Unconditional Election is one of the reformed doctrines which I am amazed to hear so little about - even at a reformed Bible college! (Perhaps it's something to do with Karl Barth's bizarre take on election?)
But here is a good, clear, reformed and biblical explanation of what Election is. Michael Horton of the White Horse Inn website interviews J.I. Packer on this reformed belief: link here
Here's an excerpt:
"MR: Dr. Packer, why do we need an election?
Packer: Because we will never be saved unless God chooses to save us. Election leads to the saving action of God in his lordship, and if we were left to ourselves we would never respond to God on our own at all. This is what people don't seem to appreciate, that all of us by nature are anti-God in our deepest instincts (see Romans chapter 3). We don't always realize this because many of us think we are seeking God, and frankly, people want a God they can manage and manipulate and have as a safety net. Those are facts about human life, and very familiar facts. But when it is a matter of responding to the real God and responding in a way that he calls for --that is by humbling ourselves before him, learning to trust his word absolutely, turning from sin, taking our hands off of the reins of our own life and letting him be in control --we wake up to the fact that we don't like this at all and we shy back from it. That is our nature. So you see, God has to take action otherwise we shall never come to him at all because that is the state in which fallen humans find themselves."
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