The Elect Under God's Wrath

The Elect under God’s wrath before Regeneration! There are many sincere men/women in the Reformed Faith who hold that the Elect (God’s sheep) were never under the wrath and displeasure of God ever! Seeking to defend and exalt the Sovereignty of God in election these men have unwittingly overlooked the seriousness and reality of the Fall and the consequences thereof, thereby making Christ’s satisfaction to the offended law a sham and deny the “grace” which they seek so valiantly to defend! Unless one seriously believes himself to be ungodly, guilty and defiled and that it is only such persons whom God justifies, then his belief on whether God intends to save him through Christ’s particular atonement is of no effect! This is in view of the fact that God saves (justifies) none but the ‘ungodly’. The truth is, being ungodly, the elect as the reprobates, are under the one and same wrath of God when the Gospel finds them, and until justifying faith. God’s elect fell in Adam just as all his natural descendants. God judged the elect just as condemned, and under wrath for sin, as the reprobate, Adam having represented ALL men under the covenant of works [Rom 3:9; 5:1221]. All men whom Adam represented were made, or ‘legally constituted’ sinners, consequent to the fall. Ever since, none by nature seeks after the true and living God; none by nature has any fear of God before their eyes! You say, “What about the elect”? “No, not one” is excluded! God’s wrath abides on all who do not believe the gospel, and there it shall remain, so long as unbelief is continued; but upon belief of the truth, declared by the gospel, and not until then, God’s wrath is actually removed from the person upon whom it was. “He that believeth not the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him” [John 3:36]. There the wrath was and there it shall remain indefinitely, but for the belief of the Son. This presupposes that God’s wrath was at one time, before faith, abiding on all those who would believe, and since those who believe are only and always the elect, it follows that the elect were under God’s one and same wrath until the gospel found them, and they believed. What more wrath are the reprobates under that the elect are not so? Not one whit. So unless the elect are born into this world believing the Gospel, God’s wrath abides even upon them, and the elect are not justified from the Law, until they believe the Gospel: “by the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto them” [Rom 3:22]; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness….” [Rom 10:10].

God’s eternal decrees do not distinguish the elect from the reprobate, in respect of their state and condition, while unregenerate, but Gods actual grace. Otherwise we overthrow the merits of Christ for God’s eternal decree, opposing the one against the other, the Father against the Son, and thus make a non-necessity of Christ’s satisfaction. For His satisfaction is the very vehicle, and faith the means, through which God’s decree concerning the salvation of the elect is carried into execution, and reaches fruition. John Owen writes: The Scripture is exceeding clear in making all men, before actual reconciliation, to be in the like state and condition, without any real difference at all, the Lord reserving to himself his distinguishing purpose of the alteration he will afterward by his free grace effect: "There is none that doeth good, no, not one," Rom. 3:12; for " we have proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin," verse 9. All mankind are in the same condition, in respect of themselves and their own real state: which truth is not at all prejudiced by the relation they are in to the eternal decrees; for "every mouth is stopped, and all the world is become guilty before God," Rom. 3:19, — obnoxious to his judgment. "Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" 1Cor 4: 7. All distinguishment, in respect of state and condition, is by God's actual grace; for even believers are "by nature children of wrath, even as others," Eph. 2: 3. The condition, then, of all men, during their unregeneracy, is one and the same, the purpose of God concerning the difference that shall be being referred to himself. Now, I ask whether reprobates in that condition lie under the effects of God's wrath, or no? If ye say "No," who will believe you? If so, why not the elect also? The same condition hath the same qualifications; an actual distinguishment we have proved there is not. Produce some difference that hath a real existence, or the cause is lost. Consider what it is to lie under the effects of God's wrath, according to the declaration of the Scripture, and then see how the elect are delivered there from, before their actual calling. Now, this consists in divers things; as, — (1.) To be in such a state of alienation from God as that none of their services are acceptable to him: " The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord," Prov 28: 9. (2.) To have no outward enjoyment sanctified, but to have all things unclean unto them. Tit.1:15. (3.) To be under the power of Satan, 'who rules at his pleasure in the children of disobedience, Eph. 2: 2. (4.) To be in bondage unto death, Heb. 2:15. (5.) To be under the curse and condemning power of the law. Gal 3:1,3. (6.) To be ob-

noxious to the judgment of God, and to be guilty of eternal death and damnation, Rom.3:19. (7.) To be under the power and dominion of sin, reigning in them, Rom. 6:19. These and such like are those which we call the effects of God's anger. Let now any one tell me what the reprobates, in this life, lie more under? And do not all the elect, until their actual reconciliation, in and by Christ, lie under the very same? for, — (1.) Are not their prayers an abomination to the Lord ? Can they without faith please God ? Heb 11: 6. And faith we suppose them not to have; for if they have, they are actually reconciled. (2.) Are their enjoyments sanctified unto them? hath anything a sanctified relation without faith? See 1 Cor. 7:14. (3.) Are they not under the power of Satan? If not, how comes Christ, in and for them, to destroy the works of the devil? Did not he come to deliver his from him that had the power of death, that is, the devil? Heb. 2:14; Eph. 2:2, (4.) Are they not under bondage unto death? The apostle affirms plainly that they are so all their lives, until they are actually freed by Jesus Christ, Heb. 2:14,15. (5.) Are they not under the curse of the law? How are they freed from it? By Christ being made a curse for them. Gal. 3:13. (6.) Are they not obnoxious unto judgment, and guilty of eternal death? How is it, then, that Paul says that there is no difference, but that all are subject to the judgment of God, and are guilty before him? Rom. 3: 9 ; and that Christ saves them from this wrath, which, in respect of merit, was to come upon them? Rom 5: 9; 1Thess. 1:10. (7.) Are they not under the dominion of sin? "God be thanked," says Paul, "that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed," etc., Rom. 6:17. In brief, the Scripture is in nothing more plentiful than in laying and charging all the misery and wrath of and due to an unreconciled condition upon the elect of God, until they actually partake in the deliverance by Christ. [Death of Death, Book 3, Chapter 8] The elect cannot be said to have been “saved” in any actual sense before justifying faith; otherwise, and seeing as there is no salvation but by justification, and there is no justification but by righteousness imputed, and there is no righteousness imputed but attended by faith exercised to receive it, this would countermine the apostle, “For with the heart man believeth unto [or ‘believes by God given faith in order to attain’] righteousness” [Rom 10:10]. What then? Are the elect somehow righteous (saved) before faith, yet not righteous (saved) until and but by faith? Where does

God’s book teach this? It cannot be both ways! There is no in-between condition of saved and unsaved. If ‘election’ saves, in any sense, then to that degree righteousness imputed is not necessary for entitlement to all of salvation. This is opposed to the Gospel! In what sense then, may we be saved without righteousness imputed and received by faith? This is truly absurd. Consider the scripture – And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins [Mat 1:21]. Christ shall save the elect from their sins. So the elect were not saved from their sins before time, or before they personally existed to comply with the terms, and since God’s wrath, abides upon all who are not free from their sins, it follows that all the elect were yet made under God’s wrath in time, in their own persons, and remain so until they are saved in time from their sins, upon believing. Again – Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. [John 8:32] Notice – ‘Ye ‘shall know’ the truth. Now all who do not know the truth are not free from sin, and all who are not free from sin are still under God’s wrath. God’s wrath, because His judgments are according to truth, respecting the actual state and condition of all lost men and women until actual reconciliation. Much more could be written on this subject, but in conclusion let us make one point clear: Those eternally decreed (to be saved) were not saved, not justified, not adopted, not united to Christ, hence not possibly saved in any actual sense whatsoever before the world began, nor so in time prior to justifying faith given in conversion, because of Adam’s fall, albeit saved in the intensions of God excepted (2Tim 1:9). But you will say, does not Paul say – “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began [2Tim 1:9]. This does not mean that the elect were in any actual sense ‘saved’ before the world began, or somehow made to be regarded ‘less lost’ than reprobates in time. It simply mans that God purposed that the elect would be saved, but also the manner in which they should be saved. The grace given to the elect before the world began was not the grace of salvation, let alone justification, but the initial grace of election, purposed towards them ‘in Christ,’ their Representative, who would come and establish righteousness for them in time; and, based on such righteousness,

entitle them to that faith through means of which God purposed they should be saved in time. John Gill wrote – “And were by nature children of wrath , even as others: by which is meant, not only that they were wrathful persons, living in malice, hateful, and hating one another; but that they were deserving of the wrath of God, which comes upon the children of disobedience, among whom they had their conversation” [John Gill Commentary] Matthew Henry wrote – “The Jews were so, as well as the Gentiles; and one man is as much so as another by nature, not only by custom and imitation, but from the time when we began to exist, and by reason of our natural inclinations and appetites. All men, being naturally children of disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath: God is angry with the wicked every day. Our state and course are such as deserve wrath, and would end in eternal wrath, if divine grace did not interpose.” [Matthew Henry Bible Commentary]. A.W. Pink wrote – “And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:3). That statement is, if possible, even more awful and solemn than Psalm 58:3. It signifies much more than that we are born into the world with a defiled constitution, for it speaks of not simply “children of corruption,” but “children of wrath”—obnoxious to God, criminals in His sight. Depravity of our natures is no mere misfortune; if it were, it would evoke pity, not anger. The expression “children of wrath” is a Hebraism, a very strong and emphatic one. The original rendering of 1 Samuel 20:30 and 2 Samuel 12:5 mentions “the son of death,” that is, one deserving death. In Matthew 23:15 Christ used the fearful term “the child of hell”—one whose sure portion is hell; while in John 17:12 He designated Judas “the son of perdition.” Thus “children of wrath” connotes those who are deserving of wrath, heirs of wrath, fit for it. They are born to wrath, and under it, as their heritage. They are not only defiled and corrupt creatures, but the objects of God’s judicial indignation. Why? Because the sin of Adam is imputed to them, and therefore they are regarded as guilty of having broken God’s law. [Man’s Total Depravity]