I don't see how appealing to mystery is helpful at all. Because God isn't shy about telling us what kind of God he is. Yes, God chooses to save those who believe in him. He doesn't leave us in the dark as to how he chooses his people, so there's not need to appeal to the mystery of God's nature, when who God is is revealed in Jesus who is the perfect image of the father. And what is revealed is that God died for every person who ever lived.
14"For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died. 15And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again. 16So from now on we regard no one according to the flesh."
Why do we regard no one according to the flesh? Because Christ died for everyone you will ever meet. Every person is someone who God desires to have a relationship with, if they are only willing to enter into that relationship by belief in Christ.
I am only appealing to the undeniable truth that regarding God's election, the choices of God are determined by God's nature, and to the undeniable truth that we don't know exactly how that is like, and to the undeniable truth that we do not have the same nature as God. Is the appeal to the truth even is objectionable to you?
You refer to Jesus as the perfect image of the Father. And I agree. But it does not mean that knowledge of that necessarily means that you know the Father perfectly or that you know the nature of God perfectly. Having pointed that out, if you want for us to go to Jesus, then let's see what Jesus did in the matter of election. Jesus had chosen His disciples, the apostles. You can just go over the NT scriptures, and you'll find out that it was Him who chose first and had chosen as He willed, as He pleased, and with purpose, and all in accordance and obedience to the Father's will.
You contend that "
..God died for every person who ever lived." with reference to the scriptures you quoted. It seems to me that you don't really understand what you say there, which I could not let pass without pointing it out here. God is immortal. Now, that is for another topic. I just felt I should point this out.
So, going back, I'd say that, that again is a misuse of said scriptures. For scriptures clearly says that Jesus Christ was sent to save His people, to save His sheep, to save those given to Him by the Father. Does those clear scriptures, at least, sound like saving every person who ever lived?
You said "
Why do we regard no one according to the flesh? Because Christ died for everyone you will ever meet. " I would ask, to whom was Paul addressing his letter? Was it not to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia and not to all mankind for that matter? So, with regards your question, Paul was saying that we don't regard the Christians according to the flesh, for the reasons he gave in the preceding verses. In other words, what Paul said there applies to the Christian believers only for whom Jesus Christ died for, and not necessarily to all man that ever lived and ever will live. For if that necessarily applies to all man that ever lived and ever will live, Paul would have regarded the Jews, the Israelites like so, which he did not, but whom he regarded to the contrary, as his brethren, his countrymen according to the flesh.
Tong
R0632