It’s an irony that hits close to home, so it’s one I make note of regularly. We who confess to being Reformed, Calvinistic, embracing the doctrines of grace, begin our confession of our distinctives with the doctrine of total depravity. We affirm that sin impacts all that we are. Our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts and our desires are depraved. We affirm that we are unable, unless God should change our nature first, to even want to be changed.In short, we have a profoundly low, albeit biblical, view of ourselves in our fallen state. (For a strong exploration of Reformed theology, see After Darkness Light, Essays in Honor of RC Sproul here.)
The irony is that if we were in the high school yearbook we embracers of the doctrines of grace would rightly be voted “Most likely to be arrogant.” We begin with a humbling doctrine, but we end as prideful jerks. What gives? It is because of our depravity that even an awareness of our depravity does little to diminish our foolish pride. To put it another way, what else would we expect from sinners such as us?
We grow our arrogance, I suspect, out of one truth, and one lie. We embrace the biblical truth that God chooses His own. We deny that we are chosen based on His foreknowledge of any choices we might have made. What we often feel, however, is that we were chosen precisely because we were so worthy. We’ve turned out so well, we reason in the dark corners of our hearts, it makes perfect sense that He chose us. Didn’t He choose well when He chose me?
The truth that leads us astray is that we are, when considering election, entering into some deep waters. Which, we are foolish enough to believe, makes us think we are rather accomplished swimmers. We are tempted to believe that, because we not only look into such deep doctrines, but have the courage to embrace them, that we’re a better class of believer. I thank you Lord that I am not like other men. I know the five points of Calvinism. I know the difference between an Arminian and an Armenian.
The doctrine of election is true; it is biblical. As such we have a duty not just to affirm it and to teach it, but to believe it. We need to believe it from our hearts, to believe it enough to put to death our pride. We need to believe in it enough to believe in His power to rescue and revive the dead. We need to believe it enough to know down to our core that the vilest criminal, the cruelest Muslim, the most heartless adulterer is just what we are by nature. What sets us apart isn’t anything good in us save His grace at work in us.
We need to believe it enough to cry out in gratitude at the amazing grace that saved such a wretch as me. We should not believe in election because we in our brilliant minds have managed to peek behind the curtain, to look into the secret things of God. We are to believe in it because it reveals the glorious truth that He has loved us, despite our being utterly unworthy. He’s done so from the foundations of the world. His grace isn’t a slight fix to a small problem. It is instead the victory of Jesus over death. We are to believe it because it, however slowly, puts to death our pride. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.