Gospel Prism

Is election fair to the non-believer?

This past week I was listening to a radio talk show host and a caller ridicule churches for collecting offering. The things of God were of absolutely no value to them. I think it would be safe to say that to these two men, the church and Christ was something to despise. As Christians, we tend to view fairness on the basis of what we have as Christians. We have experienced God’s grace and the joy of worshipping Him. So we assume that all people, should they know what we know, would want Christ. But the fact is, all people, including Christians, wanted nothing to do with Him. Paul says in 2 Cor 4:4: “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Those who do not know Christ, despise Christ. They might ‘like his teachings’ or think He is a ‘nice guy,’ but they despise the mission and work of Christ. They despise the Gospel.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones (The Cross, 52) explains why:

It is a terrible thing to be told that all your effort comes to nothing. Let me put that in this form. The cross is an offense to the pride of the natural man, because it says that not only are we all sinners, not only are we all equally sinners, but it tells us that we are all equally helpless. We can do nothing at all…And it tells us, who believe in ourselves and in our capacity, that we can do nothing…And here it offends us and it hurts us, and it damns all our efforts, it is an offense to the mind and heart.

So if you tell the non-believer that he would miss out on heaven for his lack of trust in Christ, and you told him that heaven was a place where you will worship Christ forever, he’d respond, “That sounds awfully boring, why should I want to go there?” If the non-believer has lived without any love for God, there could never be enough enticement for him to suddenly enjoy the things of God. Charles Spurgeon, in speaking to non-Christians in his church, had this to say. The quote is long, but well worth the read:

But there are some who say, “It is hard for God to choose some and leave others.” Now, I will ask you one question. Is there any of you here this morning who wishes to be holy, who wishes to be regenerate, to leave off sin and walk in holiness? “Yes, there is,” says someone, “I do.” Then God has elected you. But another says, “No. I don’t want to be holy. I don’t want to give up my lusts and my vices.” Why should you grumble, then, that God has not elected you? For if you were elected you would not like it, according to your own confession. If God this morning had chosen you to holiness, you say you would not care for it. Do you not acknowledge that you prefer drunkenness to sobriety, dishonesty to honesty? You love this world’s pleasures better than religion—then why should you grumble that God has not chosen you to religion? If you love religion, He has chosen you to it. If you desire it, He has chosen you to it. If you do not, what right have you to say that God ought to have given you what you do not wish for?

Supposing I had in my hand something which you do not value and I said I shall give it to such-and-such a person—you would have no right to grumble that I did not give it to you. You could not be so foolish as to grumble that the other has got what you do not care about. According to your own confession many of you do not want religion—do not want a new heart and a right spirit—do not want the forgiveness of sins. You do not want sanctification. You do not want to be elected to these things—then why should you grumble?

You count these things but as husks and why should you complain of God who has given them to those whom He has chosen? If you believe them to be good and desire them, they are there for you. God gives liberally to all those who desire—but first of all He makes them desire—otherwise they never would. If you love these things, He has elected you to them and you may have them. But if you do not, who are you that you should find fault with God when it is your own desperate will that keeps you from loving these things? Suppose a man in the street should say, “What a shame it is I cannot have a seat in the chapel to hear what this man has to say.” And suppose he says, “I hate the preacher—I can’t bear his doctrine—but still it’s a shame I have not a seat.”

Would you expect a man to say so? No—you would at once say, “That man does not care for it. Why should he trouble himself about other people having what they value and he despises?” You do not like holiness, you do not like righteousness. If God has elected me to these things, has He hurt you by it? “Ah, but,” say some, “I thought it meant that God elected some to Heaven and some to Hell.” That is a very different matter from the Gospel doctrine. He has elected men to holiness and to righteousness and through that to Heaven. You must not say that He has elected these simply to Heaven and others only to Hell. He has elected you to holiness if you love holiness. If any of you love to be saved by Jesus Christ—Jesus Christ elected you to be saved. If any of you desire to have salvation you are elected to have it—if you desire it sincerely and earnestly. But, if you don’t desire it, why on earth should you be so preposterously foolish as to grumble because God gives that which you do not like to other people?

The non-Christian will not want anything to do with Christ. Therefore, election to such a person is a non-issue. For the Christian who sees a relative who curses God, who defames His Name and His glory, who mocks the Body of Christ, can he truly believe that such a person deserves God’s elective grace? And amazingly, God does call such people to Himself. This is not our place to know whom He calls and whom He doesn’t call. But it is our place to give thanks for our calling to Him, knowing that nothing can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:37f.)