According to Holy Scripture it is not the purpose of the doctrine of eternal election to deny or limit the gratia universalis (Calvin and others), but rather to inculcate the sola gratia. In other words, it should induce Christian believers, whenever they compare themselves with unbelievers, to ascribe their state of grace not to their own praiseworthy conduct (synergism, Pelagianism), but solely to divine grace in Christ Jesus (divine monergism). This emphasis on the sola gratia is indeed necessary; for if Christians ascribe their salvation to their good conduct, or worthiness, even only in part, they are fallen from grace and are under the divine curse, Luke 18, 9 ff.; Gal. 3, 10.
This purpose of the doctrine of eternal election appears already from Israel’s election as the people of the Old Testament Church, which was typical of God’s eternal election of grace. When God led His people into the land of promise, He expressly declared: "Not for thy righteousness or for the uprightness of thine heart dost thou go to possess their the heathen nations’ land. . . . Understand therefore that the Lord, thy God, giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people,” Deut. 9, 5. 6.
This same thought, "not for thy righteousness,” the doctrine of election impresses upon the believer in the New Testament. (2 Tim. 1, 9: "God hath saved us . . . not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace”; Eph. 1, 5. 6: "having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will”; Rom. 11, 6: “If by grace, then it is no more of works.”)
It is only when we keep this important truth in mind that we are able to understand chaps. 9—11 of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans correctly. In these chapters the apostle indeed affirms the universal grace of God, Rom. 10, 21; 11, 32, but condemns the arrogance and pride of the self-righteous, who, when comparing themselves with those who are lost, regard themselves as better than they and so ascribe their salvation to their own worthiness, Rom. 9, 30—33; 11, 18 ff.
In agreement with these statements of Scripture the Formula of Concord writes Thor. Decl., XI, 87. 88: “By this doctrine and explanation of the eternal and saving choice predestination of the elect children of God His own glory is entirely and fully given to God, that in Christ He saves us out of pure and free mercy, without any merits or good works of ours, according to the purpose of His will. . . . Therefore it is false and wrong conflicts with the Word of God when it is taught that not alone the mercy of God and the most holy merit of Christ, but that also in us there is a cause of God’s election on account of which God has chosen us to eternal life.”
As a warning against self-righteousness our Lord employs the doctrine of eternal election in Matt. 20,1—16 and Matt. 22, 1—14, where He reproves those who trust in their own righteousness and reject the sola gratia and the meritum Christi as the sole foundation of their eternal hope.
While the doctrine of God’s eternal election in Christ Jesus is therefore a most earnest warning addressed to Christians inasmuch as their flesh inclines to self-righteousness, it is a warning also, addressed to their secure and indifferent hearts, not to despise the means of grace, through which God’s grace in Christ Jesus is offered and conveyed to all sinners (Matt. 22,1—14: “And they would not come”).
On this point the Formula of Concord writes very correctly Thor. Decl., XI, 51: “From this article also powerful admonitions and warnings are derived, as Luke 7, 30: ‘They rejected the counsel of God against themselves’; Luke 14, 24: ‘I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper’; Matt. 20, 16 : ‘Many be called, but few chosen’; also Luke 8 , 8. 18 : ‘He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,’ and: ‘Take heed how ye hear.’”
Again Thor. Decl., XI, 41. 42: “Few receive the Word and follow it; the greater number despise the Word and will not come to the wedding, Matt. 22, 3 ff. The cause of this contempt for the Word is not God’s foreknowledge or predestination, but the perverse will of man, which rejects or perverts the means and instrument of the Holy Ghost which God offers him through the call and resists the Holy Ghost, who wishes to be efficacious and works through the Word, as Christ says: ‘How often would I have gathered you together, and ye would not I’ Matt. 23, 37. Thus many ‘receive the Word with joy, but afterward fall away again,’ Luke 8,13. But the cause is not as though God were unwilling to grant grace for perseverance to those in whom He has begun the good work, for that is contrary to St. Paul, Phil. 1, 6; but the cause is that they wilfully turn away again from the holy commandment of God, grieve and embitter the Holy Ghost, implicate themselves again in the filth of the world, and garnish again the habitation of the heart for the devil. With them the last state is worse than the first, 2 Pet. 2, 10. 20; Eph. 4, 30; Heb. 10, 26; Luke 11, 25.”
As Matt. 20,1—16 and 22,1—14, so we must view as a most earnest warning also the apostle’s admonition to give diligence to- make our calling and election sure, 2 Pet. 1,10. What the apostle here inculcates is that Christians should diligently use the means of grace, walk in obedience to God by faith in Christ Jesus, and so through the witness of the Holy Spirit (testimonium Spiritus Sancti) become subjectively sure of their state of grace and election. Gal. 5, 22—25.
However, while it is a manifest purpose of the doctrine of eternal election to warn and exhort Christians to adhere to the sola gratia and not to despise the means of grace (Lawpreaching addressed to Christians according to their Old Adam παλαιὸς ἄνϑρωπος, Eph. 4, 22—24), the proper scope of the doctrine is to bless all Christian believers with true comfort and abiding consolation. In this manner Scripture employs the doctrine of election preeminently, Eph. 1, 3—6; Rom. 8, 28—30; 1 Pet. 1, 2—6; for the proclamation of the sola gratia (sola fide) is by its very nature the sweetest and most consoling Gospel truth, John 3, 16—18.
In particular, the doctrine of God’s eternal election in Christ Jesus comforts the Christian believer in two ways: It shows him a) how very earnestly God desires the eternal salvation of every Christian, and b) how God at all times preserves His Church on earth against the fury of Satan, the onslaughts of the wicked world, and the deceitfulness of the believer’s own corrupt flesh (σάρξ). The Formula of Concord speaks very fittingly of this precious comfort when it says Thor. Decl., XI, 45. 46: “Thus this doctrine affords also the excellent, glorious consolation that God was so greatly concerned about the conversion, righteousness, and salvation of every Christian and so faithfully purposed it . . . that, before the foundation of the world was laid. He deliberated concerning it and in His secret purpose ordained how He would bring me thereto call and lead me to salvation and preserve me therein; also, that He wished to secure my salvation so well and certainly that, since through the weakness and wickedness of our flesh it could easily be lost from our hands or through craft and might of the devil and the world be snatched and taken from us, He ordained it in His eternal purpose, which cannot fail or be overthrown, and placed it for preservation in the almighty hand of our Savior Jesus Christ, from which no one can pluck us, John 10, 28.”
Again ibid., 48. 49: “Moreover, this doctrine affords glorious consolation under the cross and amid temptations, namely, that God in His counsel, before the time of the world, determined and decreed that He would assist us in all distresses anxieties and perplexities, grant patience under the cross, give consolation, excite nourish and encourage hope, and produce such an outcome as would contribute to our salvation. Also, as Paul in a very consolatory way treats this, Rom. 8, 28. 29. 35—39, that God in His purpose has ordained before the time of the world by what crosses and sufferings He would conform every one of His elect to the image of His Son and that to every one His cross shall and must work together for good, because they are called according to the purpose, whence Paul has concluded that it is certain and indubitable that neither tribulation nor distress, nor death, nor life, etc., shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”
Lastly ibid., 50: “This article also affords a glorious testimony that the Church of God will exist and abide in opposition to all the gates of hell and likewise teaches which is the true Church of God, lest we be offended by the great authority and majestic appearance of the false Church, Rom. 9, 24. 25.”
While the Formula of Concord thus points out, and impresses, the consolatory nature of the doctrine of eternal election to life, it shows also that, “when this consolation and hope are weakened or entirely removed by Scripture by false Scriptural interpretation, as that of Calvinism and synergism, it is certain that it is understood and explained contrary to the will and meaning of the Holy Ghost” ibid., 92, so that, “if any one presents the doctrine concerning the gracious election of God in such a manner that troubled Christians cannot derive comfort from it, but are hereby incited to despair or that the impenitent are confirmed in their wantonness, it is undoubtedly sure and true that such a doctrine is taught not according to the Word and will of God, but according to the blind judgment of human reason and the instigation of the devil” ibid., 91.
To the believing Christian who rejoices in the sweet consolation of the blood-stained cross of Calvary and in its radiant light and glory views his own certain election and salvation “this doctrine gives no cause either for despondency or for a shameless, dissolute life” ibid., 89.