Nature of Mankind

"The thing that we regard as surprising is that any member of the human race, any of those excellent creatures known as men, who are supposed to be doing the best they can and be guilty, at the most, of merely trifling and thoroughly forgivable faults, should ever fall under divine displeasure.  But the thing the Bible regards as surprising is that any of those fallen creatures known as men, all of whom without exception deserve God’s wrath and curse, should be received into eternal life.  We regard it as surprising that any are lost: the Bible regards it as surprising that any are saved.  Naturally it is the surprising or unexpected thing that upon which the chief stress is laid.  It is for that reason, or at least partly for that reason, that the Biblical doctrine of predestination is concerned chiefly with the predestination of the saved to their salvation rather than with the predestination of the unsaved to their eternal loss." – Gresham Machen