Predestination

Romans 8:29 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” 

 We have seen thus far that God has His perfect will for mankind but that He also has His permissible will for man. We have also seen that God is all knowing and that because He is God His will prevails in His creation. So how does God’s will prevail among men, even though most men choose not to walk in God’s perfect will for their lives? In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit answers that question for us when He reveals to us that God predestines the lives of men. The concept of predestination seems to be at odds with the concept of men having a free will. But if we understand that God predestines men’s lives based on His foreknowledge of how men will use the free wills given to them, then the two concepts are no longer at odds with each other. In the passage of scripture quoted above when the apostle Paul taught us about God’s predestination of our lives, he linked that concept to God’s foreknowledge of us. There is a common misconception in the church that when scripture refers to the foreknowledge of God that it is refers to God’s ability to see into the future. While that statement is true it is only partly true however. Let me explain. Unlike that which is commonly taught in the church, God does not have knowledge of the future as a passive observer, but rather He has knowledge of the future as the one who determines what the future will be. However, God’s foreknowledge goes even further than that, because scripture reveals to us that God’s foreknowledge of His creations also refers to His intimate knowledge of His creations before He ever creates them. In other words when we say that God has foreknowledge of how we will exercise our free will, we are not saying that God looks into the future to see how we will do that. Rather we are saying that God knows how we will use our free wills before we ever exercise that ability. And so because God knows how we will use our free wills He then predestines our lives accordingly. And so it is in this manner that God knows our future because He has already predestined it before we are even created. Let’s take salvation as an example. God knows before He creates us which of us will choose salvation and which of us will reject His perfect will of salvation. And so God predestines for salvation, those who will choose it as an act of their free will. While at the same time God predestines for destruction, those who will reject salvation as an act of their free will. And so it is therefore based on God’s foreknowledge of His creations that He then predestines their lives accordingly.

1 Peter 1:1-2 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, (2) elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.”

 In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Peter teaches the church the same truth that the apostle Paul taught, for in this passage Peter also links the concept of God’s election of the saints with His foreknowledge of them. Election and predestination are two terms that are completely interrelated, for God chooses those whom He predestines. And so if we were to take the aspect of salvation as an example, the sequence of events would be as follows; it begins with God’s foreknowledge of His creations. Based on God’s foreknowledge of how His creations will exercise their free will He then chooses them either for salvation or destruction. Based on God’s election He then predestines their lives to either obtain salvation or to enter into destruction. And so it is because God predestines their lives that He then knows all their future.

Romans 9:14-24 “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!  (15)  For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion."  (16)  So, then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.  (17)  For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth."  (18)  Therefore, He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.  (19)  You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"  (20)  But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"  (21)  Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honour and another for dishonour?  (22) What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, (23) and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, (24) even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” 

A lot of Christians struggle with the biblical truth of predestination, for their understanding of the concept of predestination is that because God decides how an individual’s life turns out, that He creates robots. If we read the above quoted passage of scripture in isolation then it certainly seems as if God’s will prevails and man has no choice in the matter. This passage of scripture however must be read in conjunction with the others we have already looked at. When we read it in this light then we see that God hardens those whom He knows will not glorify Him as God. Pharaoh fell into this category and so God predestined his life accordingly. This passage of scripture reveals one of the methods that God uses to predestine the lives of men, for it tells us that it is God who hardens men’s hearts. In the same manner that God hardens the hearts of some, He also softens the hearts of others. But in all of it, God gives man his free choice. If you read the account of Moses and Pharaoh, you will see that time and again God gave Pharaoh the opportunity to repent, but nevertheless of his own free will Pharaoh refused to do so. Pharaoh is but one example of the lives of the wicked which God has predestined, for the scripture tells us that He has made all for Himself, even the wicked for the day of doom (Proverbs 16:4). In the same manner that God hardens the heart of the wicked, God shows mercy to those whom He knows will glorify Him as God. In other words, based on His foreknowledge of each one of His creations God predestines the lives of each one. But it goes even further than that. For not only does God know which of His creations will choose His perfect will, and which will not. But of those who choose His perfect will, He also knows which will serve Him wholeheartedly, and which will not. On the negative side, of those who choose to reject His perfect will, He also knows which will choose to become completely wicked. And so based on God’s foreknowledge of each one of us He then predestines the lives of His creations accordingly.

Hebrews 10:7 “Then I said, 'Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.'” 

 The life of our Lord Jesus is the perfect example of one whose life was predestined by God the Father. In the above quoted passage of scripture our Lord Jesus reveals to us that He read God’s perfect will for His life before He ever came to the earth. Our Lord then submitted His will to the perfect will of the Father and He came to the earth to fulfil the Father’s will. In other words our Lord walked according to the life that God had predestined for Him. The question is then asked, could Jesus choose not to do the Father’s will? The answer is most definitely yes, for you will recall the incident in the garden of Gethsemane when our Lord prayed to the Father, “not My will but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Had it been impossible for Jesus to decline to do God’s will then Jesus would never have made that statement, for that would have made Him a fraud. And so because God knows everything, He knew that Jesus would submit to His will even in the most adverse of circumstances, and thus He could predestine the life of Jesus for the salvation of mankind.

John 17:12 “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

 I will end this section with one more example of an individual whose life was predestined by God the Father. That individual is Judas Iscariot. Many question whether Judas was forgiven for his betrayal of our Lord, because he was remorseful after he saw that our Lord was condemned. The scripture is very clear however that Judas was predestined for destruction and that he has gone into hell, for in the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord Jesus clearly states that Judas was lost so that the scripture could be fulfilled. In fact our Lord Jesus told us that the only way that Judas could have avoided hell was to not have been born, for once he was born into the earth Judas was predestined for destruction (Matthew 26:24-25). The book of Psalms gives us a vivid account of what the Holy Spirit has written regarding Judas, the betrayer of our Lord Jesus (Psalm 109). Clearly God had predestined Judas Iscariot for destruction. So did God do that because He is unjust? Paul answered that question for us in a passage of scripture quoted earlier, when he said “certainly not”. The reason God predestined Judas for destruction is because God knew Judas before He created him, and thus knew that Judas would never willingly bow his knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ but would always be rebellious at heart. And so God predestined the life of Judas accordingly.

Michael E.B. Maher

The Will of Man

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