I was recently wrestling with the apparent contradiction between the doctrine of election (that God sovereignly chooses whose eyes he will open to salvation) and the claim in 1 Timothy 2:4 that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Maybe “contradiction” is the wrong word. It just seemed disingenuous. Like announcing to a deaf audience, “Come with me if you want to live.” You know they’re deaf, and there’s nothing they can do about it. And if you’re God, you actually have the power to make them hear. But you still call out to the deaf. Why?

My friend Ryan pointed me to an article from John Piper on this very question. I love when I read Piper, and discover that he’s about to take on my exact issue:

Therefore as a hearty believer in unconditional, individual election I rejoice to affirm that God does not delight in the perishing of the impenitent, and that he has compassion on all people. My aim is to show that this is not double talk.

It’s an excellent read. If I had to choose one highlight:

The difference between Calvinists and Arminians lies not in whether there are two wills in God, but in what they say this higher commitment is. What does God will more than saving all? The answer given by Arminians is that human self-determination and the possible resulting love relationship with God are more valuable than saving all people by sovereign, efficacious grace. The answer given by Calvinists is that the greater value is the manifestation of the full range of God’s glory in wrath and mercy (Romans 9:22-23) and the humbling of man so that he enjoys giving all credit to God for his salvation (1 Corinthians 1:29).

I just realized that the past few posts didn’t come with complete context. So, briefly: My friend Ivan posted a link to a CNN article written by a sportswriter, titled “Anti-Gays Hide Their Bias Behind the Bible.” I felt it necessary to respond in a place that wouldn’t cause a flame war.

And now that I’ve suitably offended all, we can return to our regularly scheduled blogging!

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

—Jude 1:5-7

This one’s also in the New Testament. Sodom served as an example of what’s to come for all who do not believe.

Also, the original source is useful reading:

For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.

—Genesis 19:13

Can you blame the Christians for getting nervous when their hometown starts to resemble this place? It’s foolish to claim their motives are hate and bigotry.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

—1 Corinthians 15:1-5

Death for Sin

We are all born with consciences, knowing good and evil (God’s law). The man who keeps God’s law perfectly is innocent. But the rest of us fail, committing evil, and so sinning against God Himself. This is punishable by death — eternal separation from God.

Christ for Us

Jesus came and kept God’s law perfectly. God, the just judge, punished Christ for our lawbreaking.

Burial and Resurrection

Christ died, and the Father raised Him from the dead. This is our model for Christianity: death and resurrection.

This is It

When we die and stand in God’s court, on what basis will we have God judge us? Will we point to our own imperfect lives? Will we say that we were good enough?

The gospel is not that you can have your “best life now.” It is not that there is a new law for you to keep, and thereby save yourself. The gospel is that God offers the free gift of salvation through faith in Christ.

In Jesus’ Words

John 3:16 is a powerful and popular verse, but few people have read the rest of Jesus’ explanation to Nicodemus of His purpose and His diagnosis. Even the immediate context is eye-opening, so I’ll close with the Savior’s own words.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.”

— John 3:14-21

And it’s in the New Testament.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

— I Corinthians 6:9-11

All people are born unrighteous. We all need to be justified and sanctified, by the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

(first corinthians would be a good book to read for oneself.)