High Calling, Lowly Walk

God’s gracious election of sinners to salvation is an infinitely beautiful doctrine. That an almighty, holy God would choose to save undeserving sinners is an amazing and humbling thought. The believer who applies this doctrine to his heart will live in awe of his gracious and merciful God. In Dr. Lawson’s Foundations of Grace, he states the following:

The truth of God’s eternal choice and effectual calling of sinners should produce the greatest humility in the heart of His elect. This high calling should lead to a lowly walk. As believers grow to realize that God chose them before the foundation of the world, their hearts should tremble. As the saints understand that it was God who irresistibly called them out of darkness into the light of salvation, their souls should stand in awe. The knowledge that all their spiritual good has come to them as a result of sovereign grace should drive them to their knees.

Perhaps Boice puts it best when he writes [in his Foundations of the Christian Faith], “Election eliminates boasting within Christian ranks. Non-Christians or those who do not understand election often suppose the opposite, and those who believe in election do sometimes appear smug. But this is a travesty. God tells us explicitly that he has chosen to save a people to himself by grace entirely apart from any merit or receptivity in them, precisely so that pride will be eliminated: ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest any man should boast’ (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation is of grace so that the glory might be God’s.”

May every believer realize that it is by God’s doing, start to finish, that he or she is in Christ Jesus. May we fall at the feet of Christ and sing His praises.

Excerpt taken from Foundations of Grace, by Steven Lawson.