The Election of Grace
Jim Byrd

"Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace" (Romans 11:5).

Why does the natural man balk at the mention of God’s electing grace? Election is not, as some suggest, a hard doctrine to understand. It is, however, a simply glorious doctrine that the natural man finds offensive because it says that if a man is saved, the Lord ordained his salvation and brings that salvation to pass. If I mention the word "election," what definition comes to your mind? Would you not agree that it means a choice is made? We will have a presidential election in the fall. We will choose or select, from among the candidates, that one which we want to become our next commander-in-chief.

Since this is our country, then it is our right to select whichever man we choose to be our president. Take the word "election" in a simpler, more close to home sense. If I gather a bushel of apples off one of my apple trees and decide to pick out one person in the congregation, you, and give them all to you, I have made a choice as to who will be the recipient of my apples. Was it unfair of me to choose to give them to you and not to someone else? You smile and say, "Of course not, they are your apples, and you have the right as their owner to do with them as you please." You are, of course, correct.

Well then, election unto salvation, as taught in the Bible, means that God has the right and has actually exercised His right to choose a limited number of mankind to be the recipients of His saving mercies in Christ Jesus. In the beginning, before the world was made, God set His choice upon certain individuals whom He gave to His Son for eternal safe-keeping for whom Christ died as their Substitute. Those same people, at the appointed time, will be confronted with the Gospel of grace, regenerated by the Holy Spirit and granted faith to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ.