“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Rom 8:29-30)
If God has predestined those to whom He would call to His Son, then is becoming a Christian really a choice? Has God doomed some men to hell, while others He has called on to heaven? Is this really the character of a God that we say is all-loving and that is “longsuffering” that “all men might be saved?”
Sounds incongruent. To be honest… it sounds harsh and unfair.
As with all mysteries of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, we are challenged to seek in order to find. We must have revelation of His word in order to understand the “why” of verses like these; or more importantly the “how could that be?”
How could a God who loves all men only “predestine” certain men to salvation? I don’t hold the opinion that He does. I hold the opinion that there have been given poor explanation of the term “predestinate”. I hold the opinion that men who have not “studied to show themselves approved” may have, even with good intention, answered too quickly with too shallow an explanation that, when tested dried up from the heat.
So I am going to take a crack at laying down my understanding of the verses above. Notice that I said, “my understanding.” I speak as a man. For that is all that I am. But I do desire to know Him and His Word and believe that every verse of scripture is the God-breathed, inerrant word of God. And so, I take them for what they say and, when my flawed, imperfect, incomplete carnal mind can not at first understand it, I dig deeper, until it seems that this empty vessel might have received something of substance with which to be filled.
We often forget that God is outside of time. He sees every second of history right now, in His present: from the moment of creation, to the beginning of all things new and beyond. Those events are not things of the past or the future to Him as they are to us. We are, in our carnal state, bound by time. This is a human state. It is not a constraint of the Divine. He is the “Was, the Is, the coming King”, the “Alpha and the Omega”, the “Beginning and the End.” He IS all of those things. It is not that He WAS the Was. He IS NOW the Was. He is eternal. Seated on the throne His vision knows no constraint of time.
It is as though He is looking at a timeline in which we are bound, but that He sees in its completion.
And so, when we take this perspective and read the verse not as a matter of His imposing His will or decision on us, but rather of His having already observed TIME for each of us we can see that Predestination is the natural result of a loving God Who can’t help but pour out His love and Grace on those who have come to faith in His Son.
We will look into this for further explanation. First let us look at the Greek words used in the verse and some definitions and applications of each.
Foreknow: Proginōskō: to have knowledge before hand
Predestinate: Proorizō: to foreordain, appoint beforehand, (already apply*)
Called: Kaleō: to salute one by name
Justified: Dikaioō: to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous,
Glorified: Doxazō: to cause the dignity and worth of some person or thing to become manifest and acknowledged
* “already apply” is my understanding of the concepts of “beforehand” and “appoint”
Now let us play out a scene. God the Father Who, when He speaks causes things to come into existence, looks onto the “timeline” of the life of one who will come to faith in Christ. He sees that moment NOW, even before that person comes forth from their mother’s womb. God “has knowledge before hand” of the choices they will make and so, when He sees that they will accept His Son in their future that event is a PRESENT EVENT for Him as He is not bound by time. Therefore He takes every moment of that person’s life and the person themselves and, “already applies” them to the purpose of His kingdom- namely that they would begin to be conformed into the image of His Son. The logical progression of these events would fall out that if He has “already applied” the effect of the decision that they will, in their future, make then He would “salute one by name”, and what we must realize here is that He salutes each of us not by our birth name, but by the name of His Son, Jesus. Having done just that – saluted us by the name of Jesus – the power of that name is also “already applied” to us: What is that power of that name? We are “declared and pronounced to be just and righteous” in Him. And since He does not believe in placing a candle beneath a basket He them already begins “to cause the dignity and worth to become manifest and acknowledged.”
Predestination is then God’s gracious response to us not His egotistical fancy to play us as pawns.
Thank you for taking the time to have read this.
“Reading maketh a man broad, speaking maketh a man ready, but writing maketh a man exact.”
Just trying to get to that end.
SDG
