Chapter 12
Predestination
Romans 8:29-30 & Ephesians
1:5, 11
God
almighty, the one true and living God, the God of the Bible, is a God of
purpose, sovereign, eternal, unalterable purpose. Everything that comes to pass
in time is brought to pass by the hand of our God, "According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ
Jesus our Lord" (Eph. 3:11). This eternal purpose of God is what we
call, in Bible terms, predestination. “Predestination is the decree of God
whereby he hath for his own glory foreordained whatever comes to pass” (Charles
Buck).
A Bible Doctrine
There
is absolutely no question about the fact that the Word of God teaches the
doctrine of predestination. It is taught throughout the Scriptures and clearly
stated in numerous passages of Inspiration (Matt. 25:34; Rom. 8:29, 30; Eph.
1:3, 6, 11; 2 Tim. 1:9-10; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:1-2; John 6:37; 17:2-24;
Rev. 13:8; 17:8; Dan. 4:35; 1 Thess. 5:19; Matt. 11:26; Ex. 4:21; Pro. 16:4;
Acts 2:23; 4:28; 13:48; Rom. 9:11; Eph. 3:11).
The
basis of our faith is the Word of God, and the Word of God alone. We do not
believe the doctrine of predestination because it is a logical and reasonable
part of a theological system, though it is both logical and reasonable. We do
not believe this doctrine, or any other doctrine for that matter, simply
because it has been upheld and maintained by true believers throughout the ages
of Christianity, though it cannot be denied that Christians have always taught
God’s sovereign predestination. This is a doctrine the Church of God has always
maintained. Yet, neither logic nor history is the basis of our faith. The basis
of our faith is the Word of God alone. We believe this doctrine, rejoice in it,
and preach it from the housetops because it is plainly taught in Holy
Scripture. The fact that predestination is a Bible doctrine simply cannot be
disputed. The only question that needs to be answered is this: What does the
Bible teach about predestination?
Misrepresentations
This
is a doctrine which is often deliberately misrepresented by those who oppose it
and ignorantly misrepresented by those who try to defend it. In fact, it is
hard to say whether this doctrine has suffered more in the camp of its enemies
or in the camp of its friends. So we will begin this study by identifying four
common misrepresentations of divine predestination.
First, the Bible does not teach that impersonal, stoic philosophy which says,
“Whatever will be will be.” That sort of philosophical fatalism attempts to
remove from man all responsibility for his actions and for his condition in
life. We do not for a moment believe that a man is the master of his own
destiny. Yet, the Scriptures make every person responsible for his own soul.
Our eternal destiny is our own responsibility.
Second, the Word of God does not teach that religious fatalism which says, “The
elect will be saved, no matter what.” We believe and rejoice in the Bible
doctrine of election. It is impossible to believe the Book of God and not
believe in election. However, the Word of God never suggests, or even allows
the possibility that, “The elect will be saved no matter what.” The Scriptures
plainly declare that no one will ever be saved who does not hear the gospel
(Rom. 10:17), believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Mk. 16:15-16), acknowledge and
confess his sin (1 John 1:9), repent of
his sins (Lk. 13:5), and persevere in the faith (Matt. 10:22). God has
predestinated the use of specific means for the accomplishment of his purposes;
and the use of those means is as necessary and as certain as the end itself.
Third, the Word of God nowhere teaches or implies that God has arbitrarily
predestinated some to go to heaven and some to go to hell. The all-wise God
never does anything arbitrarily. He has a wise and good purpose for everything
he does and everything he purposed from eternity. Without question, the
everlasting condemnation of the reprobate was as much a part of God’s decree as
the salvation of the elect (Pro. 16:4; 1 Pet. 2:8; Jude 4). The Bible speaks as
plainly about “the vessels of wrath
fitted to destruction,” as it does about “the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory”
(Rom. 9:21-24). However, we must never fail to recognize that God’s
predestination, while securing the salvation of the elect by God’s hand alone,
leaves the responsibility for every sinner’s damnation upon his own shoulders.
The elect, the vessels of mercy, are prepared for glory by God’s free grace in
Christ; whereas the reprobate, the vessels of wrath, are fitted to destruction by
their own sin willful unbelief. Salvation is always set before us in the Bible
as being God’s fault and God’s work alone. Damnation is always set before us in
the Bible as being man’s fault and man’s work alone.
Fourth, divine predestination is not based upon God’s foreknowledge.
Predestination is not God’s foreknowledge of what would come to pass, but his
purpose and determination of what must come to pass. It is not the result of
what God knew man would do. Rather, predestination is what he determined he
would do. The fact is, nothing could be absolutely foreknown that was not
absolutely predetermined. That which is foreknown must have been foreordained.
God knew the end of all things from the beginning, because he had predestinated
the end from the beginning (Isa. 14:24, 26, 27; 46:9-11).
The Doctrine of Scripture
Essentially
the doctrine of divine predestination is this: Before the world began, God
sovereignly predestinated all his elect to be conformed to the image of his
dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, which he accomplishes in time by his
sovereign, irresistible, immutable grace, and foreordained all things necessary
to accomplish that great goal in the way which is most honoring to himself.
Eternal predestination is
God’s sovereign work. Carefully observe the language of Scripture. “He also did predestinate.” “He” is the original cause of all things.
“He” is the source of salvation.
Everything springs from him. It is written, “All
things are of God” (2 Cor. 5:18; Rom. 11:36).
Specifically, predestination
is God’s eternal purpose of grace toward his elect. It is God’s determination
to save his elect. It is his determination of the everlasting destiny of chosen
sinners before the world began. Without question, God’s sovereign purpose and
absolute decree included all things, all people, and all events, in heaven,
earth, and hell. However, the revealed object of predestination is the
salvation of the chosen. Divine predestination is absolutely free, sovereign,
and unconditional. This work of God was finished before the world began.
Predestination was an immutable, unalterable work of God’s free grace in
Christ. God’s predestination is his gracious purpose to save specific sinners,
his purpose of grace founded upon and arising from his everlasting love (Jer.
31:3; Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:3-5; 2 Tim. 1:9-10).
Salvation is accomplished by
the irresistible power of God’s grace, according to the sovereign purpose of
God in his eternal decree, through the merits of Christ’s blood and
righteousness as the sinners’ Substitute. Salvation is not the result of man’s
will, but of God’s. It is not the sinner’s will that brings him to Christ, but
God’s will. God’s will is not ruled by or subject to man’s will. Man’s will is
ruled by and subject to God’s will (John 1:12-13; Rom. 9:16).
Salvation is God’s work. It
is accomplished by God’s sovereign, deliberate purpose. It is a work which the
Lord God almighty purposed to accomplish from eternity. The means, or method,
by which he would accomplish this glorious work was devised and resolved upon
from eternity in the everlasting covenant of grace and counsel of peace. This
is God’s purpose. -- In eternal mercy, he determined to save a people for the
glory of his own great name by the substitutionary sacrifice of his dear Son
(Job. 33:24; Ps. 89:19; Rom. 3:24-26; 5:8; 2 Cor. 5:21).
The death of Christ at
Calvary was no accident, or after thought with God. Our Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross to accomplish our
salvation by his death as our Substitute, according to his Father’s own
determinate counsel (Lk. 22:22; Acts 2:23; 4:28). It was God almighty who
determined the time, place, and circumstances of Christ’s birth. It was God
alone who determined the time and instrument of his Son’s betrayal. It was God
the Father who determined the time, place, and circumstances of his Son’s
execution at the hands of wicked men. And it was God who determined what the
results of his Son’s sacrificial death upon the cross would be. The Father
resolved from eternity to save chosen sinners by the sin-atoning death of his
own darling Son (Isa. 53:10-11)..
All of this the Lord God
resolved upon and predestinated for his own glory in the salvation of his
elect. He chose to save sinners by the sacrifice of Christ, through the power
of his grace, without any aid or assistance from them, for the glory of his own
great name (Ps. 106:8; Eph. 1:6, 12, 14; 1 Cor. 1:30-31).
Whatever predestination
affords, brings to pass, and accomplishes is for God’s elect. Read the
Scriptures. Predestination concerns God’s chosen. It secures their salvation,
their preservation, and their glory. Predestination is much, much more than an
abstract theory of theological speculation. Predestination is one of the most
practical, blessed, and glorious doctrines revealed in Holy Scripture.
Predestination does not keep
anyone out of heaven. People often look upon predestination as a frightful
monster which stands at the gate of heaven and arbitrarily shuts multitudes
out, saying, “No, you cannot come in, you cannot be saved, no matter how much
you want to be, because you were not chosen and predestinated to salvation.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. God’s work of predestination is what
open the gates of heaven.
Any sinner who is lost at
last and goes to hell will do so as the result of deliberate action on his
part. If anyone goes to hell, it will be his own fault. If men refuse to walk
in the light God has given them, that is their fault. And when they are cast
into hell, they will acknowledge the justice of God in casting them into hell.
Reprobation is always presented to us in the Word of God as a judicial act.
Judgment is an act of justice. It is something God does in justice in response
to man’s sin. God sends blindness because men and women choose not to see. He sends
hardness of heart to those who harden their hearts against him. He sends men to
hell because they will not bow to his Son (2 Thess. 2:10-11; Matt. 23:37-38).
Be
sure you understand this. If anyone goes to hell, it is his own fault
alone. He has no one to blame but himself. But if anyone is saved, it will be
God’s fault alone, the result of deliberate effort on God’s part. We will have
no one to thank and praise for it but God. And God’s salvation began in eternal
predestination. Without predestination we would all be damned forever.
Predestination is the guarantee of salvation for God’s elect.
God almighty predestinated
all things for the everlasting salvation of his elect and the glory of his
name. In other words, all that comes to pass in time was purposed by God in
eternity, purposed for our souls’ everlasting good and God’s everlasting praise
(Rom. 8:28-30; Eph. 1:11-12).
The Object
The object of our God in
predestination is that we should be conformed to the image of his own dear Son.
The one thing God Almighty is determined to accomplish in us by his purpose,
his providence, his power, and his grace is an exact likeness to the Lord Jesus
Christ (Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:4). God predestinated us to be conformed to the image
of his Son. I cannot imagine anyone being upset with that fact, except those
who yet hate God and his Son.
Through the sin and fall of
our father Adam, we all became sinners. We lost God’s image in which we were
created, and forfeited life, communion, fellowship, and acceptance with him
forever (Rom. 5:12). Yet, God’s purpose was not overthrown when Adam sinned. It
was executed exactly according to his sovereign will and infinite wisdom (1
Cor. 15:21-22). God Almighty was determined from the beginning to glorify
himself in his creation, by rescuing a multitude which no man can number from
Adam’s fall and restoring them to his image perfectly, forever through another
representative man, the God-man, Christ Jesus.
God
looked upon his Son from eternity with such joy and delight that he said, I
will have an innumerable multitude of sons and daughters just like him. And
when predestination has done its work, every chosen sinner will be exactly
conformed to the image of God’s dear Son, “holy
and without blame” before God himself
Believers are being
conformed to Christ in his nature. -- He is begotten of God and so are we. We
are conformed to Christ in his relationship. -- He is the Son of God; and we
are the sons and daughters of the Almighty (1 John 3:1). We must also be conformed
to Christ in his experience. Like Christ, we must learn obedience through the
things we suffer. Like him, we must endure abuse from men. Like our Master, we
must suffer the attacks of Satan. Like Christ, we must struggle against
temptation and sin. We must be conformed to Christ in his character. Like
him, we must be consecrated to God. Like him, we must live by God’s Word. Like
him, we must seek our Father’s will. Like him, we must be loving, kind, and
tender toward one another. We must (because God purposed it) at last be
conformed to the image of Christ in his glory. Salvation, when it is finished,
will be perfect, complete, communion with, consecration to, and conformity to
the Lord Jesus Christ forever. This salvation, from start to finish, is
accomplished by God, according to his own sovereign purpose of grace in
predestination. God predestinated from eternity who will be saved, the means
by which he would save them, the time
of their salvation, all the events and
circumstances necessary for and leading to their salvation, the place where he would save his
chosen, their place in glory, and everything required to bring us safely
home.
For Christ’s Sake
The ultimate end of God in
predestination, as in all other things, is the exaltation and glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ. God has determined to glorify himself in glorifying his glorious
Son. He has predestinated his elect unto the adoption of sons, that Jesus
Christ his eternal, only-begotten Son, might be the firstborn among many
brethren (Rom. 8:28-30; 11:33-36; Col. 1:16-18).
Predestination gives Christ
the pre-eminence, because Christ is the center of God’s decrees. He is the Head
of a new, elect race. He is the center and glory of heaven. Predestination
gives Christ pleasure, because his delights were with the sons of men before
time began. Now he has a race of men in whom and with whom he delights. He
loves them; and they all love him. This was the joy set before him, for which
he endured the cross, despising the shame. This is the reward of his labor. Predestination
gives Christ praise. God has arranged things so that all the population of
heaven will owe everything to Christ, so that everyone in glory land will chant
Immanuel’s praise and Immanuel’s
praise alone forever.
This is the glorious doctrine of
predestination in which we rejoice. It is a most profitable doctrine. It
destroys every basis of human pride. It exalts the glory of Christ and the
grace of God. It gives us a purpose in evangelism. It gives us a sure hope
before God (2 Sam. 23:5). It puts us at peace with God’s providence. It opens
the doors of heaven to sinners and guarantees that some shall enter therein. It
shuts us up to God for everything (Jer. 9:23-24).