The Joy of Election

 

I am a supralapsarian, which simply means that I hold the traditional Calvinist view on election and reprobation.  At this point you are already wondering what supralapsarian means.  Well, I'll tell you what it means :)

Supralapsarianism simply refers to the logical order of the eternal decrees of God made before the foundation of the world.  Some Calvinists believe that God decreed the fall of man before He elected them.  This would mean that God would elect from a fallen mass those who were to be saved in real time.  But, I do not believe this is the case because of the passage that teaches, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I hated".  Now, when I read that I see that God by divine right chose one to be elect and the other to be reprobate before the foundation of the world.

I dismiss the objection that the hating of Esau had something to do with temporal blessings in his family line.  In fact, it had to do with his soul and the destination thereof. 

You see, for God to have chosen Esau for destruction it means that he made a positive choosing in time not a passive passing over. God chose Jacob for salvation and God chose Esau for damnation.  Now, all this probably sounds like something that a curmudgeon would believe because to our human understanding God's sovereignty seems so severe. 

What I believe is that the decree of election came before the decree of creation.  The reason for this is that God's decree of election is so special, so unique that it takes center stage before the foundation of the world.  Election happened first in the logical order, then came reprobation.  Now, no one in their right mind believes that God's decree of reprobation comes before His decree of election.  This would make Him a pernicious, wicked Lord.  No, God graciously and firstly chooses whom He will save and then the rest he damns to eternal Hell.

Implications:

1.  Care is needed.  Some will say that I have been to harsh or that I have discussed this doctrine in an unworthy manner.  Granted it takes pastoral skill and love to teach this doctrine with accuracy and with all the grace of the God.  

2.  Man is culpable for their own sin.  Esau was responsible for his own damnation because he willing sinned against the most High.  Judas also was prophesied to betray the Messiah long before he was born, but he remains culpable for his sin.  The love of money corrupted him and he betrayed his Sovereign Lord.

3.  God is not the Author of Sin.  God ordains the means for which man sins, but he is not himself the direct and immediate cause of sin. No one is saying that God sinned.

4.  What joy should we find in God that He elects any at all!  It is a wonder and a marvel that God would shed abroad the salvific love of the Gospel in the hearts of his elect.  He did not have to save anyone and yet he has saved some.  Hallelujah!  May our hearts explode with the love of God that He was thinking of some of us long ago before time began and chose us to be his people and to walk with Him and to be His children.

5.  God ordains the means of salvation.  God can use you to bring someone to salvation, to irresistibly draw them to Himself.  Although, the Spirit is the principal actor in the divine drama of salvation, God does allow us to be part of the equation as means of proclaiming the gospel for a dying world to hear.  Your faith can make a difference, just as that of the Romans impacted the known world.

6. God does not love everyone with an unconditional love, but He does love everyone in His common grace.  We have to distinguish God's unconditional love or his elective/salvific love from His manifest common grace towards all man.  Indeed, it rains on the just and the unjust and so God gives rest even to His enemies for a time until the day of reckoning appears.

For further reading here is an article on the Gospel Coalition Lapsarian Views - The Gospel Coalition