The idea that God does what He wants, and that what He does is true and right because He does it, is foundational to the understanding of everything in Scripture, including the doctrine of election.
In the broad sense, election refers to the fact that God chooses (or elects) to do everything that He does in whatever way He best sees fit. When He acts, He does so only because He willfully and independently chooses to act. According to His own nature, predetermined plan, and good pleasure, He decides to do whatever He desires, without pressure or constraint from any outside influence.
The Bible makes this point repeatedly. In the very act of creation, God created precisely what He wanted to create in the way He wanted to create it Gen 1:31. And ever since the creation, He has sovereignly prescribed or permitted everything in human history, in order that He might accomplish the redemptive plan which He had previously designed Is 25:1, Is 46:10, Is 55:11, Rom 9:17, Eph 3:8-11.
In the Old Testament, He chose a nation for Himself. Out of all the nations in the world, He selected Israel Deut 7:6, Deut 14:2, Psalm 105:43, Psalm 135:4. He chose them, not because they were better or more desirable than any other people, but simply because He decided to choose them. In the words of Richard Wolf, “How odd of God to choose the Jews.” It may not have rhymed as well, but the same would have been true of any other people God might have selected. God chooses whomever He chooses, for reasons that are wholly His.
The nation of Israel was not the only recipient in Scripture of God’s electing choice. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is called Christ, “My Chosen One” Luke 9:35. The holy angels also are “chosen angels” 1 Tim 5:21. And New Testament believers are those who were “chosen of God” Col 3:12, 1 Cor 1:27, 2 Thess 2:13, 2 Tim 2:10, Titus 1:1, 1 Pet 1:1, 1 Pet 2:9, 1 Pet 5:13, Rev 17:14, meaning that the church is a community of those who were chosen, or “elect” Eph 1:4.
When Jesus told His disciples, “You did not choose Me but I chose you” John 15:16, He was underscoring this very truth. And the New Testament reiterates it in passage after passage. Acts 13:48 describes salvation in these words, “As many as have been appointed to eternal life believed.” Eph 1:4-6 notes that, God “chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” In his letters to the Thessalonians, Paul reminds his readers that he knew God’s choice of them 1 Thess 1:4, and that he was thankful for them “because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation” 2 Thess 2:13. The Word of God is clear: believers are those whom God chose for salvation from before the beginning.
Even the foreknowledge to which Peter refers should not be confused with simple foresight as some would teach—contending that God, in eternity past, looked down the halls of history to see who would respond to His call and then elected the redeemed on the basis of their response. Such an explanation makes God’s decision subject to man’s decision, and gives man a level of sovereignty that belongs only to God. It makes God the One who is passively chosen, rather than the One who actively chooses. And it also misunderstands the way in which Peter uses the term “foreknowledge.” In 1 Pet 1:20 the apostle uses the verb form of that very word, prognosis in the Greek, to refer to Christ. In that case, the concept of “foreknowledge” certainly includes the idea of a deliberate choice. It is reasonable, then, to conclude that the same is true when Peter applies prognosis to believers in other places 1 Pet 1:2.
The ninth chapter of Romans also reiterates the elective purposes of God. There, in reference to His saving love for Jacob (and Jacob’s descendants) as opposed to Esau (and Esau’s lineage), God’s electing prerogative is clearly displayed. God chose Jacob over Esau, not on the basis of anything Jacob or Esau had done, but according to His own free and uninfluenced sovereign purpose. To those who might protest, “That is unfair!” Paul simply responds by asking, “Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” Rom 9:20.
Many more Scriptures could be added to this survey. Yet as straightforward as the Word of God is, people continually have difficulty accepting the doctrine of election. The reason, again, is that they allow their preconceived notions of how God should act (based on a human definition of fairness) to override the truth of His sovereignty as laid out in the Scriptures.
Frankly, the only reason to believe in election is because it is found explicitly in God’s Word. No man and no committee of men originated this doctrine. It is like the doctrine of eternal punishment, in that it conflicts with the dictates of the carnal mind. It is repugnant to the sentiments of the unregenerate heart. And like the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the miraculous birth of our Savior, the truth of election, because it has been revealed by God, must be embraced with simple and unquestioning faith. If you have a Bible and you believe it, you have no other option but to accept what it teaches.
The Word of God presents God as the controller and disposer of all creatures Dan. 4:35, Is. 45:7, Lam. 3:38, the Most High Psalm 47:2, Psalm 83:18, the ruler of heaven and earth Gen 14:19, Is 37:16, the One against whom none can stand 2 Chron 20:6, Job 41:10, Is 43:14. He is the Almighty who works all things after the counsel of His will Eph 1:11, Is 14:27, Rev 19:6, and the heavenly Potter who shapes men according to His own good pleasure Ron 9:18-22. In short, He is the decider and determiner of every man’s destiny, and the controller of every detail in each individual’s life Prov 16:9, Prov 19:21, Prov 21:1, Ex 3:21-22, Ex 14:8, Ezra 1:1, Dan 1:9, Jas 4:15 —which is really just another way of saying, “He is God.”
"Before salvation came into this world election marched in the very forefront. And it had for its work the billeting of salvation. Election went through the world and marked the houses to which salvation should come and the hearts in which the treasure should be deposited. Election looked through all the race of man, from Adam down to the last, and marked with sacred stamp those for whom salvation was designed. He must needs go through Sumaria said election and salvation must go there. Then came predestination. Predestination did not merely mark the house, it mapped the road in which salvation should travel to that house. Predestination ordained every step of the great army of salvation. Predestination ordained the time when the sinner should be brought to Christ, the manner how he should be saved, the means that should be employed. It marked the exact hour and moment when God the Spirit should quicken the dead in sin and when peace and pardon should be spoken through the blood of Jesus. Predestination marked the way so completely to the house that salvation does never overstep the bounds and is never at a loss for the road. In the everlasting decree of the sovereign God the footsteps of mercy were every one of them ordained," Charles HaddonSpurgeon
Why didn't God choose everyone to be saved?
John 3; Romans 5
Question: [A very young Child]: I listened to your sermon last Sunday, and I was wondering, why didn't God choose everybody to be saved?
John MacArthur: Kids always ask those questions. Adults don't ask them because they've learned there's no answer.
Why didn't God choose everyone to be saved? You know something, honey? I don't know. I don't know. But, I'll give you a basic answer, Ok? And the basic answer--and I hope you can understand this--the basic answer is: because He got more glory for his own name by doing it the way He did it. God does what He does for His glory. And somehow, in some way, God is glorified in what He did, and that's why He did it.
Let me tell you something else: does God ever make a mistake? Is God ever wrong? Is God loving? He is. So, whatever He does fits into his character somehow. And if it's hard for us to understand, that's not God's problem; whose problem is that? That's our problem, isn't it? Because we just don't have the ability to understand that.
So there are some questions you just can't answer--that's one of them. Ok? Thank you, honey.
You know what the Scripture says: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked"--God says that. See, that provides for me the tension. I don't understand that question. I don't know the answer to that, because I don't know the mind of God. And so, it's at this point that I trust God--I trust his character. I don't know how God can have no pleasure in the death of the wicked and will let the wicked die. I don't know how on the one hand God can say in Isaiah 46:10, "I do all my good pleasure" and then say, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." I don't know that. And that's the tension.
Let me put it to you very simply: all men born in Adam are born with the sin nature, and because they bear a sin nature, they are all damned to hell. It is our sin in Adam and the nature we bear because of that, that condemns all men to hell. As all men go to hell, God, in his marvelous grace, saves some. The rest are damned, but not simply because of the sin in Adam--primarily because of the sin of unbelief. John 3 says, "You are condemned already because you"--what?--"believe not." Now, this is where the tension comes.
Salvation is by the elect, predestined, purpose of God. Damnation is by the unbelief of men. Now you say, "How do you resolve that?" I don't resolve that! I can't resolve that. But, I know God is perfect and He resolves it perfectly and that's the best we can do with it.
So, what do we do? When we're saved, who do we thank? God. And when men go to hell, who do we blame? Them. You say, "I don't understand that." That's right. And neither do I. The implications are this: if I've been saved, I praise God, I rejoice, I thank him; and when I go to an unbeliever, I don't say, "Are you elect?"--like Spurgeon said, pull up their shirt-tail and see if they have an "E" stamped on their back. I go to them and I say, "You'll be damned by your unbelief" and I plead with them to "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." And I leave the resolution to God.
6. The Divine Initiative“Why isn’t God an Equal Opportunity Redeemer? The question you ought to be asking is why me, why did He bring me out of darkness into light? The lie in the culture is: Unless a person has the moral power within his soul to do what is spiritually right, that unless we have that power, we’re not really free. Now, how possibly could we get further away from the Biblical view of man than that? That pagan view of the will is on a collision course with the Bible that uses a different metaphor that talks about slavery. The fallen human will is enslaved to sin. Yes, we still can do what we want to do; but, the problem is with the want to!”
"The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again."— C. H. Spurgeon
I think the truth of the matter is not too deep nor too difficult to discover. Self-righteousness is an effective bar to God's favor because it throws the sinner back upon his own merits and shuts him out from the imputed righteousness of Christ. And to be a sinner confessed and consciously lost is necessary to the act of receiving salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. This we joyously admit and constantly assert, but here is the truth that has been overlooked in our day: A sinner cannot enter the kingdom of God. The Bible passages that declare this are too many and too familiar to need repeating here, but the skeptical might look at Galatians 5:19–21 and Revelation 21:8. How then can any man be saved? The penitent sinner meets Christ and after that saving encounter he is a sinner no more. The power of the gospel changes him, shifts the basis of his life from self to Christ, faces him about in a new direction and makes him a new creation. The moral state of the penitent when he comes to Christ does not affect the result, for the work of Christ sweeps away both his good and his evil and turns him into another man. The returning sinner is not saved by some judicial transaction apart from a corresponding moral change. Salvation must include a judicial change of status, but what is overlooked by most teachers is that it also includes an actual change in the life of the individual. And by this we mean more than a surface change, we mean a transformation as deep as the roots of his human life. If it does not go that deep it does not go deep enough.
How can salvation involve real human choice when God has already made a sovereign choice?
Question: I have a question about the Lordship controversy. In particular, volition. I've attended a lot of your services, and I've heard you mention volition a few times, and also in your Study Bible. My question is, how can volition be a part of the salvation equation if God is completely sovereign?
John: How can human volition be a part of salvation if God is sovereign? The answer is, the sovereignty of God produces an effect through a means. Okay? And, the activating of the human will is the means. God evangelizes the world through the means of sending us to every creature. We become the means by which the Lord reaches the elect. And, there is a means by which God saves, and it is through faith, and that faith is an act of the human will--not apart from the power of God--but by means of the power of God.
Aiden Wilson Tozer
DEALING WITH SIN
Many evangelical teachers insist so strongly upon free, unconditional grace as to create the impression that sin is not a serious matter and that God cares very little about it! They make it seem that God is only concerned with our escaping the consequences. The gospel, then, in practical application, means little more than a way to escape the fruits of our past! But the heart that has felt the weight of its own sin and has seen the dread whiteness of the Most High God will never believe that a message of forgiveness without transformation is a message of good news. To remit a man's past without transforming his present is to violate the moral sincerity of his own heart. To that kind of thing God will be no party! For to offer a sinner the gift of salvation based upon the work of Christ, while at the same time allowing him to retain the idea that the gift carries with it no moral implications, is to do him untold injury where it hurts him most!
Among the most hotly contested and persistent debates in the history of the confessing church, the doctrine of election is perhaps the greatest of all. The question goes like this: Does God choose sinners to be saved and then provide for their salvation? Or, Does God provide the way of salvation that sinners must choose for themselves? Where's the evidence?
Question: I have a question about the Lordship controversy. In particular, volition. I've attended a lot of your services, and I've heard you mention volition a few times, and also in your Study Bible. My question is, how can volition be a part of the salvation equation if God is completely sovereign?
John: How can human volition be a part of salvation if God is sovereign? The answer is, the sovereignty of God produces an effect through a means. Okay? And, the activating of the human will is the means. God evangelizes the world through the means of sending us to every creature. We become the means by which the Lord reaches the elect. And, there is a means by which God saves, and it is through faith, and that faith is an act of the human will--not apart from the power of God--but by means of the power of God.
THE SECRET WORKING OF GOD I do believe in the secret and mysterious working of God in the human breast. I must believe it after finding the forgiving and converting grace of God in the Savior, Jesus Christ. My father and mother held high human standards, but completely without any thought of God. My parents appeared to be without any spark of desire after God; attitudes that were cold, earthy, profane. Can you tell me why, then, at the age of 17, as a boy surrounded by100 percent unbelief I could find my way to my mother's attic, kneel on my knees, and give my heart and life in committal to Jesus Christ? I cannot tell you why. I can only say that I know there is such a thing as the secret workings of God within the human being who has a sensitivity to hear the call of God. In my own case, I do have the testimony that my conversion to Jesus Christ was as real as any man's conversion has ever been! My fellow man, if the Spirit of God is still tugging at your heart, thank God, and follow the light!
I know that I am being repetitious - but this needs to be said again and again: our Lord will not save those whom He cannot command! The lifetime God has given us down here is a lifetime of decisions. Each person makes his own decisions as to the eternal world he is going to inhabit. We must decide to take Jesus for what He is - the anointed Savior and Lord who is King of kings and Lord of all lords! He would not be who He is if He saved us and called us without the understanding that He can also guide us and control our lives. The root of sin is rebellion against God, and hell is the Alcatraz for the unconstituted rebels who refuse to surrender to the will of God. There are many arguments about the reality of hell. A man might endure fire and brimstone and worm - but the essence of hell and judgment for a moral creature is to know and be conscious that he is where he is because he is a rebel! Hell will be the eternal domain of all the disobedient rebels who have said, "I owe God nothing!"
The idea that God does what He wants, and that what He does is true and right because He does it, is foundational to the understanding of everything in Scripture, including the doctrine of election. 
