For many people God's sovereign election is a source of major offense but for God's children it is a cause of great adoration and praise. It is the source from which salvation and redemption flow. Calvin writes: "If the reason is asked, why God has called us to enjoy the Gospel, why He daily bestows upon us so many blessings, why he opens to us the gate of heaven, the answer will be constantly found in this principle, that He hath chosen us before the foundation of the world." The very time in which election took place shows us that it is free; it took place in eternity before the foundation of the world. When there was no world and no people, then already God chose a people unto Himself.

A Great Privilege to be Human⤒🔗

Let every believer think this through: God chose you from eternity. Before Adam fell, before the world was made, even before an angel ever prostrated himself before Jehovah's throne, when there was nothing but God in the eternal harmony of His Triune Holy Being, when He was alone full of glory in Himself, God was thinking of you. Then God already had decided that He would fill you with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. Then already God loved you. Such thoughts of His love for you have been in God's mind for as long as He has been God. (Stuart Olyott)

But we can even broaden this doctrine of election. The very fact that God created you a human being is already His electing grace extended toward you. The mere fact that you have a will and are endowed with the ability to think is already a part of His sov­ereign election. God chose you to exist as a human being and not as a bird or a fly. That is already His electing grace toward you. That is an honour. Nothing in this world or in the whole universe can be compared to man. The stars, the planets, the Orion and the animals, there is nothing that can even compare to man. God made you a living person. That already flows forth from His election. That is a great privilege.

Luther says that you can preach the gospel a thousand times to a cat but it will have no idea what you are saying. It does not have the capacity to understand the gospel. But God gave you the ability to reflect upon life and death, upon the meaning of life and upon God your Maker. That is already an element of God's election.

A Great Privilege to be Under the Word←⤒🔗

Furthermore, the very fact that of all people, God has chosen you to be under His Word, to hear the offer of God's promises of life and salvation, is because of His sovereign election. Many never hear the Gospel and they cannot be saved unless God's Word is proclaimed to them. What great mercy, that God has chosen you to hear the Word of life! Thank God for that and make use of the privileges God gives you.

When you are a partaker of God's salva­tion, think of the miracle that God had mercy upon you. He overcame your unwillingness and He filled you with His Spirit. He not only caused the Gospel to be preached externally to you, but He also powerfully illumined your mind, pervaded the innermost recesses of your heart, and opened your closed heart and softened it. He infused new qualities into your will. He actually raised you from the dead and made you spiritually alive (see Canons III/IV, 11).

There is so much reason for you to humble yourself before God if the Lord saved you. You were in the way of perdition until God drew you to Himself and gave you spiritual life. Without His sovereign election you could never have been delivered. Humble yourself, therefore, and adore Him and seek to live according to His will. All you have you owe to Him. He is your life and your salvation. He is your Lord and He will never leave you. Trust in Him. He loved you and chose you from before the foundation of the world.

Election is in Christ←⤒🔗

Always remember that your election is in Christ (Eph. 1:4). Calvin explains beautiful­ly that Christ is the mirror in which God sees sinners. God looks at Christ and sees in Him the reflections of His people. But Christ is also the mirror into which His people look. By looking to Jesus, you see your election. By seeing the blessed person of Christ, His beauty, His all-comprehensive ability to save and His willingness to receive sinners, you are drawn to Him by faith. You trust in Him and His finished work. Then you see your election in Christ. Faith in Christ, Calvin says, is the evidence of your election to salvation.

The Effects of Election←⤒🔗

God's sovereign election has various effects.

1. In the first place, God has chosen His people to holiness (Eph. 1:4). Holiness is a very special word in the New Testament. Three times the members of the New Testament church are called Christians in Scripture (Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16), but 60 times they are called holy. That shows how important the matter of holiness is. What does it mean to be holy? Holy does not mean to be without sin. But it refers to people who have seen that they are sinners and need a Saviour. That is a growing concern in their lives. Holy ones are not those who become better, but who see more of their own unworthiness and who need to live in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. These people become poorer in themselves and richer in Christ.
   To be holy means to live in two worlds. They are people who are different from the rest. They live for the world to come and seek to be conformed to that coming world. They pursue this attitude all their life. They strive to live without blame and they seek to put away everything that is doubtful in the sight of God. They are dedicated to God. They are motivated by the love of Christ poured out into their hearts.

2. In the second place, God predestinates sinners to the adoption of children (Eph. 1:5). This is the highest privilege the Gospel gives. It is already a wonderful thing that the Judge has declared you not guilty. This is the blessing of justification and is the foundational blessing in the Christian life, but not the highest blessing. The highest blessing is to belong to the family of God.
   Imagine a judge who not only declares that the guilty criminal is acquitted of his punishment, but taking the criminal home, adopting him as his own son, putting his own name upon him, and giving him the pleasure and benefits of his home and being as a father to him! This is what God has done for all His people.
   To understand adoption we must view it as it was practiced in Paul's day. Romans of this time would adopt someone with the intention of bestowing all their wealth and possessions on the adoptee. If a rich person had no natural heirs to whom he could leave his riches, he would look for someone to adopt, often an adult. This is what Paul has in mind when he speaks about God adopting people. God intends to give them the kingdom and the wealth of the house of the Father. That is the incredible privilege of being adopted as a son of God. That is the glorious effect of election.
   A major difference with God's adoption is that a Roman citizen would adopt someone in whom he saw certain admirable charac­teristics, but God chooses the failures, the outcasts, and the sinners. He makes rebels His heirs. Also, these Romans were not able to instill their character into their adopted son. Earthly parents may love an adopted child as much as they wish, but to a large extent they are unable to impart their spirit to the child. But when God adopts, He imparts His Spirit to them. They are inwardly changed and renewed after the image of Christ.

3. In the third place, God's election is to the praise of the glory of His grace. God saves sinners to the glory of His Name. This is the deepest effect and the aim of all that God works: the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph. 1:6). It is like drawing a plan for a house. The aim is to have a home built but behind that is a greater aim: to have the convenience of living in it. So it is with God when He elects sinners to be holy. Behind that is the deeper intention and that is that His Name would be praised and that in heaven there will be with Him an innumerable company of people, who through­out eternity will praise the glory of His grace. There, God's children will perfectly praise His glory. They shall do it ceaselessly and endlessly, as the final effect of God's sovereign election.