Chapter 3 Para. 5 Unconditional Election

One of the Solas of the Reformation is Sola Gratia, by grace alone. As we come to chapter
5 of the chapter on God’s Decree, we come to consider the positive position on how God
decrees to save His elect. We have considered the general characteristics of God’s plan,
that it is eternal, unconditional, immutable, universal and impeccable. We shut the door on
any notion of middle knowledge where God looks down the corridors of time and orders His
will around some hypothetical willing on our part. We noted the difficult doctrine of double
predestination in angels and men and looked at the asymmetry in salvation and passing
over. Then last week we had to shut another door on the Socinian and Open Theist view of
God. Finally now in paragraph 5 we come to a positive explanation of how God decrees
salvation for His elect. As already stated the thread that we will see woven throughout this
paragraph is that we are saved by grace alone. Not only in the way God comes to us in
time and works by His power to draw and keep us; but also in how He originally chose us as
His elect. Works are denied a determining place in our salvation either in time or in eternity;
in the application of redemption or in the planning of salvation. We are saved by grace
alone. As we go through this paragraph we will look at it in two parts, the first part of the
paragraph considers the positive part of how God elects to save us; the last part of the
paragraph looks at how God did not elect us to salvation.