According as He hath chosen us before the foundation of the world.
Election
I. Let us consider the cause, fountain, origin of the blessings of salvation--“according as He hath chosen as.” The blessings which we enjoy, the apostle affirms, are in consequence of God’s having chosen us, that we might become partakers of them in all their extent and fulness. To this source alone are they to be traced. How comes it that the Church of God’s “saints and faithful” thus stands distinguished from the ungodly world, in the blessings it enjoys, the favours reserved for it, and the eternal glory it shall inherit?
1. It is a matter of fact concerning which this question is raised. Whatever may be the solution of the question, or difficulties connected with it, there is no denying or concealing the fact itself, that there has been, is, and will be, a distinction among men--a difference--a separation--as respects their state and character before God, and their ultimate destiny.
2. This fact cannot be accounted for by any reference to individual or personal distinctions of character or worthiness.
3. We reach the only reasonable account of the matter when we adopt the Scriptural explanation, and ascribe “all spiritual blessing in the heavenlies” as enjoyed by God’s people to His free electing love, “according as He hath chosen us.” If you wished to explore the true source of some majestic liver, which in its course beautifies and blesses the earth, as it flows through thousands of miles to the great ocean, you would not pause at some expanding lake which it fills and empties, nor ascend the route of some acceding tributary which helps to swell its volume; but, keeping by the main channel, and leaving behind you the verdant plain and the smiling hamlet and the sleeping lake, you ascend high up the mountain steep, and there hidden in the cleft of the rock you discover the little bubbling spring that marks the origin and fountain and true rising place of that noble stream. So, taught and guided by God’s Word, when you would trace to its true fountain the stream of spiritual blessing which blesses you “in the heavenlies,” you pause not at any works or deeds of yours, you point not to any superiority natural or acquired over others, you fix not even on “faith” and “repentance” (as if these all did not need to be accounted for!), but, in all humility, yet with all thankfulness, you rest in the elective love of God, as the original and actual cause of all. You hear Paul saying, and you must echo the acknowledgment, “according as He hath chosen us,” whilst with John you gaze on that “pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
II. We come now to consider the second thing in our text, viz.: how this electing love of God--the cause or fountain of salvation--comes into being and operation--“hath chosen us in Him,” i.e., in Christ. A virtual or representative union was formed by God, between sinners of mankind and Christ, when He purposed their salvation. A covenant was entered into between God, of the one part, and Christ constituted the head of the Church and its representative, of the other part. In terms of this covenant Christ was to do the will of God; i.e., fulfil the requirements of law, suffer its penalty and perform its duties, in room and stead of His people; and God, on His part, was to confer on them His Spirit, work holiness in their natures, and at last receive them into eternal mansions.
III. In the third place we are here taught when the election took place, viz., “before the foundation of the world.” This surely must be allowed to carry us far back, beyond the operation of human merit or agency.
1. There is no room, then, for chance, uncertainty, or hazard. God’s plans are complete, and His purposes definite. Doubtless He has chosen, on the whole, the greatest good of the universe as His object; and, in “the election unto grace,” only displays a part of His glorious and all-comprehending plan.
2. Again, we are taught in this not only God’s wisdom, but also His sovereignty. This, at least, is a precious truth--that the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. What comfort, otherwise, would there be in contemplating a scene where sin abounds and agents of darkness are abroad on the earth?
IV. This suggests to us the fourth topic in our text, viz., why, or for what end God hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world--“that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” It is an old saying: “God does not find, but makes men holy.” It is evident, indeed, that none are chosen because they are holy or blameless, but some are chosen in order that they may become so. (W. Alves, M. A.)
The doctrine of election
I. The spiritual blessing.
1. The term election is sometimes used for that election which is made in temporary execution of God’s purpose;
(1) whether it be a separating of men to the state of grace, which makes them as the chosen first fruits of the creation (John 15:19; 1 Peter 1:2); or
(2) a separating of them to any office and dignity. Saul, Judas.
2. But here it means that choice which God made with Himself from all eternity. From this flow all the blessings we receive, even as the body and boughs and branches of the tree issue from the root. What a cause for thankfulness is here!
II. The persons. Those who have true faith and holiness. As we may know faith, so we may know election. If we see in any a faith unfeigned and true endeavour after holiness, we may charitably judge that such are elected.
III. The order of election.
1. Christ, the Head.
2. From Christ it descends to us His members.
IV. The time. Before all worlds (2 Timothy 1:9; John 17:24).
V. The end.
1. God has of grace chosen us to the supernatural life.
2. He has not only chosen us to this supernatural life, but to the perfection of it.
3. He has called us to this life, that we may live forever in His presence. (Paul Bayne.)
God’s elective grace
It would be a narrow and superficial view of these words to suppose them to refer only to the enjoyment of external privilege, or to imagine that they are meant to level Jewish pride, and that they describe simply the choice of the Gentiles to religious blessings. The purpose of the election is, that its objects should be holy, an end that cannot fail, for they are in Christ, and “in Him they are complete.” Yet the sovereign love of God is strikingly manifested even in the bestowment of external advantage. Ephesus enjoyed what many a city in Asia Minor wanted. The motive that took Paul to Ephesus, and the wind that sped the bark which carried him, were alike of God’s creation. It was not because God chanced to look down from His high throne, and saw the Ephesians bowing at the shrine of Diana, and worshipping “the image that fell from Jupiter,” that His heart was moved, and He resolved to give them the gospel. Nor was it because its citizens had a deeper relish for virtue and peace than masses of the population around them, that He sent among them the grace of His Spirit. “He is of one mind, and who can turn Him?” Every purpose is eternal, and awaits an evolution in the fulness of the time, which is neither antedated nor postponed. The same difficulties are involved in this choice to the external blessing, as are found in the election of men to personal salvation. The whole procedure lies in the domain of pure sovereignty, and there can therefore be no partiality where none have any claim. The choice of Abraham is the great fact which explains and gives name to the doctrine. Why then should the race of Shem be selected to the exclusion of Ham and Japheth? Why of all the families in Shem should that of Terah be chosen? and why of all the members of Terah’s house should the individual Abraham be marked out, and set apart by God to be the father of a new race? As well impugn the fact as attempt to upset the doctrine. Providence presents similar views of the Divine procedure. One is born in Europe with a fair face, and becomes enlightened and happy; another is born in Africa with a sable countenance, and is doomed to slavery and wretchedness. One has his birth from Christian parents, and is trained in virtue from his earlier years; another has but a heritage of shame from his father, and the shadow of the gallows looms over his cradle. One is an heir of genius; another, with some malformation of brain, is an idiot. Some, under the enjoyment of Christian privilege, live and die unimpressed; others, with but scanty opportunities, believe, and grow eminent in piety. Does not more seem really to be done by God externally for the conversion of others who live and die in impenitence, than for many who believe and are saved? And yet the Divine prescience and predestination are not incompatible with human responsibility. Man is free, perfectly free, for his moral nature is never strained or violated. Foreknowledge, which is only another phase of electing love, no more changes the nature of a future incident, than after knowledge can affect an historical fact. God’s grace fits men for heaven, but men by unbelief prepare themselves for hell. It is not man’s non-election, but his continued sin, that leads to his eternal ruin. Action is not impeded by the certainty of the Divine foreknowledge, he who believes that God has appointed the hour of his death is not fettered by such a faith in the earnest use of every means to prolong his life. And God does not act arbitrarily or capriciously. He has the best of reasons for His procedure, though He does not choose to disclose them to us. (John Eadie, D. D.)
God the author of the plan of salvation
Christians have no grounds for self-felicitation in their possession of holiness and hope, as if with their own hand they had inscribed their names in the Book of Life. Their possession of “all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” is not self-originated. Its one author is God, and he has conferred it in harmony with His eternal purpose regarding them. His is all the work, and His is all the glory. And therefore the apostle glories in this eternal election. It is cause of deep and prolonged thankfulness, not of gloom, distrust, or perplexity. The very eternity of design clothes the plan of salvation with a peculiar nobleness. It has its origin in an eternity behind us, and its consummation in an eternity before us. Kindness, the result of momentary impulse, has not and cannot have such claim to gratitude, as a beneficence which is the fruit of a matured and predetermined arrangement. The grace which springs from eternal choice must command the deepest homage of our nature. (John Eadie, D. D.)
Salvation an eternal provision for human need
The eternity of the plan suggests another thought. It is this--salvation is an original thought and resolution it is no novel expedient struck out in the fertility of Divine ingenuity, after God’s first purpose in regard to man had failed through man’s apostasy. It is no afterthought, but the embodiment of a design which, foreseeing our ruin, had made preparation for it. (John Eadie, D. D.)
The object of the Divine election
In the words “That we should be holy and without blame before Him,” we have the object of the Divine election declared, and the cooperation of the elect implied, by the inseparable connection of holiness with election. There is an instructive parallel in Colossians 1:22, “He hath reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable, and unreprovable in His sight.” The word “without blame,” or “unblamable,” is properly without blemish; and the word “unreprovable” more nearly corresponds to our idea of one unblamable--i.e., one against whom no charge can be brought. Here God is said to have “chosen” us, in the other passage to have “presented” us (comp. the sacrificial use of the word in Romans 12:1), in Christ, to be “holy and without blemish.” It seems clear that the words refer not to justification in Christ, but to sanctification in Him. They express the positive and negative aspects of holiness; the positive in the spirit of purity, the negative in the absence of spot or blemish. The key to their interpretation is to be found in the idea of Romans 8:29, “whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.” The word “without blame” is applied to our Lord (in Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 1:19) as a lamb “without blemish.” To Him alone it applies perfectly; to us, in proportion to that conformity to His image. The words “before Him” refer us to God’s unerring judgment as contrasted with the judgment of men, and even our own judgment on ourselves (comp. 1 Corinthians 4:3-4; 1 John 3:20-21) (A. Barry, D. D.)
The antiquity of our final humanity
The word foundation. (καταβολή) suggests a descent, or letting down. But since we were chosen m Christ “before the foundation of the world,” let us joy with reverence over the priority of our original nature, and not confound ourselves with any of the products of time. We are clothed upon with temporal nature, but we are not children of time. We are fallen into time, but we are from eternity. From of old, God loved us with an everlasting love. There is nothing in the world that represents to us either what we were, or what we shall be. Long before the geological eras began, long before the great chaotic age, and long before that first of all the sad changes, namely, the angel fall, God beheld His final human race, perfect in His Son. Whatever we have become through the two great falls, in heaven, and in earth, in Christ Jesus we are the holy children of eternity. Our right home is in our Father’s house, amid the first-born eternal glories. It is not strange, therefore, that there should be a spirit in us which refuses to rest in anything under the sun, as our final condition. That which was “elect and precious,” before the foundation of the world, lingers in us. (John Pulsford.)
Election and holiness
God elected us as well to the means as to the end. Note this. For as they (in Acts 27:31) could not come safe to land if any left the ship, so neither can men come to heaven but by holiness. (John Trapp.)
Predestination to holiness
It would be a poor proof that I were on my voyage to India, that with glowing eloquence and thrilling poetry, I could discourse on the palm groves and spice isles of the East. Am I on the waters? Is the sail hoisted to the wind? and does the land of my birth look blue and faint in the distance? The doctrine of election may have done harm to many, but only because they have fancied themselves elected to the end, and have forgotten that those whom Scripture calls elected are elected to the means. The Bible never speaks of men as elected to be saved from the shipwreck, but only as elected to tighten the ropes and hoist the sails and stand at the rudder. Let a man search faithfully: let him see that when Scripture describes Christians as elected, it is as elected to faith, as elected to sanctification, as elected to, obedience; and the doctrine of election will be nothing but a stimulus to effort. It will not act as a soporific. I shall cut away the boat, and let drive all human devices, and gird myself, amid the fierceness of the tempest, to steer the shattered vessel into port. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Of election to everlasting life
I. Our first business is, to show what election is. It is that decree of God whereby some men are chosen out from among the rest of mankind, and appointed to obtain eternal life by Jesus Christ, flowing from the mere good pleasure of God; as appears from the text. So the elect are they whom God has chosen to everlasting life (Acts 13:48).
II. I proceed to show who are elected. Who they are in particular, God only knows; but in general we say, that it is not all men, but some only. For where all are taken, there is no choice made.
III. The next head is to shew what they are chosen to.
1. They are chosen to be partakers of everlasting life. Hence the scripture speaks of some being “ordained to eternal life” (Acts 13:48), and of “appointing them to obtain salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:9), God appoints some to be rich, great, and honourable, some to be low and mean in the world: but electing love appoints those on whom it falls to be saved from sin, and all the ruins of the fall; its great view is to eternal glory in heaven.
2. They are chosen also to grace as the mean, as well as to glory as the end. God’s predestinating them to eternal blessedness includes both, as in the text; and it further appears from 2 Thessalonians 2:13. Hence faith is held out as a certain consequent of election (Acts 13:48). “As many as were ordained unto eternal life, believed.” The man who intends to dwell in a house yet unbuilt, intends also the means by which it may be made a fit habitation. And therefore there is no ground from the decree of election to slight the means of salvation.
IV. Let us consider the properties of election.
1. It is altogether free, without any moving cause, but God’s mere good pleasure. No reason can be found for this but only in the bosom of God.
2. Election is eternal. They are elected from all eternity (Ephesians 1:4), “chosen before the foundation of the world;” (2 Timothy 1:9). All God’s decrees are eternal (Ephesians 1:11). Because God is eternal, His purposes must be of equal duration with His existence.
3. It is particular and definite.
4. It is secret, and cannot be known till God is pleased to discover it.
V. The next thing is to show, that all the elect, and they only, are in time brought out of a state of sin and misery into a state of salvation.
1. All the elect are redeemed by Christ (John 10:15). None other but the elect are brought into a state of salvation; none but they are redeemed, sanctified, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:9).
VI. I come to show by whom the elect are saved. It is by Christ the Redeemer. Hence the apostle says (Titus 3:4-6).
1. Before the elect could be delivered from that state of sin and misery into which they had brought themselves, a valuable satisfaction behoved to be given to the justice of God for the injury done by sin. It is evident from Scripture that God stood upon full satisfaction, and would not remit one sin without it. Several things plead strongly for this: As,
(1) The infinite purity and holiness of God.
(2) The justice of God.
(3) The wisdom of God.
(4) The truth and veracity of God. He must be true to His threatenings as well as to His promises.
2. As satisfaction to justice was necessary, and that which God insisted upon, so the elect could not give it themselves, neither was there any creature in heaven or earth that could do it for them (Isaiah 63:5). This is the desperate and forlorn condition of the elect by nature as well as others. God pitched upon Christ in His infinite grace and wisdom as the fittest person for managing this grand design.
4. Christ accepted the office of a Redeemer, and engaged to make His soul an offering for sin. He cheerfully undertook this work in that eternal transaction that was between the Father and Him.
5. Christ satisfied offended justice in the room of the elect, and purchased eternal redemption for them. “He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). Thus the elect are saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.
I shall conclude all with a few inferences.
1. Behold here the freedom and glory of sovereign grace, which is the sole cause why God did not leave all mankind to perish in the state of sin and misery, as He did the fallen angels.
2. This doctrine should stop men’s murmurings, and silence all their pleadings with or against God.
3. This is ground of humility and admiration to the elect of God, and shows them to what they owe the difference that is between them and others, even to free grace. (T. Boston, D. D.)
On election
I. State the doctrine itself. The word rendered “predestinated” denotes simply predetermined, or foreordained (See Acts 4:27-28),
1. It proceeds on the assumption of the fact that man is in a state of guilt, condemnation, and ruin: that, in himself considered, he is without any claim on the Divine favour, without help and without hope.
2. In maintaining the doctrine under consideration, it is assumed that a sufficient, complete, and glorious redemption has been accomplished and revealed.
3. This salvation is proclaimed to all men, without restriction; and all are freely invited to receive its blessings. Is not the blessed God sincere, in all the proffers of His mercy? Can there be any secret counsels at variance, in reality, with the overtures of His grace?
4. All men, if left to themselves, disregard the overtures of mercy, and neglect the great salvation.
5. That grace which God now communicates to the hearts of men, He has resolved and decreed, from all eternity, to communicate.
II. Remove misconceptions. Let it be observed--
1. That the leading object of our present inquiry regards not an abstract truth, involved in metaphysical obscurity, but a matter of fact, to be determined by scriptural testimony.
2. That the proof of the fact and of the doctrine of election, does not rest on a few insulated texts of Scripture. A minister of the gospel, lately deceased, who was distinguished by no common share of mental energy, discovered, on one occasion, that he had armed against himself the strongest prejudices of a very intelligent hearer, by preaching the doctrine of election. In his private writings he thus records the conversation which ensued:--“I told her that I had no choice; the doctrine was not mine; nor did the evidence rest on the words ‘elect and election.’ I advised her to read the fifth and sixth Chapter s of the Gospel of John, in which the word election does not once occur, but which are full of the doctrine itself. She followed my advice, and in a few days she was confirmed in the belief of this truth. I then advised her to read the seventeenth chapter of John; and she acknowledged, that it was full of the same truth. I asked her, to what conclusion her experience led her on the subject;--whether she had chosen Christ as the Saviour of her soul? ‘Yes,’ she exclaimed. ‘And do you think He has chosen you?’ ‘Yes, I do,’ she replied. ‘If you chose Him first,’ I rejoined, ‘you made yourself to differ, and salvation is of works: if the Divine choice was first, your choice of Christ was the effect of it, and salvation is of grace.’ ‘This,’ she added, ‘is the fact.’ ‘Then,’ I concluded, ‘fact, matter of fact, establishes the doctrine of election.’ Her ‘peace now flowed like a river, bearing all abjections before it, and her blessedness was as the waves of the sea.’”
3. The doctrine does not in the least restrict the free invitation of the gospel. God has given these invitations in full sincerity. He has given them on the finished and accepted redemption of His Beloved Son. The only barrier between the sinner and salvation is his cherished unbelief.
4. This doctrine does not in the slightest degree affect man’s obligation to repent and to believe the gospel. Man’s responsibility arises out of his rational and moral nature, and his relation to the God that made him. He does net cease to be accountable, because he has made himself sinful; for were this the case, a man would only have to become a depraved and abandoned transgressor, in order to exonerate himself from all further obligation to obey the Author of his existence.
5. This fact--that there is a Divine election--does not create an obstacle to the salvation of any human being. From the remarks already made, it is apparent, that if any man perish, he must perish in consequence of his own unbelief. In the investigation of the Word of God, I discover no traces of any decree involving an appointment to wrath irrespective of guilt. Throughout the Bible, the perdition of the soul is ascribed, not to God’s decree, but to man’s transgression. No human being will be condemned at the last day, on the ground of not being included in the election of grace.
6. This doctrine, rightly understood, has no tendency unfavourable to the interests of practical religion.
III. The effects which a correct view and a cordial reception of this doctrine are calculated to produce on the mind and heart of the believer.
1. The belief of this doctrine is calculated to extend and to elevate our views of the character of God.
2. This doctrine presents the most vivid exhibition of the certainty of the final salvation of all who truly believe in the Divine Redeemer.
3. This doctrine is adapted to produce the deepest humility. Every truth associated with this doctrine is a humbling truth. We are reminded, at every step of our researches, of some trait in our own character, or in the character of the blessed God, which is calculated to humble the heart. We are reminded, that we are, by nature, children of wrath--that by unmerited grace alone we can be saved. “Where is boasting then? It is excluded; that no flesh should glory in His presence; that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
4. Finally, The subject under consideration is designed and adapted to call forth the most grateful and adoring praise. (H. F. Burder, D. D.)
Good men the subjects of Divine thoughts from all eternity
Every true Christian, then, as a member of Christ’s body, is thus an elect and predestinated person, and as such has been, along with Christ Himself--the Head of that body--an object of thought to the Almighty Lord of Life during the eternity bygone. But now what an awful dignity is thus seen at once to gather around the existence of a predestinated soul, around one whose appearance and character are both the subject and result of the never commenced meditations and resolves of the Omniscient and Eternal Mind. We look, if at all given to such reflections, with a feeling of profound interest upon a stone, which has been agitated far ages on the sunken floor of the ocean, and which is at length cast up by the sounding sea, rounded by the attrition of the sea bottom, and by the currents of unnumbered centuries--an agate or carnelian, that was being rolled and polished by the billows before the old empires of antiquity were founded, or before the deluge, or before the creation of man. We gaze awestruck upon these everlasting hills, whose summits were standing above the universal waters before some of the other continents were made, and whose stratified contents, rich with the fossils of successive worlds, and the deep-lying beds of molten and crystallized porphyry and granite below them, indicate an era of upheaval that is lost in the mists and twilights of remotest eld. But what are such feelings of awe and wonder at such immeasurable antiquity, compared with those which fill the soul when we look upon a Person older than all geological chronology, older than the stars, whose “goings forth have been from everlasting.” On Christ, whose countenance, whose aspect, “marred more than any man’s,” whose history, instinct with miracles, whose words, full of grace and truth, were the manifestations of a Divine purpose as ancient in the darkness, that all the works of the visible universe--rock systems and the deepest foundations of the mountains, and constellations that have already shone through cycles which would defy even archangelic arithmetic to measure, are comparatively of yesterday. “Before Abraham was, I am.” Before the universe was, I was in the bosom of the Infinite. And all good men were chosen in Him. The names of all who believe in God were written “before the foundation of the world,” in the Lamb’s Book of Life. They have from eternity been there recorded by Divine love as members of Christ--of His Body, of His flesh, and of His bones. Every Christian has thus been, in ideal vision, a subject of blissful Divine thought from before all worlds. (E. White.)
The saving purpose of God in earthly realization
I. Its spiritual character (verses 3, 4).
1. Bestowing spiritual gifts.
2. Contemplating a moral change in its objects. It is not because they are already better than other men that believers are chosen, but in order that they may become so.
II. Its predetermining influence. (verses 4, 5, 9-11).
1. It works from afar. Through eternity and time--“from before the foundation of the world.”
2. Bestowing provisional advantage. It does not appear that by the “adoption” here spoken of, final salvation is implied, but rather that the Gentiles being “brought nigh” through the blood of Christ, are put in the way of being saved. It is well for us to consider the limits as well as the vastness of spiritual privilege.
3. Ordaining the means of salvation. “In Christ.”
III. Its cyclic completeness (verses 4-14).
1. Engaging successively the several Persons of the Blessed Trinity. In the progress of revelation and the history of the Church there seem to be discernible an age of the Father, an age of the Son, and an age of the Holy Ghost.
2. Perfecting human salvation. There are indicated three stages of the process of salvation, viz., election, justification through the blood of Christ, and, finally, sanctification by the Spirit. The cycle of redemption, as evolved in this passage, recalls that of Romans 8:28-30.
3. Consummating the order of the universe. In Christ all things are “summed up,” i.e., He is the Head and Representative of time, creation, humanity, etc. They gather about Him as their true Centre and Lord.
IV. Its resultant glory (verses 6, 12, 14). (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
The electing love of God
I. As expressive of the Divine character. Paul labours by variety and accumulation of phrases to show that in its entire manifestation it is of God and not of man. He calls attention to--
1. Its absoluteness. It is “according to the good pleasure of His will,” i.e., an absolutely free impulse and act. No cause external to the Divine Being can be discovered to account for it.
2. Its sublime consistency and harmony.
II. As affecting human destiny.
1. It reveals itself in a gracious act, viz., the choice or adoption of men as its objects.
2. It sets before itself a grand moral aim.
3. It exerts a transforming power.
III. As evoking grateful adoration (verse 6). The objects of saving grace realizing the benefits it confers,
1. Bless God with their lips.
2. Glorify Him in their lives. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
God’s purpose in election
What was God driving at in His electing some out of the lump of mankind? Was it only their impunity He desired, that while others were left to swim in torment and misery, they should only be exempted from that infelicity? No, sure; the apostle will tell us more. “He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy.” Mark, not because He foresaw that they would be of themselves holy, but that they should be holy; this was that God resolved He would make them to be. As if some curious workman, seeing a forest growing upon his own ground of trees (all alike, not one better than another), should mark some above all the rest, and set them apart in his thoughts, as resolving to make some rare pieces of workmanship of them. Thus God chose some out of the lump of mankind, whom He set apart for this purpose, to carve His own image upon them, which consists in righteousness and true holiness; a piece of such rare workmanship which, when God hath intended, and shall show it to men and angels, will appear to exceed the fabric of heaven and earth itself. (W. Gurnall.)
Election
1. The elector is the Father, to whom it belongs to originate all things. The purpose of eternal love flows directly from the Divine mind, as its heavenly source (Romans 8:29; 2 Thessalonians 2:13)
2. The person in whom the election is made is the Son. We are chosen in Him as the Divine Mediator, and predestinated Election-Head, in whom, by means of our union with Him, we find a supply for all our wants, strength for our weakness, joy for our sorrow, light for our darkness, and eternal life for our all-sufficient portion at last.
3. As to the date of this election; it is before the foundation of the world (comp. Matthew 13:35, John 17:4, Luke 11:50, Matthew 14:34, 1 Peter 1:20). This is the same as the expression, “Before the ages or worlds” (1 Corinthians 2:7; comp. Ephesians 3:9, Colossians 1:26, 2 Timothy 1:9, and Romans 16:25). This is the ancient love of God to His people of which the Scriptures are so full, and on which the believing soul delights to dwell. His love is no impulsive feeling, varying with the changes of the creature, but the steady, irreversible purpose of His grace, based on the life and death, the doing and dying of the Mediator.
4. The purpose of this election is very clearly stated in one passage--“That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” Holy means separated, consecrated, devoted to Gad. He would have a loving, devoted, holy, people, and for this end He elects them. (W. Graham, D. D.)
God’s choice and desire
I. Let us observe the first outflow of these heavenly blessings. The fountain of eternal love burst forth in our election--“According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.” Consider these words one by one.
1. The first is, “He hath chosen:” God has a will and a choice in the matter of salvation. Is man’s will to be deified? Is the whole result of the scheme of salvation to depend upon the creature’s choice? God forbid.
2. Carefully note that election shapes everything: the Father has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, “According as He hath chosen us in Christ.” All the grace of earth and the glory of heaven come to us in accordance with the eternal choice. There is not a single boon that comes from the blessed hand of the Divine Redeemer but is stamped with the mark of God’s electing love. We were chosen to each mercy, and each mercy was appointed for us.
3. The next word is, “He hath chosen us.” Herein is grace indeed. What could there be in us that the Lord should choose us? Some of us feel ourselves the most unworthy of the unworthy, and we can see no trace of a reason for our being chosen. So far from being choice men in our own esteem, we feel ourselves by nature to be the very reverse. But if God has chosen us, then let our hearts love Him, our lips extol Him, our hands serve Him, our whole lives adore Him.
4. Then we are told, he has chosen us in Christ Jesus. He first chose Christ as the head, and then looked through Christ upon us, and chose us to be members of Christ’s mystical body.
5. The time when this choice was made--“Before the foundation of the world,” the earliest conceivable period. The choice is no sudden act.
II. The designed result of all this blessing.
1. It is God’s eternal design that His people should be holy. When you grow in grace, and faith, and hope, and joy, all that growth is towards holiness. There is something practical in every boon that comes from the Father’s hand, and you should pray to Him that you may by each one conquer sin, advance in virtue and perfect holiness in His fear. The ultimate end of election is the praise of the glory of Divine grace, but the immediate and intermediate end is the personal sanctification of the chosen.
2. The Father chose us to Himself that we might be without blame before Him in love. He would have us blameless, so that no man can justly find fault with us; and harmless, so that our lives may injure none, but bless all.
3. But notice where and what kind of holiness this is: holy and blameless before Him. It would be something to be perfect before the eyes of men who are so ready to criticize us; but to be blameless before Him who reads our thoughts and sees our every failure in a moment--this is an attainment of a far higher order. To conclude, we are to be holy and blameless before Him in love. Love is the anointing oil which is to be poured on all the Lord’s priests; when he has robed them in their spotless garments, they shall partake of the unction of love. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God’s election of men in Jesus Christ
I. That God, before He made the world, chose some persons of His own free grace to become His children, or to be made holy and happy.
1. There is a manifest difference between the children of men in this world.
2. This difference between men, or this distinction of the righteous from the wicked, is not ascribed in Scripture, originally and supremely, to the will and power of man, as the cause of it, but to the will and power of God, and to His Spirit working in them.
3. The distinction that is made by this work of God in the heart of men, is attributed in Scripture, not to any merit in man, which God foresaw, but to the free grace of God toward His people, and His special choice or election of them, to be partakers of these blessings.
4. This choice of persons to sanctification and salvation by the grace on God is represented in Scripture, as before the foundation of the world, or from eternity.
II. That God from the beginning appointed His Son Jesus Christ to be the medium of exercising all this grace, and gave His chosen people to the care of His Son, to make them partakers of these blessings.
1. Let us consider what it was that Christ undertook, as the chosen Saviour of His people (John 1:18; John 17:5; John 16:28; Philippians 2:7; Hebrews 2:14; Galatians 4:4; Romans 8:3; Ephesians 5:30).
2. Let us take a brief survey of the articles of this covenant on God the Father’s side. Whatsoever powers, or honours, or employments He bestowed on His Son, we have reason to suppose it was in pursuance of this original covenant of grace and salvation. First then, we may justly conclude, that God engaged to employ Him in the work of creation, as a foundation of His future kingdom among men; by Him God made angels, and they shall be His ministering Spirits, for the men who shall be heirs of his salvation; by Him God created mankind, and He shall be Lord of them all; by Him the Blessed God made His own people, and He shall save them. Again, We may suppose it was agreed by the Father, that He should be the King of Israel, which was the visible Church of God, as a type of His kingdom, and the government of His invisible Church; that He should fix His dwelling in a cloud of glory, in His holy hill of Sion (Psalms 2:6-7), and should govern the Jewish nation by judges, or priests, or kings, as His deputies, till He Himself should appear in the flesh. God the Father undertook also to furnish Him with everything necessary for His appearance and His ministry here upon earth, to prepare a body for Him (Hebrews 10:5), to give Him the Spirit without measure (John 3:34; Isaiah 11:2), to bear Him up through all His sufferings, to accept His sacrifice and atonement for sin, to raise Him up from the dead, to exalt Him not only to the former glory which He had with Him before the world was, which He asks for as a matter of agreement (John 17:4-5), but to honour Him at His right hand with superior powers.
1. Since we are chosen to be holy, as well as happy, we may search and find out our election by our sanctification, and make it sure and evident.
2. Let those who by a sincere search have found the blessed marks and evidences of their election in Christ Jesus take the comfort of it, rejoice in it, and walk worthy of so Divine a privilege. See that you keep your evidences of grace ever clear and bright by holy watchfulness, that ye may have a strong defence in every hour of temptation.
In conclusion:
1. I infer that there are some doctrines wherein the reason of man finds many difficulties, and which the folly of man would abuse to unhappy purposes, which yet are plain and express truths asserted in the Word of God. Among these, we place the great doctrine of the election of sinners in Christ to be made holy and happy.
2. However this doctrine may be opposed by the reasonings of men, and even ridiculed by a bold jest, yet, if it then appear to be a Divine truth, as the Scriptures now seem to teach us, the blessed God will not be ashamed of it in the last great day; then shall He unfold all the scheme of His original counsels, and spread abroad His transactions towards mankind, before the face of all His intelligent creatures. I cannot think, that any of the cavils of wit against this doctrine will stand before the light of the great tribunal.
3. The whole chain and current of our salvation, from the beginning to the end, arises and proceeds all the way from the free grace of God, through the mediation of His Son Jesus Christ. God and His Son must have the glory, and pride must be hid from man forever. (Dr. Watts.)