Gospel Hope

The past few questions, being all about sin, have been quite negative, but now, in question 20, there’s a turn to the solution to this problem.

Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a redeemer.

God, of course, would have been perfectly just to leave us to perish in the estate of sin and misery, but God is not merely a God of justice. He is also a God of mercy. The catechism, quoting Ephesians 1, reminds us that God acted to save “according to the good pleasure of his will.” Because of the goodness of God, he saw fit to offer salvation.

Who did God see fit to save? The elect. We’ve talked about this doctrine in previous questions, but God, from all eternity, elected some to eternal life. Notice the catechism says that God elected out of his mere good pleasure. That means there was nothing in us that God considered in his election; it’s all on him. This is clearly taught in Ephesians 1:4-12.

It’s become very common in recent times for people to argue that God’s election is on the basis of foreseen faith. The idea is that God looked down through time to see who would believe in him and elected those people. But this view has no biblical evidence in support of it. Furthermore, think about what that would mean for our salvation–it would mean that our salvation is somehow dependent on us. And what a sorry state we would be in if it depended on us!

This leads us to the second question: how does God save his elect? Even though God elects some for salvation, there’s still this lingering issue. There is nothing in man that warrants salvation. We are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:5) and the thoughts of our hearts are only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). There’s an impenetrable barrier between God and the sinner, so God provided a way through the covenant of grace. In this covenant, he provides a redeemer, Jesus Christ, who paid for the sins of the elect in order that they might be justified before God. More on that in question 21!

Finally, what is the result of this covenant of grace? We are both delivered from the state of sin and misery and brought into an estate of salvation. Through our redeemer, Jesus Christ, we are freed from the sin and misery we talked about previously. Now, some of that is immediate (justification) and some is gradual (sanctification), but sin has no dominion over us (Romans 6:1-14). We are freed to stand before God and to be cleansed by the blood of Christ applied by the Holy Spirit.

Updates

On December 22, we’ll be meeting twice. On Sunday morning, our Lord’s Day service at 11 AM will be a Lessons & Carols service. Then, on Sunday evening at 5 PM, the children and youth will present a Christmas Pageant. Be sure to join us for both!

Your friend in Christ,
Reid