Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Breaking down predestination
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“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 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. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” (Romans 8:28-30)
God prepurposes some people for heaven and chooses to pass over the rest, leaving them to inherit damnation. He decided this before the creation of the world. Yet this neither negates personal responsibility nor forces us to choose Jesus, which we do indeed of our own free will when led by the Holy Spirit. Sound confusing? It gets worse.
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
The message of predestination (Calvinism) alone is enough to perplex anyone, but add to it the message that God wishes for all to be saved, which carries the idea He is waiting to react to our decision (Arminianism) is what can cause a person to slap closed the Bible and look elsewhere for answers. The problem with Arminianism is that it’s incompatible with a sovereign God who knows the future. When we say God is sovereign, it means that He is in control over all events, past, present and future, in the physical world and the spiritual world. God’s arm is omnipresent in every calculus, His works of providence uphold and maintain everything visible and invisible, from the rise and fall of Kings and Kingdoms (Daniel 2:21) to the death of a single sparrow (Matthew 10:29-31), and the uniform goal under which all these things are linked is God’s ultimate plan to glorify Himself to all people for all time. (Revelation 4:11)
Being vulnerable to and incapable of comprehending the spiritual order is what frustrates everyone, but it’s the vulnerable state of the Jews while exiled in Babylon that turned them over to the moral development which recreated their faith, and characterized Judaism during those 70 years and beyond. It was Job who’s message illustrated that unlocking the secret of God’s reasoning and motives while in a vulnerable state is impossible to complete, but the lengthy debates between Job and his companions tells us the search for this caliber of wisdom is still worth seeking out. It’s only a futile search if it’s completion drives us away from full obedience. If what I’m about to write leaves you wanting, than I have succeeded only in being human, but please consider this argument.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18)
What is greater than an eternal soul? At the highest order of all things is God’s glory. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. (1 Corinthians 10:31) (Psalm 73:25-26) How is God best glorified? When He is known. (Hebrews 1:1-2)
We can’t know what it’s like to be wet if we’ve never been dry, we can’t know what heat is if we’ve never been cold, and we can’t know what love is if we’ve never known hate. Likewise we can’t know what mercy is if we have no concept of justice, and we can’t know what grace is if we have no concept of wrath.
Heaven is the perfect manifestation of mercy and grace. Hell is the perfect manifestation of justice and wrath. And God designed them both for His eternal and final purpose, to glorify himself.
If not for the prospect of eternal hell, there would be no fear of God (Luke 12:4-5). If there is no fear of God, there would be no wisdom (Psalm 111:10). If there is no wisdom, we are nothing but animals eating sleeping living and dyeing, (Daniel 4:33-34), but animals can’t blog, yet here we are. So there’s a soul in all of us. Body’s die, souls don’t. We have to go somewhere, either heaven or hell...so that brings us back to the fear of God.
God is best glorified when he is known for who He is. His mercy and grace must be known, his justice and wrath must be known.
God’s mercy and grace is revealed when...
“Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:4-6)
God’s justice and wrath is revealed when...
“You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.” (Romans 9:19-23)
The worth of a soul is precious, worth a perfect man to die for in fact. But even greater than that is God and the glory due Him.
In the final analysis
God is indeed “not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance” but greater still is Gods work to predestine some of us “according to the purpose of his will, [which is] to the praise of his glorious grace.” At the highest order in all creation is God, and at the highest order of humanity is for God to be realized for who He is in truth, His mercy, grace, justice and wrath. None of this would come about if not for the full revelation of these two truths side by side.
As stated up front, the gravity of this doctrine will strip a person down to utter humility, but can it also fill you with any comfort? It won’t if you don’t love God, but it will if you do. It is in fact a great solace to acknowledge a good God is in charge. The less control we perceive God has, the more restless our life becomes. For them who love God, we find peace in His providence, because we take Him at his Word when we read, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.” (Romans 8:28)
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