God's decree and predestination

The eternal decree

The Westminster Confession speaks of God before it speaks of us. After a chapter on Scripture and a chapter on God and the Trinity, and before a word about sin or salvation, its third chapter confesses God's eternal decree. A decree, in this sense, is God's settled purpose: what he determined, before the world began, that he would do. Scripture calls him the one "who works out everything by the counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:11), and he says, "My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish" (Isaiah 46:10). The word Paul uses for ‘counsel’ is boulē (βουλή), a considered plan.

In the Confession's words, God "from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established" Westminster Confession 3.1.

The "yet so" matters as much as the first half. God is not the author of sin. The wills of his creatures are not forced. And "second causes", the real choices and actions of creatures, are not cancelled but upheld. The clearest case in Scripture is the cross. At Pentecost Peter told the crowd that Jesus "was delivered up by God's set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death" (Acts 2:23). One event holds both God's holy purpose and real human guilt. So the decree is not fate. God ordains the means as well as the end — the preaching, the praying, the choosing — and so his purpose gives our prayer and obedience their meaning instead of emptying them. God's government of all things is the subject of the doctrine course's lesson on providence; this lesson looks at the part of his decree that concerns salvation.

Chosen in Christ, by grace

Predestination is God's decree concerning the eternal destiny of persons. The New Testament verb is proorizō (προορίζω), to decide beforehand, and it appears mostly in prayer, praise and comfort. Paul opens Ephesians with a song:

For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.

Ephesians 1:4-6

The choice is made in Christ; its goal is holiness and adoption; its end is the praise of God's grace. Romans 8 sets out the whole chain: "those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified" (Romans 8:30). Matthew Henry calls it "a golden chain, one which cannot be broken" Matthew Henry.

Why these people? The Reformed confessions will not find the reason in us. Salvation "does not depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy" (Romans 9:16), and in Pisidian Antioch "all who were appointed for eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48). So the Westminster Confession teaches that God "hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory" those predestined to life, "out of his mere free grace and love", not because he foresaw faith or good works in them, "and all to the praise of his glorious grace" Westminster Confession 3.5. Faith is not the reason God chose; it is the fruit of his choosing.

Passing by, and the justice of God

What, then, of those not chosen? Here the confessions speak briefly and soberly. The rest of mankind, says the Westminster Confession, God was pleased "to pass by; and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice" Westminster Confession 3.7. This is called reprobation. Notice the words "for their sin". Election and reprobation are not worked in the same way: election is mercy to those who deserve none; reprobation is God leaving sinners in the sin they have chosen. The Canons of Dort insist that this decree in no way makes God the author of sin, but shows him to be its righteous judge, and that the guilt of unbelief lies in us, not in God Canons of Dort, First Head. Matthew Henry puts it plainly: "those who are saved, must thank God only; and those who perish, must blame themselves only" Matthew Henry.

And the same God sends his gospel to all. Dort teaches that the promise — whoever believes in Christ crucified will not perish but have eternal life — is to be proclaimed, with the command to repent and believe, to all nations and all people without distinction. Election does not silence evangelism; it gives it courage. When Paul was afraid in Corinth, the Lord told him to keep speaking, "because I have many people in this city" (Acts 18:10).

Within the Reformed family there is an old discussion about the order of the decrees: not their order in time, since all are eternal, but their logical order in God's purpose. Supralapsarians, such as Calvin's successor Theodore Beza, put the decree to elect first, with the decrees to create and to permit the fall serving it. Infralapsarians hold that God chose his people from humanity considered as already fallen. The Canons of Dort are usually read as infralapsarian, and many historians think the Westminster divines worded chapter 3 so that holders of both views could subscribe. Both confess that election is grace and reprobation is justice for sin.

Other traditions teach differently. Arminians and Wesleyans hold that God chose in Christ those he foresaw would believe, and gives everyone a grace that goes before and makes a response possible Arminius, Declaration of Sentiments; Articles of Remonstrance. Lutherans confess that election is wholly of grace, yet that no one is predestined to damnation Formula of Concord, art. 11. The Catholic Church teaches that grace always comes first, and allows several schools to explain the rest. The doctrine course's lesson on grace and election sets these views side by side.

Handling a high mystery

The Confession closes its chapter with pastoral counsel: "The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care" Westminster Confession 3.8. The aim is that those who heed God's revealed will and obey it may be assured of their election by the certainty of their effectual calling. Handled so, it will "afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God; and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the gospel".

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 29:29

On this verse Matthew Henry writes, "We are forbidden curiously to inquire into the secret counsels of God, and to determine concerning them" Matthew Henry. Calvin warned that curiosity about predestination wanders into a maze with no way out, and yet that we should not be ashamed to learn whatever Scripture teaches. To anxious believers he said: do not pry into God's hidden decree; look at Christ, the mirror in whom we see our election Calvin, Institutes 3.21–24.

So predestination is not a riddle to solve before you may come to Christ. It is the song of those who have come and now look back: before I took hold of God, he had taken hold of me. That humbles our pride, steadies us on days of doubt, and gives all the glory to God, as Paul's long argument ends: "O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Romans 11:33). For anyone still hesitating, the door is open: "the one who comes to Me I will never drive away" (John 6:37). The next lesson tells how the Synod of Dort set out this faith in five heads of doctrine. See also What is predestination?

Practice