GraceLife Thoughts – Two Elections

Grace Thoughts

GraceLife Thoughts – Two Elections

The first election is God’s present work in saving a small number of Jews along with the larger number of Gentiles. It’s called “the election of grace.” Paul wrote about that in more detail in Ephesians 2:11-18 and is what we’ve seen during the past 19 centuries in the history of the Church. It is primarily Gentile with a small number (remnant) of Jews. The second election is God’s future work in saving Israel “for the sake of the fathers.” God made a covenant with Abraham, Jacob, Isaac and Moses thousands of years ago and He will do what He promised. It will be primarily Jewish in reach and scope. The Old Testament prophets wrote about this in great detail, as did the Apostle John in the Revelation.

That may surprise some that God has two elections, but it shouldn’t surprise us. God has been electing, selecting, choosing different people and peoples throughout the history of humanity. Paul addressed two of those selections in Romans 11. Both are about salvation and both are based on the Gospel about which Paul wrote earlier that he was not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the “power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”

While a very small number of Gentiles could participate in some of the blessings of God revealed to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses, most Gentiles were “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Yet, Paul wrote in Romans 11:5 that “at this present time” there was a remnant of Jews who would be saved with Gentiles. In fact, those remnant Jews would become part of a “new creation” where Jesus Christ would “create in Himself one new man from the two thus making peace” (Ephesians 2:15).

The first election Paul wrote about is where Jesus is reconciling a remnant of Jews with many Gentiles to “reconcile them both in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity” (Ephesians 2:16). This is quite remarkable and is something Paul referred to in Ephesians as a “mystery”.