One of the Solas of the Reformation is Sola Gratia, by grace alone. As we come to chapter 5 of the chapter on God’s Decree, we come to consider the positive position on how God decrees to save His elect. We have considered the general characteristics of God’s plan, that it is eternal, unconditional, immutable, universal and impeccable. We shut the door on any notion of middle knowledge where God looks down the corridors of time and orders His will around some hypothetical willing on our part. We noted the difficult doctrine of double predestination in angels and men and looked at the asymmetry in salvation and passing over. Then last week we had to shut another door on the Socinian and Open Theist view of God. Finally now in paragraph 5 we come to a positive explanation of how God decrees salvation for His elect. As already stated the thread that we will see woven throughout this paragraph is that we are saved by grace alone. Not only in the way God comes to us in time and works by His power to draw and keep us; but also in how He originally chose us as His elect. Works are denied a determining place in our salvation either in time or in eternity; in the application of redemption or in the planning of salvation. We are saved by grace alone. As we go through this paragraph we will look at it in two parts, the first part of the paragraph considers the positive part of how God elects to save us; the last part of the paragraph looks at how God did not elect us to salvation.