A. Introduction.
1. This is a very brief treatment of the doctrine of election; in fact, it is really only mentioned in passing.
a. We could perhaps wish for more development of this important truth. Also in the Heidelberg Catechism, election is mention only in connection with the church in Lord’s Day XXI.
b. But historically there is a reason for this. When the Catechism and this confession were written, there was no controversy over this doctrine. It was not until the times of the Arminian Controversy that this doctrine was attacked. So it is not until the Canons that we have a detailed development of election and reprobation.
2. By way of introduction, we ought also to notice that this article and the following article introduce the doctrine of Christ which is definitely treated in Arts. 18-21.
B. Concerning the article itself, we may observe:
1. It deals with election and reprobation from the point of view of history, i.e., from the point of view of infralapsarianism.
a. The posterity of Adam had fallen into perdition and ruin, by the sin of our first parents.
b. God revealed His mercy in saving from perdition those whom He had chosen in Christ.
c. God revealed His justice in leaving others in the fall and perdition in which they involved themselves.
2. About election and reprobation the article says the following:
a. God’s mercy is a revelation of His counsel of election.
1) Election is in Jesus Christ, without any respect to works.
2) It is part of God’s eternal and unchangeable counsel.
3) It embraces those whom God delivers and preserves.
b. Reprobation is defined as that act of God whereby according to justice God leaves some in the fall and perdition.
C. If we consider election and reprobation more in detail, then we may make mention of the following.
1. The question of supra- and infra-lapsarianism is important in this connection. The words are derived from the Latin words “lapsus” which means fall, “supra” which means “above”, and “infra” which means “below”. Thus the question is, Does election in God’s counsel stand above or below the fall of Adam? That is, did God choose His people out of a human race that was destined to fall in Adam, or did He choose His people out of a fallen human race? Or to state the question in another way, “Which was first and which was last in the counsel of God?”
a. On the basis of Scripture (Eph. 1:3-10, Col. 1:13-19) we must follow the supra order. That is, the order of decrees is thus:
1) God willed the glory of His name in the glorified and exalted Christ.
2) God willed the glory and exaltation of Christ in connection with the salvation of His elect people.
3) God willed that the elect would be saved from a fallen human race.
4) God willed to create a perfect creation which would fall in Adam.
b. Infra lists the order of decrees in the same way that they arc realized in history: Creation, the fall, election, Christ, the new creation.
2. If we adopt the supra postion, several conclusions follow:
a. It is better to conceive of supralapsarianism as being a logical relation of decrees with each decree serving the next. I.e., God wills His glory in Christ. Therefore He wills Christ’s exaltation through the way of His humiliation. Therefore He wills election as accomplished in the cross. Therefore He wills reprobation to serve election, and the fall and original Paradise to serve it all.
b. This emphasises the eternal and unchangeable and sovereign nature of God’s decrees. It entirelyexcludes all Arminianism and Pelagianism of every sort. It makes salvation a sovereign work of God alone which He performs for His own name’s sake. It is well to notice however, that our Confessions are infra, and are yet reformed, so that infra-lapsarianism does not necessarily imply Arminianism. Yet Arminianism does imply an infra conception of the order of decrees. There is no room for it in any supra position.
c. Reprobation becomes not a mere leaving some in sin, but rather a sovereign decree of God to damn some to everlasting perdition in the way of their sin. This is also the plain teaching of Scripture. Cf. Rom. 9.
d. In this way all things must serve the salvation of the elect in Jesus Christ, even reprobation itself.
e. Election is not only a revelation of mercy, and reprobation of justice; but election is a revelation of both mercy and justice, for mercy and justice meet on the cross of Jesus Christ. And the same thing is true of reprobation. Reprobation is a revelation of justice, but also of mercy; not as if the reprobate are the objects of mercy, but rather, reprobation also must serve the salvation of the elect, and therefore the mercy of God.