It’s really helpful to answer the question, What’s the goal of election? because we can better understand what we see if we know what the goal is.
December 19, 2023Understanding the Goal
It’s really helpful to answer the question, What’s the goal of election? because we can better understand what we see if we know what the goal is. For example, I can better understand why men are using dynamite to blow up part of a mountain if I know that their goal is to build a tunnel for a highway through that part of the mountain. If I don’t understand their goal, I don’t understand the reason for the explosions.
In a similar way, if we understand God’s goal for election, then we can better understand what happens that leads to that goal. And God has revealed two basic goals for election. The first goal is for God to save us, and the Bible depicts this goal in several ways. I’ll highlight three examples.
God Wants to Save Us
First, in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, Paul thanks God that he chose to save the Thessalonian believers. It says, “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved.” So election encourages us that God loves us and that our future salvation on judgment day depends on God’s choice, not our effort. God chose us in order to save us.
The second example is Ephesians 1:4. Paul praises God because God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. So one goal of election is that when we stand before God, we will be morally pure and blameless.
The goal of election is for God to save us so that we praise him for his glorious grace.
The third example is Romans 8: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” So one goal of election is to conform us to the image, likeness, or appearance of God’s Son. The first goal of election is for God to save us. The second goal is for us to praise God’s glorious grace. That’s the ultimate goal of election.
Made to Praise
In Ephesians 1 Paul says “In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”
A more form-based translation of that phrase is “to the praise of the glory of the grace of him.” And that word “glory” probably describes grace, which is why the ESV and other translations say “glorious grace.”
I think that’s right, and I hope it’s the correct reading because my wife and I named our second daughter Gloria Grace based on that passage. So Paul continues in Ephesians 1 and he says that we have been “predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.”
So God designed us to praise him, and he designed us to get a satisfying delight in praising him. We most glorify God when he most satisfies us. This is what God made us for. So how can we summarize the goal of election in a single sentence? The goal of election is for God to save us so that we praise him for his glorious grace.
Andrew David Naselli is the author of Predestination: An Introduction.
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