4. St. Paul's view of predestination and sal- vation.— Predestination, however, in its bearing upon salvation finds its great exponent in the apostle Paul. That God has foreordained par- ticular persons from all eternity to salvation and eternal life, that He has provided for them the means to that salvation in the work of Christ and the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit, and that He bestows upon them grace to persevere to the end, is especially the teaching of St. Paul. Here, again, as in his teaching upon election, St. Paul follows up the teaching of the Lord. ' No man can come to me,' says Jesus, ' except the Father which sent me draw him ; and I will raise him up in the last day ' (Jn 6"). ' My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. . . . My Father, which hath given them unto me, is greater than all ; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Fatlier's hand' (10"- =9). 'All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me ' is, as the older divines would have put it, an article in the Covenant of Redemption between the Father and the Son in the counsels of eternity ; ' and him that Cometh to me I will in no wise cast out ' is an article in the Covenant of Grace wherein the otter of a free and a full salvation is made to all (6^'). It is this teaching which St. Paul casts into his own more philosophical moulds and expounds in language which has not only passed into the voca-
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biliary of theology, but even become familiar in the religious speech of many types of evangelical Christians. ' We know,' he says in a characteristic utterance, 'that to them that "love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called accoi-ding to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the lirstboni among numy brethren ' ( Ko 8'-'- -"■'). The sovereignty in which St. Paul here reposes such conlidence is the sovereignty of a (iodof grace and faithfulness ; and he is confident that He who began a good work in him and his fellow-believers ' will |)erfect it until the day of Jesus Christ ' (Ph 1"). The end to which God 'foreordained' those whom He 'fore- knew ' is conformity to the image of His Son, that they should be sons of God after His likeness of love and holiness here and dignity and glory above. This end is that which apostolic teaching always has in view, and no other : the apostles have noth- in" to say of predestination to wrath or destruction (cf. 1 Th i"--\ 2 Th -y-', -2 Ti P, 1 P !'• ■').
In the opening passage of the Epistle to the Ephesians St. Paul sets forth in still greater detail this great doctrine ( Eph P'^- "• ^-). It is ' the saints which are at Epiiesus and the faitliful in Christ Jesus' who are the objects of this Divine choice and blessing, persons who are believing men and women (rois TriffTois) and Christians indeed (rois ayloLs). The benefits bestowed upon them in common with the Apostle are enumerated as 'redemption,' 'forgiveness of sins,' 'holiness,' ' adoption ' as sons of God, ' a heavenly inherit- ance,' and they comprise ' every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ ' — benefits not merely otiered hut actually enjoj'ed, and that in accordance with the purjjose of God before the foundation of the world. The Divine choice rested upon them and took effect in them not because of their merits or attainments, not because God fore- saw in them a holiness and a faith marking them out as recipients of eternal favour and blessing, but ' according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace.' They were chosen not because of foreseen holiness and blame- lessness, but ' in order that they should be holy and witliout blemish.' If we adopt the punctua- tion which connects 'in love' (at the close of v.'') with 'having foreordained' (at the commence- ment of v.^), and which has some textual authority, we should hold that it was in love that He fore- ordained them, moved by 'an "unseen universe" of reasons and causes wholly beyond our discovery ' (H. C. G. Moule, Cambridge Bible, 'Ephesians,' 18S6, p. 48). AYliatever the grounds of God's pre- destinating purpose, they did not lie in any merits or qualifications of theirs, for they were called 'not according to their works, but according to his own purpose and grace before the world began ' (2 Ti P). Election is a spontaneous act of God's favour and grace, uncalled for by anything in the objects of it moving Him thereto. Before the ages of time God foreordained the glory of the saints, and with a view to that consummation He purposed both creation and redemption (I Co 2' with T. S. Evans' note in Speaker's Com. iii. [1881]). Whilst St. Paul in speaking of God's pre- destinating purpose towards the saints calls them ' vessels of mercy which he afore prepared unto glory ' (Ro 9°^), he is careful not to attribute to the immediate agency of God ' the destruction ' which overtakes the 'vessels of wrath' (Ro 9'^^). These the Apostle describes as ' fitted unto destruction,' whom God 'endured with much longsuffering ' ; and he regards them as bringing upon themselves by their obstinacy and continued sinfulness the natural penalty of their guilt, tlie just judgment of God. The issue of glory for the saints proceeds