Election of all in Christ
The title of this section
makes me want to cheer! All humanity
is elect in Christ.
Radcliff cites Ephesians 1:4-6. James
Torrance believes this passage refers to all humanity, because verse 10 refers
to Christ’s mediatorial headship over all, where God the Father “sums up all
things in Christ.” I have often wondered about this passage, because the letter
is addressed to the church. So when Paul says “we,” is referring to believers
only, or to all humanity? I will go
with the latter, following JBT and Irenaeus long before him.
For TFT, election is a fait accompli in Christ. For those who
do not “parlez vous francais,” that
means that it’s a done deal. (But you already knew that, didn’t you?). Torrance
says:
In as much as no one exists except by the Word of God
by whom all things were made and in whom all things consist, and in as much as this is the Word
that has one and for all enacted the eternal election of grace to embrace all
men, the existence of every man whether he will or not is bound up inextricably
with that election—with the cross of Jesus Christ.
God claims all humanity in Christ. In Christ, we are
all judged. In Christ we are all chosen. That seems pretty plain to me.
Election is Grace
What
is the relation of grace to election? Which is prior in God’s mind? According
to the Calvinists, election precedes grace. God first elects a few from the
mass of sinful humanity, then he offers them grace. (This is a rather ungenerous
view of God.) In Arminianism, it’s the other way round: grace precedes
election. God offers grace to all (I like that part), but then he only elects
those whom he foreknows will decide for Jesus. (I don’t like that part.) This
puts the burden for salvation back on our shoulders, for salvation is only
actualized when we walk the sawdust trail and shake the preacher’s hand, while
the choir sings the tenth stanza of “Just as I am.” We used to do that when I
went to the Southern Baptist church. That was before I became a heathen
Episcopalian. (Today I am a trans-denominational.)
Calvinism limits election. It
turns what should be the good news of God’s election of all in Jesus into a
nightmare. Out of the 100 billion (?) people who have ever lived, most of whom
have never heard the name of Christ, God “mercifully” elects a few for
salvation. I just can’t get my head around that kind of theology. According to
this view, as I once heard Ken Blue say, the world is nothing but a “vast
slaughterhouse.”
The Calvinists detach
election from Jesus and move it into eternity past in the inscrutable will of
God, whose purposes are unclear. As TFT often notes, this means there is a different
God behind the back of Jesus, creating a lack of assurance for salvation and
turning us back onto our own efforts to produce fruits (proof) of election.
This amounts to a lot of hard work, and even then you can’t really be sure
you’re in. Arminianism, on the other hand, make election conditional: “God’s electing foreknowledge is caused by the faith of
the elect.” In other words, if you decide for Jesus, you’re in. Again, this
puts the burden of salvation on our shoulders rather than on Jesus. When
election is made either prior to or
subsequent to grace, it is detached from its foundation in Jesus, and we are
all left wondering whose in and who ain’t.
In the Torrance tradition, following
my hero Karl Barth, grace is neither prior
to nor subsequent to election.
Rather, election is grace. As
Radcliff notes, following TFT, the election of all humanity in Jesus offers
assurance that we are all included in
God’s love. David Fergusson writes:
Included in the election of the risen Christ is the
election of every man, woman and child. Each individual is determined by the
love of God.
The Calvinist doctrine of
election is derived from logical-causal thinking. If not everyone is saved, as
the Bible may (?) indicate, then obviously Jesus did not die for everyone, or
else there would be a deficiency in the atonement. So clearly, Jesus must have
died for the elect only (narrowly defined), and that brings you inevitably to
the unbiblical doctrine of limited atonement.
Comment: If you think about it, the Calvinists are
beginning with “man as sinner,” and they build their system from that. This is
why the Torrances insist we must begin with the “Who” question: “Who is Jesus,”
and derive the “how” from God’s self-revelation in his Son. It’s the difference
between beginning your thinking with the first Adam or the Second Adam. I know
which I choose. (In the Westminster Confession of Faith, their awful doctrine
of election is in chapter three. They don’t get to Jesus till chapter eight. By
then, most folks are already toast. Ugh!)
As Barth says, “The doctrine
of election is the sum of the Gospel because of all words that can be said or
heard it is the best.” Compare that to the “horrible decree” of the Calvinists!
As Radcliff notes, as she will often in this book, our election in Jesus means
“people do not have to depend upon their own religious efforts to provide
evidence for their salvation. Rather, we are liberated to freely devote
ourselves back to God.” The Gospel is good news folks. It’ time some people
realized it!
Conclusion (per Radcliff, p. 33)
“The Torrances believe that God has elected all
[contra Calvinism] of humanity unconditionally [contra Arminianism] in Christ.
Election is not prior to grace, as found in Federal Calvinism, nor is grace
prior to election, as found in Arminianism. For the Torrance’s, God’s election
and grace must not be placed within man-made logical-causal categories but
rather guided by God’s self-revelation of his filial purposes in Christ. This
gives assurance of salvation because we do not have to worry whether we are one
of God’s elect. Nor do we have to wear ourselves out trying to bear fruit that
is the evidence of our salvation. God’s election of humanity in Christ means
that we are all included in his plan of redemption.”
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Reference
Radcliff, A.S. 2016. The Claim of Humanity in Christ: Salvation
and Sanctification in the Theology of T.F. and J.B. Torrance. (Princeton
Theological Monograph Series 222), Eugene, OR: Pickwick. 208 pp.
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