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Elected

Read 1 Peter 1:2. What else does this tell us about those to whom Peter had been writing? What does he call them?

Whether writing to specifically Jewish or Gentile believers, Peter was sure about one thing: they were “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Pet. 1:2).

Here, though, one needs to be careful. This does not mean that God predestined some people to be saved and some to be lost, and as good fortune would have it, the ones Peter was writing to happen to be some of those chosen or elected by God for salvation, while others were chosen by God to be lost. That’s not what the Bible teaches.

Read 1 Timothy 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9, John 3:16, Ezekiel 33:11. How do these verses help us to understand what Peter meant when he called these people the “elect”?

Scripture makes it clear that it was God’s plan for everyone to be saved, a plan instituted in their behalf even before the creation of the earth: “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4, NKJV). “All” are “elect” in the sense that God’s original purpose was for everyone to be saved and no one to be lost. He predestined all humanity for eternal life. This means that the plan of salvation was adequate for everyone to be included in the atonement, even if not everyone would accept what that atonement offered them.

God’s foreknowledge of the elect is simply His knowing beforehand what their free choice would be in regard to salvation. This foreknowledge in no way forced their choice any more than a mother knowing beforehand that her child will choose chocolate cake instead of green beans meant that her foreknowledge of the choice forced the child to make it.

What kind of assurance can you get from the encouraging truth that God has chosen you to be saved?