Are You One of God´s Elect?
The Bible often mentions that God has a group of specially chosen or “elect” people (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2). Are you part of this elect body? How can you become a member?
Some people say you have no choice about the matter: God either picked you personally before the world began or He did not. They believe that you have been “predestined” to heaven or to hell, it had nothing to do with your character or life, and there is nothing you can do about it! But this idea cannot be correct because 2 Peter 3:9 says: “The Lord …is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God does not want anyone to be lost. He wants all to repent, and that surely includes you. But if God predestined evil people to hell, even though they never had any choice, then that makes God responsible for people being evil and being lost!
So, you can be part of the “elect” body who will be saved. But how? 1 Peter 2:9 speaks to Christians as a “chosen generation,” the people of God. But how did these people come into this relationship? 1 Peter 1:22 says: ‘You have purified your souls in obeying the truth….” Verse 23 adds that, as a result of obeying the gospel, they were “born again”: they became members of God´s family, the church (1 Timothy 3:15). So to become one of the elect, you must choose to obey the gospel. In particular, you must “repent and be baptized…for the remission of sins,” and the Lord will then add you to His elect body, the church — Acts 2:38,47.
Yes, you can be one of God´s elect. The choice is yours. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” - Joshua 24:15.
If you would like to learn more about election, predestination, and how to become a child of God, I encourage you to visit our Bible Instruction web site at www.gospelway.com/instruct/. It contains online articles about forgiveness of sins plus articles on why we need forgiveness, the purpose of baptism, Calvinism, etc.
(c) Copyright David E. Pratte, 1/2009
