One of the many criticisms of the doctrine of unconditional election is, “If God is sovereign over salvation—if He already chose whom would be saved—then why evangelize? It’s going to happen!”
Most of the time, this question is offered in a condescending manner, void of any grace or good-faith discussion. It’s a common caricature of the doctrines of grace. It shows the instigator doesn’t truly understand unconditional (or sovereign) election, and is only looking to cause mischief. But there are some who posit the question with sincerity, so I’d like to answer.
There are (at least) three reasons why we must evangelize even though God has already chosen His people.
Jesus Commands It
The most important reason for evangelizing in light of God’s sovereign election of His church is Matthew 28:19-20, where Jesus says: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (ESV).
We evangelize because Jesus told us to do so. It’s a mandate. Back-and-forth arguments and philosophizing do us no good. At the end of the day, we evangelize—we preach the gospel to the nations!—because our Lord commanded it. Just because one may not fully comprehend the relationship between God’s sovereign election and evangelism doesn’t negate his or her God-given responsibility to carry out the Great Commission.
So, again, we evangelize ultimately because Jesus commands us to. When we don’t evangelize—when we don’t make the effort to share the gospel with others in various contexts—we are disobeying the Lord, and doing our own spiritual growth a disservice.
God Uses Means
God not only ordains the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), but He also ordains the means to the end. For example, God could accomplish His will simply by the execution of His own good and sovereign will. And yet, He chooses to use His church to accomplish it—through prayer. I’m sure God has saved countless individuals through the earnest prayers of other saints. In the same vein, God uses Christians sharing the gospel with unbelievers to accomplish His mission to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). He uses the imperfect, the downtrodden, the frustrated Christians who simply desire to obey Him to rescue sinners from Hell.
And how wonderful is that? How beautiful is it that God, the Creator and Sustainer, the Alpha and Omega, chooses to use His people to accomplish His will? It’s marvelous; it’s extraordinary; it’s a massive privilege, and a gift of grace.
Because we know God has already chosen His people, our evangelistic efforts can be more confident, increasingly hopeful. Many Christians consider an evangelism encounter unsuccessful because the unbeliever seems more hardened to the gospel. Not so. The success of an evangelistic encounter lies in the sharing of the gospel itself. Don’t look to the results—simply be obedient. If we are faithful, God will use us to bring His flock into His fold.
We Don’t Know the Elect
We don’t know the people God chose “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). God is the only one who knows all who make up the church, His people. Therefore, we must preach the gospel to all people, regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexuality, and the like. It doesn’t matter how perverse a person is or how religiously fake an individual is—they need the gospel just like us.
Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, famously noted:
If God would have painted a yellow stripe on the backs of the elect, I would go around lifting shirts. But since he didn’t, I must preach “whosoever will”; and when “whosoever” believes, I know he is one of the elect.
Spurgeon is correct. Because we have no knowledge of who is elect and who is not, we must preach the gospel to “whosoever will.” The gospel is free to all who believe, to all who trust, to all who humbly admit their need for a Savior. But we must share it.
There is a gross heresy that floats around some fringe Reformed circles known as Hyper-Calvinism. This states, in short, that we don’t need to evangelize because God has already chosen His people. Most Calvinists are incorrectly labeled Hyper-Calvinists, because most assume this is what we believe about the relationship between God’s sovereign election and evangelism. (As you read above, this is not so.)
Tim Challies wrote:
Probably the most distinguishing characteristic of a Hyper-Calvinist is an unwillingness to evangelize at all, or to evangelize without extending a call to accept and believe the gospel.
Challies cites the work of Phil Johnson, executive director of Grace to You, on some key characteristics of Hyper-Calvinists.
Johnson said a Hyper-Calvinist is someone who
- Denies that the gospel call applies to all who hear, OR
- Denies that faith is the duty of every sinner, OR
- Denies that the gospel makes any “offer” of Christ, salvation, or mercy to the non-elect (or denies that the offer of divine mercy is free and universal), OR
- Denies that there is such a thing as “common grace,” OR
- Denies that God has any sort of love for the non-elect.
In the end, Johnson notes, “All five varieties of hyper-Calvinism undermine evangelism or twist the gospel message.”
The most annoying thing about wearing the “Calvinist” label is being characterized as a Hyper-Calvinist. All those whom I know hold to the doctrines of grace have a love for evangelism.
Back to the original point. Since we don’t have the knowledge God has—and gratefully so—we must share the free gospel message to whomever will hear. It is a grave error to not share the gospel with someone simply because we believe God has already chosen His church.
Christian, God uses His church to add to His church. That’s amazing.
Friend, God sovereignly chose His people before He created the world. This is not in conflict with the command to make disciples of all nation, to evangelize, to share the gospel with the world. We must trust in God’s sovereignty and continue to share the truth of the gospel.
Theology & Life 
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