The Bereans and Unconditional Election

By Mark W. Christy, PhD

In a previous article on this blog, “Acts 13:46 and Unconditional Election,” the doctrine of unconditional election was discussed. Basically, it says that all people who receive salvation through Christ are first chosen by God and regenerated solely by the work of God within their inner persons unto salvation. At the point of salvation when a person expresses repentance and faith (both gifts from God and part of His regenerative work), God’s regenerative work is made complete as the person becomes indwelled by the Holy Spirit and receives a new heart (i.e., becomes born again and new creation).

Within this doctrinal framework, many raise the issue concerning the place of a person’s response to the gospel (his/her free will). Some would even charge those who hold to the doctrine of unconditional election with ignoring the teachings in the Bible related to the human response. Robert Wilkin, in Is Calvinism Biblical?, argues that Calvinists (who must uphold this doctrine in order to align with Calvinism) consider the “issue of willingness or unwillingness” to be “a non-issue” (53).[i] He concludes this because on the surface it would seem that God’s electing decision being the determining factor in salvation would make the human response a forgone conclusion.

Apart from one’s own salvation experience which seems to support a role for the human will (at least typically), biblical evidence also offers some support for those who agree with Wilkin at least on the surface. In John 5:39-40, Jesus, for example, states that the testimony about Him was known by his listeners, and yet they willingly rejected it: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”[ii] Wilkin contrasts these unwilling Jews with the Bereans who did respond to the testimony of Scripture with belief in Acts 17:12 (52). In his comparison of the two groups, Wilkin notes “that searching the Bible is only effective if the one doing the searching is open to the truth” (53).

To assess the validity of Wilkin’s contention, one should start by considering the context of both passages. In John 5:38, Jesus tells his audience, “You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.” From this, it seems clear that the truth of God’s Word (though available to them in written form) had yet to pervade their hearts. To put this another way, God certainly seems to not have done any regenerating work in their inner persons in such a way that they would have been enabled to respond affirmatively to gospel proclamation. In other words, their lack of openness to the truth in their inner persons was preventing their will from responding positively to Christ’s message.

Unlike the Jews in John 5, the Bereans are described as “noble-minded…for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Whereas the Jews in Jesus’ audience knew the Word (though clearly their knowledge was somehow lacking) but refused to carefully consider Christ’s message in light of Scripture, the Bereans were open to the gospel but wanted to ensure that it aligned with Scripture. This drastically different response, it would seem, reflects a change of heart in the inner persons of the Bereans. This change of heart appears to have impacted their will in such a way that they became more open to the gospel.

All of this suggests that the condition of heart greatly impacts the free will response of the person. According to Jeremiah, the heart of the unsaved person is evil: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (17:9). Jesus Himself points to the heart as the source of evil that arises from within a person and is displayed ultimately through their choices: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man” (Mark 7:21-23).

Given the condition of the heart within a person apart from God’s regenerative work, it should seem clear that no person can be open to the truth of the gospel much less even understand it due to the deceitfulness which arises from within their inner persons. With such a heart, the Bereans would have no doubt responded the same as the unbelieving Jews in Jesus’ audience. Instead, the Bereans were said to be “noble-minded” in such a way that they wanted the truth and were able to recognize it. To accomplish this feat given the fallen condition of their hearts, the Bereans would have had to receive grace from God to such an extent that they had been (even while they were being) awakened to the truth of the gospel.

[i]Robert Wilkin, Is Calvinism Biblical?: Let the Scriptures Decide (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2017).

[ii]All Scripture references are taken from NASB1995.