Elect.

Herman Witsius has written:

“That the obedience and sufferings of Christ are of such worth, that all, without exception, who come to him, may find perfect salvation in him: and it was the will of God., that this truth should, without distinction, be proposed both to them that are to be saved, and to them that are to perish; with a charge not to neglect so great salvation, but to repair to Christ with true contrition of soul; and with a most sincere declaration, that all who come to him shall find salvation in him, John vi. 40.”

“That, however, Christ, according to the will of God the Father, and his own purpose, did neither engage nor satisfy, and consequently in no manner die, but only for all those whom the Father gave him, and who are actually saved. This is that truth which is controverted, and which we are now to confirm, in a concise but solid manner, from the sacred writings.”

“The scripture declares, that Christ satisfied for the whole body of the elect, when it declares, that he died for all, and by him reconciled all things, as 2 Cor. v. 15. Heb. ii. 9. Col i. 20. And as this is not to be understood of all and every man in particular, it must be meant of all and every one of the elect. That it cannot be understood of all and every individual, I prove from the passages quoted in the following manner. Those all for whom Christ is said to have died, 2 Cor. v. 15. are those who are also dead, namely, as to the old man, whom in virtue of the crucifixion of Christ, they have crucified, Rom. vi. 6. and who “live not to themselves, but to Christ,” and to Christ indeed, who rose again for them. But these things can be applicable only to the elect. None but they are dead to themselves, the world, and to sin: none else live to Christ. In a word, according to the very hypothesis of the Remonstrants, the efficacy of Christ’s resurrection is restrained to believers alone. In like manner, those all, for whom Christ is said by grace of God to have tasted death, Heb. ii. 9. are sons brought, or to be brought, unto glory, who have Christ for the captain of their salvation; who are sanctified, whom he calls his brethren, which God gave him, ver. 10, 11, 13. These things can be applied not to the reprobate, but only to the elect. In like manner, those all things which are said to be “reconciled to God by the peace made through the blood of Christ,” Col. i. 20. can only extend to the elect. The thing is self evident. For the reconciliation and peace-making with God are peculiar to elect believers, Rom. v. 1. On the contrary, the reprobate are perpetual enemies of God, “the wrath of God abideth on them,” John iii. 36. By those things which are on earth, are understood believers, who are still in the world; as by those things which are in heaven, are meant, not angles, but men in the state of bliss, who enjoy, in the fullest manner, the fruits of Christ’s atonement and reconciliation.”

(Witsius, Herman, The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, Volume 1, Kingsburg, CA: den Dulk Christian Foundation, 1990, pp. 257-258.)