ELECTION IN PAULINE MINISTRY

It is the contention of N.T. Wright that Paul’s theology was one of reworking the three central Jewish doctrines: monotheism, election, and eschatology.^[1] Concerning election, Wright asserts that Paul’s actual praxis and whole ministry were shaped by it.^[2] Wright, however, is reading Paul through the lens of ‘New Perspectives’ and understands election as primarily covenant membership through the faithfulness of the Messiah.^[3] Despite the legitimate criticisms traditional reformed theology has with New Perspectives on Paul, Wright’s assertion that the doctrine of election was not merely a belief, but one which shaped Paul’s whole ministry is worth noting here. The practical benefits of this doctrine as demonstrated by Paul are sometimes not given enough attention in the debates of Pauline theology. This paper is an exegetical exploration of how Paul himself applied the doctrine of election in his ministry. Specifically, the paper would study passages where Paul employs the language of effectual call^[4] in his pastoring, preaching, and perseverance, concluding each section with the theological and pastoral implications for today’s ministers and missionaries.

1. Paul’s Shepherding: Election in Paul’s Pastoring (1 Cor. 1:4-9)

Paul wrote the first epistle to the Corinthians to offer corrective responses regarding eleven areas in which the Corinthians were going wrong. In response to Chloe’s report, Paul offers correction regarding—(i) Division in the name of leaders (1:10-4:21), (ii) Incest and church discipline (5:1-13), (iii) Lawsuits among believers (6:1-11), and (iv) Sexual immorality (6:12-20). Then, in response to the letter from the Corinthian church, Paul offers instruction on—(v) Singleness, marriage, divorce and re-marriage (7:1-40), (vi) Food sacrificed to idols (8:1-11:1), (vii) Head coverings (11:2-16), (viii) Lord Supper abuses (11:17-34), (ix) Spiritual gifts abuses and use (12:1-14:40), (x) Resurrection (15:1-58), and (xi) Concerning collection for Jerusalem saints (16:1-4). Clearly, the church is in a lot of confusion and chaos. However, the way Paul begins his epistle reveals his doctrine of grace.

It is customary for Paul to begin an epistle with thanksgiving, along with his opening petitionary prayer, both of which serve as an overture for the main themes in the body of the letter.^[5] Though such a prayer is absent in this epistle, some of the main themes of the epistle are still present in this thanksgiving — λόγος, γνῶσις, μαρτύριον, ἀποκάλυψις, ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ κυρίου, κοινωνία.^[6] It is, however, noteworthy that there is no thanksgiving from Paul for either the faith or the love of the Corinthians as he does in the case of the Thessalonians and Romans. The ensuing issues he has to deal with them is the explanation offered by most commentators for this absence.^[7] However, Paul does offer thanks to the Father for the rich grace He has given these saints in Corinth. Thus, Paul begins by remembering that despite all the problems reported to him, these Corinthians are people whom God has been pleased to give grace. Paul is thus able to always pray for them and give thanks to God for His choice of these people.

In the above passage, Paul notes three aspects of grace in the life of these Corinthians.

(i.) Past grace: God gave grace to them in Christ Jesus so that (ὅτι) in every way they are enriched (πλουτίζω) in all speech and all knowledge (v.4-5). The fullness of this blessing or enrichment is evident in the threefold use of πᾶς (every or all) in v.5.
(ii.) Present grace: God is giving them grace in that they lack no spiritual gift and are waiting for Christ Jesus (v.7).
(iii.) Future grace:^[8] God will give them grace to sustain them till the end and be found blameless on the day the Lord returns (v.8).

In v.9, Paul goes on to confess his confidence in the faithfulness of God who has called (καλέω) these Corinthians to fellowship with Christ. The ‘calling’ Paul has in mind here is more than an evangelical calling, but an effectual calling. On the use of the word ‘calling’ in Scripture and in particular Paul, Bavinck says,

"Scripture itself speaks of calling in a dual sense. Repeatedly it refers to a calling and invitation to which there was no positive response (Isa. 65:12; Matt. 22:3, 14; 23:37; Mark 16:15–16; etc.). In that case it could say that while God did everything on his part (Isa. 5:4), people in their obstinacy refused to believe and resisted God’s counsel, the Holy Spirit, and calling (Matt. 11:20ff.; 23:37; Luke 7:30; Acts 7:51). But Scripture also knows a calling from God—a realization of election—that is always efficacious. This is especially true in Paul (Rom. 4:17; 8:30; 9:11, 24; 1 Cor. 1:9; 7:15ff.; Gal. 1:6, 15; 5:8; Eph. 4:1, 4; 1 Thess. 2:12; 2 Tim. 1:9; also cf. 1 Pet. 1:15; 2:9; 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3). Believers are therefore repeatedly described simply as “those who are called” (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2, 24), and “those who are called in Christ” or “in the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:22); that is, those who are called by God belong to Christ and live in communion with him."^[9]

It is from this vantage point of effectual grace that Paul attempts to deal with the pastoral problems facing this church. The doctrine of election thus gave Paul a gracious and hope-filled perspective on his pastoring. As long as the people were true recipients of grace, there was hope. Paul, of course, had a different approach when it came to the Galatians, as they were going wrong on the fundamental truths of the gospel. Such was not the case with the Corinthians.

So the lesson we learn from Paul is that for a minister or missionary to be gracious in his dealings with the people under his care, he has to remember and reflect on God’s grace upon their lives. In other words, meditating on the doctrine of election makes us gracious, loving, and hopeful people. Especially those of us who are leaders and teachers in the church should be men marked by grace and hope for every child of God. Cold, unfriendly, dull, legalistic, disciplinarian pastoring and leadership are neither Pauline nor Christian. Even when people mess up like the Corinthians, there is still grace in the heart of God and His apostle. This perspective of grace does not exclude correction or confrontation as Paul does both with the Corinthians, but rather we do it all from the vantage point of grace, full of hope in God’s faithfulness to make His chosen people blameless on the day of the Lord.

2. Paul’s Sermon: Election in Paul’s Preaching (1 Cor. 1:18-24)

Later on in chapter 1:18-24, Paul offers an apologia for his preaching of the gospel. Here, he not only vindicates his ministry but also critiques the Corinthian error of falling prey to the culture around them that prized human wisdom. The fruit of this failure was that they were dividing over Christian leaders. Prizing of human wisdom made them foolish to compare one Christian leader against another based on the canons of Greco-Roman rhetoric.^[10] Thus, the issue here is not the matter, but the manner of Paul’s preaching as οὐκ ἐν σοφίᾳ λόγου (1:17). The phrase “words of wisdom” has been identified as referring to rhetorical skill by most commentators.^[11]

In this passage, Paul demonstrates the wisdom of the gospel employing three contrasts and a quotation from the Old Testament. In v.18, the contrast is in the differing response and consequent destiny of those who hear the λόγος ὁ τοῦ σταυροῦ (the word of the cross). In v.20-21, the contrast is between the seemingly wise of the world and the wisdom of God which seemingly appears as folly to them. In v.22-24, the contrast is again between the different responses Christian preaching encounters, especially with respect to how Christ is perceived. The crucial distinction in this verse that explains a positive response to the gospel is in the adjective κλητοῖς, “the called”. Whether Paul is dealing here with Sophists or Stoics, the argument of Paul in this section is generic.^[12] Hence, the theology of preaching that underlies this passage is instructive for all.

Regarding divine grace, Paul is teaching three truths here.

2.1 The Necessity of grace

In verse 21, Paul says mankind is unable to know God through its own wisdom, and this being so is God’s wisdom. Here, ἐν τῇ σοφίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ (in the wisdom of God) should be understood as causal. In other words, God in His wisdom has so designed it that the world is unable to know Him with its own wisdom. Paul is saying very clearly that man left to himself is hopelessly impotent to come to have any saving knowledge of God. Despite nature itself giving man an appropriate revelation of God, man, due to his inherent sinfulness, suppresses this knowledge and does not worship God (Rom. 1:18-21). This depravity of man not only affects his mind to suppress the revelation of God, but it also makes him unable to respond to God's revelation. This picture of inability matches what Paul says elsewhere about the unregenerate man, as:

1. Dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1, Col. 2:13)
2. Hostile to God (Rom. 8:7)
3. Cannot submit to God's law (Rom. 8:7)
4. Cannot please God (Rom. 8:8)
5. Cannot understand the things of God (1Cor.2:14, Rom. 3:11)
6. Cannot see the light of the gospel as they are blinded by the devil (2Cor.4:4)
7. Does not seek God (Rom. 3:11)
8. Does not fear God (Rom. 3:18)

Apart from Christ, men are under the power of sin, are not righteous, do not seek God, do no good, love evil, hate light, dead in sins, following the world, the devil, and the flesh, are by nature children of God’s wrath, darkened in understanding, hard-hearted, blinded by the devil, and cannot submit to or please God. In other words, man being totally depraved makes grace absolutely necessary for salvation.

2.2 The sufficiency of preaching Christ as the means of grace

Despite the despondency of our predicament, Paul goes on to say that God has a means of saving sinners – τῆς μωρίας τοῦ κηρύγματος (the folly of what is proclaimed) (v.21b). Preaching the gospel may seem, humanly speaking, a foolish thing, precisely because of its seemingly foolish message of salvation through a crucified man. To the Jew, the Messiah being condemned and killed like a criminal by Gentile rulers is not good news. Similarly, for secular Romans and Greek intellectuals, a god who comes down to earth to be shamefully crucified by humans is not worth any adoration, and such a message is nothing but nonsense. However, from the perspective of divine wisdom, preaching the gospel is the wisest thing to do, as it is the only message God has ordained to save those who believe.

Paul goes on to say in verse 22 how his preaching is thus contrary to what his audience wants from him. Paul was determined not to preach human wisdom or perform signs, but to preach the gospel alone. Every culture has prized idols. For the Jews, it was miraculous deeds, and for the Greeks, it was human wisdom and eloquence. As a preacher of the gospel, Paul did not bow down to any of these idols pushed in by the culture around him. He was determined to know Christ and Him crucified alone (cf. 1Cor. 2:2). At this point, it is worth noting that κήρυγμα, the technical term used by Paul, has the idea of proclamation or heralding.^[13] It points out a basic fact that in the church, we only have heralds, not public performers.^[14] A herald is a messenger who has been entrusted with a particular message to be delivered in public. The message of the herald is determined not by his recipients but by his sender. Whereas a performer, a public pep-talk speaker has no message as such for his audience, just a willingness to employ his rhetorical skills to get maximum adulation from them. His speaking agenda is set by the crowd.

Not only was Paul determined to preach the gospel alone, but he also knew that, unless grace intervenes, the reception of this gospel by the natural man would be a failure (v.23). He says how the gospel is a stumbling block for the Jews and foolishness for the Greeks. The word σκάνδαλον (stumbling block) in Pauline usage is “more serious than simply an insulting affront; it also leads to disastrous consequences.”^[15] Now, the noteworthy fact here is that Paul, while knowing this reality, still preached the gospel. In other words, the message being an unbelievable and impossible one did not cause Paul to surrender to the pressures of the surrounding culture. The use of the first person plural in ἡμεῖς δὲ κηρύσσομεν (but we preach) suggests that Paul is identifying with all genuine Christian preachers. Hence, Paul’s practice here ought to be typical of all heralds of the cross of Christ.

2.3 The efficacy of grace over human will

In verse 24, Paul gives the crucial theological rationale that sustained him in pure, undiluted gospel preaching. Paul goes on to mention another group of Jews and Gentiles, for whom the message he preaches is not a stumbling block and not foolishness, but rather is the power of God and the wisdom of God. So, we have two groups of Jews and Gentiles mentioned here. On one side, we have those who find the message of the cross to be a stumbling block and foolishness. On the other side, we have the other group of Jews and Gentiles who find the same message of the cross as the power of God and the wisdom of God. Here we must remember that both groups are made up of the same kind of people, naturally speaking–Jews and Gentiles. Paul does not say one group is holy and the other unholy. Neither does he say one is willing, the other unwilling. We find no such distinguishing natural attributes employed by Paul here. So, in and of themselves, the two groups are basically comprised of the same sinful human beings. Moreover, we saw in our first observation on the necessity of grace that everyone—Jews and Gentiles—is under the power of sin, and no one is good. Hence, we will have to conclude that the difference between these two groups should not be found in and of themselves. In other words, the cause for salvation is not inherent in them, in the sense that the reason why some believe is not inherent in them. Of course, the unbelieving camp is indeed so precisely because of their inherent sin nature, as seen in our first observation.

So then, what is Paul’s explanation for this difference in their reception of Christ? The text says, these Jews and Gentiles for whom Christ is powerful and wise are so because they are the called (κλητοῖς) of God. In other words, they are the elect of God. It is to a divine action that Paul attributes the reason for the difference in their response to the gospel. Thus, the doctrine of election enabled Paul not to succumb to any eloquent wisdom as dictated by the culture, but rather to persevere in faithful heralding of the gospel, trusting only in the power of the cross to reap its own harvest.

The lesson we learn here is that the doctrine of election acts as a strong pillar for a biblically-faithful, Christ-exalting, and God-honoring evangelistic ministry. The nature of God’s grace revealed through the preaching of the gospel is infallibly efficacious towards the elect, the called of God. This truth should make us confident in God’s faithfulness and power to save His elect through the gospel. In summary, sinners are so hopelessly depraved that no human wisdom or manipulation can save them but the gospel. And we can persevere in the pure preaching of the gospel without compromise because of the efficacious nature of God’s grace to His elect. Effectual call sustains and motivates the evangelical call.^[16]

3. Paul’s Suffering: Election in Paul’s Persecutions

The doctrine of election also played a significant role in Paul’s understanding and endurance of his sufferings as a herald of the gospel. Here, we will consider three aspects of the relationship between election and suffering in Paul—his perspective, his patience, and his perseverance.

3.1 Election and Paul’s perspective on suffering (2 Tim. 1:8-12)

In this pericope, Paul grounds his suffering as necessarily stemming from being a preacher of the gospel. He begins by explaining the gospel as the historical manifestation of the grace of God given to us in ages past, πρὸ χρόνων αἰωνίων (2 Tim. 1:9) through the appearing of the Son of God (2 Tim. 1:10). This eternal grace has its purpose to save us and call us, καλέσαντος (v.9). In other words, Paul is referring here to divine election manifested in the effectual call to salvation. However, as grace moves from eternal decree to historical accomplishment in Christ and personal application in us, suffering is inevitable. It is through suffering that the Messiah bought grace for the elect, and it is through suffering that grace is brought to the elect. In 2Tim. 1:11-12, Paul thus understands his “present sufferings are entirely because he is a preacher of the gospel.”^[17] As a herald of the gospel, Paul thus saw his sufferings as an indispensable means to bring the grace of God to the lives of the elect.

3.2 Election and Paul’s patience in suffering (2 Tim. 2:8-10)

Employing the doctrine of election, Paul in this pericope explains the rationale for his endurance. In 2 Tim. 2:10, Paul affirms that he is patiently suffering for the sake of the remaining elect also to obtain salvation in Christ (διὰ τοῦτο πάντα ὑπομένω διὰ τοὺς ἐκλεκτούς, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ σωτηρίας τύχωσιν τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ μετὰ δόξης αἰωνίου).^[18] He then adds that the reason he could do so is because the main agency through which the elect are saved–the Word of God–cannot be imprisoned (v.9). Paul knows that the Word of God is not a bare word, but rather one laden with the power of the Spirit, and it proves its potency by the response it creates in its hearers. It is like the sower found in the parable of Jesus (Mark 4:1-20) who sows the seed and goes to sleep, and lo and behold, the soil produces the crop by itself. Luther, much later during the Reformation, spoke in the same vein regarding the potency of God’s Word when he said,

“I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise, I did nothing. And then, while I slept, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. I did nothing. The Word did it all.”^[19]

Paul found much encouragement to patiently endure all sufferings in his proclamation of the gospel, because he knew the preached Word was silently doing mighty works in the heart of the elect.

3.3 Election and Paul’s perseverance through suffering (Acts 18:5-11)

It is also worth mentioning how the doctrine of election enabled Paul to persevere in a place of much opposition. In Acts 18, as he begins his ministry at Corinth, despite the opposition, Paul got the impetus to stay and teach God's word for eighteen months, precisely from the fact that the Lord had assured him that many in the city belonged to Him. It was the doctrine of election that sustained him. Even today, it should be the doctrine of election that motivates missionaries to go to the farthest end of the world with the gospel because we know there is surely a multitude that no man can count, but chosen of God from every tongue and tribe, who when they hear the gospel will infallibly come to Christ by His effectual grace.^[20] The truth of divine election thus encourages us to go to the most difficult and heavily persecuted parts of the world and keep persevering in faithful gospel ministry with steadfast hope.

Conclusion

Living by the truth of divine election is to live by a conscious trust in and comfort of the efficacy of God’s grace. The sovereignty of grace should make us trust its power, rest on its sufficiency, and be strengthened by its hope. In short, it enables us to live by grace alone. The example of Paul teaches us that sovereign grace makes us pastoral to others in our shepherding, faithful to the word in our proclamation, and loyal to God in our sufferings.