§ 34. THE ELECTION OF THE COMMUNITY

The election of grace, as the election of Jesus Christ, is simultaneously the eternal election of the one community of God by the existence of which Jesus Christ is to be attested to the whole world and the whole world summoned to faith in Jesus Christ. This one community of God in its form as Israel has to serve the representation of the divine judgment, in its form as the Church the representation of the divine mercy. In its form as Israel it is determined for hearing, and its form as the Church for believing the promise sent forth to man. To the one elected community of God is given in the one case its passing, and in the other its coming form. (II.2, 195)

1. Israel and the Church (II.2, 195)

"The election of man is his election in Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ is the eternally living beginning of man and of the whole creation. Electing means to elect 'in Him.' And election means to be elected 'in Him.' . . . Included in His election there is, therefore, this 'other' election, the election of the many (from whom none is excluded) whom the electing God meets in this way." (II.2, 915)

Note carefully that Barth's understanding of election does not begin with the individual believer or unbeliever but instead with Jesus Christ (see § 33 above), and then moves from Jesus Christ to the one entire community of the elected people of God, consisting of both Israel and the Church (the current § 34), and only then to individual believers or unbelievers (see § 35 below).

"Extra ecclesiam nulla salus." (Outside the church there is no salvation.) (II.2, 197)

"Jesus Christ is the crucified Messiah of Israel." (II.2, 198)

"Jesus Christ is also the risen Lord of the Church." (II.2., 198)

"Israel is the people of the Jews which resists its divine election." (II.2, 198)

"The Church is the gathering of Jews and Gentiles called on the ground of its election." (II.2, 199)

"In both cases it is Jesus Christ who originally and properly is both Elector and Elected." (II.2, 199)

"Israel and the Church in this unity and differentiation are the mediate and mediating object of the divine election." (II.2, 201)

For a running commentary on Romans 9-11, see pp. 202-205, 213-233, 240-259, and 267-305.

2. The Judgment and the Mercy of God (II.2, 205)

"In the eternal election of the one man Jesus of Nazareth, God makes Himself the covenant-partner of the sinful man who has fallen away from Him and therefore fallen a victim to death according to His just judgment. The purpose of the election of this one man is God's will to save this lost man and to make him a participant of the glory of eternal life in His kingdom by taking his place in the person of this one man, by taking to Himself man's misery in Him, by making it His own concern, by clothing him in return with His own righteousness, blessedness and power. Thus the election of this one man is His election for the execution of the judgment and mercy of God." (II.2, 205)

"The church form of the community [i.e., as distinct from, but never separated from, the community in the form of Israel] reveals what God chooses for man when He elects him for communion with Himself in His eternal election of grace." (II.2, 210-211)

3. The Promise of God Heard and Believed (II.2, 233)

"In the eternal election of the one man Jesus of Nazareth, God makes Himself a witness to the covenant which He has decided to establish between Himself and man, to the judgment and mercy in which He has turned to man. The purpose of the election of this One is God's will that in and through this One man should come to hear His self-witness as the promise, pledge and assurance which is valid for his own life too, and that in faith he should relate to himself what is spoken to him in the person of this One, accepting its truth and actuality for himself, relying on it, living by the fact that it is said to him." (II.2, 233)

"The special service of Israel within the totality of the elected community consists, however, in the hearing, the reception and the acceptance of the divine promise." (II.2, 233)

"In the perfect form of the one elected community of God the service of the church consists, quite irrespective of Israel's attitude, in the fact that it secures attention for the promise heard by putting faith in it. The Church is in existence wherever the promise finds faith-among both Jews and Gentiles-by creating faith for itself. Faith means putting one's confidence in God's mercy as it is attested to man-both Jew and Gentile-by God Himself in His promise." (II.2, 237)

Note carefully: It is the Word of God (here identified as the promise, which is to say, the gospel) that creates faith in the hearer. Faith is not a human accomplishment. Faith is not something for which we can claim any credit. Faith is the sheer gift of God, in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, by the proclamation of the Word.

"The Church form of the community of God reveals that when God elects man for communion with Himself in His eternal election of grace He promotes him to the indestructible position of His child and brother, His intimate and friend. What God is, He wills to be for man also. What belongs to Him He wills to communicate to man also. What He can do is meant to benefit man also. No one and nothing is to be so close to man as He. No one and nothing is to separate him from Him. And in fellowship with Him every need of man is to be met; he is to be refreshed, exalted and glorified far beyond all need. This, indeed, is what is allotted to him in the promise fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus Christ." (II.2, 238)

4. The Passing and the Coming Man (II.2, 259)

"In the eternal election of the one man Jesus of Nazareth, God, merciful in His judgment, appoints for man a gracious end and a new gracious beginning. He makes him die in order that he may truly live. He makes him pass in order that he may acquire a real future. The purpose of the election of this One is God's righteous and saving will to deal with man's need at its very root and to show this man the supreme favour by taking his place in the person of this One, taking away from man and upon Himself the bitterness of man's end, and bringing upon man the whole joy of the new beginning. Thus the election of this One is His election to death and to life, to passing and to new coming." (II.2, 259-260, emphasis added)

Note that God's mercy includes judgment and that his judgment issues in mercy. God kills us in order to make us alive, and he does this precisely in the person of Jesus Christ.

"We can never believe in unbelief; we can believe only in the future faith of those who at present do not believe." (II.2, 296)

This is something I have carried with me for many years now: We are not to believe in unbelief. Instead, we are to believe in God and in the power and mercy of God who alone gives faith to the elect.  

§ 35. THE ELECTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL

The man who is isolated over against God is as such rejected by God. But to be this man can only be by the godless man's own choice. The witness of the community of God to every individual man consists in this: that this choice of the godless man is void; that he belongs eternally to Jesus Christ and therefore is not rejected, but elected by God in Jesus Christ; that the rejection which he deserves on account of his perverse choice is borne and cancelled by Jesus Christ; and that he is appointed to eternal life with God on the basis of the righteous, divine decision. The promise of his election determines that as a member of the community himself shall be a bearer of its witness to the whole world. And the revelation to his rejection can only determine him to believe in Jesus Christ as the One by whom it has been borne and cancelled. (II.2, 306)

1. Jesus Christ, the Promise and its Recipient (II.2, 306)

Here Barth rehearses the history of the doctrine of predestination in the west, beginning with Augustine, moving to Aquinas, and culminating in Calvin and his successors, and rejects its emphasis on the election of individuals not only as a starting point but also in isolation from the election of Jesus Christ and the community. Barth, as we have seen, starts with God's covenant with mankind, with his election of Jesus Christ and then with his election of Israel and the Church. (II.2, pp. 306-309)

"The election of Jesus Christ relativises the election of individuals, but it also establishes their election alongside and apart from Him. Their election is not void because it can be real or significant only when included in the election of Jesus Christ. It is, indeed, their election which is at issue in the election of Jesus Christ." (II.2, 310)

"There are no predestined families and no predestined nations . . . nor is there a predestined humanity. There are only predestined men-predestined in Jesus Christ and by way of the community. It is individuals who are chosen and not the totality of men." (II.2, 313)

"Predestined man (according to the election of Jesus Christ and the community) is he who, in and with God's choice, is not met by honour and approval, but by justification by grace alone, by forgiveness; who is not the object of divine election in virtue of a life which is acceptable and welcome to God, but because God covers, transforms and renews his unworthy and rebellious life; whom the sovereign God (in the sovereignty of His omnipotence and loving-kindness, His constancy and patience) encounters, not with a natural Therefore, but with a miraculous Nevertheless; whom He chooses absolutely for the sake of His own will; whom He makes a partner of His covenant quite apart from and even contrary to his own merit or ability. Predestined man is man made usable to God by the Holy Spirit." (II.2, 315)

It is in man's power to sin but not to reverse God's decision. It is in man's power to flee but not to escape God. It is in man's power to let go of God, but God does not let go of him. (II.2, 317)

"This, then, is the message with which the elect community (as the circumference of the elect man, Jesus of Nazareth) has to approach every man-the promise, that he, too, is an elect man." (II.2, 318)

See especially pp. 323-325, where Barth moves beyond dogmatics, which deals with the elect in the third person, to say how this must be preached, to the individual in the second person.

"We have understood Jesus Christ as the one Elector and Elect (in whom the many are elect), and again as the one Rejector and Rejected (in whom the many are not rejected)." (II.2, 325)

2. The Elect and the Rejected (II.2, 340)

The elect are the elect by the sheer act of God, "independent of their personal peculiarities and independent of their conduct and actions." (II.2, 340-341)

"God himself is the mystery of the elect." (II.2, 343)

"By the free event of proclamation and of faith they [the elect] are placed in a special situation to others, and in a ministry in which the latter do not stand. This is revealed by the fact that they are silent when others speak; the confess when others deny; they stand when others falter; they adore when others blaspheme; they are joyful when others are sad, and sad when others are joyful; at peace when others are restless, and restless when others are at peace. They are different because of their calling." (II.2, 345)

"The man rejected by God is the man who, because of his sin and guilt, is denied and repudiated by the righteous judgment and sentence of God, and transferred to the utterly untenable condition of Satan and his kingdom. He is the man abandoned to eternal perdition. He is the man whom this befits, and who has to suffer that which befits him, because he has challenged and drawn upon himself the destructive hostility of God. To be the rejected of God is the threat whose fulfilment would be the inevitable lot of every single human life. And it is this threat which in the election of Jesus Christ is diverted to Him, the One, and in that way averted from all others. By permitting the life of a rejected man to be the life of His own Son, God has made such a life objectively impossible for all others." (II.2, 346)

Note the formal continuity with double predestination (of both the elect and the rejected) but the material reduction of the class of the rejected to the one person of Jesus Christ and the apparent concomitant expansion of the class of the elect to all others. But see p. 417 below.

"A limit is fixed by the fact that the rejected man, who alone and truly takes and bears away the wrath of God, is called Jesus Christ. They can be only potentially rejected. They may indeed conduct themselves as rejected, but even if they deserved it a thousand times they have no power to bring down on themselves a second time the sword of God's wrath now that it has fallen." (II.2, 349)

Barth considers the witness to Christ in the Old Testament in a footnote covering pp. 354-409.

3. The Determination of the Elect (II.2, 410)

"As Jesus Christ is for him, the goal and content of his own life are foreordained. The purpose for which he is chosen is to be the kind of man for whom Jesus Christ is." (II.2, 410)

"Each elect individual as such is, therefore, blessed-whether or not he recognises and enjoys and answers it as is fitting." (II.2, 412)

"If we are to respect the freedom of divine grace, we cannot venture the statement that it must and will finally be coincident with the world of man as such. . . . No such right or necessity can legitimately be deduced. Just as the gracious God does not need to elect of call any single man, so He does not need to elect or call all mankind. . . . But, again, in grateful recognition of the grace of the divine freedom we cannot venture the opposite statement that there cannot and will not be this final opening up and enlargement of the circle of election and calling." (II.2, 417-418).

So, we cannot affirm universalism, be we cannot rule it out, either. Compare p. 346 above.

"The concern of the elect is always the 'ministry of reconciliation' (2 Cor. 5:18), and no other." (II.2, 419)

Barth considers the witness to Christ in the New Testament in a footnote covering pp. 419-449.

4. The Determination of the Rejected (II.2, 449)

"A 'rejected' man is one who isolates himself from God by resisting his election as it has taken place in Jesus Christ. God is for him; but he is against God. God is gracious to him; but he is ungrateful to God. God receives him; but he withdraws himself from God. God forgives him his sins; but he repeats them as though they were not forgiven." (II.2, 449-450)

Barth studies the case of Judas Iscariot in a footnote covering pp. 459-506.  

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