Unconditional Election Part 5

V. Acts 13:48

A lot of times Calvinists will, perhaps wrongly, make controversial statements like “Jesus was a Calvinist” or “Paul was a Calvinist” while understanding that Calvin derived his theology from Jesus, Paul, and other biblical writers and not the other way around. With that said, I think this verse tells us that Luke believed in unconditional election.

In this story we see Paul preaching in the synagogue at Antioch on the Sabbath. He preaches a long explanation of the gospel and they ask him to come back the next week (Acts 13:42). When Paul comes back there is a huge gathering of the whole city to hear him preach. But the Jewish leaders were jealous of the attention Paul was getting and started to speak against the message of Paul. Paul sternly reacts by turning to the Gentiles with his message. This is where Luke describes the conversion of many Gentiles, “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). Notice the importance of word order, Luke does not say “and as many as had believed were appointed to eternal life” Luke instead gives the credit of the belief to the One who appointed the belief, namely, God.

This verse adds two things to our understanding of election:

1. It is unconditional.
2. It brings about faith.

Election always plays out in faith. That might seem obvious to some but to others it is a stumbling block. Some might argue “if God elects unconditionally why preach the gospel?” or “what if someone who is elect dies having never believed in Christ?” those questions are fair but they are based on the presupposition that a person believes in unconditional election and not the rest of the Bible. Here we see Luke showing us election applied in the faith of the Gentiles. For more on what happens at conversion see my series on Irresistible Grace.

Grace and Peace,
Stephen