If God predestined our salvation, including the purchasing of it through his Son, and applying it to us by his Spirit, does that not glorify him and leave no room for our boasting?
God foreknew us before we ever came to know him, he was pre-acquainted with us before we ever came to acquaint ourselves with him.
Do we not love God because he first loved us? He chose to love us, and in love prepared everything that was necessary to save us. He ordained all of the means, before you were born and after, and brought you into saving faith in Christ. You are a Christian today, not by an act of your volition, but by the mercy of God that he has toward you.
But doesn't he love everyone? He shows his goodness to all creation as he wills, but, whenever his love is spoken in Scripture it always refers mainly to his people. His 'common grace,' which I call his goodness, is poured out in different measures to all kinds of people, but his love is special and unique. God loves the world as a whole, the entire human race, and he will save the human race from corruption when he comes back, but not every individual.
Ah, the amazing act of God choosing his children for salvation in Christ regardless of anything found in them.
"What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
You will say to me then, 'Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?' But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
- Romans 9:14-24