Does predestination mean that God does not offer salvation to everyone? This devotion looks at how election, predestination, and free will fit together.
Nuggets
- God desires that everyone be saved; unfortunately, not everyone will accept God’s gift of salvation.
- Disciples are predestined to become the image of Jesus.
- God’s work in salvation is sending the Holy Spirit to prompt and convict us.
- We are made like Christ through justification and sanctification.
Devotions in the What I Believe series
Devotions in the Purposes of Grace category
Is Election Really Mercy?
Wrapping Up Election
Grace is a gift from God. Those that accept His gift become the elect.
However, if we are predestined to salvation – meaning God picks who will and who won’t be saved – that really isn’t a gift. Let’s see how predestination fits in with grace and free will.
Let's Put It into Context #1
We are looking at election and predestination through the lens of grace. Grace is a free and unmerited gift from Heavenly Father given through His Son, Jesus Christ that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers. The purpose of the gift of grace is to restore God’s relationships with man and eliminate sin.
The Holman Bible Dictionary defines election as “God’s plan to bring salvation to His people and His world.” Predestination is defined by the Holman Bible Dictionary as “God’s work in ordaining salvation for people without their prior knowledge.”
Let's Put It into Context #2
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8: 28 CSB)
All I have done so far on this devotion is get all my resources copied in among the verses. And I’ve already had an ah-ha moment. (Well, maybe more of a duh? moment.)
We’ve talked before about how “… all things work together for good …” (Rom. 8: 28 CSB) really means good for God’s kingdom, not our personal situations. No, priority for God is not our soul mate, job, health, or finances. It is not talking prosperity gospel.
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What it is saying is that – even the really tough times (like pandemics) – good can come from it that grows us to be the disciple God has called us to be. Chambers put it this way. He wrote, “Apart from Christianity, man has often found that it was good for him to have been afflicted — that, under the severe but salutary discipline, wisdom has been increased, and character strengthened, and the rough independence of human wilfulness (sic) tamed, and many asperities of temper have been worn away.”
We have to make sure we don’t skip over an important part. “… for those who love God … for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8: 28 CSB). Paul limited this to God’s children. This is an if … then situation. “If you are one of Mine, I will make good come out of it to expand my kingdom.”
God’s priority is not this life. God’s priority is His Kingdom and our eternal life (James).
How many times have we heard the saying that our experiences make us who we are? Mom and Dad dying six weeks apart, Adam being autistic, and my divorce made me who I was. That was altered when I lost my job. I hope you all are thinking these devotions are one of the good things that came out of that.
“… all things work together for good …” (Rom. 8: 28 CSB). Not just some. Not just the good things. But not just the bad, either. All things.
Let’ see how predestination works into that.
Foreknowledge Equals Predestination but Who?
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8: 29 CSB)
“For those whom he foreknew …” (Rom. 8: 29 CSB)
I don’t know that I ever looked at predestination under the guise of foreknowledge. I’ve always looked at it under the guise of dictator. Let’s break this down.
Who does God know? Everyone. He is the one Who created us — all of us.
God desires that everyone be saved. He is the One “who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth” (I Tim. 2: 4 NLT).
Beet said something interesting. He wrote, “Foreordination is simply a purpose, and by no means implies the inevitable accomplishment of the purpose.” We would probably say it is the goal. Some goals are met; some aren’t.
Unfortunately, not everyone will accept God’s gift of salvation. That is because they have the free will to choose to not accept the gift.
So, God isn’t talking about everyone here.
Paul wrote, “For those whom he foreknew …” (Rom. 8: 29 CSB emphasis added). He is qualifying who he is talking about here.
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son …” (Rom. 8: 29 CSB)
Paul is talking about those who would accept the gift He is offering through His grace. Godet had this to say about prior knowledge and predestination. He wrote, “All things must turn to the good of them that are called according to God’s eternal plan, because, once foreknown, He has determined to bring them to the glorious consummation of perfect likeness to His Son.”
To what are we predestined? Disciples are predestined to become the image of Jesus.
Once He knows us as His children, we can become like Jesus through sanctification. That is what God has predestined.
Godet also wrote, “The predestination of which Paul speaks is not a predestination to faith, but a predestination to glory, founded on the prevision of faith. Faith is in a sense the work of God; but it contains a factor, in virtue of which it reacts on God, as an object reacts on the mind which takes cognizance of it; this is the free adherence of man to the solicitation of God.” We talked about faith being a gift or virtue.
Let’s go back to the definition for a second. Predestination is defined by the Holman Bible Dictionary as “God’s work in ordaining salvation for people without their prior knowledge.”
The first thing we think of when we see ordaining is making someone a priest or preacher. Well, “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (I Pet. 2: 9 NLT). He’s talking everyone who accepts grace’s gift of salvation.
What is God’s work in salvation? It is sending the Holy Spirit to prompt and convict us. He works behind the scenes.
He doesn’t make the decision for us.
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“… in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8: 29 CSB)
How are we like Christ?
- We are to imitate Him (be holy like Him).
- We will suffer as He did.
- We shall be like Him in glory.
Read that again. “… in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8: 29 CSB emphasis added).
Does the many mean some but not all?
If we are limiting ourselves to those on the sanctification road, is Paul saying that — when we are all called home — we are going to be at different mile markers?
Say the road is 100 miles long. Are many brothers (and sisters) going to be at the 100-mile marker, and the rest scattered along the road?
Spurgeon got me thinking about this. He wrote, “The object of grace is that there may be some in heaven with whom Christ can hold brotherly converse. ‘Many brethren’ — not that He might be the firstborn among many, but among ‘many brethren,’ who should be like Himself.”
The Scriptures talk about mustard-seed faith. Surely some people have coco-de-mer-seed faith – and many are scattered in between.
Predestined and Justified
“And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified" (Rom. 8: 30 CSB)
Wesley noted we are made like Christ through justification and sanctification. Because He justified us, we are glorified. This is the good talked about in “… all things work together for good …” (Rom. 8: 28 CSB).
Ooo, baby. Think of all that goes into sanctification.
- All the things we do to seek God.
- Obeying all the laws and commandments.
- Doing all the work God has called us to do.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Strutt was right. Only disciples are going to be willing to navigate down sanctification road. Worldview people are going to steer way clear of that route.
Making the Connections
The Holman Bible Dictionary defines providence as “God’s faithful and effective care and guidance of everything which He has made toward the end which He has chosen.” God is going to take care of everything He has made.
Yes, God has plans. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jer. 29: 11 NIV).
Well, God does know what is going to happen. “For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (I Jn 3: 20 ESV).
God’s knowing what will happen doesn’t mean He makes it happen. He could step in and make something not happen — but that isn’t always in ur best interest. Remember, “… all things work together for good …” (Rom. 8: 28 CSB). We learn the most through the storms, not the sunny days.
Even if we are not predestined by God to be saved, He is the one Who saves us. Strutt wrote, “It is God who works salvation in those who are saved. It is not that we have nothing to do and are to abandon ourselves to the current of events, but that the first and efficient Author of our salvation is God.”
God is the one who grows us. Remember in way back in What Does It Mean to Walk in the Spirit?, He told me, “Well, Chick, you can’t do self-discipline without Me.”
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
I think it is easy to say the elect are predestined. That way we can accuse God of being the one to keep us out of the good things — blessings, heaven, etc.
But I think we limit God when we do that. Just as we limit thinking doing His Will is who am I going to marry, what job am I going to have, etc.
God is less concerned about what happens in this life than we are. He is concerned about our spiritual lives.
God “… wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth” (I Tim. 2: 4 NLT). So, we all have the same opportunity to become the elect.
It is our choice not to choose God. When we don’t choose God, we don’t become the elect.
God didn’t predestine us to not choose Him. He always knew we wouldn’t, but that isn’t His choice.
How Do We Apply This?
The bottom line with God is He wants us to be like Jesus. We want to make sure we are imitating Him. We have to have His nature and character. We have to share in His suffering.
We’ve got to grow our faith. Beet made this observation. He wrote, “The doctrine of predestination is thus consistent with the teaching that salvation depends upon each man’s own faith (Romans 9:32; Romans 11:22f); with the teaching that God is using means to lead all men to repentance (Romans 2:4); and with the universality of the purpose of redemption (Romans 5:18).”
Remember, we are called to salvation, not to understand at God’s level. We are called to be steadily navigating the sanctification road and doing His Will.
Father. Work Your plans for us. May we imitate Jesus daily. Amen.
What do you think?
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