I was recently asked if I believed “certain individuals are pre-elected to be saved” or if I thought “every individual (has) the ability to choose freely.” My response (posted below) is a brief walk through Romans 8 and 9 and is in no way meant to be comprehensive. I hope this will be encouraging to those struggling with the question of God’s sovereignty in salvation.

I believe that God is sovereign over election and salvation. I also believe that individuals have the responsibility to choose to follow Christ. Both sit side by side in Scripture. J.I. Packer refers to God’s sovereignty and man’s free will as an antinomy, or a seeming paradox. While they seem contrary, they are not – it is simply a mystery how they exist together.

The easiest explanation for my belief in God’s sovereignty can be found in reading through Romans 8 and 9. Here are a few points from the text:

1) Humans are not morally capable of choosing God unless God first changes their hearts through the “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. (Romans 8:7 ESV)

Paul says in Ephesians 2:1 that nonbelievers are “dead” in “trespasses and sins.” The point here is simple – without a change of heart, a change of nature, an imputation of God’s life in the heart – no human is capable of choosing God. God must call us to life, just as Jesus called Lazarus to life. No dead man can speak to save himself.

2) Salvation follows this order: God foreknows an individual, predestines them, calls them, justifies them, and eventually; glorifies them.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30 ESV)

God’s predestining and calling comes before an individual is justified (is positionally in a right standing with God). Justification is by grace alone in faith alone, “and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…” (Ephesians 2:8 ESV). Before one “accepts Christ,” they are foreknown by God, predestined for glory, and called by his Spirit to salvation.

3) God has mercy on whomever he desires.

As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’ What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.  (Romans 9:13-18 ESV)

That text should speak for itself. The psalmist would agree:  “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3 ESV). Nothing changes or thwarts God’s plans – he does whatever he pleases; even when it comes to the salvation of men.

4) Despite God’s role in effectually calling sinners to repentance and salvation, individuals are still held accountable for choosing or rejecting God.

You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (Romans 9:19-24 ESV)

So, in summary – yes, I believe that God is sovereign in predestining and justifying the elect according to His good purposes. Fortunately, because we know that God is good and works for the good of those that love him (Rm. 8:28), we can be confident that God’s sovereignty in election is the best thing for us.

What do you think? Is God sovereign in the salvation of men? Why or why not?