Part one defines predestination in the Westminster Confession’s own language: God’s absolute, unconditional, eternal purpose, originating solely in the eternal counsel of his will, by which he foreordained and predestined all things. Ephesians 1 shows believers chosen and predestined for adoption in Christ before the foundation of the world, to the praise of his glorious grace, while Romans 9 answers the charge of injustice by showing that God’s purpose in election stands not on human works but on him who calls, having mercy on whom he will have mercy.
Part two confronts the whole world’s guilt before God, a human will too disabled to love the light, and the question of who bears responsibility for sin, concluding that man alone is guilty for the sin he commits even though nothing lies outside God’s eternal plan. Part three resolves this coherence of divine sovereignty and human responsibility through Acts 2 and 4, where wicked men freely did what God’s plan had determined beforehand, and closes with Joseph’s testimony (“you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good”) and Romans 8’s promise that nothing can separate God’s chosen ones from the love of Christ — reason for worship and gratitude, not fear.