Chapter 3 Paragraph 6 How God Implements His Decree to Save

One of the great concerns that people have whenever we talk about God’s planning the end
from the beginning, especially as it relates to salvation, is the problem of how God saves us.
If you say that God elects us unto salvation, a number of practical questions usually arise,
so am I born saved? Am I saved no matter what? Do I even have to hear the gospel to be
saved if God simply elects me? Won’t this encourage people to neglect holiness because I
am saved by God’s unconditional election and nothing else? Paragraph 6 of the chapter on
God’s Decree takes up this matter and puts forward the biblical teaching on how God
implements His decree to save. You will remember that semi-colons introduce new ideas, so
here we see two major ideas being put forward. Firstly, we see that God not only appoints
the end but the means to the end, ‘As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so he hath,
by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, foreordained all the means thereunto;’
Secondly, we see that salvation is not only something determined in eternity but worked out
in history in various steps, ‘wherefore they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are
redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ, by his Spirit working in due
season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by his power through faith unto
salvation; neither are any other redeemed by Christ, or effectually called, justified, adopted,
sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.’ Because God elects us to salvation does not mean
that God saves us apart from the implementation of means; nor the implementation of
important steps in our salvation. These will be our two points