The Graciousness of Election

If there were any works giv­en to men for them to per­form, any char­ac­ter­is­tic they must pos­sess, any sta­tus they must at­tain to, any role they must ful­fill in or­der to mer­it eter­nal sal­va­tion, there would be nec­es­sar­i­ly be in­jus­tice and in­equal­i­ty.

If labors were need­ed, the par­a­lyzed and in­firm would be ex­clud­ed. If sta­tus and stand­ing in soce­ity were re­quired, the poor and the needy would be ex­clud­ed. If great skill in or­a­to­ry de­mand­ed, the dumb and mute would be un­wor­thy. If God were to for­feit his right of elec­tion and seek some­thing in a par­tic­u­lar strain of sin­ner to qual­i­fy them for en­trance into the King­dom of Heav­en it would be un­right­eous, for by so do­ing he would dis­qual­i­fy all oth­ers.

By choos­ing cer­tain sin­ners to save for his own rea­sons, God proves his good­ness and gra­cious­ness. All are alike con­demned, but those who he has set apart from the foun­da­tion of the world, for rea­sons hav­ing noth­ing to do with their per­son­al glo­ry, mer­it, or lack there­of, es­cape con­dem­na­tion pure­ly as a demon­stra­tion of his glo­ri­ous grace.