Having first read this book in 1998 (when it had already gone out of print), I am delighted that Crossway has now produced this updated and expanded volume. This book is the most lucid, accessible, and convincing defense of divine election I have ever seen. Sam Storms had a huge influence in my life when I was wrestling with the very question he takes up: Does God elect people because they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, or does God elect people in order that they will believe in Christ?
This foundational question is truly at the heart of the who-does-what-in-salvation issue that we find so baffling. When Ephesians 2:8-9 says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” What does the “this is not your own doing” refer to? The grace or the faith? Does God merely make salvation possible for everyone, and then wait to see who comes to get it? Or does He actually see to it that a vast array of humanity receives the entire package of salvation? This book will help you see that unless God is the one who makes the decisive difference in our embracing Christ, we are left with a system in which we, ultimately, cause ourselves to differ from those who reject Christ. Essentially, though we might not consciously say it this way, we earn our salvation with God’s help. And others don’t.
Conversely, the doctrine of unconditional election (the theological nomenclature for what this book is about) is among the most humbling and worship-producing truths a Christian can know. It teaches that God chose us for salvation (elects us) irrespective of any faith that He foresaw us exhibiting. In other words, He choose us without our meeting any prior conditions. Sam Storms makes this truth clear and understandable, with appropriate overlap between theology and doxology. If this is at all new to you, or if it is something you wrestle with, then this is the book for you. And if you already familiar with these matters, you will be blessed by this refreshing and penetrating insight into the truth that “we love, because he first loved us.”
The book is now available for order here.