For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Edwin Danny Reaid
Christ's death saves sinners. Salvation is not just a possibility and it is not a theoretical atonement - Christ's death saves every single person it was intended to save. Christ plus nothing equals salvation—an atonement so sufficient that it secures everything necessary for salvation, including the faith that God gives us to believe. Otherwise, we might boast. Knowing we are (all) sinners and deserve the wrath of God - (all) deserve punishment (no one can say he is unjust in choosing) for that is the meaning of (Mercy) and (Grace) as Paul states in Romans:
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). The weight of biblical evidence does not support freewill but election and I know that it creates "tension", but the tension created is our desire to control our own "destiny" - for it to be my will not God's Will and what does that reveal --- a Man's Nature.
John 1: 12-13 says it all - 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 (who were born, not of blood) nor of the ( will of the flesh) nor of the (will of man) - (but of God).
vanessa pannuti
In my opinion what you forgot to mention in your comment is the foreknowledge of God, He knows what we will choose to do in our life from the time of our conception. That is why some are "chosen" like Enoch,Noah,Jacob,David,many more; and some are not. I think election, foreknowledge, predestination and freewill are all coexisting and connected.
Edwin Danny Reaid
Could not agree more - of course I don't have to agree. Romans Chapters 8 & 9 are very clear. The mystery or tension that is spoken of is not between Election and Freewill, but on why God has Elected to do it the way He has Chosen to.
Edwin Danny Reaid
A great quote from BB Warfield that summarizes:
There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be trust as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.
Alan Hitchner
The quandry and paradox of unconditional election we be better understood if we were to take into consideration God's timelessness. The foreknowledge of God makes no sense to we humans who live in linear incremental time because God transcends all time, all the time. God transcends time so future, past and present are irrelevant to God. God defined linear time with the 3 dimensions of space for mortal existence in this present domain.