4. The recognizability of the eternal election.
That Christians can recognize their eternal election and be certain of it is so self-evident according to Scripture that Scripture addresses Christians as elect without further ado1682) and
1681) Joh. 3:18. 36; Matt. 24:13 etc.
1682) Eph. 1:4 Paul says, summarizing himself with all Christians: God has chosen us (εξελέξατο ήμάς); 2 Thess. 2:13 he tells the Thessalonians: God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation (εΐλατο υμάς άπ' αρχής είς αωχηρίαν); 1 Thess. 1:5: We know your election (είδότες χήν εκλογήν υμών).
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comforts them with the fact of their eternal election.1683) All those who claim that Christians cannot recognize their eternal election with certainty have a sure sign that their doctrine of election is not the doctrine of Scripture. The cause of the failure to recognize eternal election is multiple.
First of all, the Election of Grace cannot be recognized at all if it is considered from the point of view of divine foreknowledge or foresight, e.g. intuitu fidei finalis, because divine foreknowledge is an inscrutable mystery for us men. No Christian is able to know what God foreknew or foresaw concerning his person because there is no divine revelation about it. The theory that God has ex praevisa fide finali originated at the study table and has always remained at the study table. No theologian and no Christian has ever had any practical use for this theory. A number of the ancient intuitu fidei theologians, however, teach that Christians should and can be certain of their eternal election.1684) They come to this conclusion by letting their theory ride in practice. They point Christians not to God's foreknowledge but to the divine promises that assure preservation in faith. The Formula of Concord, therefore, warns very strongly against the method of taking divine foreknowledge into consideration of eternal election (715, 54 ff. [Trigl. 1081, ibid., 54f. 🔗]): "So there is no doubt that God has seen beforehand in all certainty before the time of the world" (praeviderit, has seen beforehand) "and still knows which of those who are called will believe or not believe; again, which of the converts will remain steadfast, which will not remain steadfast; which will return after the fall, which will fall into hardening. So also the number, how many there will be on both sides, is conscious and known to God without any doubt. But because God has reserved this mystery to His wisdom and has not revealed it to us in His Word, much less commanded us to investigate it through our thoughts, but has seriously forbidden us to do so, Romans 11, we should not conclude or ponder it with our thoughts.
1683) Rom. 8:28-39. v. 33: "Who will accuse the elect of God?"
1684) Brochmand, Systema I, 270 f.; in Baier-Walther III, 599 ff.
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but keep us to his revealed word, whereupon he directs us."
On the other hand, the eternal election cannot be recognized if the general grace (gratia universalis) is somehow limited. That is why the Formula of Concord says, where it deals with the recognition of eternal election (709, 28 [Trigl. 1071, ibid., 28 🔗]): "If we want to consider our eternal election useful for salvation, we must hold firm in all ways that, as the sermon of repentance, so also the promise of the Evangelii universalis, that is, goes over all men, Luke 24:47." Man does not feel the necessity of absolutely universal grace as long as the horror of conscience has not yet seized his heart. But in the case of real fear of sin (terrores conscientiae), nothing else comforts but grace, which goes to all sinners without limitation, which, as Luther expresses it, means no less the thief than St. Peter, no less the whore than the holy virgin. Universal grace, however, is denied not only by the Calvinists but also by the Synergists. The Calvinists limit the saving grace (efficacious grace) to the immediately enlightened and born again. The synergists limit the actually saving grace to the men in whom the right behavior, the self-setting or a lesser guilt is found.
This leads to a third point. The eternal election cannot be recognized at all, if it is considered not as Election of Grace, but from the point of view that it depends on something in man (aliquid in homine), no matter if the thing in man is called merit, good works, self-determination, right conduct, lesser guilt or otherwise is called. In this way of looking at things, the concept of eternal election as Election of Grace is abandoned from the outset, and there is an attempt to recognize a thing that does not exist at all. As a rule, therefore, the synergists also deny the recognizability of eternal election. That is consistent. But if someone should really think in his heart that God has accepted him and chosen him to salvation because he has done good or refrained from evil, he would thereby not bear the marks of the elect, but still the marks of the perishing, because eternal election is now έκλογή χάριτος (Rom. 11:5). That is why the Lutheran confession warns against the
546 > Eternal election. [English ed. ~ 483]
doctrine, "that not the mercy of God and most holy merit of Christ, but also in us (aliquid in nobis) is a cause of God's election" (723, 88 [Trigl. 1093, ibid., 88 🔗]), and therefore it begins the section dealing with the knowability of election with the warning that we should "not judge according to the law" of our election (709, 26 [Trigl. 1071, ibid., 26 🔗]).
On the other hand, the eternal election can be safely recognized from the gospel. The gospel has this content, that the grace of God in Christ concerns all sinners without exception, and that this grace is really grace and not conditioned by anything in man. If a man hears and believes this, he cannot but be assured that for Christ's sake there is no wrath in God's heart, but a great love for him, the sinner. Therefore, if a poor sinner keeps his faith directed to the gospel without side glances at the law, he believes eo ipso his eternal election. In short, the knowledge of eternal election coincides with faith in the gospel. This way of knowing the eternal election is taught in the doctrine Rom. 8:32-33: "God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all; how could he not give us all things with him? Who will accuse the elect of God?" It is only from this fact, that the knowledge of eternal election coincides with faith in the gospel, that the other fact is declared, that the Scriptures address those who believe the gospel as elect. Much argumentation, however, does not help at this point. But it is the method taught in Scripture and proven by experience that to hearts bruised and inquiring after grace their election shines forth from the wounds of Christ, as Staupitz taught Luther and Luther counsels every one inquiring after his election. As far as believers only for a time are concerned, they are believers for a time only because they do not believe the gospel, which specifically promises preservation in faith. Luther remarks on the words 1 Pet. 1:2: "According to the providence of God the Father" as follows: "From this we are to take this doctrine that the providence is not based on our worthiness and merit, as the sophists pretend, since the devil could make it uncertain and overturn it at any moment, but it stands in God's hand and is based on His mercy, which is unchanging and eternal; therefore,
547 > Eternal election. [English ed. ~ 484]
it is also called providence, and for this reason it is certain and cannot be lacking. Therefore, if your sin and unworthiness trouble you, and it occurs to you that you are not provided for by God, item, the number of the elect is small, the multitude of the wicked is great, and you are frightened by the horrible examples of divine wrath and judgment, then do not argue long why God does this or that in this way and not otherwise, if he could well do so. Nor do you dare to explore the abyss of divine providence with your reason, otherwise you will certainly be misled by it, either despairing or even striking yourself in the open, but stick to the promise of the Gospel, which will teach you that Christ, the Son of God, has come into the world to bless all peoples on earth, that is, to redeem from sin and death, to make righteous and saved, and that he did this by the command and gracious will of God the heavenly Father, who so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life, John 3:16. If you follow this counsel, namely, recognizing first that you are a child of wrath by nature, guilty of eternal death and damnation, from which no creature, human or angelic, can save you, and then taking hold of God's promise, believe that He is a merciful, true God, who faithfully keeps what he has said out of pure grace, without any action on our part or merit, and has therefore sent Christ, his only Son, to make amends for your sins and to give you his innocence and righteousness, and finally to redeem you from all kinds of misery and death: Doubt not that thou art of the company of the elect. If one acts in such a way, as St. Paul also does, the providence is exceedingly comforting. To him who does it otherwise, it is terrible for him."
The fact that the recognition of eternal election coincides with faith in the gospel also shows the nature of the certainty that Christians have of their eternal election. As is well known, it has been discussed whether the certainty should be called "absolute" or "conditional". But both expressions are ambiguous. Calvinists think of absolute assurance as immediate, not based on the external means of grace. Efficacious grace acts immediately. Synergists think of "conditional" certainty as being
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dependent on human behavior. In adequate terms, the certainty is called certainty of faith, because it consists in faith in the gospel and therefore, in accordance with the nature of faith, it is not a half certainty, but a complete certainty. This normal assurance of faith is described in Rom. 8:31-39, which description concludes with the words, "I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principality, nor power, nor things present, nor things to come, nor things high, nor things low, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The warnings against apostasy and the reference to believers for a time only are completely serious. But they belong to the law and do not apply to Christians according to the new man, insofar as they ask for grace, salvation and election in the knowledge of sin, but according to the old man, insofar as their interest turns away from grace and salvation and toward this world. The concern that the believers for a time only might have believed an untruth, if in the gospel of grace also the preservation in faith is promised and thus also the eternal election is revealed, is unfounded. The supposed case does not occur. Whoever believes God's promise of grace with regard to preservation does not fall away. This is a fact revealed in the Scriptures.1685)