Only when men refuse to compare Scripture with Scripture and to read the mind of the Spirit in the complete revelation of the one truth unto salvation, could they fall upon the cheerless and forbidding thought, that the God of love created some men to an inevitable doom of death and endless misery, and that Christ was sent to be the cause of their destruction, as He was sent to be the cause of life and salvation to others more favored of God.
Seems to me that the Reformed emphasis tends to be to look from God down to man, while the (Book of Concord) Lutheran position is to look from our perspective upward, always emphasizing the Scriptures over our own surmisings.
Christ’s merit is considered in election not merely as obtained for us, but also as apprehended by us – God has elected in view of faith. Have you ever heard of The Blue Island Theses?