For those who oppose the doctrine of election in salvation, consider the conversion of Paul. While he was still Saul, he hated the church. He knew what it taught, he knew what it believed, and he hated every part of it. No amount of persuasion or apologetic argumentation could sway his rock hard heart. He had such perfect hatred of the church and the gospel that he obtained letters from the Sanhedrin authorizing him to seek out and arrest Christians that they might be put to death.

How did such an angry man suddenly become a Christian? Was it from his own free will choice upon hearing the gospel? No. In fact, one could say that Christ quite literally knocked Saul off his high horse and changed him. On the road to Damascus with arrest letters in hand, Saul is supernaturally transformed as Christ confronts him with a blinding light and speaks to him audibly. He does not plead with Saul to accept him, he does not ask him to choose him as Lord over his life. He supernaturally changes the heart of Saul who immediately acknowledges Christ as Lord.

And when Ananias is sent to Saul, now Paul, it is not to preach the gospel to him in hopes he might choose Christ. It is to restore the sight of Paul whom Christ has said, “he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). God had already chosen Paul and purposed him to be saved that he might preach the gospel to the Gentiles. It was not happenstance or good fortune that Paul, one of the most educated Jews who was also Roman citizen, came to faith. It was the eternal decree of God that he would be saved in Christ.

When Paul was converted on that road through the supernatural work of Christ, we see externally what happens internally to every single Christian that God has decreed to save, just like Paul. When God saves, it is indeed because the gospel is preached (just as Paul had heard it time and again from Christians he despised). And, just like Paul, God supernaturally changes the heart through regeneration that the unsaved might finally receive the implanted word and, through God’s mighty power and might, not of their own effort, profess repentance and faith. And every last Christian, just like Paul, has been saved for the express purpose of glorifying Christ.

Election and salvation do not occur apart from God’s sovereign election and regeneration. It is not the work of man, but the work of God, something we see so beautifully displayed on that road to Damsacus. And it should humble each and every servant of Christ that God chose the most underserving wretches to redeem for his glory and our ultimate good.