The Sovereignty of God and the Election
God is sovereign. Sovereignty means that God is supreme in power and authority, which He does not ask of anyone, and that He can do what He wants when He wants.
I announce the end from the beginning, long before I say things that have not yet happened; I say: My plan will stand, and I will carry out all my will; (Isaiah 46:10)
… to do all the things that your will and your counsel had predetermined that they would take place. (proceedings 4:28)
… this man, when it was given into your hands for the specific counsel and foreknowledge of God, butter, by the hand of the wicked, nailing him to the cross, you killed him; (At 2:23).
On a population totally sinful and unable to get close to God without his intervention, He, with its sovereign grace, he has elected to salvation by the Spirit, some. Remember, there is nothing in man that deserves favor, blessing and all kinds of mercy, we all deserve to die precisely because we are all sinners too far from our Creator, so if He has chosen some, we can only thank him, otherwise we would all have died in our sins. There is no favoritism with God (Rm 2,11), He doesn't choose on merit, but he makes everything happen according to his pre-established plan from the beginning. Each person is completely wrathful and unable to save himself. We are all atheists by nature and if God doesn't “would do alive” in US, we would continue to be atheists. Our conversion does not depend on us, we are wrong if we are so holy as to approach God alone with our will.
This is why God has chosen a people apart from the good pleasure of his heart. Because without his choice, no one would ever come to Him. Therefore, predestination is a doctrine of love:
In love he predestined us as adopted children, through Jesus Christ (If 1:4,5)
He chooses some and some he does not, because it does not take into account what the person has done in life, or what he knows he would do, but simply because of his sovereign choice of God, made from the beginning:
He saved us and gave us a holy call, not because of our works, but according to his purpose and the grace that has been given to us in Christ Jesus from eternity (2 Tim. 1:9)
as, before the twins were born and they did good or bad (so that God's purpose would remain firm, second election, which depends not on works, but from him who calls) she was told: "The major will serve the minor"; as it is written: "I loved Jacob and I hated Esau."(Rm 9:11-13; see also the Salmo 11,5).
This is what sovereignty is and it is absolutely biblical: this is why God has mercy on whomever he wills and hardens whomever he wills. Let's pay attention: everything happens if God wills, also our conversion to the faith.
For he saith to Moses: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion". So then neither by those who want or exertion, but of God who shows mercy. (Romans 9:15-16)
This is sovereignty! It is God who is in control.
And to those who believe, to Christians, the apostle Paul writes numerous letters (the so-called Pauline epistles) to the various churches sown here and there, explaining to them God's sovereignty and how He had predestined them for salvation, and telling them to rejoice because they are part of the divine plan.
Just as Paul writes to the Thessalonians:
But we must always thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God from the beginning elected you to salvation through sanctification in the Spirit and faith in the truth. (2Tessalonicesi 2:13)
He explains to the Romans exactly what God has done for them:
Now we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, which are named according to his design. Because those he foreknew, he also predestined them to conform to the image of his Son, that he may be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified. So what shall we say about these things? (Romans 8:28-31)
So God, having elected some for salvation, he predestined others to perdition, hardening their hearts that they wouldn't get faith:
So then He gives mercy to whomever He wills and hardens whomever He wills. (Romans 9:18)
Therefore, for you who believe it is precious; but for the unbelievers “the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, stumbling block and obstacle stone ". They, being disobedient, they stumble over the word; and for this they were also destined. (1Pietro 2:7-8)
What is there to dispute if God, wanting to show his anger and make his power known, he endured with great patience the vessels of wrath prepared for perdition, and this to make known the richness of his glory towards the vessels of mercy which he had already prepared for glory, that is towards us, whom he called not only among the Jews but also among foreigners? (Rm 9:22-24).
It seems clear enough that God does mercy to some and not to others.
You still don't want to believe it? It seems unfair to you? Who are you, sinful man, to object to God's decisions? Bend to his will and exalt his sovereignty by giving him thanks for choosing you!
This is the Sovereignty of God and it is fully present in the Bible, from the Old Testament, with its sovereign decisions on the chosen peoples and on the election of the prophets, to the New Testament, with the call to the ministry of the apostles and the gift of faith to his disciples…. as is still the case today.
