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Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 3 Section 3

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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.

Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 3 Section 1

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Chapter 3: Of God’s eternal decree
God, from all eternity, did—by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will—freely and unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass. Yet he ordered all things in such a way that he is not the author of sin, nor does he force his creatures to act against their wills; neither is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

— The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 3, Sect. 1 (Modern English Version)

This week we will begin studying Chapter 3 of the Westminster Confession of Faith. This chapter is entitled “Of God’s Eternal Decree”

Note first that the word “decree” in the title is singular. God has one all-encompassing decree, which originated from eternity and has remained unchanged. God did not have to make any new decrees or backup plans.

In today’s confession, God’s decree is described as being wise, free, and holy:

1. First, it is WISE because God’s decree is in harmony with God’s perfect wisdom.
2. God’s decree is FREE because it is not constrained or influenced by anything outside of God’s nature. God ordained whatsoever comes to pass according to the counsel of his will.
3. And God’s decree is HOLY in that it is in harmony with his perfect holiness and utterly free of sin.

So to summarize God’s decree, it is according to his own holy purposes, guided by his own perfect wisdom, without necessity or influence from outside forces, and all without the possibility of revision.

However, when we look at God’s eternal decree, we have to guard against two errors:

1) God’s decree does not make God the author of sin/responsible for sin (even though there is sin in the world, he is not author of sin) and
2) God’s foreordination does not remove man’s responsibility for his own sin.

The Bible clearly establishes both truths: God’s foreordination and man’s responsibility. We recognize that God is holy and sin is a violation of God’s holy will and his holy character. Fallen man alone is responsible for his sin. And people sin freely out of their own freewill according to their own nature, without any external influences or compulsion (or what the confession calls “second causes”). God’s decree does not violate free will but instead establishes it.

The Bible clearly establishes both truths: 1) God’s foreordination and 2) man’s responsibility for his own sin and actions. And we affirm this in our confession today.

Let me now leave you with some good news, because if man is left to his own responsibility, there would be no hope. As part of God’s eternal decree, He knew that his people would fall, so he chose his people in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless in Christ. As part of God’s eternal purpose, He sent Jesus Christ into this world at just the right time to save his people.