Election: Who Are the Elect?

Few words in the Christian vocabulary have been pulled in as many directions as elect. To some it is a comfort. To others it is a source of fear: “What if I am not one of the elect?” The word is Scripture’s, so we need not avoid it. We only need to understand what the Bible means by it.

What the Word Means

The Greek word is eklektos, from ek (“out of”) and legō (“to choose”). It means chosen, or picked out. Notice that the word says nothing, by itself, about how or on what basis the choosing was done. That has to come from the passages where it is used.

Closely connected is the word called. The Greek word kaleō means to summon or invite. In Scripture, God’s call goes out through the gospel, and it is the call that brings the sinner to Christ. Paul places it in the chain of Romans 8:30: “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called…” Our Lord also showed that calling and choosing are not the same thing: “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). If the two were identical, He would not have set them side by side.

Who Is the Elect One?

Before the Bible ever speaks of elect people, it speaks of an Elect Person. Isaiah records the Father’s words about His Servant: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth…” (Isaiah 42:1). Peter applies this to Christ: “…Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded” (1 Peter 2:6).

Christ is the Elect One. And notice the second half of Peter’s verse: it is “he that believeth on him” who is not confounded. That is how Scripture connects the rest of us to Him. We are not elect in ourselves. We are elect in Him, as we saw in Ephesians 1:4: “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world…”

To be among the elect, then, is to be in Christ, and we are placed in Christ by trusting Him. That is why Peter can say that believers are “…Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…” (1 Peter 1:2). God knew beforehand who would trust His Son, and those who do are the chosen of God.

How the Word “Elect” Gets Misused

The trouble begins when the word is lifted out of its setting and made to carry more than the Bible gives it. Some use it as if it names a private club, a select group God picked by a decision that had nothing to do with the person’s own response, while everyone else was left out. Others hear it and quietly wonder whether they might have been left out themselves. Both of these ideas treat “elect” as a label that was stuck on certain people before they were ever born, rather than as a description of who belongs to Christ.

This idea has a name. It is the heart of Calvinism, the system of teaching associated with the reformer John Calvin, and it is summed up in a doctrine called unconditional election: that God chose a fixed number of individuals before creation, apart from any faith on their part, and passed over the rest. Closely tied to it is limited atonement, the claim that Christ died only for those chosen. Many sincere, godly believers hold this view, and I do not question their love for the Lord. But the view depends on reading “elect” in a way the Scriptures do not support. We have seen that the elect are those who are in Christ, chosen according to God’s foreknowledge. The question now is whether the Bible ever describes a God who withholds the offer from some.

What the Scriptures Say About “All”

If God had chosen only some and passed over the rest, we would expect the Bible to speak of His desire for salvation in limited terms. It does the opposite. Paul writes that God “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Peter says the Lord is “…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Titus 2:11 says: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” And Jesus Himself said: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32).

The reach of the cross is just as wide. John writes: “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). As we saw in our post on propitiation, the sacrifice was sufficient for every sinner. It is the person’s response to it that determines whether it is received.

And the offer itself is stated without exception. The most familiar verse in the Bible says it best: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Notice the scope of God’s love: the world. Notice the invitation: whosoever. And notice the result: everlasting life. If God had secretly decided that most people could never respond, those words would mean something other than what they plainly say.

Election and the Great Commission

There is one more concern, and it is a practical one. The last command our Lord gave His church was a command to go: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…” (Matthew 28:19), and “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

Paul shows why the message must be carried: “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14). In Paul’s reasoning, a person’s hearing and believing depend on someone telling them. The gospel is the means God uses.

This is where the teaching of an unconditionally chosen few weakens the church’s urgency. If the number of the saved was settled before the world began, and nothing we do could change who responds, then the heart is quietly told that evangelism is optional. I know that many who hold this view are faithful witnesses, but the false doctrine of Calvinism gives no strength to the Great Commission, while the Bible’s own message, that the offer is real, the need is urgent, and God uses us, gives it all the strength in the world.

What It Means for You

If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are among the elect. You were known beforehand, you are in Christ, and no one can undo it. Paul asks, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth” (Romans 8:33). The question is rhetorical because the answer is no one.

If you have not yet trusted Him, do not wonder whether you are among the chosen. The invitation is for you. “Whosoever” includes you. Come to Christ by faith, and you will find that you were the one He was seeking all along.