So, here’s a question I’ve wondered about for years: do we get salvation by choosing to accept Christ through our own free will, or is salvation “forced” upon a select few by God’s design through “predestination”?
First of all, let’s be clear. The only way we get to heaven is by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Accepting Him as Lord means we endeavor to do all He commands us to do, to the best of our ability. Accepting Him as Savior means we trust in His punishment and death on the cross as the propitiation of our sins (that’s a fancy way of saying that Jesus was punished for our sins instead of us, so we can have fellowship with God and go to heaven).
So, back to the question: did WE choose to accept Christ and believe in Him, or did GOD choose (predestine) that we should accept Him and placed it upon our hearts to do so?
This is one of those questions I struggled with for years. And while the answer may be important in some respect, in my opinion it doesn’t really matter. All that truly matters is that, for whatever reason, each of us personally accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior and chooses to follow Him.
With that said, though, this idea of “predestination” comes up frequently enough, and with such vigor at times, that I thought I’d do a little study in the Bible and see what God says about the subject. I first did this study a number of years ago, and found myself repeating the study recently. While on one hand I wanted to believe God loved me before I ever loved Him and that He personally chose me to know Him. On the other hand, though, I struggled with the idea that if God predestines one person for salvation, by definition it also means He predestines another person for hell — meaning no matter what that other person does, if he is predestined for hell he’s out of luck … there is nothing he can do to be saved.
But that’s not the only problem. If we are predestined as some people say, then why share the Gospel and try to lead others to Christ? If it’s out of my control and out of their control to accept Him or not, why even bother? If God has already predestined someone to be saved, then God doesn’t need me to try to “win” that person to Christ.
So, I felt it was my duty to disprove the idea of predestination. And what better way to do it that to go to the Bible, God’s Holy and infallible Word, to show you what it says.
So, what does it say? Well, after a lot of research and LOTS of passages focused on the subject of knowing God, going to heaven, having eternal life, being “chosen” (predestined) or not, I was blown away with its consistency. Space doesn’t allow me to include all the passages I found, but here are just a few that speak on the subject of whether or not God chooses some people and not others (italics are added by me):
Deut. 7:7
It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples…
Ezk. 20:5
… Thus says the Lord GOD: On the day when I chose Israel, I swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob, making myself known to them in the land of Egypt; I swore to them, saying, I am the LORD your God.
Neh. 9:7
You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.
Matt. 22:14
For many are called, but few are chosen
Matt. 24:22
And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
John 15:19
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Acts 13:48
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Rom. 1:6
including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ
Rom. 9:10-13
And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad–in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call — she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Eph. 1:4-5
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
1 Thes. 1:4
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you
2 Thes. 2:14-15
But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Pet. 1:33
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
Rev. 13:8
and all who dwell on earth will worship it [the beast], everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.
Wow! If I accept God’s Word at “face value” and not try to inject my own personal opinion of who God is and how He should act, there is only one conclusion I can make. For me, it was a paradigm shift!
Personally, I didn’t want to believe what I was reading. However, the more I study His Word the more I see a common theme throughout His entire Word indicating His sovereignty of choice — that He chooses us first before we choose Him. And as it says in Rev. 13:8, He has chosen us before the foundation of the world.
For me, that didn’t sound fair. I felt it was unjust, that He would choose one person and not another. Then I read what Paul, in his letter to the Romans (9:14-16) said: “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”
Pretty thought provoking stuff, huh?
More on the implications next time.
Beatty Carmichael