This post will deal with the subject of election. We will get into effectual calling, predestination, limited atonement, etc. in later posts. Here we go...
The election of God that is mentioned in the scriptures is not a random choosing of God to give some eternal life and deny it to others. This kind of choosing is unloving and ungracious. God's choosing of anybody is on the basis of a person's faith and belief in Christ, which God foreknew:
1 Peter 1:2 2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
Likewise, the predestination of a believer means that a person is given spiritual blessings "an inheritance" for the praise of God's glory for those who FIRST trusted in Christ. All of the talk of election in Ephesians 1 is for those who trust in Christ first.
Ephesians 1:11-12 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
In verse 4, the choosing before the foundation of the world is not that a person whom God has chosen to the exclusion of others will be saved, but that all those who are in Christ Jesus will be holy and blameless in love:
Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
The choosing of Jacob over Esau in Romans 9 is not a choosing of Jacob's salvation. It is a choosing of Jacob to be the one whom God would make of Abraham a great nation. We know this because God tells Rebecca that there are two nations in her womb. There is no indication that one's eternal destiny in heaven or hell was choosen or denied.
The wieght of choosing or electing is on the sinner. We see countless verses in the Bible that call on the sinner to choose life over death, to choose Christ, to choose this day whom you will serve, etc. God leaves the choice up to us and He has not already made the choice for us.
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