A.W. Pink on Election

"Election is the taking of one and leaving of another, and implies freedom on the part of the elector to choose or refuse. Hence the choosing of one does no injury to the other which is not chosen. If I select one out of a hundred men to a position of honor and profit, I do no injury to the ninety and nine not elected. If I take two from a score of ragged and hungry children, and adopt them as my son and daughter, feed and clothe, house and educate them, I do them an immense benefit; but while disbursing my bounty as I choose and making two happy, I do no injury to the eighteen who are left. True, they remain ragged, ill-fed, and uneducated, yet they are in no worse condition for my having shown favor to their late companions—they only continue precisely in the situation in which they were.

Again; if among ten convicts justly sentenced to death, the king of England was pleased to choose five to be the recipients of his sovereign mercy, pardoned and released them, they would owe their very lives to his royal favor; nevertheless, by extending kindness to them, no injury is done to the other five: they are left to suffer the righteous penalty of the law, due to them for their transgressions. They only suffer what they would have suffered if the king's mercy had not been extended toward their fellows. Who, then, can fail to see that it would be a misuse of terms, a grievous slander of the king, to charge him with injustice, because he was pleased to exercise his royal prerogative and evidence his favor in this discriminating manner.

Our Savior definitely expressed this idea of election (Matthew 24:40-41)....Divine election, then, is a choice to favor from among those who have no claims upon God. It therefore does no injustice to them that are passed by, for they only continue as and where they were, and as and where they would have been if none had been taken from among them.

In the exercise of His electing grace God has mercy upon whom He will have mercy, and in the bestowment of His favor He does what He wills with His own."

~ Arthur Pink, "The Doctrine of Election"

Man is Still Responsible Before God

Although God is perfectly sovereign, man still has a direct responsibility to Him to whom we owe account.

"Side by side with the immutability and invincibility of God's decrees, Scripture plainly teaches that man is a responsible creature and answerable for his actions. And if our thoughts are formed from God's Word the maintenance of the one will not lead to the denial of the other. That there is a real difficulty in defining where the one ends and the other begins is freely granted. This is ever the case where there is a conjunction of the Divine and the human. Real prayer is indited by the Holy Spirit, yet is also the cry of the human heart. The Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, yet were they written by men who were something more than machines in the hand of the Spirit. Christ is both God and man. He is Omniscient, yet 'increased in wisdom' (Luke 2:52). He was Almighty, yet was 'crucified through weakness' (2 Corinthians 13:4). He was the Prince of life, yet He died. High mysteries are these, yet faith receives them unquestioningly." - A.W. Pink

Decrees of God

One of the books that God put in my hands towards the end of my stay in prison was "The Attributes of God" by A.W. Pink. In his book he put into words all of the things that God has just spent over a year showing me. These are some great things to meditate on that your faith may grow.

"God's decrees are called His 'counsel' to signify they are consummately wise. They are called God's 'will' to show He was under no control, but acted according to His own pleasure. When a man's will is the rule of his conduct, it is usually capricious and unreasonable; but wisdom is always associated with 'will' in the Divine proceedings, and accordingly, God's decrees are said to be 'the counsel of His own will' (Ephesians 1:11)."
- A.W. Pink

Think about it...

"Our days are numbered, and so are the hairs of our heads. We may learn what is the extent of the Divine decrees from the dispensations of providence, in which they are executed. The care of Providence reaches to the most insignificant creatures, and the most minute events - the death of a sparrow, and the fall of a hair."
- A.W. Pink

"(The decrees of God) are absolute and unconditional. The execution of them is not suspended upon any condition which may, or may not be, performed. In every instance where God has decreed an end, He has also decreed every means to that end. The One who decreed salvation of His elect also decreed to work faith in them (Thessalonians 2:13). 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure' (Isaiah 46:10): but that could not be, if His counsel depended upon a condition which might not be performed. But God 'worketh all things after the counsel of His own will' (Ephesians 1:11)."
- A.W. Pink

"O my reader, how thankful should we be that everything is determined by infinite wisdom and goodness! What praise and gratitude are due unto God for His Divine decrees. It is because of them that 'we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose' (Romans 8:28). Well may we excaim, 'For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.' (Romans 11:36)." - A.W. Pink