The Effective Cause of Election – God’s Love for His People

Ephesians 1:4

4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

The ultimate justification for God to have done all that He has done in electing us is love.  Now, this is a difficult thing to ponder when we are talking about election, because to the human mind, election seems to be exclusively about God and what He did, His benefit, etc.  We have great difficulty in coming up with an understanding of how His electing will could have been exercised rooted in love for the creature, and not only to serve His own purposes.

Some have answered this question by affirming that God doesn’t really love all men.  They would affirm that God does what He does out of love for the elect alone, and that there is no real and meaningful sense in which the Gospel is offered to all men, nor is there an really meaningful sense in which God loves all men everywhere.  They are unable to make sense of the idea tht God could truly love someone, and yet allow them to perish.

Others affirm that it must be that God loves all men in precisely the same way, and to precisely the same extent, for surely it would not be fair of God to love some in a different way or to a different extent than others.  This leads them to conclude that God must leave the “who gets saved” decision entirely up to the creature, as it would be unjust and unfair for Him to get involved in it. 

The reality of what the Scripture proclaims is that God does love all men.  He loves them all passionately, and fervently, to both and extent and in a way that you and I cannot love; for God is the very embodiment of what love really is.  He loves perfectly and completely and to deny that is to deny a part of His very Being and make Him like a man, and not allow Him to be the Divine Being that He is.  God surely loves all men, and loves them to an extent that you and cannot equal and to which we cannot aspire.

By the same token, it is clear that God loves His children both in a way, and to an extent that He does not love all men.  As harsh and heretical as that might sound to some, we must face the truth as it is clearly taught in the Scripture.  God loved His children, those who would believe His elect enough to send His Son to actually pay the price for their sin.  That price is the price He will eventually exact from those who remain in their rebellion and refuse the free offer of the Gospel. 

The point here is that God loved His own enough, to the extent that He was willing to exercise His great will and call them, judicially and effectually to salvation.  Had He left all men on their own, no one would have responded, and God would have been left without a people, and all men without exception would have been left to enjoy judgment.  The Bible is clear that had God no exercised His love for His own, and elected some, all would have willingly and deliberately perished in their rebellion. 

This is simply the truth of the Word of God and we must all come to grips with it.  Many think as if men have the ability to respond to the Gospel if only they will bend their will to God’s.  They completely forget that man is unable AND unwilling to bend his will.  The Leopard CANNOT change his spots, nor would he want even if he could. 

It is a tremendous testimony to God’s love for His people that He was willing to send His Only Begotten son to secure salvation for them.  Truly, as the song writer said – “What wondrous love is this oh my soul!