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The New Testament Doctrine of Election

Its origins and implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Extract

‘Election is the love of God enacted and inserted into history in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, so that in the strictest sense Jesus Christ is the election of God. ’1 In these words of Professor T. F. Torrance, as I hope to show in this essay, lies the heart of the New Testament conception of election. It is ‘in Christ’ that the primitive Church under-stands the meaning and purpose of Election rather than in the Old Testament ‘teaching’ regarding election; although, of course, she does look back to the Old Testament as ground for claiming the existence of an election as such. That is to say, the Church does not invent the idea of the Election, but rather takes up that idea and finds in her own existence and nature the meaning and purpose of election. It is the New Testament that illumines the shadowy Old Testament figure of Election with the light of the glory of Christ. Because of this, we must expect not only to see Election more clearly, as it were, in the New than in the Old Testament, but also we must expect to find in it new truth and new implications.

At precisely what point in the biblical witness did the act of election begin? Who are the elect or chosen in the sight of the biblical writers? Writers tend to vary among themselves as to the answer to these questions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1958

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References

page 406 note 1 Torrance, T. F.: ‘Universalism or Election?’, SJT, Sept. 1949, p. 315Google Scholar.

page 406 note 2 Snaith, N. H.: the article, ‘Chosen’, in T.W.B., p. 42Google Scholar.

page 406 note 3 Rowley, H. H.: The Biblical Doctrine of Election, pp. 1933Google Scholar.

page 407 note 1 1 Cor. 10.18.

page 407 note 2 Gal. 6.16.

page 407 note 3 Gal. 3.7, 3.29; Luke 3.8; John 8.33ff; Rom. 16.13.

page 407 note 4 Rom. 8.33; Col. 3.12; 1 Thess. 1.4; Ephes. 1.4; 1 Peter 1.1; 2 John 1.

page 408 note 1 Rom. 11ff.

page 408 note 2 Deut. 7.6f, 23–5f.

page 408 note 3 I.e. ⋯ χριστ⋯ς; it is Jesus who determines the Messiahship and not vice versa.

page 408 note 4 Exod. 4.22.

page 409 note 1 Rom. 8.29–30.

page 409 note 2 Does Mark's alleged ‘adoptionism’ not perhaps centre in ‘Election’, in Jesus' identification with Israel and her election or ‘adopting’ (Exod. 4.22) rather than in a metaphysical theory of Christology?

page 409 note 3 Rom. 16.13.

page 409 note 4 I Peter 2.4.

page 410 note 1 Selwyn, E. G.: The First Epistle of St. Peter, p. 158Google Scholar; cf. Skinner, J.: The Book of the Prophet Isaiah—chs. 1–39, pp. 225ffGoogle Scholar.

page 410 note 2 Cf. Mark 1.11 and parallels.

page 410 note 3 John 1.18.

page 410 note 4 Luke 9.35.

page 410 note 5 Luke 23.35.

page 410 note 6 H. H. Rowley, op. cit.

page 410 note 7 O. Cullman's Baptism in the New Testament, infra.

page 411 note 1 Campbell, J. C.: ‘God's people and the Remnant’, SJT, March 1950, p. 81Google Scholar.

page 411 note 2 Manson, T. W.: The Teaching of Jesus, pp. 179ffGoogle Scholar.

page 412 note 1 H. H. Rowley, op. cit.

page 412 note 2 Nygren, A.: Romans, p. 393Google Scholar.

page 412 note 3 1 Kings 19.17ff.

page 412 note 4 H. H. Rowley, op. cit., pp. 72, 73.

page 412 note 5 Amos 3.12; 4.11.

page 412 note 6 Isa. 1.9.

page 413 note 1 Dodd, C. H.: Epistle of Paul to the Romans, pp. 74, 75fGoogle Scholar.

page 413 note 2 Nygren, : Commentary on Romans, pp. 393fGoogle Scholar.

page 413 note 3 Davis, G. Henton: article ‘Remnant’, in T.W.B., p. 188Google ScholarPubMed.

page 413 note 4 See N. Flew, Jesus and His Church.

page 413 note 5 I.e. for the Church being Israel.

page 414 note 1 Barth, K.: Dogmatics in Outline, p. 79Google Scholar.

page 414 note 2 J. C. Campbell: op. cit., p. 84.

page 414 note 3 Mark 13.27 and parallels.

page 414 note 4 Luke 6.13.

page 414 note 5 Acts 1.15f.

page 415 note 1 See here Acts 1.24.

page 415 note 2 John 6.70.

page 415 note 3 John 13.18.

page 415 note 4 John 15.16.

page 415 note 5 John 1.17.

page 415 note 6 Rom. 8.33.

page 415 note 7 Col. 3.12(ἠλαημ⋯νоι).

page 415 note 8 I Peter 2.9.

page 415 note 9 Rom. 8.33.

page 416 note 1 Matt. 3.17; Mark 1.11; Luke 3.22, 9.35.

page 416 note 2 Barth, Karl: ‘The Real Church’, SJT, Dec. 1950CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 416 note 3 1 Cor. 3.16.

page 416 note 4 Col. 3.12.

page 416 note 5 2 Peter 1.10.

page 416 note 6 1 Cor. 3.23.

page 417 note 1 Rankin, O. S.: article ‘Saint,’ in T.W.B., 214Google Scholar.

page 417 note 2 1 Cor. 1.2.

page 417 note 3 1 Cor. 3.23.

page 417 note 4 John 15.19.

page 417 note 5 Rom. 1.6.

page 417 note 6 1 Cor. 1.2.

page 417 note 7 Gen. 12.3.

page 417 note 8 Isa. 42.6ff.

page 417 note 9 Gen. 28.14.

page 1417 note 0 Col. 1.27f.

page 418 note 1 John 18.37.

page 418 note 2 Rom. 9.11, 8.28; Eph. 1.11, 3.11.

page 418 note 3 John 3.16.

page 418 note 4 1 Cor. 3.23.

page 419 note 1 Acts 1.6, 7 etc.

page 419 note 2 Eph. 1.11; cf. Eph. 1.5; Rom. 8.29, 30.

page 419 note 3 Eph. 1.5; Rom. 18.29f.

page 419 note 4 Eph.3.11.

page 419 note 5 1 John 5.19.

page 419 note 6 John 16.11.

page 419 note 7 Rom.8.1.

page 419 note 8 Rev. 1.18 and 1 Thess. 1.10.

page 420 note 1 Rom. 8.29–30.

page 420 note 2 p. 10 of the essay.

page 420 note 3 Acts 6.5, 15.22 and 25.

page 420 note 4 Acts 1.24.

page 420 note 5 Acts 15.28.

page 420 note 6 Acts 15.22.

page 421 note 1 Acts 2.47.