, but that doesn' make it so.

***If I say that "I" am doing something, this is with the undersanding that it is actually God working through me***

You are also saying you can frustrate the working of God or cooperate with it with the result effecting your eternity.

That's right. We have free will choices. Did Adam and Eve choose to disobey God, or did He make them do it?

You then are ultimately the deciding factor. Thereby, giving you reason to commend yourself.

If I have the pwoer to decide for God, it is only because He gave me the grace to choose Him. There is no reason to commend a person for responding to God's grace.

Call this argument silly if you wish. I consider it highly substantive.

I call jumping on a person's language and going "A Ha!" because of its appearance silly. Instead of trying to get what I am saying, you assume I am Pelagian cause I use the word "I."

That's beneath a serious discussion.

When I say I will make it, it is a fact based upon God's promise and dependability. It is a matter of His intent and His determinatiuon.

And it is based on the fact that you must perform good works, or else your sense of "dependability" is shown to be false.

Let's just suppose for a moment that you hate cheesecake and let's just suppose for a moment that I absolutely love cheesecake. Let's suppose that you absolutely love a big thick mesquite grilled rib eye and let's suppose that I love a good rib eye, but not as much as I love cheesecake. Let's also suppose that by lot (lanchano in the Greek) the cheesecake falls to me and the steak falls to you. You really have no cause to complain about not getting the cheesecake for what right do you have to complain about not getting something which you hate anyway?

Calvinism goes into a realm of human philosophy. It is NOT a Bible doctrine, but a system of human philosophy appealing somewhat to the proud mind. Consider first that what we are discussing is called "Calvinism." "It was Calvin who wrought out this system of theological thought with such logical clearness and emphasis that it has ever since borne his name".

How strange that, after 1,400 years of Christianity, practically no one had understood the Bible to teach Calvin's doctrine of predestination until he formed the philosophy! What a strangely hidden doctrine, that New Testament Christians could go for nearly for 1400 years until the days of the reformers, when Calvin developed the doctrine fully.

It is obvious that great groups of Christians have always found salvation by grace in the Bible. The Bible is very clear on that. It is also clear on every other great doctrine.

BigMack

Let's just suppose for a moment that you hate cheesecake and let's just suppose for a moment that I absolutely love cheesecake. Let's suppose that you absolutely love a big thick mesquite grilled rib eye and let's suppose that I love a good rib eye, but not as much as I love cheesecake. Let's also suppose that by lot (lanchano in the Greek) the cheesecake falls to me and the steak falls to you. You really have no cause to complain about not getting the cheesecake for what right do you have to complain about not getting something which you hate anyway?

Which is a big, convoluted way of saying God likes them best. Calvin's god knows you need a cheescake to enter heaven, but he won't give you one. And you are supposed to be happy about this, cause this god made you not want cheesecake in the first place.

Mark the date 11/7/02! We agree! :)

Calvinism is a false doctrine.

BigMack

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