Grace and the Means of Election

"If grace be perfectly free in choosing, it must be answerably free in giving and applying the means to bring about the end it hath chosen us to. For if the effect of the means should depend upon something to be done by men, which grace is not the doer of, then works would put in for a share in the glory of men's salvation. and so, the grace of God would be dethroned, and be as if it were not." --Elisha Coles, "A Practical Discourse of God's Sovereignty"

One will often hear the worst of the Arminians say that God has done "everything that He could" to save everybody. Then, they claim, it is up to the individual to accept or refuse what God has done. I have even seen a tract designed like a ballot: "Will you go to Heaven? God votes 'yes.' Satan votes 'no.' It's a tie! The deciding vote is yours." An example can be seen here. The blasphemy is appalling! As if the will of Satan or of a man is equal to God's will, or even has a veto over it! 

Instead, as Puritan Coles says above, election includes all of the means necessary for attaining its purpose. That is, God votes "yes" (or "no," as the case may be), and no other vote is entered. In prehistory, the Father chose a race to give to the Son to be redeemed and to the Holy Spirit to be regenerated unto new life. That choice isn't just for the first domino, with a hope that the rest of the dominoes will fall in the desired pattern. No, each domino is placed by the triune God, so that each step is infallibly achieved (John 6:27-39). The Puritans called this the Golden Chain of Redemption, from Paul's words in Romans 8:29-30: "Those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified." Notice where the chain starts, that it is for the sake of Jesus, not of us. That is where Arminianism fails to address the Scriptures on this issue. The Arminian wants to reserve some level of autonomy for man, such that salvation is for man's sake. It isn't, because man isn't. God's plan is centered on Jesus, and the elect are a means to that end. God's Gospel is Christ-centered, while that of the Arminian is man-centered, and, therefore, false.