Salvation: Your Choice Or God's? Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Since God knows everything, He knows who will be saved. Does this mean He predetermines who will be saved? Come with us as we explore Paul's letter to the Ephesians and try to understand the mystery of God's purposes in salvation. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, you're jumping into the deep end of the pool today, as many believers may not agree with you. Tell us about salvation, your choice, or God's.

Well Dave, you're absolutely right. Today we do jump into the deep end of the theological swimming pool. In answer to your question, remember the Bible says, as we'll be emphasizing in this message, that we were chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world. Of course, it's true, as you mentioned in your intro, that God knows ahead of time who is going to be saved. But it is not on the basis of foreknowledge that his decisions were made. Now if we begin to probe too deeply, what we have to do is to go to Romans chapter 9, where Paul says, who are you that replies against God?

There's a great deal of mystery. I want to emphasize that anyone who wants to be saved can be saved, because he or she shows the work of God in their hearts. So as we listen to this series, let us be reminded that we have a wonderful inheritance in Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, I've written a book entitled The Inheritance of the Redeemed, claiming the spiritual treasures that are yours in Christ. And for a gift of any amount, this book can be yours.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now let us open our hearts and open our minds and simply look at the text of Ephesians chapter 1. What was God doing before creation? The simple fact is we don't know really what God was doing before creation. But we do know this, that before creation he had made some decisions.

In fact, all of the decisions that God makes, those decisions are as eternal as he himself is. Because, you see, all information is immediately present to him. He doesn't have to wait to do an analysis.

He does not have to do study. He does not need to wait for new data before he decides. Because all the data and all the knowledge and all things that could possibly be known were already present in him from the beginning of his existence, for which really there was no beginning. Because he has an endless beginning as God. Therefore, as we've often told you, and it's often been said, that has it ever dawned on you that nothing has ever dawned on God.

Nothing. He knows it all. But I want you to know that back then already you and I were a part of his plan and he was thinking about us. Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1. If you were with us last time, you know that we introduced this series by a message on the little phrase, the heavenly realms, which occurs five times in this book. Five times there is the heavenly realms and today as we begin this message I want you to know that we are going to leave earth and we're going to heaven because we're going to talk about the heavenly realms. And perhaps a few of you are going to find it difficult to get off the ground.

So I suggest that you bring your oxygen mask because we are going to float off into the ozone. A few of you are going to leave today and say, what in the world was he talking about? And the answer will be, well, he wasn't in the world, at least not in the realm of the world. But some of you are going to struggle with this eternal perspective. But I want you to notice that the text tells us something as to what God had chosen before the foundation of the world. The text is replete with with the blessings that God has poured out upon his children and the favors that he gives them and what I'd like to do is to give you three of them today. The first is, notice that it says that he chose us. I'm going to pick it up in verse 3 of chapter 1. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Verse 4, for he chose us in him that is in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

Wow. Notice what it says God did. First of all, he chose us and when did he do it? Before the foundation of the world. And who did the choosing? God did the choosing. Now I can't even tell you the amount of ink that has been spilled and the amount of thought that has by the best thinkers possibly that we might have around trying to find some way to deny the two things that this verse teaches, namely that God did the choosing and it was before the foundation of the world. Oh, you have theories like this. Well, you know, to God everything is eternally present so he's doing the choosing now but from his standpoint it's before the foundation of the world. You know, when you begin to talk like that you lose me.

I mean, that's drifting off into the ozone. The text says that God did the choosing and then there are those that say, oh no, no, no, God didn't do the choosing. I chose God. I chose God. I was the one who was in despair, the testimonies that we have just heard, and I'm the one that chose God. Yes, of course you chose God, thankfully. But what the text would teach in conjunction with other relevant passages is simply this, that the reason that you chose God is because God first chose you and you were responding to the choice that God already made from before the foundation of the world.

Wow, that puts a different light on it. That God chose believers in Christ. You say, well, was it an arbitrary choice? Was it just the turn of a wheel? Was it random?

It wasn't random. God has blessed us with three beautiful daughters, as many of you know. Rebecca and I have had the privilege to rear them and to see them grow up and to become young ladies committed to Jesus Christ. When we were teaching them God's word in the home and praying for them and so forth, we never really wondered whether or not they were members of the elect because we knew that God uses means. God not only determines certain ends, but he also determines how those ends shall come about. And a child brought up in a Christian home nurtured properly, the gospel explained to them, we trusted and we believed that indeed they would come to saving faith and they have. But if you ask a more particular question, why is it that God gave them those opportunities and why are such opportunities not available to everyone, etc., etc., we must close our mouths because we do not know. We do not know. There's a lot of mystery here in the text.

I'm happy with what is revealed, but I don't pretend to know anything about what isn't revealed. Now, if you've been hearing this for the first time, you say, oh yes, but do you mean that God coerces people to believe? Does he take them by the scruff of the neck and say from before the foundation of the world I elected you to eternal life and this guy says, no, I don't want to go to heaven, I don't want to go to heaven, I don't want eternal life, and God says, oh yes, you're coming with me.

Now that might happen in Chicago streets when a thief meets a policeman. That's not the way it is. You believed in Christ, to use the terminology of scripture, you were saved because you wanted to be saved. God created within you that desire.

He gave you the conviction of sin and the desire to come to know Christ and then he granted you the ability to come and he gave you the faith by which you might believe and so it was entirely from him, but it was also your will was involved in agreeing with the work that God was doing in your heart. There's no such thing as coercion. You say, well, is there ever anybody who'd love to be saved? He says, oh, I would love to believe in Jesus, but I can't because I'm not a member of the elect.

Nobody like that exists either. If you want to believe in Jesus, you believe in Jesus. It shows that God has elected you if you want to believe, you see. So God works through the human will, but it is God, it is God who made the decision.

Oh, I can imagine somebody who's listening either in this wonderful auditorium, this wonderful sanctuary, or maybe over the radio saying, yeah, but. This is an idea that Calvin thought of in Geneva. This is Calvinism. After all, wasn't Calvin an austere man who took all the paintings from the church and so forth and he came up with this awful idea that he was God who made the choice? Well, it's true that the doctrine is associated with Calvin, but it's just because Calvin was reading his Bible and decided to believe it even in places where it didn't make sense to human beings.

That's all. You say, well, is there is this taught anywhere else in the Bible? Dozens of passages. The apostle Paul taught it. Jesus taught it. Jesus taught it. Jesus, you remember, said, no man can come to me except it is given to him of my father. Three times in the sixth chapter of John, Jesus said, no man can come except the Spirit draws him, and the Greek word means unless the Spirit drags him. The reason that you believed in Jesus as an older adult or as a little child is because of the gracious work of the Holy Spirit of God within drawing you to a decision that God made before the world began. You say, well, if I fit into that company, then isn't that wonderful?

I'm secure. I can just live as I please. Well, notice what the text says, always your finger in the Bible. Notice it says he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. He created us to be holy and blameless, but the choice was made by God.

Now, I have something to say to those of you who are saying, you know, this is great. I have thought of so many different reasons why I don't believe on Jesus, and now I have another one. If I'm elect, I'm going to be saved. If I'm not elect, I'm not going to be saved.

How does it go? Whatever will be will be. And furthermore, since I don't know the counsels of God, I can't pry into his diary. I can't read his book. I don't know whether I'm a member of the elect. Well, I have a word for you, my friend. I have a couple of words, in fact. The first word is always remember that the way in which God accomplishes his will is through listening to God's holy word, and I urge you today to listen, and no matter how tempted you are to think of other things, please concentrate on what God has written.

But number two, don't complain if you're here as an unbeliever. You know why? Because you can find out whether or not you're a member of the elect. That's pretty fair. You can find out. There isn't a single person listening to me today who can't find out whether or not he or she is a member of the elect.

I'd say that that's a pretty good deal, a pretty good deal. All that you need to do is to humble yourself and say, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I can't save myself, and I transfer all of my trust to you and to you alone. Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. And if you believe that, I can welcome you into the member of God's family and say, yes, you too were chosen from before the foundation of the world. Isn't that good news? So find out.

Yeah, that's very good news. God chose us. God chose us. You know, I could stay here a while.

I could talk here a while, but I have to hurry on. Secondly, he adopted us. He adopted us. In fact, he chose us so that he could adopt us or so that he would adopt us. Notice it says, the next verse, verse five, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and his will.

He predestined us to be his son. What does the word predestined means? It means to predetermine.

The Greek word is prohorizo, from which we get the word horizon. It was also a word that was used by surveyors who would come and stake things out before people got there. They would predetermine where the roads would be and where the houses would be built. You know, if you've ever been to Washington, D.C., one of the things you know about Washington is that it has some very straight streets. For example, the street that goes from the White House to the nation's capital, and you have other streets, and they all converge so beautifully. In fact, not to put too fine a point on it, but generally speaking, the streets in Washington are straighter than some of the politicians that have been there from time to time. But why are those streets so straight?

Is that just a happenstance? No, it's because George Washington, who was the first president, was also a surveyor. I hope I've got this history straight, and he was there mapping out the city. You see, it's because of the surveyors being there ahead of time. God mapped out ahead of time that you would be a son and that you would be adopted into his family.

He predetermined it. Now, you know, when it comes to adoption, always remember it is the parents who choose the child who is adopted. Some of you read Dori Vanstone's book, The Girl Nobody Loved. If you've never read it, you really should. It's a terribly heart-rending story, but it's a true story also of God's healing. But when she was in an orphanage, they used to, can you imagine how mean this was, how inexplicably mean?

They'd line the kids up, maybe four or five years old, and then parents would come by to choose one. Oh, do you like her? Yeah, she's really cute. Oh, no, not her, no. And Dori was never chosen. What a terrible story of heartache. But, you know, she is chosen today because she's a member of God's family, and she's been adopted into it, and she has an amazing story of God's grace. But, you see, it's the parents that do make the decision. And God made the decision now that we would be adopted into his family brought in, and the Roman idea of adoption was that you inherited really all of the prerogatives and the blessings of the family.

You were just as much a part of the family as if you had been born naturally in the family, as if you had been born naturally to the parents. Now, here's what God does. God has chosen us to, with incredible, incredible privileges. Marvelous privileges of friendship, for example. The fact that I can be your brother, and you can be my brother, or you can be my sister, and we are together as members of God's family, and we have the same brother, the Lord Jesus and we are exalted because we have the same father, namely God is the father of all those who believe. And therefore, what we really see is the uniqueness and the glory and the wonder of what adoption is all about.

And if we had time to study the whole New Testament doctrine of adoption, we discover that what it is is God says that even new Christians can have all of the rights and privileges of sonship, just as well as those who've been for many years. And notice what the text says, how did he do it, last part of the verse, in accordance with the pleasure of his will. The pleasure of his will.

God just says this is the way I want it. What I want to do is I want to take people who have fallen deeply into sin and I want to exalt them, I want to clean them up, I want to make them holy, I want to make them blameless, just to prove what a gracious, good God can do to undeserving sinners. This is Pastor Luther. Sometimes I wish that we would just take out the time and pray, Lord, open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law. Even as we speak about the blessings that we have in Jesus Christ, I am reminded of the limitations of language, the simple fact that in this world we cannot comprehend what it is going to be like in the world to come, but we believe the scriptures and it will be beyond anything that we could ask or think.

That's why I've written the book entitled The Inheritance of the Redeemed, claiming the spiritual treasures that are yours in Christ. What I want to do in the book is to help people to expand their thinking, to remember that when Jesus Christ saved them, he not only forgave them, but they become the inheritors of a marvelous new journey and treasures that are beyond our imagination. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours.

Hope that you have a pen or pencil ready. You can go to RTWOffer.com. Go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now because I believe that this resource is going to be of such value to you, such encouragement, and you'll want to share it with others, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. But from my heart to yours, I want to thank you so much for those of you who support this ministry with your prayers and your gifts.

We could not continue without your involvement and your partnership, and so we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go to RTWOffer.com. Of course, RTWOffer is all one word.

Go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the book is The Inheritance of the Redeemed, claiming the spiritual treasures that are yours in Christ. In other words, if you're a believer in Christ, you are much richer than you realize, because the treasures of heaven belong to you. Even though we don't realize it on earth, heaven is just around the corner. It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life.

Steve hears running to win on WYFQ, the Bible Broadcasting Network station in Charlotte, North Carolina. He writes, Dr. Lutzer, while looking through your questions and answers, you said the following, God doesn't remember your past. He blots it out. The Bible says that he takes our sin, and as far as the east is from the west, that's how far he removes it. And then he dumps the sin into the depths of the sea and puts up a sign saying, no fishing.

Here's my question. If God forgets all our sins forever and ever, then what will we be judged on? Steve, you've really asked a very good question, and I'm sure that you quoted me accurately. But you know, when I say that God doesn't remember our sins, I don't mean that he actually forgets them. The Bible uses that expression, in other words, I will not remember their sins. It means that he does not hold those sins against us. It's not as if he continues to bring them up once they are forgiven because they are not, however, forgotten in the sense that there is some knowledge in the universe that God doesn't know about.

So that's a clarification I should have made in the quotation that you have just given. The other thing that I would say is this, that if at the judgment seat our sins are shown to us, they will be represented as being forgiven. In one way or another, God may show us the amount that he has forgiven. Now, I've thought about this quite a bit, and here's just an idea as to how God might do it. What if he were to take all of our deeds, the good, the bad, the ugly, and were to translate them into wood, hay, and stubble, or gold, silver, and precious stones, and most of our lives are a mixture of the two, and then he were to light this pile. Well, what would happen is we could then see how much gold, silver, and precious stones over against how much burned, the wood, the hay, the stubble, and in this sense our lives would be evaluated even though we wouldn't see our sins. Well, I don't know if God's going to do it that way.

That's my thought, but I do know this. We are going to be judged on the basis of what we did with what we knew for the deeds done in the body, the Bible says, whether good or evil. So somehow we have to balance those two, but the sins will not be thrown up in our face.

The sins will not be held against us even though our lives will be evaluated. Some wise counsel, as always, from Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635, North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Pastor Erwin Lutzer has brought part one of Salvation, Your Choice, or God's. The second message in a series on Between Heaven and Earth, taken from the Book of Ephesians. Next time, Erwin Lutzer wraps up a look at the mystery of God's choice. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.