March 6, 3:30 p.m. 
Speaker: Josiah Grauman
Topic: How Election Relates to Evangelism
Passage: John 6:35–40

Message Summary: 

The truth of divine election, when properly understood, should motivate us to proclaim Christ to the ends of the earth.

4 realities that show how election relates to evangelism:

Jesus is the Bread of Life. He is the only source of life in this universe. Coming to Jesus for bread is parallel with believing in Him. When we come to Christ in faith, He satisfies us. The hunger that He satisfies is not a physical hunger, but a hunger for eternal life.

Christ is a great Savior. Any person who suffers from spiritual hunger—if they trust in Christ—Christ is sufficient to satisfy them with his life for all eternity.

So Jesus starts His argument with a strong sense of man’s responsibility to believe in Him, to come to Him and have eternal life.

But then, we get to our second point and God transitions from man’s responsibility to God’s sovereign election.

The Son is so perfect and so glorious in the Father’s eyes that He must be adored. So the Father redeems a bride for His Son, to exalt the excellencies of His Son. The Father then gives this gift, the elect, to His Son.

The Father’s plan will be perfectly carried out by the Son. The plan of salvation will succeed. There will be a complete victory.

All that the Father gives the Son will come to Him. And once they come, they stay for good, for He satisfies us with grace upon grace.

Salvation is a work that God initiates and that God finishes. Of course, man is responsible for believing and for persevering—Christ will speak of this again at the end of the paragraph. But the reason Jesus gives here for why believers come to Him is that the Father gives them to the Son.

The Father’s will was that the Son should redeem and resurrect all that He had chosen and given over to the Son.

Christ has never rejected anyone who has come to Him in faith. All who come to Him end up in glory.

We need to pray and beg for God to intervene. Evangelism without prayer is useless. Our arguments cannot convince people to be saved. We plead with people to come to Christ, but only God can give them life to receive the message.

A few reasons why election is so important, especially in light of evangelism:

Election abolishes all human boasting. — My coming to Jesus is the result of the sovereign work of God who chose me before the foundation of the world, out of the pure election of His will (Ephesians 1:4–5). We did nothing to earn our salvation.

Election gives assurance of our salvation. — If salvation depended on my ability to come to Christ, then I could come to Him and I could also abandon Him. My salvation does not depend on me. My salvation depends on the Father’s election, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s sanctification.

Election protects God’s reputation. — Christ cannot fail. He preserves all His elect. He loses no one He came to save

Election fuels our evangelism and causes us to rely completely on God’s help. — Everyone whom God has chosen will come to Him and find eternal life.

#4. Christ Invites (John 6:40)

There’s this mystery as to how God carries out His sovereign will through human agency. We don’t fully understand how that works. But we must retain and relish and celebrate the mysteries of the Bible. If you can fit God in your mind, then you’ve fabricated Him there. Because God is holy, different, great, and majestic, there are so many things about Him and His will that we cannot possibly understand. He is incomprehensible; nothing can be compared to Him.

Men make it to heaven because Christ is a great Savior who can satisfy all that come to Him. He is the Bread of Life. Anyone who comes and eats will live forever. Men make it to glory because of God’s sovereign choice. The Father gave us to His Son, and all whom He gave to the Son, His Son redeems. Men make it to glory because Christ preserves us. It is His singular mission, which is why even now He stands at the right hand of the Father interceding for us until we make it home. He will lose none. And finally, men make it to glory because they themselves, by God’s irresistible wooing, respond of their own volition to Christ’s invitation to come to Him and be saved. God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, always thriving in tandem.

What an amazing thing it is that God uses unworthy and pitiful tools like us as the means by which He carries out His sovereign plan and brings salvation to His elect. God of course has the capability and power to save without our prayers and without our proclamation. But He has ordained that that will not happen. He has ordained that the way people will get to heaven is through prayer and proclamation of the gospel.

God has chosen to reach His elect through the proclamation of His gospel, and so we preach with confidence and boldness, knowing that every elect person who hears the gospel will be saved.