For God didn't appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
It is not God’s purpose that His people should be subject to His unyielding and punitive opposition to evil. This verse serves as a further reminder that the saved owe their salvation to the divine initiative. It is God who has and has not appointed. God’s appointment is neither arbitrary nor universal, man’s willing acceptance and obedience being required to make it effective.