The real view of St. Paul is that God’s purpose of salvation, which includes the entire creation,^[1] is assured of achievement; Christ must reign till God has brought all things into subjection to Him.^[2]  In another important passage, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, Apostle accounts for the spiritual apathy and opposition he has encountered as due, not to human perversion, and still less to the divine counsel, but to the action of ‘the god of this world’ in blinding the eyes of the unbelieving.  The conception of the divine purpose in the New Testament is determined by the doctrine that God is love, and hence is that of predestination to life in the widest sense.^[3]

Much anxiety has been caused by the question of assurance of election.  The position taken in our Article is that those chosen out of the world for salvation are known to God alone.  It is to be noted that nothing is said about the election of the lost.  There is only personal conviction to go on here, and it is necessary to guard against identifying such inner feeling with divine decree.  The knowledge that we ‘daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of (Christ’s) most holy life’ by walking in the Spirit, thus ‘mortifying the works of the flesh’ and bringing forth the fruits of the same Spirit,^[4] – this is the only guarantee of our calling in Christ that we can have or need.  Belief in one’s election on these grounds is of immense psychological value; predestination then is indeed ‘full of most pleasant, and unspeakable comfort’.^[5]  And just as the doctrine of election is for the earnest believer a source of encouragement and inspiration to increasing effort in the Christian life, so where there is morbid obsession with our sinfulness it may induce belief in reprobation, and lead to abandonment to wickedness.^[6]

As we saw when considering Article XVI, bur final salvation depends on our willing obedience and constant co‑operation with the grace of God.  This Article also emphasizes both aspects, the Divine and the human in salvation.  On God’s part there is the calling, the working of the Spirit, the free justification, the adoption as sons, and the attainment of everlasting felicity.   On man’s part, the obedience to the calling, conformity to the image of Christ, and religious walking in good works.

God achieves His purpose for mankind through human instruments.  He chose Abraham that through him ‘all the families of the earth might be blessed’.^[7]  The nation of Israel was chosen as God’s People so that they might work for the salvation of all mankind.^[8]  Our Lord sanctified Himself for the sake of others,^[9] and the Church as the Body of: Christ is God’s instrument for the redemption of the world,^[10] its members being ‘the elect’.^[11]