The bible is very clear that there is, indeed, an elect. It tells us nobody can come to Christ unless the Father first draws them. The only people who will be saved are those that God has committed to save. The question is, why do we bother doing evangelism and going on mission if he has determined to save whomever he will save?

The short answer here is because Jesus tells us to. In the Great Commission, we are commanded to go into all the world and make disciples. Jesus told us to be lights on a hill and not to hide our light under a bushell. Paul insists that, in the ordinary run of things, without someone going and sharing the gospel nobody will be saved.. The New Testament has multiple places in which we are called to give a reason (or defence) for the hope that is in us or to go and share the gospel. It is the pattern set for us by the Apostles. However else we cut it, we go because Jesus tells us to do so. We should be content with that.

However, there is that nagging question of why he calls us to go when he has elected a people to save already? If he is sovereign over all things, why does he need us to go on mission? Why put ourselves through the effort of it all if all the people he wants to save will be saved regardless?

Of course, God doesn’t need us to do mission, evangelism or any sharing of the gospel. He can save whomever he wants without us doing anything. Which should tell us, at an absolute minimum, we aren’t doing it because he can’t. We aren’t doing it because he needs us to do it for him. Which begs the question, if he doesn’t need us to do it, why does he ask us to do it?

As any parent will tell you, they don’t really need their toddler to do anything for them either. In fact, everything would be quicker, easier and frankly less messy if they could get on with their jobs while their toddler is in bed or just out of the house altogether. But any parent will tell you, your children will not learn, grow or mature if you constantly do everything for them. It might be quicker, easier and more efficient for you, but if your goal is to raise mature, able and independent human beings, efficiency and what makes life easiest for you tends to operate in inverse for what is helpful in the training and growth of your children. This is, in fact, true in almost any training role you care to mention.

Here we get somewhere near the answer as to why God asks us to do evangelism and mission when he just doesn’t need us to do it. He could save everybody he wants in the blink of an eye. He could do it faster, quicker, more efficiently and less messily entirely without us. Which suggests the reason he asks us to do these things isn’t for his sake, but for ours!

What sort of things might we gain when we do evangelism? We develop a deeper reliance on the Lord has we go out in faith, in much fear and trembling, and rely on him to give us words to say knowing that it is only as his Spirit is at work anybody will respond. We are often pushed further to pray as we get about the Lord’s business knowing that we cannot do it in ourselves. We are pushed further into the Word as we suddenly engage with real life questions that demand an answer. We become more acutely aware of the Spirit’s work in us. We may find we develop godly character as we engage with people, in all sorts of settings and environments, that force us to develop things that might never have developed otherwise. These are just some of things that the Lord might be doing.

Beyond all that, if we know that the Lord has an elect, we engage in the task of evangelism in trust that the Lord has his people here. There are, indeed, people the Lord wants to save and our job is simply to go and find them. This deepens our dependence on the Lord and our trust in him whilst simultaneously freeing us to do the work, knowing that it doesn’t ultimately rest on us.