Amazing Grace or Random Grace

Amazing Grace or Random GraceTim Challies A while ago I received an email from a father, concerned about the task of sharing the gospel with his children. Here is what he sent to me: I have such a hard time grasping the notion of election as a father. I struggle with why so much of Bible addresses us as decision making/choice making creatures, appealing to us to recognize something and depart from sin and accept Christ. Yet if God is simply "zapping" us with irresistible Grace, it seems to me that our efforts for others to turn away sin and accept Christ is really not genuine. It seems rigged.Is there anything that can assure me that I have an influence in whether my child's number is called?I certainly understand the heart behind this question. I, too, am a father and one who is deeply concerned about the eternal welfare of my children. I love them so deeply and desire nothing greater than that they would turn to Christ in repentance and faithLike this reader, I am sometimes tempted to express frustration with the way God has chosen to save a people for Himself. But through it all I know that his ways are not only good; his ways are best.Here's the 3-part answer I gave this father:First, I think we need to have much greater confidence in God's sovereignty than in the ability of our children to choose God without his foreordaining grace. Without God's grace, none of us could ever turn to him. So we need to take refuge in God's sovereignty and not make it an occasion of fear or dread.Second, I think it is helpful to see predestination as something that is of far greater concern to God than to us. While we see from Scripture that God has predestined his elect to eternal life, I'm not sure that it is helpful for us to think too much about who is among the elect and who is not. Third, we need to be careful in how we understand God's work of election. Scripture does not say that certain people "had their number called" and others did not. Instead, we read that God chose some because he had special love for them. There is nothing random about it.Take adoption for example.When a couple sets out to adopt a child, they have a large number of potential children available to them. But somewhere in the process of adoption they set their heart on a particular child. It is not that they have chosen this child randomly, but rather that they did so because their affections were set upon him.Their selection of a particular child is not unfair to the other children. One child was graciously selected for the special blessing of adoption while many others were not. Giving a gift to one person does not make it unfair to withhold a gift from another.While God has, indeed, ordained who will be saved, he has not told us who he will save. And so we are called us to take the gospel message far and wide, preaching it to all men and allowing God to work the gift of faith into those whom he has chosen for life.Our task in evangelism is not ultimately to win people to Christ but to faithfully preach the gospel message. If we preached that message, we have done what God calls us to.As believers, we must learn to rejoice in his goodness as well a sin his sovereign choice and grace. His grace is not random.It is amazing.