Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father...
It means you are one of those who has made the response to the Gospel which God predetermined would be the doorway through which His grace could be received.
Imagine it this way. Imagine if parents were planning a wedding for their son. "Who shall we invite?" they ask each other. They decide to send-out invitations, and they decide that whoever responds to the invitation will be the people whom they will accept at the wedding feast. So they send-out their invitations. Some people who receive the invitation choose not to come. But those who do could be considered the "elect" - because the parents decided ahead of time that it would be those who accept the invitation whom they would welcome at the feast.
Or imagine it this way. A sporting event is being planned to take place in the city of Melbourne. The organizers desire that everyone in Australia who wants to may come and be a spectator - but they also realize that not everyone will desire to come. So they decide to issue tickets, and they decide that whoever goes to a Ticketek outlet and buys a ticket, will be welcomed to the event. They imagine ahead of time how many people might be likely to respond, and they determine that Melbourne's largest sporting arena should be sufficient to seat them all. The tickets go out to Ticketek offices all over Australia. About 100,000 tickets are sold, as expected.
When the day of the event happens, you could say that those spectators who had purchased tickets and came to the event were the "elect" - even though anyone in Australia who wanted to could have been amongst their number. They are the "elect" in the sense that the organizers planned ahead of time that it would be this way - that although anyone in Australia who wanted to could come, not everyone would desire to, and those who did would buy a ticket, as prescribed.
Although the invitation potentially was more general, only 100,000 responded in the way elected by the organizers and by Ticketek. The organizers had these "elect" in mind when they planned the venue and ticket sales.
In the same way, God has sent the invitation to salvation to all mankind. He has determined that the appropriate response to the invitation is faith. In His mind, He foresees all who will respond in faith. When they respond, He calls them the elect.
They are elect not because He limited who can respond - but because He elected that faith would be the key.
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