Training Hour: God's Gracious Purpose

IV. GOD’S GRACIOUS PURPOSE

We believe that election is God’s free, sovereign, and gracious choice of sinners from eternity to share in His salvation in Jesus Christ, according to which He graciously regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and preserves them in time through the Gospel. That being perfectly consistent with the free agency of man, it comprehends all the means in connection with the end; that it is a most glorious display of God’s sovereign love, being infinitely gracious, wise, holy, and unchangeable; that it utterly excludes all boasting, and promotes trust in God, love, humility, worship, and prayer; that it encourages the use of means in the highest degree; that it may be discerned by its effects in all who truly believe the Gospel; that it is the foundation of Christian assurance; and that to ascertain it with regard to ourselves requires the utmost diligence.

Matthew 28:18–20; Romans 8:28–29; Ephesians 1:3–14; Colossians 3:12–17; 2 Thessalonians 2:13–14; 2 Timothy 2:10; 2 Peter 1:10