the doctrine of election and evangelism — James M. Boice

“and all who were appointed for eternal life believed” — Acts 13:48

"Isn’t it interesting that we should have this statement of the doctrine of election right in the middle of this great evangelistic story? There are people who cannot imagine how anybody can be an evangelist if God decides who will be saved and then saves them. The argument goes, “If God is going to save certain people, God will save them regardless. What I do doesn’t matter. Or, if it depends on me, then it depends on me and you must not talk about election.”
Actually, those who have had the greatest faith in God’s electing power are also those who, by the grace of God, have proved to be the most effective evangelists. Virtually all the famous missionary pioneers were believers in election.
“Why did they go out to evangelize, then, if they believed God was going to save people anyway?”
That isn’t quite the way to put it. If God is going to save someone, God will save them. That is true. But it is not quite correct to say that God will save them anyway, because when we say, “God will save them anyway,” we mean that God will save them apart from our (or another’s) witness, and that is not true. The God who appoints the ends also appoints the means, and the means he has appointed in the evangelization of other people is our witness.
We are to take the gospel into all the world. But as we go we are to know that God will work through that witness to bring to faith those he has appointed.
I sometimes say I do not know how you can evangelize any other way, at least not in a thinking manner. Suppose it does not depend on God; suppose it depends on you. Suppose people are saved because you are eloquent or because you have the right answers or because you happen to be in the right place at just the right time—entirely apart from God’s election. If that is true, it means that if you do not have the right answers, if you are not in the right place, if you do not present the gospel in just the right way, then these people will perish and it will be your fault. I do not know how anybody can live with that.
On the other hand, if you believe that God has appointed some for eternal life and that as you testify God will use that testimony to bring those persons to faith, the burden is removed and witnessing becomes what it was meant to be: a joy, as it obviously was for Paul and Barnabas."

— James M. Boice (1997). Acts: an expositional commentary (pp. 248–249). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

the doctrine of the call — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Is it not one of the great marks of the Christian salvation that God planned it before the foundation of the world? Not only that, he knew us individually before the foundation of the world. Our names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before we were ever born. This is glorious! This is wonderful! The whole doctrine of the call is involved in this phrase (“And he must needs go through Samaria” - John 4:4). He knows us one by one & knows all about us, & he meets us: “he must needs…” (John 4:4). He knows this compulsion… The Son of God comes to meet us in his own appointed time & way. As we have seen, from our standpoint we never know when. We must always be expectant, always open, always, as it were, anticipating by faith. But he comes!…” — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

remembering our justification, redemption, & reconciliation — Elyse Fitzpatrick

2 Peter 1:1-13

“One reason we do not grow in ordinary, grateful obedience as we should is that we’ve got amnesia; we’ve forgotten that we were cleansed from our sins. In other words, Apostle Peter is saying that on-going failure in our sanctification (the slow process of change into Christlikeness) is the direct result of failing to remember God’s love for us in the gospel (2 Peter 1:1-13). If we lack the comfort and assurance that His love and cleansing are meant to supply, our failures will handcuff us to yesterday’s sins, and we won’t have faith or courage to fight against them, or the love for God that’s meant to empower this war. Please don’t miss the import of Peter’s statement. If we fail to remember our justification, redemption, and reconciliation, we will struggle in our sanctification.” — Elyse Fitzpatrick

One of the main purposes of the doctrines of grace - Arthur W. Pink

“The doctrines of grace are intended for a further purpose than that of making up a creed. One main design of them is to move the affections; and more especially to reawaken that affection to which the heart oppressed with fears, or weighed down with cares, is wholly insufficient—even the love of God. That this love may flow perennially from our hearts, there must be a constant recurring to that which inspired it and which is calculated to increase it; just as to rekindle your admiration of a beautiful scene or picture, you would return again to gaze upon it. It is on this principle that so much stress is laid in Scripture on keeping the truths which we believe in memory: "By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you" (1 Cor. 15:2). "I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance," said the apostle (2 Pet. 3:1). "Do this in remembrance of me" said the Saviour. It is, then, by going back in memory to that hour when, despite our wretchedness and utter unworthiness, God called us, that our affection will be kept fresh. It is by recalling the wondrous grace that then reached out to a hell-deserving sinner and snatched you as a brand from the burning, that your heart will be drawn out in adoring gratitude. And it is by discovering this was due alone to the sovereign and eternal "purpose" of God that you were called when so many others are passed by, that your love for Him will be deepened.”

Arthur W. Pink, Comfort for Christians

the election of grace – Saint Augustine

“This is ‘the election of grace’ (Romans 11:5), that is, the election by which men are chosen through the grace of God. This is, I say, the election of grace by which one advances beyond all good, human merits. If it is given for any outstanding merits, it is no longer a gratuitous, but is rendered as due (Rom. 4:3-5). For this reason, one cannot use the term ‘grace’ in its true sense when ‘the reward,’ as the same Apostle says ‘is not credited as favor but as something due’ (Romans 4:4).
For this reason, one cannot use the term ‘grace’ in its true sense when ‘the reward,’ as the same Apostle says, ‘is not credited as favor but as something due’ (Romans 4:4). But, if, in order to be true grace, that is, gratuitous, it finds nothing in man which would rightly claim it as his due – and this is clearly understood in that saying, “For nothing shalt thou save them’ (Isaiah 52:3) – surely it itself bestows merit & is not given according to merit…

For God calls his many predestined children to make them members of His predestined only Son, & not with that call by which those who did not wish to come to the wedding were called (Matthew 22:1-14), for with that call the Jews also were called, to whom Christ crucified is a scandal, & the Gentiles were called, for whom Christ crucified is foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:23). Rather, He calls the predestined by that call which the Apostle distinguished when he declared that he preached Christ, the Wisdom & the Power of God, to those who were called, Jews as well as Greeks (1 Corinthians 1:24). For he speaks thus: “But unto those who are called,” to show that those others were not called, for he knows that there is a special & certain call reserved for those who are called according to God’s purpose, “whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29).
This is the calling which he means when he says, "Not of works, but of him who calls, was it said to her, 'The elder shall serve the younger’” (Romans 9:10-13). Did the Apostle say, ‘Not of works but of him who believes’? No, for he took this entirely away from man, so that he might give it all to God. Hence he said, "But of him who calls," not by any kind of call but by that call whereby one becomes a believer.”

– Saint Augustine