I am grateful for the immeasurable love of God!
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 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. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Romans 8
Seems there are endless arguments over Bible passages that contain the word “predestined”. I know some denominations take the idea of predestination to mean, “We are included, but perhaps not you.” The idea can be carried so far as to eliminate evangelistic outreach. Even further, that since predestined by an omnipotent God, that the actions of life are irrelevant; essentially erasing personal accountability. (Don’t hear what I am not saying. Not all Calvinist groups are this extreme.) This idea derives from the perspective that the foreknowledge of God is absolute and therefore immutable.
In the Romans 8 passage above, the idea of predestination is surrounded by divine balance. First, it is addressing the heart. Do you love God? As a result, do you want what He wants? What about evidence? Are you becoming conformed to the likeness of Jesus?
While we are here in this passage, lets talk about the foreknowledge of God (verse 29). The omniscience of God extends to continual observation of every created particle in the universe. God is Spirit (John 4:24, among many others). He sees the immaterial, from gravity to energy and attitudes and our very thoughts.
Further, God is eternal. Eternal existence is also a hard concept. I believe that time is created by God regulate the physical universe. Breathe in. Breathe out. Heart, keep beating for some variable number of seconds. Earth rotate and fall around the sun as prescribed by said gravity. Cesium, decay with a half-life of 30 years. God is regulated only by His nature and His word. What He says, is. He is not regulated by His creation, including time. The word “foreknew” in is used because human language doesn’t have a notion of observation that transcends time. Our own perception is limited to the sphere of our focus in the moment we are in. God is not limited. “Predestined” is also framed in our own limitations in the same way as “foreknew”.
The argument that foreknowledge and predestination only applies to certain ones is inexplicable to me. Our Father knows us all (Psalm 139). I defy you to read that Psalm and remain unmoved if you know God in the slightest!
As we talked about this subject today, my wife reminded me that when God answered Moses, when he asked what he should say to the Israelites about His identity, God instructs Moses to tell the Israelites that “I AM has sent me to you,” I find it amusing that Moses was cheeky enough to ask God for His ID. In so doing, though, we have Him clearly establishing His eternal, self-existent nature.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1
Do you see yourself “holy and without blame before Him in love”? If we are “in Christ”, this is true in your spirit, which is now indwelt by Him who has eternally been holy and without blame. Our Father currently sees that truth in our spirit. More, He sees us being progressively transformed as His Word is allowed to work in us (Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 3:18). He sees our ultimate blamelessness. For now, let us offer praise that we are accepted in the Beloved!
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
15 Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.
Titus 2
Titus 2:11 tells us that salvation has appeared to all men. Does that mean, as some teach, that all will be saved? That a loving God would never send anyone to hell? I have heard those who declare they couldn’t serve a deity who would allow his children to go to hell for eternity. But God has extended the invitation to all. Acceptance of the invitation is voluntary. Jesus talked about those who decline in the parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-14). Note that declining the invitation is not without serious consequence. This fact will not be a mystery to anyone with a wayward child.
6 Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. 7 And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, 9 and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”
Acts 15
Here we see the Jewish religious leaders arguing to apply the same burden on Gentile believers that they applied to a convert to Judaism: keep the law. But God (do you love that phrase as much as I do?), had already made clear His acceptance of those who come to Him in faith. Remember, we started this walk through the Scripture examining the idea of evidence of salvation. There is no stronger attestation than the presence of the Holy Spirit. This passage is one more example that God is “no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34).
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3
God’s will is the salvation of all. He is not going to force any. But He is willing to wait until we come to our senses. The question is, whether we accept His Gift while we are still breathing. The dead have lost the opportunity.
