Of God's Eternal Decree, III:5

Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, has chosen, in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto: and all to the praise of His glorious grace.

I recommend having a Bible open to Ephesians 1:1-12 as the discussion proceeds. When God's election unto salvation took place was before the foundation of the world, before any of the people so chosen existed in actuality (although an interesting discussion could center on whether something conceived in the mind of God is not also real). The emphasis is rightly placed on God. He is the active agent in election. He acts according to his reasons and his purposes. If election seems arbitrary to men, it is not arbitrary to God. He has simply not chosen at this time to share his reasons with men. But we may be assured that they are good reasons--indeed, the very best.

Election should never be thought of apart from Christ. Jesus Christ is himself the Chosen One of God (Matthew 12:18, quoting Isaiah 42:1; Luke 9:35; 1 Peter 2:4-6). Christians are saved because they are united to Christ by faith and identified with him in his death, burial, and resurrection, and Christ ever lives to interecede for them. They are his people, his sheep, his body, his bride.

Election is according to God's free grace and love, his unmerited favor. God has mercy upon whom he will have mercy. No one may demand it of him.

A key point made in this paragraph is the unconditionality of God's election. It was not based on foresight of faith, good works, perseverance, or any other thing in the creature. Previously I brought up the subject of God's foreknowledge. In the Scriptures, foreknowledge is not strictly about God knowing ahead of time that which will happen--this is a natural outworking of his decrees anyway. Instead, the word when it is applied to persons (as in Romans 8:29) should be mentally translated as "foreloved." To know someone in the Hebrew idiom was to have an intimate relationship with that person. There is an incorrect view of election--contradicted by the Confession--that election is based on God's prior knowledge that certain men and women would freely respond to his offer of salvation on their own initiatives. In this sense, God looks down the corridors of time and sees who will choose Jesus and who will not, then "elects" those who make the right choice. The Confession explicitly denies this understanding of God's sovereign election.

And all of this happens to the praise of God's glorious grace, as Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:12.

Tomorrow: God appoints the means as well as the ends.