Before the world was made God decided that he wanted to be God with us and for us as one of us.  He also decided that he wanted us to be one with him in the deepest fellowship. So the Father elected his own Son to be the One in whom God and humanity would be united in the Spirit.  And in Jesus that eternal election moved into time.  He is God’s chosen man who comes into our world to be God for humanity and humanity for God.  We cannot think of election or of God’s eternal purposes for humanity apart from Jesus.  Election is centred not around an abstract decree, but concretely election is Jesus Christ.

In Jesus, God’s chosen man, God turns towards humans and wills to be one with us, and in him humans are turned wholly towards God to be one with him.  Yes, Jesus is himself the one movement of redeeming love in which God gives himself unreservedly to humans and in which he gathers up humans into his own life.  In Jesus, the elect man, God has given himself to be our God once and for all and nothing can undo that decision.  So we look at Jesus and know for sure that God is now who he  always wanted to be: God with us and for us as one of us.   Furthermore, in Jesus, God gives humans to himself once and for all, and nothing can undo that decision.  We, therefore, look at Jesus and know for sure that we are now who God always wanted to us to be: humans with God in union and communion.