Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 3 Section 3
That WCF 3.3 is concerned about God’s grace for both the elect and the reprobate. For the reprobate, God’s grace, mercy, patience is highlighted (and obviously God’s justice, but not just God’s justice). Eph. 2:3 “among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
If, from eternity, God had predestined the elect for grace and mercy (Eph 1:4-5), but in history the elect were for a time “children of [God's] wrath”, the converse could also be said: from eternity God had foreordained the reprobate to damnation, but in history the reprobate were for a time recipients of God’s common grace, mercy and patience.
To state it simply: after Adam’s fall, the human race was headed to hell. All of us deserve hell. However it was by God’s good pleasure that he decreed that some may be saved through Jesus Christ. All of us deserve hell, but for a short time, we all are recipients of God’s common grace, mercy and patience. Again this is for His glory.
By God’s decree, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestined to everlasting life, and others are foreordained to everlasting death.
Related posts:
- Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 3 section 5
- Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 10, Section 3
- Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 3 Section 6
Tags: christ, decree, faith, wcf, westminster