Chosen in Christ
If we want to think rightly about divine election, it is crucial to have the proper starting point.
When Paul utilizes election language, he begins with believers being in Christ. This reality is prior to Paul’s celebrating their identity as those upon whom God set his love from eternity past. Theologically, being in Christ comes before election.
In Ephesians 1:4, Paul states that God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” Believers are plunged into Christ by the Spirit and all the blessings of salvation flow from that new reality. Believers are now included in that group of people upon whom God set his love from eternity past.
Paul considers his readers’ past as one in which they were enslaved to Satan (Eph. 2:2), children of wrath (Eph. 2:3), far from God and without hope (Eph. 2:12). That is, they were in a hopeless condition with both a past and future shaped by disobedience, spiritual death, and alienation from God.
But when they heard “the message of truth, the gospel of salvation,” they believed and were “sealed in [Christ] with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13). God radically transformed their entire identity when they embraced the gospel, uniting them to Christ by his Spirit.
They now have a new history that goes back to eternity past in the passionate love of God.
You read that rightly. God changes our pasts when he saves us.
Divine election, for Paul, is the gift of a new history. God plunges believers deeply into Christ by the Spirit at salvation and they become people whom God has been pursuing from eternity past to save.
This is counter-intuitive to Westerners. We think linearly. If we have information about what was going on at the earliest point in time, then we feel that we ought to start from there.
That’s a mistake and it bears bad fruit when it comes to thinking about divine election.
Beginning in eternity past delivers to us a doctrine of election whereby God chose some for salvation and others for damnation. But that’s not how Scripture speaks of divine election.
I’ve already made the point that election language is God’s love language for his people. Election answers the question, “How does God regard his people?” He loves them so much that they’ve been on his mind and heart from eternity past. We made the further point that this does not exclude others, but rather demonstrates God’s universal love. God sets his love upon a particular people for the purpose of drawing even more people into his love.
Westerners are so steeped in linear thinking, however, that it becomes difficult to grasp the shape of election language in Scripture. Because it makes good sense, we make the move of thinking that if there are “the elect,” then there must be “the unelect.” But we end up deforming election talk in the Bible by shaping it according to our thought forms.
This move distorts the God of Scripture. We now have a God who sits down before the mass of humanity in eternity past and chooses some for salvation and others for damnation.
We only get that depiction of God when we fail to start where Paul starts. He begins with believers being in Christ and theologizes about their identity from there.
If that makes time an elastic category, so be it. That’s not a problem for Paul, though it’s a challenge for Western readers of Paul. We need to adjust our thinking to properly grasp Paul’s theologizing. After all, in Romans 8:30, the future is in the past. Paul states that God has already accomplished believers’ entire salvation, including its future aspects. In the same way, when it comes to election, God changes our past.
When we theologize about divine election, then, we must follow Paul by starting with believers’ new reality in Christ. We must not start by considering God’s actions in eternity past, nor do we start with election itself. We begin with Christ. Further, we remind ourselves of the function of election talk in Scripture. It is God’s love language for his people. Moreover, we remind ourselves that this does not marginalize unbelievers, but emphasizes God’s love for them. God elects so that he might overwhelm them with his love.
The potential body of the elect, then, is huge. Anyone and everyone who turns to Christ becomes part of the people upon whom God set his love from eternity past.
Faith Improvised 
athanasius96
Great set of posts, Tim! I like how you are moving methodically through this issue of election given the level of confusion out there. Thank you.
timgombis
Cheers, Athanasius!
S Wu
I think you’re right, Tim, and “[i]f that makes time an elastic category, so be it.”
By the way, not sure whether you are familiar with the British TV sci-fi series, Doctor Who. The Doctor in this show is a “time Lord”, and he is a time traveler. In a famous episode called “Blink” in 2007, this is what the Doctor says, “People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint – it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly… timey wimey… stuff.” 🙂
timgombis
No doubt Paul would have said it in just that way, had he been a Brit!
James Miller
Love the idea of God changing our PAST when he saves us and that we almost inherit a history as well as a future as God’s people. A brilliant concept and fascinating way to think of election. Reminds me of the alternate realities and time lines in the likes of Star Trek, but I can see how our Western, modern way of looking at reality is hardly the only way to do so.
S Wu
I thought of Star Trek too, James. In the recent Doctor Who series, the Doctor says, “Time can be rewritten.” Didn’t Tim say “a new history”? 🙂
Anyway, I think Romans 8:28-30 is a very interesting passage, given the past tense “glorified” and the language of predestination. But 8:18-30 seems to hark back to 5:12-21 and speak of the restoration of humanity and renewal of creation. My sense is that Paul has in mind God’s project of salvation that started a long long time ago. Let us marvel at God’s amazing plan and rejoice – and participate in his purpose of inviting others to join us.
James Miller
Tim, can I ask if you’ve been influenced by other theologians on this idea of God giving us a new past when elected and if so whom? I’ve not heard of this before and wondered if this is a new idea of your own.
timgombis
James, it comes mainly from my own study of Ephesians and a study of election language in Scripture as a whole. I noticed first that election language had this function (identity and mission) for Israel. When Paul picks it up and applies it to the church, he notes that they formerly were children of wrath headed for eschatological death, but now they are elect. It’s something that is true of them by virtue of being ‘in Christ’. So, for me, it was a biblical-theological study based in exegesis. I haven’t found it anywhere else, though from the little I’ve read on Barth on this topic, he may have been chasing down this route, too.
Tommy O'Keefe
Great stuff Tim. Ridiculously encouraging perspective. If my memory serves me correctly, Lesslie Newbigin talks in very similar terms about election in “The Open Secret”. There is also a strong tendency toward a “missional” understanding of election in the work of Bosch, Goheen, and even Hirsch and Frost.
So though you are definitely introducing some new shades of meaning and nuance here, you are not “swimming alone”!
Kyle
Maybe I’m just not getting what you are trying to say but it seems to me that Romans 9:14-24 doesn’t fit with the way you’ve portrayed election. Would you be able to elaborate on how it would fit with the way you’ve portrayed election?
timgombis
Definitely, Kyle. I intend to post on Romans 9 early next week.
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brianroden
Reminds me a little of this article on backward causation
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/causation-backwards/
I haven’t read the whole thing, but it’s about the concept of an effect temporally preceding its cause.
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