Dis-Comfort of Election

Introduction
Have you ever felt like your election in Christ hangs over your head? Do you feel like there is a possibility that you are not elected to salvation? Maybe you are going to hell? This can be a common feeling in Christian communities that emphasize predestination and election. Throughout time, from the reformation until now, the doctrines of predestination and election have moved from a doctrine of comfort to a scholastic formula. The minutiae of the doctrine is always trying to be worked out by theologians and applied to the day to day life of the believer to their peril. The reason why the doctrine of election can become worrisome for many people is because of a few reasons:

1. Not knowing with certainty that one is elect
2. There is no means to know if one is elect
3. If one is given an answer to the question, “How do I know I am elect?” it is met with “Look to the fruit of your faith: works”

It may or may not be obvious why this would cause panic in the life of the believer, but when we are told to look to our works for the assurance of our election it means that we will never be assured. We constantly fail at living up to God’s standards and we sin all of the time. More often than not we sin MORE than we do good works.

Election Revealed in Time
So what is the answer? How may we know if we are elected? First we must know how election works. Election is not revealed in this life. No one knows with 100% certainty if one is elect or not. It is a common phenomenon that Christians will fall away from the faith. Election is something that is revealed over time. Those who are elect have already been written in the book of life. John, in his apocalypse, shows how the elect will be revealed.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. (Rev. 20:11-12 ESV)

These books are already written, sealed, and only able to be opened by Jesus Christ. If the Father wills your name in the book it is in it. So if the elect are revealed at the end of time then how do we know if we are elect?

God’s Revealed Will in the Means of Grace
The key is knowing God’s will. God reveals his will through means. Chiefly through His Word and his Sacraments. Particularly by looking at your Baptism and trusting that you have been given the forgiveness of sins, we can know that we have an advocate in heaven who is Jesus Christ. John explains this relationship with the Sacraments (Baptism & the Lord’s Supper) when he says,

This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:6-12)

Take Comfort!
This is how we can know if we have eternal life! This is how we can know if we are elect. Look to the things that testify, the Spirit, the Water (Baptism), and the Blood (the Lord’s Supper). These things are there to give you assurance! Martin Luther says in his Larger Catechism,

Thus we must regard Baptism and make it profitable to ourselves, that when our sins and conscience oppress us, we strengthen ourselves and take comfort and say: Nevertheless I am baptized; but if I am baptized, it is promised me that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body. (Luther, Large Catechism 4.45)

Thus if one is to be sure of his election, look to the promises of God. The one who is not saved does not care that he may go to hell. The faith of a mustard seed saves. Look to the promises of God found in God’s Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, and know that God loves you, has died for you, and has given you the means to defeat Sin, Death, and the Devil by these means of Grace. So go and sin no more knowing you are forgiven!