God’s Sovereign Decree (WCF 3.1-2)

Teaching Note

God is absolutely sovereign over all things. The confession does not present a universe with cold, mechanical rules, but a deeply personal, logical, and good plan ordained by a loving Father. It is a delicate and mysterious balance: God ordains all things, yet humans are not robots. God is in control and yet Got has left our wills free. This should give us incredible comfort.

Scripture Verse

Ephesians 1:11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…

WCF Text

Westminster Confession of Faith 3.1-2 1. 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.

2. Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet hath he not decreed anything because he foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.

Teaching Content

God is God: It is a necessary part of the character of God that He controls all things. If He didn’t, He wouldn’t be God. So we affirm that God has commanded and ordained all things, not just salvation but every hair on your head and every movement of every atom. He made this plan completely freely, without any outside influence or necessity. When we think of choices we always think of them from a human perspective where even our most free choices are constrained by our circumstances: to choose between chocolate and vanilla ice cream requires being in a place where someone has made chocolate and vanilla ice cream available for us. God is constrained by nothing and has determined from before time or creation to save some. (Isaiah 46:9–10, Matthew 10:29–30, Romans 9:15–18)

He Has Left Us Free: We are not robots, or cogs in a big machine, mechanically doing the things that we were designed to do and nothing else. God has left us free. It is a truth beyond our comprehension that even though God is sovereignly in control of absolutely everything, He is able to create a world where people are none the less free to choose. Which mens that man, not God, is the author of sin, for it is our first father Adam who rebelled against God’s stated will. (Genesis 3:6, Ecclesiastes 7:29, James 1:13–14, Acts 2:23)

God’s Unconditional Decree: We have to keep something in balance here. Man is free to choose, but God is still sovereign and so God’s decree are not based on man’s choices. All of our choices are free and yet dependent on our circumstances and limitations. God has no limitations and no circumstances in the way that we would understand them. He stands above and before creation, having complete freedom from it and complete authority over it. God doesn’t look into the future to see who will choose Him, and then decree their salvation based on that foresight. Rather, the future exists exactly because God has decreed it. (Romans 9:11–13, 2 Timothy 1:9, Ephesians 1:4–5)

Discussion Questions

The Particulars of Predestination (WCF 3.3-5)

Teaching Note

God, from eternity past, and for His own glory selected exactly which men and which angels would be saved and which would suffer the eternal consequences of that sin. It’s a little bit hard for us to comprehend but the entire citizenship of heaven and hell were fixed in God on the basis this decision from all eternity. As a result, not a single person will be lost who should be saved, or shown mercy who has not been elected unto mercy. The mechanism for all of this is faith in Christ, either faith that looks forward to a coming Messiah as the saints of old, or a faith that clings fast to Christ as He has been revealed in the New Testament. There really are just two options, life or death. Faith in Christ or Hell.

Scripture Verse

Romans 8:29–30 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

WCF Text

1. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore-ordained to everlasting death.

2. These angels and men, thus predestinated and fore-ordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite that it can not be either increased or diminished.

3. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving him thereunto; and all to the praise of his glorious grace.

Teaching Content

Angels and Men: The subjects of God’s eternal decree of predestination include both human beings and angels. Some angels are elect, and so God preserved them from ever being tainted by sin, while others fell into sin by their own decision and deserve eternal destruction. The situation with humans is slightly more complicated because our first federal head chose sin on our behalf and so men need not just to be kept from further sin, but to be saved from the root of their sin. Yet, the decree of election is the same. God chose to save some angels and men and to damn others for their sins, and sovereign ordained all means to accomplish that end. (1 Timothy 5:21, Jude 6, Romans 9:22–23, Ephesians 1:4–5)

Predestined Unto Life: Predestination or election is decision from all eternity to save specific people and angels. It was not a general decree to offer salvation to such as would accept it, but a specific decree to save particular people. In the same way that every hair on our head is numbered and not one can fall from our heads without it being God’s sovereign will, so each and every one of who has been elect will be doggedly pursued by our Lord, our objections overcome, our hearts transformed, and we will respond with genuine and personal faith. Not because God has seen that we will respond in faith, but rather because we are elect God ordains all of the means that will cause us to respond freely in faith. (Acts 13:48, Romans 8:29–30, Ephesians 1:4–5

Passed Over for Death: Often called reprobation, this is God’s sovereign decision from eternity to pass by, or refrain from saving, the non-elect, and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin. Reformed theology distinguishes two aspects of this decree: God passes by them and condemns them. God passes them by through withholding the free gift of saving grace. Condemnation is God’s judicial determination to punish them on the ground of their own actual sin and guilt. Salvation is an expression of God’s free and unmerited mercy, while condemnation is an expression of His justice and holiness; both are good and give glory to God. (Romans 9:17–22, 1 Peter 2:8, Jude 4)

Discussion Questions