2. The right consideration of eternal election.
As is well known, the doctrine of election is bound up with a great history of suffering. Luther confesses that for him there was a time when the thought of eternal election filled him not with comfort but with horror.1671) Many Christians have had the same experience.1672 This sad effect is contrary to the real nature and divine intention of this doctrine, and is due to the fact that eternal election is not considered rightly, but as it did not happen at all. Election is, to be sure, a singling out and determination of the persons of Christians to salvation, which took place in eternity, 2 Thess. 2:13: εΐλατο υμάς δ ϑεός … εις σωτηρίαν. [“God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation."] But this segregation did not happen nude, "merely". God — to which it must be pointed out again and again — has not reached among men with his mere omnipotent hand, but this seizing (αίρεΐσϑαι, “choose”) has taken place, as 2 Thess. 2:13 is added, was accomplished "in sanctification, of the Spirit, and in the faith of the truth," εν άγιασμώ πνεύματος καί πίστει άληϑείας, that is, in the way and by the fact that he approached them in the gospel and the Holy Spirit became effective in the gospel and produced faith. In other words: Like Christ's merit, sanctification of the Spirit and faith belong to the eternal election act and not merely to the execution of it, as the Calvinists teach.1673) We therefore consider our eternal election rightly only when we consider and record how it actually took place in eternity, namely, not without means (absolutely), but through the sermon of the gospel and the efficacy of the Holy Spirit in the gospel for the bringing forth of faith. It took place in eternity as the Formula of Concord describes its execution in time (720, 76 [Trigl. 1087, Sol. Decl., XI, 76 🔗]): "The Father draws … by the hearing of his holy divine word as with a net,
1671) St. L. II, 180 reports Luther that he would have almost died in the temptation because of his election, if Staupitz had not saved him from this temptation.
1672) Luther, St. L. II, 182: "Under the papacy there have also been many godly people who have felt these spiritual temptations."
1673) Formula Consensus Helvetica, V; in Niemeyer, p. 731 sq.
539 > Eternal election. [English ed. ~ 476-477]
thereby the elect are snatched out of the devil's jaws." If we hold on to this eternal mode of election, we are pointed to Christ and the gospel by the question of our election, and with that all trouble is over, as is to be explained in more detail in the section on the recognizability of election. All perverse thoughts leading either to despair or to carnal security are completely excluded. If someone asks, "Am I chosen to salvation?" he must answer with the counter-question, "How do you stand on the sanctification of the Spirit and the faith of truth, by which eternal election has come about?" Continues the questioner: "If I am chosen from eternity to salvation, I shall certainly be saved; If I am not chosen, I will perish, whether I hear the gospel and believe or not," he must be told that there is no such eternal election to salvation, that God has not taken his elect by the ears or by the neck, but εν άγιαομφ πνεύματος καί πίοτει άληϑείας, by means of sanctification of the Spirit and faith of the truth, in eternity.
This is the point on which the Formula of Concord stresses so emphatically. It is all about securing this right consideration of eternal election. After establishing the concept of the "eternal election of the children of God to eternal salvation" by demarcating it from divine providence (704, 3-8 [Trigl. 1063, Sol. Decl., XI, 3-8 🔗]), it inculcates it at great length (706, 9-24 [Trigl. 1065, ibid, 9-24 🔗]) that the election to salvation "is not to be considered merely (nude) in the secret, inscrutable counsel of God," "as if such no longer held in itself or belonged to it, nor were more to be considered in it, than that God foreknew (foresaw, praeviderit) which and how many should be saved, which and how many should be damned, or that he alone held such muster (militarem quendam delectum): This one shall be saved, that one shall be damned; this one shall remain steadfast, that one shall not remain steadfast", but the right consideration of the eternal election happens thus, "that the whole doctrine of the purpose, counsel, will and ordinance of God concerning our salvation, calling, righteousness and saving be summarized (simul mente complectamur)". The Formula of Concord then itself summarizes what is necessary for right consideration in eight points. We must consider, it says, that God
540 > Eternal election. [English ed. ~ 477-478]
has truly reconciled the human race1674) to Himself through Christ, that God presents to us the acquired grace through the means of grace, that the Holy Spirit works faith through such presentation, that God justifies by faith and sanctifies those who are thus justified, not forsaking them even in their weakness and various temptations, but will perfect the work begun until it is made glorious. Having thus placed the general way of salvation under consideration, the Formula of Concord adds that it has hereby described the way or mode in which God "considers all and every person of the elect, who are to be saved through Christ, in grace [for eternity] (clementer praescivit, translation of προέγνω, Rom. 8:29), saved to salvation, also decreed that in this way, as now reported, he would bring, help, promote, strengthen, and preserve them by his grace, gifts, and effects."
We have an analogy for this in the consideration of the terminus vitae. The number of years of each man is determined in God's counsel. Job 14:5: "Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass." But this truth must not be considered bare manner, nude, in the way that someone would not pray or work or eat or use remedies against danger and disease. God has directed us men to the means he has ordained1675) and woven the use of these means into the terminus vitae he has established. On the way of the use of these means God leads our life to the terminus determined by him. Thus, of course, eternal election is also an unchangeable factum, as the Formula of Concord so emphatically testifies (705, 25; 714, 45-47; 715, 54 ff. [(Trigl. 1071, ibid., 25 🔗; 1079, 45—47 🔗; 1081, 54 ff. 🔗]). But this eternal act of grace is not absolute, but as εν Χριστφ (Eph. 1:4), so also εν άγιασμφ πνεύματος και πίοτει άληϑείας happened (2 Thess. 2:13), that is, it is based on Christ's merit, and into the act of election itself is woven the use and effect of the means of grace.
1674) The Formula of Concord calls "the human race" or all men, not in order to declare a general election in contradiction with its own explanation (705, 5 [Trigl. 1065, ibid., 5 🔗]), but because we can consider "our redemption" (707, 14 [Trigl. 1069, 14 🔗]) only when we consider that truly the human race is redeemed by Christ. The denial of the general redemption excludes the consideration of our redemption.
1675) Acts 9:25; 23:16 ff; 1 Tim. 5:23 etc.
541 > Eternal election. [English ed. ~ 478-479]
From our position in Christ and the means of grace we can recognize whether we are eternally chosen, as the Formula of Concord explains in detail (710, 30 ff. [Trigl. 1073, ibid., 30ff. 🔗]). This is the right consideration of the eternal election.