Chapter 8 - Election
That same eternal God and Father, who by grace alone chose us in his Son Christ Jesus
before the foundation of the world was laid, appointed him to be our head, our brother,
our pastor, and the great bishop of our souls. But since the opposition between the
justice of God and our sins was such that no flesh by itself could or might have attained
unto God, it behooved the Son of God to descend unto us and take himself a body of our
body, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, and so become the Mediator between God and
man, giving power to as many as believe in him to be the sons of God; as he himself says,
"I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God." By this
most holy brotherhood whatever we have lost in Adam is restored to us again. Therefore we
are not afraid to call God our Father, not so much because he has created us, which we
have in common with the reprobate, as because he has given unto us his only Son to be our
brother, and given us grace to acknowledge and embrace him as our only Mediator. Further,
it behooved the Messiah and Redeemer to be true God and true man, because he was able to
undergo the punishment of our transgressions and to present himself in the presence of his
Father's judgment, as in our stead, to suffer for our transgression and disobedience, and
by death to overcome him that was the author of death. But because the Godhead alone could
not suffer death, and neither could manhood overcome death, he joined both together in one
person, that the weakness of one should suffer and be subject to death--which we had
deserved--and the infinite and invincible power of the other, that is, of the Godhead,
should triumph, and purchase for us life, liberty, and perpetual victory. So we confess,
and most undoubtedly believe.
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