Q. Did God leave all mankind to die in the state of sin and misery?
A. God, out of His good pleasure, from all eternity, having chosen a people to everlasting life, entered into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the state of sin and misery, and to bring them into a state of salvation by a Redeemer.
Commentary
After the sobering account of our ruin, the catechism turns to grace. God did not leave all mankind to perish. Of His own free mercy, out of His good pleasure, from all eternity, He chose to save a people. The deliverance begins in eternity, not in anything good foreseen in us but in God’s sovereign and gracious will. He “chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4), and “chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Salvation is God’s work from first to last, and its fountain is His eternal good pleasure.
This eternal choice took the form of a covenant of grace. Having brought himself under the curse of the law, man could never deliver himself, so God freely bound Himself by covenant to rescue His chosen people. In this covenant, He offers life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring faith and giving His Holy Spirit to make sinners willing and able to believe. Where the covenant of works said, “Do this and live,” the covenant of grace says, “Believe and be saved,” resting the whole weight of our deliverance on Christ rather than on ourselves. God promises, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33).
Notice that this deliverance comes by a Redeemer. God did not simply overlook sin or set aside His justice. He provided a Redeemer to bear what justice demanded and to win the salvation His people could never earn, so that “grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:21). The questions that follow will set this Redeemer before us, who He is and what He has done. For now, it is enough to wonder that God, against whom we had sinned, should be the very one to plan and provide our rescue. The doctrine of free and sovereign grace, far from making us careless, is the firmest ground of a sinner’s hope.
Scripture Proofs
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33).
“But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith” (Acts 13:8).
“And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48).
“So that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:21).
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:3–4).
“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
7.1: The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to Him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which He hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.
7.2: Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein He freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.