The Eternal Blueprint of Grace

The doctrine of predestination is not an obscure or peripheral idea buried in the pages of theological speculation; it is a divine pillar upon which the entire gospel rests. It proclaims, with heaven’s authority, that salvation belongs to the Lord (Psalm 3:8). It is not initiated by man, enhanced by ritual, or sustained by religious effort. It begins, continues, and is completed entirely by the sovereign will of God.

When Paul declares in Ephesians 1:4, “He hath chosen us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world,” he is unveiling the mind of God in eternity past. This is not poetic flourish or doctrinal opinion. It is a glimpse into the eternal counsel of the Triune God, who purposed, before the first molecule existed, to redeem a people for Himself through the merit of His Son.

Before Adam fell, God had already decreed the remedy. Before sin corrupted creation, grace was written into the story of redemption. The fall did not surprise God; it was permitted to magnify His mercy. The plan of salvation was not a response; it was a revelation of His eternal love. And that love was not bestowed arbitrarily, nor in response to foreseen faith or merit. As Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 1:5, this election was “according to the good pleasure of his will.”

Here is where the doctrine of predestination draws a firm line in the sand: God did not choose His people because He saw they would choose Him. That view, common yet deeply flawed, makes man sovereign and God reactive. It turns grace into reward. But the gospel declares that we are chosen not because we would believe, but so that we would believe (cf. Acts 13:48; John 6:37). Faith is not the cause of election; it is the fruit of it. Election is not God foreknowing our choice; it is God foreloving a people who, left to themselves, would never choose Him.

“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” (John 15:16).

Grace That Is Truly Grace

If election were based on anything in us; our faith, our works, our response; then grace would cease to be grace. Paul settles this definitively: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace” (Romans 11:6). The gospel is not God doing His part if we do ours. It is God doing everything for those who deserve nothing.

To say that God looked down the corridor of time to see who would believe and then chose them is to invert the gospel. It makes man’s faith the cause of God’s choice, rather than the result. But Scripture teaches the opposite: “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48).

Not “those who believed were ordained,” but those who were ordained; by God’s sovereign decree; believed, because God gave them new hearts to respond to the gospel (Ezekiel 36:26–27; John 6:44).

This is the beauty and offense of predestination: it humbles man and exalts God. It crushes all self-reliance and leaves no room for boasting. “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Romans 9:16). God does not save because of anything in us, but in spite of everything in us. That is grace; sovereign, free, undeserved, and invincible.

The Sovereign Initiative of God in Christ

To reduce salvation to human cooperation, religious ceremony, or institutional authority is to rob God of His glory and to empty the cross of its power. Salvation is not a joint venture between heaven and earth. It is not a fragile arrangement upheld by man’s consistency or church participation. It is the sovereign act of a merciful God, who saves whom He wills, when He wills, and how He wills; through the person and finished work of Jesus Christ alone.

There is no sacrament that can secure what only the blood of Christ has purchased. There is no priest or pope who can add to the value of His atonement. There is no church institution that can bind or loosen what God has decreed from eternity past. He who spoke galaxies into existence has also called, justified, and glorified His people by name (Romans 8:29–30). He did not wait for our permission. He did not need our participation. He simply said, “Live” (Ezekiel 16:6).

And this is the believer’s unshakable comfort: our salvation does not rest on shifting human will, but on the eternal will of God, anchored in the perfect righteousness of Christ. We are not saved because of our value, but because of His worth. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (Revelation 5:12). The gospel does not call us to earn or to merit. It calls us to rest; to rest in the unchangeable grace of a God who finishes what He starts (Philippians 1:6).

Romans 8:29 declares: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.” The word “foreknow” here refers not to bare knowledge of future decisions, but to a relational, covenantal love. God foreknew persons; not performances. He set His love upon His elect from eternity, and predestined them to be conformed to Christ; not because they were good, but to display His mercy and glory.

Every element of salvation; regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification; flows from this eternal decree. We are not Christians because we chose wisely or participated in the right religious systems. We are Christians because God had mercy on us. “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Romans 9:16). This truth silences pride and magnifies grace.

As Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones put it, “We are not chosen because we believe; we believe because we are chosen.” Faith itself is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8), breathed into us by the Spirit; not conjured up by our own will. What greater humility could there be than to say, “I am saved because God chose to love me, not because I made myself lovable”?

Christ Alone, Our Great High Priest

At the heart of the gospel is this central truth: Christ alone mediates between God and man. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). This is not a negotiable point; it is the very foundation of salvation. Christ alone stands in the gap. He is the High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 4:14–15), the Lamb of God who takes away sin (John 1:29), and the only way to the Father (John 14:6).

No system, sacrament, or human representative can replicate or share His office. The book of Hebrews says of Christ:“And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood” (Hebrews 7:23–24).Unchangeable; literally, in the Greek, “non-transferable.” Christ’s priesthood does not and cannot pass to another. There is no succession, no representative on earth who stands in His place. He alone intercedes for us (Hebrews 7:25), and He alone offered one perfect, sufficient, and final sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:10–12).

To believe that any man; no matter his title or authority; can mediate grace or forgiveness on Christ’s behalf is to misunderstand the gospel. Salvation does not come through a ritual or office. It comes through faith in the nail-scarred hands of the risen Saviour, and in His righteousness alone.

“But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.” (Romans 5:15)

The gospel begins and ends with this: grace is a gift. Not a transaction. Not a wage. Not a prize awarded to the diligent or the devout. It is not a substance passed through religious channels. It is not a reward for a life well-lived or a sacrament well-received. It is a free and sovereign outpouring of God's kindness upon the utterly undeserving. It flows from His heart, not from our worth. It is initiated by His will, not by our effort.

Grace cannot be bought or bartered. It cannot be stockpiled or dispensed at the discretion of any man. It is not infused over time as a slow reward for obedience. It is imputed instantly to the sinner at the moment of true faith, credited fully and permanently because of what Christ has done. The only reason grace can be given is because Christ is worthy. That is why Paul calls it “the gift by grace”; not the reward for effort, but a gift grounded in the righteousness of Another.

This is the radical claim of the gospel: we are not saved because of our value; we are saved because of Christ’s value. We bring nothing to the table but our sin and need. We are not lovely, but He is love. We are not righteous, but He is righteousness. We are not strong, but He is strength. Our salvation rests on the unshakable foundation of His obedience, His blood, and His resurrection. We are made acceptable to God only because we are found in Him.

Ephesians 2:8–9 proclaims this with devastating clarity: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” There is no boasting in heaven; none. There will be no medals worn by men, no liturgical achievements paraded before the throne.The only crown will be cast at His feet. The only righteousness will be His righteousness. Grace excludes all boasting because grace is all of God. If it were of us, it would not be grace.

The gospel does not leave room for religious pride. It does not permit self-congratulation or spiritual entitlement. It kills every idol and casts down every tower man has built to reach God. It renders powerless every ritual, every ceremony, every human attempt to earn God’s favour. The true gospel says: you cannot ascend to God, but He has descended to you; full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

And what is this grace like? It is not cautious or measured. It is abundant. It overflows. It abounds. “Much more the grace of God… hath abounded unto many.” It does not trickle down in small amounts through human systems; it floods the soul the moment God speaks life into the heart of a sinner. Like Lazarus called from the tomb, we are saved not because we took the initiative, but because Christ called us forth. And when He calls, the dead rise.

To treat grace as something earned is to make it no longer grace. “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace” (Romans 11:6). If even a sliver of salvation depends on us, grace is destroyed. And if grace is destroyed, the gospel is lost. This is why Paul wrote with such urgency to the Galatians, warning them that to return to ceremonial rituals and performance was to fall from grace and preach another gospel; “which is not another” (Galatians 1:7).

Yet how often does religion today attempt to sell grace back to the people of God; grace earned through penance, through rituals, through sacraments and spiritual accomplishments? But these are not the gospel. They are shadows. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). He is the fountainhead. He is the means. He is the message. We do not approach God through steps of sacramental obedience; we come through a torn veil and blood-stained mercy seat. We come because the High Priest has entered once for all and sat down at the right hand of Majesty.

And this is the heart of it: we are saved not because of what we do, but because of what Christ has done. He alone is worthy. He alone obeyed perfectly, suffered fully, died willingly, and rose victoriously. The Father (God, not the pope) accepts us because we are in Him. He sees us through the lens of the Son. The merit of Christ is our only hope; and it is more than enough.

Revelation 5:9 captures the cry of heaven: “Thou art worthy… for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.” That is the song of the redeemed. Not one voice in heaven will sing of their own accomplishments. All will cry, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!” (Revelation 5:12).

From beginning to end, salvation is a sovereign act of mercy. “Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate… whom he called… justified… glorified” (Romans 8:29–30). Each step of salvation is rooted in God’s initiative, not ours. It is His love that chose. His Spirit that called. His Son that died. His righteousness that covers. His grace that holds. His power that keeps. And His glory that receives us at the end.

So let us rest. Let us stop trying to earn what cannot be earned. Let us stop trying to qualify for what can only be received. Let us fall into the arms of the Saviour who said, “It is finished.” Let us say with Paul, “I am what I am by the grace of God” (1 Corinthians 15:10). And let us lift our voices with David and declare, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake” (Psalm 115:1).

Grace is not a transaction. It is not a product. It is not a system. It is the overflowing love of God toward His people, for the sake of His Son, poured out freely, sovereignly, and eternally. And that grace; grace alone; is what saves the soul.

Peace.