[BBC List] lifted up our minds to God's eternal counsel

[Mike Abendroth]

The Second Sermon on the First Chapter

by John Calvin

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‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ: According to
his choosing of us in him before the foundation of the world, in order that
we should be holy and unblameable before him in love’.

Ephesians 1:3-4

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We have already seen how St. Paul exhorts us to praise and bless God because
he has blessed us, and that not after an earthly manner but after a
spiritual manner, so that we should content ourselves with God’s showing of
his fatherly goodness and love towards us in opening the gate of the kingdom
of heaven to us by hope. Although we are subject to much misery in this
world, yet there is good reason for us to content ourselves with God’s
choosing of us after that fashion and with his calling of us to himself, for
it is witnessed to us by the gospel that he is our Father [Matt. 6:9; Lk.
11:2] inasmuch as he has joined us to our Lord Jesus Christ as members to
their Head.

And now St. Paul brings us to the origin and source, or rather to the
principal cause that moved God to take us into his favour. For it is not
enough that God has revealed the treasures of his goodness and mercy to us
to draw us to the hope of the heavenly life by the gospel—and yet that is
very much. For had not St. Paul added that which we see now, it might have
been surmised that God’s grace is common to all men and that he offers it
and presents it to all without exception, and, consequently, that it is in
every man s power to receive it according to his own free will, by which
means there would be some merit in us. For if there were no distinction
between men except that some receive God’s grace and others refuse it, what
could be said but that God has shown himself liberal to all mankind But they
that are partakers of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ attain to it by
faith. And so you see what might be judged of it. But St. Paul, to exclude
all merit on man’s part and to show that all comes from God’s pure goodness
and grace, says that he has blessed us according to his election of us
beforehand. As if he should say that to exalt God’s grace as becomes us, we
must look upon the diversity that is found among men. For the gospel is
preached to some, and others do not know what it is but are utterly shut out
from it, as if God should make it rain in one quarter and allow another
quarter to remain very dry.

Now if it is demanded why God pities the one part and forsakes and leaves
and abandons the other, there is no other answer but that it so pleases him.
Upon the preaching of the gospel in a place, some will be affected with
lively faith in their hearts and others will go away as they came without
benefiting at all, or else they harden themselves against God and betray the
stubbornness that was hidden in them before. What is the reason for this
difference Even this, that God directs the one sort by his Holy Spirit and
leaves the other sort in their natural corruption.

You see then that the thing in which God’s goodness shines forth most to us,
is that by the preaching of the gospel to us we have, as it were, a token
that he has pitied us, loves us, calls us and allures us to him. But when
the doctrine preached to us is received by us with heart and affection, that
is yet a further and more special token by which we perceive that God
intends to be our Father and has adopted us to be his children. Not without
reason, then, St. Paul says in this passage that we are blessed by God even
according to his election of us beforehand. For it is not that we have come
to him; it is not that we have sought him. But the saying of the prophet
Isaiah [65:i] must be fulfilled in every respect, namely, that God shows
himself to such as did not seek him, and that such as were far off see him
near at hand, and he says to them, ‘Here I am, here I am. Although you have
despised me, yet I vouchsafe to come to you because I have a care of your
salvation’. Thus we see what St. Paul was aiming at in this passage.

In short, we have to note here that we shall never know where our salvation
comes from till we have lifted up our minds to God’s eternal counsel by
which he has chosen whom he pleased and left the remainder in their
confusion and ruin. Now then it is no marvel that some men think this
doctrine to be strange and hard, for it does not fit in at all with man’s
natural understanding. If a man asks of the philosophers, they will always
tell him that God loves such as are worthy of it, and that, since virtue
pleases him, he also marks out such as are given that way to claim them for
his people. You see then that, after our own imagination, we shall judge
that God puts no other difference between men, in loving some and in hating
others, than each man’s own worthiness and deserving. But, at the same time,
let us also remember that in our own understanding there is nothing but
vanity and that we must not measure God by our own yardstick, and that it is
too excessive a presumption to impose law upon God so that it would not be
lawful for him to do anything but that which we could conceive and which
might seem just in our eyes. The matter here, therefore, concerns the
reverencing of God’s secrets which are incomprehensible to us, and unless we
do so, we shall never taste the principles of faith. For we know that our
wisdom ought always to begin with humility, and this humility imports that
we must not come weighing God’s judgments in our own balances or take it
upon ourselves to be judges and arbiters of them. We must be sober because
of the smallness of our minds, and since we are gross and dull, we must
magnify God and say, as we are taught by the holy Scripture [Ps. 36:6],
Lord, thy counsels are as a great deep, and no man is able to give an
account of them.

You see then that the reason why some men find this doctrine hard and
irksome is because they are too much wedded to their own opinion and cannot
submit themselves to God’s wisdom, to receive his sayings soberly and
modestly. And truly we ought to take warning from what St. Paul says,
namely, that the natural man does not understand God’s secrets but regards
them as stark foolishness [I Cor. 2:14]. And why Because we are not his
counsellors but must have things revealed to us by his Holy Spirit, or else
we shall never know them, and we must have them in such measure as he gives
them to us.

St. Paul speaks here of the things we know by experience, namely, that we
are God’s children, that he governs us by his Holy Spirit, that he comforts
us in our miseries and that he strengthens us through patience. We should
not conceive any of all these things unless we were enlightened by his Holy
Spirit. How then shall we understand that which is much higher, namely, that
God elected us before the creation of the world? Since the matter stands
thus, let us learn to put away all that we conceive in our own brain and put
it under foot, and let us be ready to receive whatever God says to us,
casting away our own judgment and assuring ourselves that we cannot bring
anything from our side but utter stupidity. Thus you see what we have to
bear in mind.

And, in fact, we see how St. Paul exhorts us to come to the same point. ‘Who
art thou, O man (he says) who contends against thy God?’ [Rom. 9:20]. After
he had set down many replies we are accustomed to make, he says, ‘O man’. By
the word ‘man’ he meant to make us perceive our own frailty, for we are but
worms of earth and rottenness [Ps. 103:14]. Now then, what audacity it is to
open our mouths to reply against God. Is it not a perverting of the whole
order of nature? Is it in our power to pluck the sun out of the sky, or to
take the moon between our teeth, as they say? Much less is it lawful for us
to contend with God and to advance reasons for controlling his judgments
which we cannot comprehend.

There are those who will grant this doctrine of predestination, which St.
Paul treats here, to be true, for they dare not contradict the Holy Spirit,
yet they would it were buried so that it might never be spoken of. But they
merely show themselves to be nothing but fools in controlling the Holy
Spirit who spoke it by the prophets and apostles, and even by the mouth of
God’s only Son. For when our Lord intends to assure us of our salvation, he
brings us back to this eternal election; and similarly when he intends to
magnify the gift of faith, the one in the tenth chapter of John and the
other in the sixth. And therefore that kind of people come too late to put
God to silence and to efface from the holy Scripture the things which are
shown there. For the whole Scripture is profitable [2 Tim. 3:16]. St Paul
said that of the Law and the Prophets. Therefore we may also conclude that
there is nothing superfluous in the gospel, nor anything which serves no
good purpose and by which we may not be edified both in faith and in the
fear of God.

But this doctrine is thus contained there, and the Holy Ghost speaks it loud
and clear. They must be Manichees who intend to mutilate and take away from
the gospel. For what they did not like they set aside and have forged a
gospel of various pieces, allowing nothing but what they themselves thought
good. Now if such heretics have shown a devilish stubbornness against God in
separating things which ought to be kept together in an inseparable bond,
then they are also malicious and perverse who would nowadays have the
doctrine of election kept silent. For they would stop the mouth of God, if
it were possible, and seal his mouth whenever he utters anything they do not
like.

Again, a man may clearly see their stupidity in that St. Paul did not have a
better proof than this by which to magnify God’s goodness. So then, if there
were no other reason, it were better that the whole world should go to
confusion than that this doctrine should be reduced to silence. For is it
reason that God should set the infinite treasure of his mercies before our
eyes and yet that they should not be spoken of, but be thrust under foot?

But there are yet two more reasons which show that this doctrine must of
necessity be preached, and that we reap such great profit from it that it
had been much better if we had never been born than be ignorant of what St.
Paul shows here. For there are two things at which we must chiefly aim and
to which it is fitting for us to apply all our studies and endeavours, and
they are the very sum of all the things God teaches us by the holy
Scripture. The one is the magnifying of God as he deserves, and the other is
the assurance of our salvation, so that we may call on him as our Father
with full liberty [Rom. 8:15]. If we do not have these two things, woe to
us, for there is neither faith nor religion in us. We may talk well of God,
but it will be but falsehood.

With regard to the first point, I have told you already that God’s grace is
not sufficiently known but by setting God’s election, as it were, before our
eyes. For suppose God draws all men alike, and that such as wish to obtain
salvation must come of their own free will and self-moving. If it be so,
then it is certain that we deserve to be received at God’s hand, and that he
should handle every man according to his deserts. But how shall God’s
goodness be magnified Simply in this way, that he goes before us by his pure
bounty and loves us despite all, without finding either in our persons or in
our works any reason why he should love us. If this is true, then there must
needs be election: God takes the one sort because he thinks it good to do
so, and leaves the other. Thus you see it is a most certain point that God’s
glory does not appear and shine forth as is fitting, unless it be known that
he sheds forth his goodness and love where it pleases him.

I said just now that the preaching of his Word is a singular benefit to us.
And that is the reason why it is said so often in the Law and the Prophets
that God has not dealt with any other nation as he dealt with the line of
Abraham, in that he vouchsafed to choose and adopt them, to which the law
gave sure testimony. So then the children of Israel were exhorted to praise
God because he had vouchsafed to give them his law [Deut. 4:7], and, in the
meanwhile, had let the poor Gentiles alone as people that did not belong to
him after the same fashion. But it is yet a far greater and more special
privilege when he makes us profit by that Word. For it is certain that our
ears might be assailed daily with the things that should be told us and that
we would never be the better for it, until God speaks to us by his Holy
Spirit within us.

In this matter, then, God shows a double grace. The one is when he raises up
men to preach the gospel to us, for no man is meet and sufficient to do it
of himself. It is therefore necessary that God should send those who call us
to him and offer us the hope of salvation. But yet, for all that, let us
note well that we cannot believe unless God reveals himself to us by his
Holy Spirit and speaks to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, in addition to
speaking to our ears by the mouth of man. And that is the reason why the
prophet Isaiah says, ‘Who hath believed our doctrine, and to whom is the arm
of the Lord revealed?’ [Isa. 53:1]. He shows that there is no faith in the
world till God has worked in men’s minds and hearts by the power of his Holy
Spirit. And for the very same reason also our Lord Jesus Christ says that no
man comes to him except he be drawn by the Father; but whoever has learned
of my Father (he says), the same submits himself to me [Jn. 6:44]. In a
word, we see clearly that God shows himself merciful to us when he
vouchsafes to enlighten us by his Holy Spirit in order that we might be
drawn to the faith of his gospel.

If this was done commonly and to all men without distinction, we should
still have reason to magnify God. But now, when we see that some are
hardened and others fickle, and that some go their ways without receiving
any profit from what they have heard, and that others are altogether stupid,
it is certain that it makes God’s grace more apparent to us, even as it is
said by St. Luke that, at St. Paul’s preaching, as many believed as were
ordained to salvation [Acts 13:48]. Truly a multitude of people heard St.
Paul’s sermon, and, beyond all doubt, he on his side had such grace that it
ought to have moved even the very stones. Nevertheless, despite this, a
great many continued in their unbelief and stubbornness; others believed.

Now St. Luke says plainly that it was not that some were more clever than
others, or that there was more inclination to virtue in them than in others,
but that God had specially ordained them to salvation. In a word, therefore,
we see that all man’s merits must cease and be laid underfoot, or else God
will not have the praise he deserves. Furthermore, we must understand that
faith comes not of ourselves, for if it did, there would be some merit in
our works. It is true that by faith we confess that there is nothing but
wretchedness in us, that we are damned and accursed, and that we do not
bring anything with us but only an acknowledgement of our sins. But, even
so, our faith would qualify as a thing of merit if we had it through our own
initiative. We must therefore conclude that it is impossible for men to
believe, unless it is given them from above.

And surely St. Paul here declares something well worth observing when he
says ‘Blessed be God’. And for what reason? Even for so enriching us in
Jesus Christ that our life is happy and blessed. And afterwards he adds,
‘according to his election of us’. Is not faith comprehended among the
spiritual riches of which St. Paul makes mention? Indeed, and (what is more)
it is the chief of them. For it is by faith that we receive the Holy Spirit;
it is by faith that we become patient in our adversities; it is by faith
that we become obedient to God; it is by faith that we are sanctified to his
service. In short, faith continues always chief of all the spiritual
benefits that God bestows upon us.

Now let us well remember St. Paul’s order. He says that God has given us
faith as well as any of the rest, according to his election of us. We see
then that faith depends upon God’s election, or else we must make St. Paul a
liar. And so, with regard to the first point, you see that all who cannot
suffer having predestination plainly and openly spoken of, are deadly
enemies of God’s grace and would make it obscure to the utmost of their
power. For (as I said before) to hide it is to overthrow all religion.

The second point is the assurance of our salvation. The papists say that we
must doubt it and that we can come to God only with a hope that he will
receive us; but to assure ourselves of it—that we ought not to do, for that
would be too great a presumption. But when we pray to God, we must call him
Father, at least if we are the scholars of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he has
taught us to do so.

Now, is it at a venture that we call him Father, or are we sure of it in
ourselves that he is our Father If not, then there would be nothing but
hypocrisy in our prayers, and the first word that we utter would be a lie.
The papists then never know what it is to pray to God, seeing that they
cannot be assured of their salvation. But (as we shall see in the third
chapter especially) the Scripture shows that to pray to God rightly, we must
have belief in Jesus Christ, which gives us confidence, and upon that
confidence we by and by conceive boldness. Be that as it may, we must not be
hesitant nor yet doubt, but we must be thoroughly resolved and persuaded in
ourselves that God counts us as his children. And how may that be but by
embracing his mercy through faith, as he offers it to us in his gospel, and
by assuring ourselves also that we are grounded in his eternal election? For
if our faith should depend upon ourselves, surely it would soon slip from
us; and it might be shaken off, if it were not maintained from above. And
although we are kept or preserved by faith, as St. Peter says [I Pet. 1:5],
yet it is God who keeps us. If, then, our faith were not grounded in God’s
eternal election, it is certain that Satan might pluck it from us every
minute. Though today we were the most steadfast in the world, yet we might
fail tomorrow. But our Lord Jesus shows us the remedy to strengthen us
against all temptations in that he says: You do not come to me of
yourselves, but the heavenly Father brings you to me; and since I have taken
you into my keeping, be no more afraid, for I acknowledge you as the
inheritance of God my Father, and he that has given me charge of you and put
you into my hand is stronger than all [Jn. 10:28—29]. We see, then, that
besides setting forth God’s glory, our salvation also is assured by God’s
eternal predestination, which ought to be sufficient reason to move us to
consider what St. Paul says of it in this place.

It is true (as I have mentioned already) that many men cavil when they hear
that God has elected those as it seemed good to him and rejected all the
rest. For we see that it is the smaller portion that come to God; and why
then has he rejected the rest Really, it is rather like saying that the will
of God should not suffice for our rule. We ought to note, first, that God is
not bound at all to any person. For if we once held that principle, that he
owes us the least thing in the world, then we call in question his law. But
since he on his side has no obligation towards us, but that we owe
everything to him while he owes nothing to us, let us see now what we shall
gain by all our contending. For if we aim at compelling God to deal alike
with all men, he would have less liberty than mortal creatures. If a man is
rich, he may do what he likes with his own goods. If he makes a gift to
someone, is it reason that he should be sued at the law for it, and that
every man should demand the same sum from him? Again, a man wishes to
promote someone whom he loves. Now if all poor people should come and
require him to do as much for them as a matter of obligation, would it not
be ridiculous Why, a man may adopt the most distant stranger in the world to
be his child and heir, and he is free to do so. And mark, God is liberal to
all men, for he makes his sun to shine upon both good and bad [Matt. 5:45].
He reserves only a certain number of men on whom to bestow the privilege of
adopting them as his children. What shall we now gain by murmuring against
him? If any man says that then he would seem to be a respecter of persons,
it is not so [Col. 3:25]. For he does not elect the rich and pass over the
poor; he does not choose noble men and gentlemen rather than men of no
account and low degree [I Cor. 1:26]. And therefore it cannot be said that
there is any respecting of persons before God, for in choosing those that
are unworthy he has respect to his own pure goodness alone. Nor does he
consider whether one is more worthy than another, but he takes whom he
pleases.

What more could we wish? It is good reason, then, that we should hold
ourselves contented with God’s will and check ourselves and leave him to
choose whom he pleases, because his will is the sovereign standard of all
equity and right. And so you see the mouths of all the world stopped [Rom.
3:19]. And although the wicked and profane murmur and find fault, or even
blaspheme, yet God is mighty enough to maintain his own righteousness and
infinite wisdom, and when they have jabbered their fill, they are sure to be
confounded in the end. For our part we see what St. Paul says here. For it
is no obscure doctrine when he says that God has blessed us. Truly, inasmuch
as he has enlightened us with the faith of the gospel by his Holy Spirit and
made us partakers of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, even thereby (he
says) he has shown that he had elected us before the creation of the world.
And therefore let us understand that to magnify God’s grace aright, we must
(as I said before) come to this fountain and original cause, that is to say,
to election.

Now we have to proceed further, for in order the better to exclude all
respect and worthiness which men might pretend, since we are inclined always
to attribute something to ourselves and cannot bear to be brought to
nothing, he says, ‘before the creation of the world’. So then, since through
such thinking we imagine ourselves to have that which we do not have, it was
essential that St. Paul should here beat down all such ridiculous folly. And
for that reason he says we could not on our side put ourselves forward when
we were not yet born. In fact, God elected us before the creation of the
world, and what could we then bring to him? It is true that the papists show
much subtlety on this point, for they say that God elected unto salvation
such as had not yet deserved it, but yet he elected such as he foresaw would
deserve it. Thus they confess that no deserving at all went before election,
either in order or in time, but that God (as he to whom all things are open)
knew who would be worthy of it. Speaking thus they do not deny God’s
election. And so, to show that these wretches who nowadays cannot bear to
have it spoken of are as devils incarnate and maintain a more outrageous and
vile wickedness than the papists do, we must note that the papists confess
that God has elected and predestinated those whom he thought good, even
before the creation of the world. They stand to that, which thing these
devils deny and would have God’s majesty utterly annihilated by overthrowing
his counsel in that way. The papists (at least such of them as have excelled
others in their walk, and I speak even of the monks and friars who are
called school divines) grant even more—that this election of God’s is free
and that he did not choose any man for any other reason than that it pleased
him. But immediately afterwards they mix up everything and throw all into
confusion, for they say that when God chose whom he pleased, he did it to
make them deserve it. And on this they base all their merits, to such a
degree that they conclude that men may win the kingdom of heaven by their
own power. They grant indeed that as touching election, it is a free gift,
but they always return to their foolish supposition that God foresaw those
who would do good.

But how should he foresee that which could not be For we know that all
Adam’s offspring is corrupted, and that we do not have the skill to think
one good thought of doing well, and much less therefore are we able to
commence to do good. Although God should wait a hundred thousand years for
us, if we could remain so long in the world, yet it is certain that we
should never come to him nor do anything else but increase the mischief
continually to our own condemnation. In short, the longer men live in the
world, the deeper they plunge themselves into their damnation. And therefore
God could not foresee what was not in us before he himself put it into us.

How then do we come to God How do we obey him? How do we have a quiet mind
that yields itself in accordance with faith? All these things come from him,
and so it follows that he must do all himself. Wherefore let us observe that
in saying that God elected us before the creation of the world, St. Paul
prey supposes that which is true, namely, that God could not see anything in
us save the evil that was there, for there was not one drop of goodness for
him to find. So then, seeing he has elected us, regard it as a very clear
token of his free grace. And for the same reason, in the ninth chapter to
the Romans, where he speaks of the twins Jacob and Esau at such time as they
were still in their mother’s womb before they had done either good or evil,
it is said that the elder should serve the younger so that all should come
from the side of him who called them, and not from the side of their works
[Rom. 9:11—12].

We see then how St. Paul shows there at greater length that which he here
touches on briefly, that is to say, that since God chose us before the
creation of the world, he thereby shows sufficiently that one man is not
more worthy or excellent than another; that he did not have respect to
worthiness. Therefore, seeing that the distinguishing between Jacob and Esau
was before they had done either good or evil, it did not come of the works
but of the caller. All praise, then, must be yielded to God and nothing at
all be reserved to man. And so you see yet once again what we have to note
here when St. Paul says that we were elected before the creation of the
world.

He confirms the thing in better fashion still by saying that the same was
done in Jesus Christ. If we had been elected in ourselves it might be said
that God had found in us some secret virtue unknown to men. But seeing that
he has elected us outside of ourselves, that is to say, loved us outside of
ourselves, what shall we reply to that? If I do a man good, it is because I
love him. And if the cause of my love is sought, it will be because we are
alike in character, or else for some other good reason. But we must not
imagine anything similar to this in God. And also it is expressly told us
here, for St. Paul says that we have been elected in Jesus Christ. Did God,
then, have an eye to us when he vouchsafed to love us? No! No! for then he
would have utterly abhorred us. It is true that in regarding our miseries he
had pity and compassion on us to relieve us, but that was because he had
already loved us in our Lord Jesus Christ. God, then, must have had before
him his pattern and mirror in which to see us, that is to say, he must have
first looked on our Lord Jesus Christ before he could choose us and call us.

And so, to be brief, after St. Paul had showed that we could not bring
anything to God, but that he acted beforehand of his own free grace in
electing us before the creation of the world, he adds an even more certain
proof, namely, that he did it in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is, as it were,
the true register. For God’s vouchsafing to elect us, that is to say, his
vouchsafing to do it from all eternity, was, as it were, a registering of us
in writing. And the holy Scripture calls God’s election the book of life. As
I said before, Jesus Christ serves as a register. It is in him that we are
written down and acknowledged by God as his children. Seeing, then, that God
had an eye to us in the person of Jesus Christ, it follows that he did not
find anything in us which we might lay before him to cause him to elect us.
This, in sum, is what we must always remember.

It follows next that it is ‘in order that we should be pure and unblameable
before God in love’. This word ‘love’ may be referred to God, as if it were
said that we shall find no other reason why God vouchsafed to take us for
his children, but only his own free love. Or else (as seems very likely) St.
Paul shows us here what the true soundness and perfection of the faithful
is, namely, to walk in all righteousness before God. We cannot expound the
whole now, but it will suffice to tell briefly what St. Paul had in view.
For he shows here that although God’s election is free and beats down and
annihilates all the worthiness, works and virtues of men, nevertheless it
does not provide us with licence to do evil and to lead a disordered life,
or to run amok, but rather it serves to withdraw us from the evil in which
we were plunged. For, by nature, we can do nothing else but provoke God’s
wrath; wickedness will always reign in us; and we are held down under the
bonds and tyranny of Satan. God, therefore, must work and change us, for all
goodness comes from his election, says St. Paul.

You see, then, that that to which he meant to bring the faithful was to make
them know that just as God elected them of his own free grace, so he does
not give them leave to yield themselves to all wickedness, but intends to
keep and preserve them undefiled to himself. For God’s electing of us and,
with that, his calling of us to holiness are things joined inseparably
together, even as St. Paul says in another passage, that we are not called
to uncleanness and filthiness, but to be dedicated to God in all piety and
holiness. [I Thess. 4:7]

Now, since we cannot expound the whole at this time, let us seek to profit
from this doctrine. And seeing we are now about to prepare ourselves to
receive the supper of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is a pledge to us of our
election, as well as the hope of our salvation and of all the spiritual
benefits that come forth from this source and fountain of God’s free love,
let us know that there he displays his riches to us not so that we should
abuse them, but rather with the purpose of being glorified for them at our
hands, not only with our mouths but also with our whole life. And since we
hold all things of him, let us also learn to be his and to give ourselves up
to his obedience, that he may enjoy us peaceably. And let us always aim at
this mark, namely, to get a sure approbation that he takes and owns us for
his children, by bearing his marks and by showing in very deed that we are
truly governed by his Holy Spirit in calling upon him as our Father. Thus
you see, in effect, what we have to observe in this passage till the rest
follows.

Now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God with acknowledgement
of our faults, praying him to make us feel them in such a way that we may
continually profit in his fear, and be strengthened more and more in the
same; and, in the meanwhile, so to bear with our weaknesses that we may
always enjoy his grace even till he has set us in possession of all things
at such time as he shall have put away our sins and blotted them out
completely for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake. And so let us all say, Almighty
God, heavenly Father.

The Third Sermon on the First Chapter

by John Calvin

  _____  

‘God has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world to the end
we should be holy and without blame before him in love; Who has
predestinated us to adopt us to himself by Jesus Christ according to the
good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein
he has accepted us in his well-beloved.’

Ephesians 1:4-6

  _____  

I began to show you earlier that it is not lawful for us to indulge in loose
living with the excuse that God has elected us before the creation of the
world, as though it were right for us to give ourselves over to all manner
of evil, because we cannot perish, seeing that God has taken us for his
children. For we must not put things asunder which he has coupled together.
Seeing then that he has chosen us to be holy and to walk in purity of life,
our election must be as a root that yields good fruits. For so long as God
lets us alone in our own natural state we can do nothing but all manner of
wickedness, because there is such great corruption and perversity in man s
nature that all that men ever think of doing is contrary to God’s
righteousness. Therefore there is no other way but to be changed by God. And
whence comes this change but only through the grace that we spoke of,
namely, that he elected and chose us for his children before we were born
into the world. 

Yet we must note further that God lets his elect ones go for a time so that
they seem to be astray and utterly lost, and yet he brings them home again
to his flock when it pleases him. And this serves to humble them the more
and to make his goodness and mercy so much the better known to the whole
world. If God should make all his elect ones behave perfectly from their
very childhood, it would not be so clearly discerned that such behaviour
comes through that grace of his Holy Spirit. But when wretched people that
lived loosely and for a time were given to all kinds of evil are changed, it
cannot happen without God working and putting forth his hand. Thus we see
that the reason why God delays the calling of those whom he has elected is
(I say) to give them life by his Holy Spirit that he may make them walk in
obedience to him. For when we see them suddenly reformed beyond the common
expectation and opinion of men, we perceive thereby that God has displayed
his power in them, as I said before. And again, on the other hand, every one
of us is convinced by experience that we are indebted to God for all the
good that is in us. For when we are naturally inclined to any vice and
afterwards it is corrected, we well perceive that God has looked mercifully
upon us.

We perceive then that we have so much more reason to be humbled seeing that
we were in the way of perdition till he had drawn us out of it. And it is
essential for us to note that well, for there are some fanciful heads which
imagine that God so guides his elect by his Holy Spirit that they are
sanctified beforehand, even from the time they are born into the world, as
soon as they come out of their mother’s womb. But the contrary appears, and
indeed we see how St. Paul in another passage speaking to the faithful says,
‘Some of you were plunged in covetousness, some were given to cruelty, some
were scorners, some were whore-mongers and loose-livers and others were
gluttons and drunkards; and, in short, you were full of all uncleanness; but
God, having changed you and made you clean from such filthiness and
infection, has dedicated you to himself.’ [I Cor. 6:10—11]. Again, he says
to the Romans, ‘You ought to be ashamed of the life which you led before God
drew you to himself’. So then, whereas it is said in this passage that God
chose his servants to make them walk in holiness of life, it is not meant
that he is bound to govern them by his Holy Spirit even from their
childhood. For (as I have already said) experience shows that he lets them
go astray till the opportune time has come to call them.

But yet we must always bear in mind that God’s electing of us was in order
to call us to holiness of life. For if he should let us alone still as
wretched castaways, surely we could do nothing but all manner of wickedness
according to the corruption that is in us. The good, then, proceeds from his
free mercy which he has already displayed towards us before we were born,
yes and before the world was created. Thus we see in effect what we have to
learn from this passage. And so the blasphemies of such as would obscure
God’s praise are put down, that is, of such as make a conflict and, as it
were, a divorce between God’s free election and a seeking to live well.
‘Really’, they say, ‘has God elected us Then let every one of us do what he
likes, for we cannot perish!’ And what does it matter whether we do either
good or evil seeing that our salvation is grounded upon God’s grace alone
and not upon any virtue in us?’

The answer to this is easy, namely, that if there were no such thing as
God’s election, corresponding to as many thoughts and appetites as might be
found in us, just so many rebellions would there be against all
righteousness. For all of us tend to evil, and we are not only inclined to
it, but we are, as it were, boiling hot with it. We run to it with frantic
impetuosity because the devil possesses all who are not reformed by God’s
Holy Spirit. And so we must needs conclude that our giving of ourselves to
do good is because God guides and leads us to it by his Holy Spirit, and all
because of his election. Therefore (as I said before) we must not separate
the things that God has joined together. For we are not elected to give
ourselves over to permissiveness, but to show by our deeds that God has
adopted us to be his children and taken us into his keeping in order to
dwell in us by his Holy Spirit and to unite us to himself in all perfection
of righteousness.

Moreover, let us also observe that though God has reformed us and set us in
the good way and made us to feel that he has worked in us already to subdue
us to his Word and to make us serve him obediently in all things, yet it
does not therefore follow that we are fully reformed on the first day, no,
nor yet in our whole lifetime. St. Paul does not say that God brings his
elected and faithful ones to the fulness of perfection, but that he draws
them towards it, and so we are but in the way thitherward even to our death.
Therefore, as long as we live in this world, let us learn to profit and go
forward more and more, resting assured that there is still always very much
that is blameworthy in us. For they that imagine any perfection are as good
as bewitched by hypocrisy and pride, or rather, have no feeling or fear of
God in them, but they are far-gone mockers. For he that examines himself
shall always find such a store of vices that he shall be ashamed of them if
he seriously consider them.

They then which say that we can reach any perfection while we dwell in this
mortal body clearly show that either they are utterly blinded with devilish
pride, or else that they are profane people, void of all religion and piety.
As for us, let us note (what I touched on before) that God has elected us
that we should be blameless, but that we are not able to be so till we are
fully rid of all our infirmities and departed out of this prison of sin in
which we are now held fast. [Rom. 7:24] And, therefore, when we feel any
vices in us, let us fight bravely against them, and let us not be
down-hearted as though we were not God’s children because we are not yet
faultless before him, and our sins, which make us blameworthy, are always
before our eyes.

Although, then, we find never so many miseries in ourselves to thrust us out
of the way, yet let us go on, still assuring ourselves that as long as we
live here in this lower world we have our journey to pursue. We must always
keep going forward and are not yet come to the end of the way. See how the
faithful ought to take heart and strengthen themselves although they are not
perfect; and let that fact also cause us to groan and sigh under the burden
which we are driven to feel. For the perfection of the faithful and of God’s
children is to acknowledge their own weakness and to pray God not only to
amend all their misdoings but also to bear with them in his infinite
goodness and not call them to account with extremity of rigour. You see,
then, that our place of refuge and succour is God’s mercy by which he covers
and buries all our sins, because we have not yet attained to the mark to
which he calls, that is, to a holy and faultless life. But, be that as it
may, let us still go forward and take good heed that we do not get enticed
from the right way.

If this word ‘love’ has reference to men, then St. Paul meant to note what
is the true righteousness of Christians, namely, to walk in faithfulness and
uprightness. For we know that the hypocrites would always appease God with
ceremonies and fanfares, as they are called; and yet some of them are given
to acts of robbery, some are full of envy, malice, cruelty and treason; some
are drunkards and others are whoremongers and loose-livers giving rein to
all kinds of wickedness. And yet, despite all this, they think all is safe
if they put on a few holy looks [agios (Fr.) i.e., sanctimonious] and
pretend some show of holiness by these ceremonies. St. Paul, to make an end
of all such nonsense, says that we must walk in love (which is the bond of
perfection and the fulfilling of the law) if we mean to have our life
approved of God. And so you see what we have to learn from this passage.

Furthermore, let us notice that in this place St. Paul exhorts us to
acknowledge ourselves indebted to God for all the virtue and goodness that
is in us. For example, if we have any good zeal, if we fight against our own
vices, or if we walk in obedience to God, how does it come about Even of
this source, that he purposed it, that is, that God elected us beforehand.
Let us consider, then, that the praise for it is due to him and let us not
defraud him of his right. For although we lived as perfectly as angels, yet
if we were so foolish as to think that such living comes from our own free
will and self-effort, we miss the chief point of all. For to what purpose
serve all our good works but to glorify God And if we regard ourselves as
their authors, we see that they are marred thereby and are turned into vices
so as to be nothing else but ambition. We see, then, that the thing at which
St. Paul aimed in this sentence is to bring us back always to God’s
gratuitous election that we might know that all good issues from that
source.

He adds immediately that ‘we are predestinated by adoption to himself
through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.’ When he
says that God has predestinated us by adoption, it is to show that if we be
God’s children it is not through nature but through his pure grace. Now this
pure grace is not in respect of anything that God foresaw in us (as I
mentioned earlier) but because he had marked us out beforehand and appointed
us to such adoption, yes, even in such a way that the cause of it is not to
be sought elsewhere than in himself. And that is the reason why St. Paul
adds that he did it ‘in himself and according to the good pleasure of his
will’. He repeats also the same thing that I previously explained, namely,
that all was done in Jesus Christ. You see therefore that what we have to
note in this passage is that no other cause makes us God’s children but only
his choice of us in himself. For we have no such status by birth or
inheritance, neither does it come of flesh and blood, as it is said in the
first chapter of St. John, insomuch that all that can ever be looked for in
our own selves is excluded and utterly abolished. And this is to show us
that if men are left alone in their former plight, they have no communion at
all with God but are utterly cut off from his kingdom.

It is true that our father Adam was created after the image of God [Gen.
1:26] and that he was excellent in his first state, but after the coming in
of sin we all became utterly helpless, so that even Adam did not have any
strength in himself, and his free will that was given him served him to no
other purpose but to make him the more inexcusable. For he fell wilfully and
through his own malice. But by this we see what sort of constancy he had in
him, for, having been created with the utmost care [á grand’ peine (Fr.)] he
fell, and ruined himself, and ourselves with him. Now, then, we are all born
the children of wrath and cursed of God. [Eph. 2:3]

And so, as long as we remain in our former state and plight there is nothing
but eternal death in us. Therefore God must freely call us to himself, for
are we able to purchase such a high calling Where is the gold or silver to
buy it Where are the virtues with which to recompense God for so great and
excellent a privilege To be brief, (as has been said already on this matter)
it comes neither of flesh nor of blood, that is to say, it does not come of
anything we can find in this world, but only of God’s adoption. [Jn. 1:13]
For the word which St. Paul uses means that God constitutes us children.
When a man adopts a child he chooses him to be his heir, and all the goods
that he has afterwards are passed on under that title. So it is with us who
are heirs of the heavenly life because God has adopted and chosen us for his
children. And further, St. Paul is not contented with having so far
magnified God’s grace, but he says moreover that God has also predestinated
us and determined the matter beforehand.

We see, then, that St. Paul gathers together everything that may crush the
foolish imaginations which we might conceive of bringing anything to God, or
of advancing ourselves towards him to make ourselves acceptable to him.
Therefore everything must be brought to nought so that God’s grace only may
be acknowledged in this respect. And that also is the reason why he repeats
‘through Jesus Christ’. If it be demanded, then, why and how we are
predestinated by God to be his children, it is because he was pleased to
look upon us in Christ. For (as I have said before) this is, as it were, the
register in which we are written to attain to the heritage of life and
salvation. For although God had pitied our miseries, yet we should always be
as it were execrable in his sight if Jesus Christ did not come before him,
because all of us being descended from Adam are of one measure, all of us
alike and equal. Now some are accounted reprobates: and why is that but
because God looking upon them in themselves passes them by. But he chooses
us in our Lord Jesus Christ and looks upon us there, as in a mirror that is
pleasing to him. And so you see how the difference comes about.
Nevertheless, to express the matter even better, he says that God’s choosing
of us was ‘in himself’. It is true that God does all good himself, but here
St. Paul meant to show that which is not seen in all the ordinary works of
God, namely, that no other cause moved him to elect us than his own will.
St. Paul, therefore, takes away all respect of persons when he says that God
elected us in himself. If he had found any merit or worthiness, if he had
found any disposition or goodness or virtue, or (to be brief) if he had
found one drop of anything he might like and approve of, he would not have
elected us in himself but we ourselves should have had some partnership with
him.

Seeing then that St. Paul locks up in God’s counsel all things which belong
to our salvation, and says that our election also is shut up in that
purpose, it is as if he said that men grossly deceive themselves when they
presume they are worth anything or have advanced or prepared themselves to
the reception of such grace. Therefore we must be carried up on high if we
would know that on which our salvation is grounded and what is its true
origin and beginning and its sovereign and only cause. And so you see what
is meant by this saying that God did it in himself.

But St. Paul adds even further, ‘according to the good pleasure of his own
will’. If he had set down no more but only the word ‘will’, it would have
been enough, as we have seen and declared before, that St. Paul had been
elected according to the will of God. And how so? Because he was neither fit
nor worthy to have such a status except that it pleased God to choose him.
St. Paul, therefore, does not brag that he had obtained the apostleship, but
with all mildness acknowledges it to be the free gift of God. Thus you see
what the word ‘will’ signifies, not in any one place alone but throughout
all the holy Scripture. Therefore whenever God’s will is afore-mentioned it
is to show that men cannot advance anything of their own. Nevertheless, St.
Paul sets down here a term of super abundance and says, ‘according to the
good pleasure’; as if he had said, ‘It is true that God’s will is the cause
of our salvation; we should not flit to and fro seeking other reasons or
means for it. However, since men are so unthankful and wicked that they
would always darken God’s glory, and would continually take more to
themselves than belongs to them, if they are not sufficiently persuaded of
God’s will let them understand that it comes of the good pleasure of his
will, that is to say, of a free will which does not depend upon anything
other than itself, nor has any respect one way or another, but vouchsafes to
choose us freely because it is pleased to do so’.

Now we see why such as seek to establish the cause of God’s election of us
would (if it lay in them) overthrow his eternal purpose, for the one is
inseparable from the other. If God has chosen us, as is shown here, then
nothing can depend upon our deserts or upon anything we might have to bring
forward, but God did it according to his own free will and did not find any
other reason than his own good pleasure. If anyone thinks this strange, it
is because they would treat God in an over-familiar manner. [comme un petít
compagnon (Fr.)] And in this appears their devilish audacity in that they
cannot allow God to reign in pure liberty so that what is pleasing to him
might be received as good, just and rightful without contradiction. But let
such people bark like dogs as much as they will, yet is this decree
irrevocable which the Holy Spirit has uttered here by the mouth of St. Paul,
namely, that it is not for us to look for any further cause of our election
than the good pleasure of God, that is to say, than his own free will by
which he has chosen us, though we were not worthy. His sole motive in so
doing lies in the words, ‘thus it pleased me’. And so we see in effect what
we have to gather from these words of St. Paul.

Now St. Paul immediately says that it is ‘to the praise of the glory of his
grace’. Here he shows the final reason that moved God to elect us, namely,
that his grace might be praised by it, yes, not after a common and ordinary
manner, but with a certain glory. For he coupled those two things together
so that we should be ravished when we see how God has drawn us out of the
bottom of hell to open to us the gate of his kingdom and to call us to the
heritage of salvation. Here we see once more the matter I dealt with
previously, namely, that all who would do away with God’s predestination or
are loth to hear it spoken of, thereby show themselves to be mortal enemies
of God’s praise. It seems to them that that passes away and vanishes. Yes,
but who is the competent judge of that? Do they think themselves to be wiser
than God who has spoken clean contrary to that which they allege O (they
say), that would be the way to open the mouths of many men to blaspheme God.
Now, as for the wicked, it is certain that they will always find something
to blaspheme about, and they cannot be stopped from doing so. But, for all
that, God will have enough with which to justify himself, [Rom. 3:4] and all
who so defy him and his righteousness will be confounded. [Ps. 51:4]

Be that as it may, it is not said here without cause that God is duly
glorified and his high praise maintained, when we acknowledge that he has
freely elected whom he willed, and that there is no other cause of
difference between man and man, so that they whom he has reprobated perish
because they deserve it, and they whom he calls to salvation ought not to
seek the cause of it anywhere else than in this gratuitous adoption.

Furthermore, by these two words, St. Paul meant also to stir us up to a
greater and more fervent earnestness in praising God. For it is not enough
for us to confess coldly that our salvation springs from God’s pure
liber4ity, but we must be, as it were, inflamed to give ourselves wholly to
his praise, as if we were wholly dedicated to it, according as St. Peter
shows that since we are drawn out of the darkness of death, there is good
reason for us to be speaking of the unutterable praises of God. [I Pet. 2:9]
And by this he gives us to understand that when the faithful have strained
themselves to the uttermost to acquit themselves in praising God’s goodness,
yet they shall never perfectly accomplish it because it is an
incomprehensible thing. [Lk. 17:10] Note well therefore what we have to bear
in mind. And so, from this goodness or grace of which he speaks, we must
learn that men will never yield to God his due glory till they are utterly
brought to nothing, so that there remains in them not a single drop in which
they may boast. Let us suppose that God’s election had never been thought
of, should he therefore cease to be praised No! No! For that is only a part
of his praise. For if men should say no more than that God causes his sun to
shine upon them, it were a reason to praise him. [Matt. 5:45] And when we
open our eyes to look upward and downward upon the wonderful works he shows
us, there is indeed reason enough to exercise us in his praise all our life
long. Moreover, when his gospel is preached to us, there also we have reason
to praise him though no mention at all is made of his election. I say there
is enough in respect of us, but then he would be robbed of his chief praise
and we should yield him but a portion of that which is due to him. And why?
For the faithful would think that they had faith through their own impulse
and free will. I told you earlier that faith is a fruit of election. For
there is no other difference between us and unbelievers but that God reached
out his hand and drew us to himself by a secret means at such time as we
were turning our backs upon him and were making ourselves strange to him.
[Rom. 5:10] To be brief, it is not without reason that St. Paul says here
that God’s praise shall never be glorified as it ought to be till we
acknowledge his election to be the cause of all the benefits he bestows upon
us, and that if he had not adopted us by his infinite mercy according to his
eternal counsel, we should take part of the praise to ourselves which is due
to him. And so God would be reduced and deprived of so much of his right. In
short, we see well enough what is said here, that men must be utterly abased
in order that God may have his right and no man be made a co-partner with
him, but that all men may confess that he is both the beginning and the
perfection of our salvation.

We must also note carefully how St. Paul adds that ‘of his own grace he has
accepted us in his well-beloved’. By this he makes it even clearer why our
salvation is grounded upon God’s mere election and free grace. For men will
never quit their foolish presumption if they are not so overcome that they
do not have one more word with which to answer back. St. Paul, therefore, to
bring us to such reason, tells us that we are damned and lost in ourselves.
Now when such a thunderbolt falls upon our heads, it is not for us to
demonstrate our insolence. If men will then be so foolish as still to search
everywhere, looking for something belonging to and reserved for themselves
apart from the grace of God alone, no more than this saying is needed to
turn them from it, namely, that we were not in God’s favour till we were in
Jesus Christ, because we are utterly damned and accursed in our own persons.
This matter were sufficiently expounded already, if we were not so slow in
understanding that which is so needful and which ought to be clear to us.
And in truth, even experience ought to teach us in this matter. And, in
fact, if hypocrisy did not blind us too much, we should well perceive that
there is nothing but wickedness in us, and God’s wrath would strike us with
such fear that we should be at our wits’ end. But God must compel us to
obedience by a strong hand, or else we cannot find in our hearts to
relinquish all praise from ourselves to him. Let us therefore note well what
is meant by this statement in which it is said that we were taken into
favour in Jesus Christ, because he is the well-beloved. And why is Jesus
Christ called God’s well-beloved, as he is termed in the seventeenth chapter
of Matthew [v. 5] and in other places, and also is shown to be so in the
prophet Isaiah? [Isa. 43:4] It is thereby shown us that God justly hates and
abhors us so long as we remain in our own natural state.

For if that title were not peculiar to Jesus Christ, then it was said in
vain, ‘This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased’. [Lk. 3:22]
But if it is peculiar to Jesus Christ, then no other creature can claim it,
insomuch that, although God loves his angels, yet they cannot be loved by
him to perfection but by means of Jesus Christ. And as for us, there is
indeed another consideration to be taken into account. For (as I have said
already) we are hated, and Jesus Christ is the mediator to set the angels at
full accord with God, insomuch that there would be no steadfastness or
constancy in them if they were not upheld by him. [Col. 1:17—20] And
besides, their righteousness should not be perfect except they were blessed
and elected in him. So much for one point.

As for us, seeing we are estranged from God through sin, he must needs take
us as his enemies and be an adversary to us. Jesus Christ therefore is the
only well-beloved among men, and as for all the rest of us, God detests and
disclaims us, even so far as to say that it repented him that he had made
man; [Gen. 6:7] which saying of his means that we are not worthy to be
numbered among asses, dogs and other beasts. For they remain still God’s
creatures in the same state that he created them, but we are so wretched and
perverse that we deserve to be cut down and to have the remembrance of us
cursed and execrable before God. Now let us go on bragging and boasting, and
seeking our coats of arms to ennoble ourselves, for we see how the Holy
Spirit degrades all such as think themselves to be worth anything.
Wherefore, let us consider that if we are enemies unto God, we are in a
worse state than if we had never been created.

But at this point St. Paul tells us that ‘God has accepted us in his
well-beloved’. Seeing then that our Lord Jesus Christ is received by God his
Father to be the beloved, not only in his own person but also in respect of
the love that is extended to all the members of his body, by that means we
are gathered together again and God embraces us for his children, whereas
formerly we were his enemies and utterly detestable to him. But, be that as
it may, we must always come back to this election that we have spoken of
before. For the graces communicated to us in our Lord Jesus Christ proceed
also from the same source.

Next, continuing the subject I have touched on already, he shows us the
great need we have of being well-beloved in Jesus Christ. For if we were not
persuaded (by God) we would never grant (I mean unfeignedly) that we owe
everything to God. For we are always labouring to advance ourselves some way
or other, and every one of us seeks how he may reserve something to himself
though it amount to no more than the point of a pin.

But, on the contrary, St. Paul shows us that God must really love us apart
from ourselves, and that if we are well pleasing to him it must not be in
respect of our own selves. And why? For we are captives and bondslaves of
sin. We are held down under the yoke and tyranny of Satan. In short, we are
shut up in the bondage of death till we are ransomed by our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now then we see that the sum of this teaching is that men are
admonished to get out of themselves and to seek their salvation in the pure
goodness of God, even by adopting the means proposed to us here, namely, to
resort to our Lord Jesus Christ. For there are two evil extremes against
which we must be on our guard. One is that in coming to our Lord Jesus
Christ we must not imagine that there is any worthiness in us why he should
make us partakers of his benefits. [Matt. 8:8] And how may that vice be
corrected? Even by being led to God’s gratuitous election. For the very
reason why men presume so much upon their own free will, and the very ground
also on which they build the opinion that they have conceived of their own
merits and worthiness, is that they do not know that they are nothing in any
other respect than that God has accepted them of his own pure goodness and
grace because he had elected them already in his own eternal counsel.

Therefore, we cannot by any means attribute the beginning of our salvation
to God, except we confess that which is shown us here, namely, that we were
utterly damned and accursed at the time he adopted us, and that the origin
of his adoption of us is that he had predestinated us beforehand, even
before the creation of the world. Take note of that for one point.

The second evil extreme against which we must guard ourselves well, is
speculation. Many fanciful people say, ‘Ho! as for me, I shall never know
whether God has elected me and, therefore, I must still remain in my
perdition’. Yes, but that is for want of coming to Jesus Christ. How do we
know that God has elected us before the creation of the world? By believing
in Jesus Christ. I said before that faith proceeds from election and is the
fruit of it, which shows that the root is hidden within. Whosoever then
believes is thereby assured that God has worked in him, and faith is, as it
were, the duplicate copy that God gives us of the original of our adoption.
God has his eternal counsel, and he always reserves to himself the chief and
original record of which he gives us a copy by faith.

I speak here after the manner of men, for we know that God uses neither
paper nor parchment on which to write our names, and I have told you already
that, to speak properly, the register in which we are enrolled is our Lord
Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, God keeps to himself the knowledge of our
election, as a prince would do the chief and original register. But yet he
gives us sufficiently authentic copies or deeds of it, in that he imprints
it in our hearts by his Holy Spirit that we are his children.

You see then that the faith which we have in our Lord Jesus Christ is enough
to assure us of our election, and therefore, what more do we ask I told you
that Jesus Christ is the mirror in which God beholds us when he wishes to
find us acceptable to himself. Likewise, on our side, he is the mirror on
which we must cast our eyes and look, when we desire to come to the
knowledge of our election. For whoever believes in Jesus Christ is God’s
child and consequently his heir, as I have declared before. [Jn. 1:12; I Jn.
5:1] It follows then that if we have faith, we are also adopted. For why
does God give us faith? Even because he elected us before the creation of
the world. This therefore is an infallible order, that insofar as the
faithful receive God’s grace and embrace his mercy, holding Jesus Christ as
their Head, to obtain salvation in his way, they know assuredly that God has
adopted them.

It is true that election is in itself secret. It is so profound and hidden a
purpose that we can only wonder at it. Yet, despite this, God shows it to us
insofar as it is needed and as he knows it to be for our benefit and
salvation. And he does that when he enlightens us with the faith of the
gospel. Thus you see why, after St. Paul has spoken of God’s eternal
election, he sets forth Jesus Christ as the party to whom we must resort to
be assured that God loves us and acknowledges us as his children and,
consequently, that he had adopted us before we knew him and even before the
world was created.

Moreover, we must gather from this passage that the doctrine of
predestination does not serve to carry us away into extravagant
speculations, but to beat down all pride in us and the foolish opinion we
always conceive of our own worthiness and deserts, and to show that God has
such free power, privilege and sovereign dominion over us that he may
reprobate whom he pleases and elect whom he pleases; and thus, by this
means, we are led to glorify him and further to acknowledge that it is in
Jesus Christ he has elected us, in order that we should be held fast under
the faith of his gospel. For if we are his members and hold him for our
Head—for he has allied himself with us in a holy union which can never be
broken so long as we believe his gospel—we must come to him to be assured of
our salvation. For we see and feel by experience that God has adopted and
elected us and that he now calls us and tells us that the assurance he has
given us and daily gives us by his gospel, namely, that he will be our
Father, and especially his engraving of it in our hearts by his Holy Spirit,
is no deceitful thing. For the gospel may well be preached to all men, even
to the reprobate, but, for all that, God does not extend to them this
special grace of quickening them into life.

Therefore when we have our adoption engraven in our hearts, then (as shall
further be declared afterwards) we have a good and infallible pledge that
God will guide us unto the end, and that since he has begun to lead us into
the way of salvation, he will bring us to the perfection to which he calls
us, because, in truth, without him we could not continue so much as a single
day.

And now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God with
acknowledgement of our faults, praying him to make us perceive them more and
more, that being utterly ashamed of them we may bate our vices and our life
in every part, as it is evil and perverse, and resort to him who alone is
able to give the remedy, and not swerve one way or another from him as he
communicates himself to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us keep on straight
to him, acknowledging that we are chosen in him, believing also that we are
sustained and preserved for his sake and that he will exert his power more
and more in us until we have finished our race and are come to the heavenly
heritage whither we are going; beseeching him that although we are yet far
from it, yet he will vouchsafe to give us a steady and invincible strength
to hold out continually till we have fully renounced the world. And, being
quite abased in ourselves, let us seek that we may be so renewed in the
image of God that it may shine perfectly in us, till we are made partakers
of the glorious immortality which he has so dearly bought for us; also that
it may please him to grant this grace not only to us, but also to all people
and nations.

 

Charis, 
  
Mike Abendroth 
  

'God rides forth conquering in the chariot of His Gospel. . . He conquers
the pride of the heart, and makes the will which stood out as a Fort Royal
against Him, to yield and stoop to His grace; He makes the stony heart
bleed. Oh! it is a mighty call! Why then do some men seem to speak of a
moral persuasion? That God in the conversion of a sinner only morally
persuades and no more? If God in conversion should only morally persuade and
no more, then He does not put forth so much power in saving men as the Devil
does in destroying them.'   Thomas Watson

www.bbcchurch.org 
  

 

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