God set His love upon His people before the foundation of the world. But now what? Will He allow sin to come and seperate these beloved people from Himself forever? The Bible teaches us that God sets these peoples' destinies to salvation before the foundation of the world.
Those whom He foreknew, He also prdestined to be conformed to the image
of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.
(Romans 8:29)
of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.
(Romans 8:29)
We Christians should bask in this thought. We should talk about it, rejoice in it, and rest in this awesome love that God has for us.
A good analogy for this kind of love that God bestoys upon us would be:
If the sheep go astray, the shepherd goes and finds him, and brings him back. If the sheep were to resist, the shepherd fights harder and strikes the sheep with his rode. The shepherd, with all his strength, will not allow the sheep to utterly run away and become a lost sheep with no shephard. God loves us so much that He uses all His mighty power to even overcome ourselves and sets our destiny to become Christians, regardless of our wills.
Therefore this doctrine teaches that it isn't man's will that saves himself, but God's foreordaining and predestining a man unto salvation. Not to be too repetitive, but Scripture again puts it this way,
A good analogy for this kind of love that God bestoys upon us would be:
If the sheep go astray, the shepherd goes and finds him, and brings him back. If the sheep were to resist, the shepherd fights harder and strikes the sheep with his rode. The shepherd, with all his strength, will not allow the sheep to utterly run away and become a lost sheep with no shephard. God loves us so much that He uses all His mighty power to even overcome ourselves and sets our destiny to become Christians, regardless of our wills.
Therefore this doctrine teaches that it isn't man's will that saves himself, but God's foreordaining and predestining a man unto salvation. Not to be too repetitive, but Scripture again puts it this way,
It [salvation] then does not depend on human will or exertion,
but on God, who has mercy.
(Romans 9:16)
but on God, who has mercy.
(Romans 9:16)
What about Israel? Were they not the people of God, yet they are seperated from God.
It would be completely fair and honest to ask this question! It's a good question. The Scripture says things like,
But of Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my
hands to a disobedient and contrary people."
(Rom 10:21)
hands to a disobedient and contrary people."
(Rom 10:21)
There are all kinds of questions possible here!
If God held out His hands to them, why didn't He simply predestine them to repentance?
If God loved Israel so much, then why didn't He save them by giving them a new heart (Eze. 11:19; Deut. 29:2-4)?
So in the face of these questions, let's hold fast to one thing that is for sure so far: God DID predestine a people to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). Of this we can have no doubt. Now here's the danger were we can get into extra biblical ideas to answer these questions, and oh how many people do!
The Wrong Answer
One wrong answer that seems to satisfy these questions is that God looks into the future, sees who will choose Him, and then He predestines them. Again, that does sound reasonable, don't get me wrong! That sounds very reasonable! But... now where in the Bible is that taught even once? Referring back to my post on Foreknowledge, the Bible is very open that "no one seeks God" (Rom. 3:11), and that's only one of the many verses like it that we looked at. Consider all the men of the Bible:
Who chose who first?
Did Abraham choose God first, or did God choose Abraham first?
Did Isaac choose to be the promised child, or did God choose Isaac to be the promised child?
Did Moses choose God first, or did God choose Moses first?
Did David choose God first, or did God choose David first (Psa. 78:70)?
Did Jeremiah choose God first, or did God choose Jeremiah first (Jer. 1:5)?
Did the Apostles choose God first, or did God choose them first (John 15:16)?
Did Paul choose God first, or did God choose Paul first (Gal. 1:15-16)?
Paul's a great example. If God were to look into the future of Paul's life, what would He have saw? He would have saw Paul murdering His church. If God sat back and continued to look within the years, do you think Saul would have stopped murdering the church without God's intervention on the road to Damascus?
Now for you. If God looked into your life to see what you would do, what would He have saw? Do you accept Ephesians 2:1-3 as your condition outside of Christ or not? And if so, then what hope does Ephesians 2:1-3 offer that you would just suddenly turn to God some day apart from God initially making you spiritually alive from the dead (v. 4)?
We're starting to run out of excuses to explain away God predestinating us because of something we did. The Bible simply does not teach it. You will drive yourself mad twisting verses to get that kind of result (2 Pet. 3:16).
Scripture on Israel
Paul addresses this exact issue in Romans 9. In fact, the whole chapter is about this problem. If you've never read Romans 9, please do. This is hard to believe, but Paul starts out this chapter swearing with God as witness that he himself would go to hell if Israel would be saved! What passion and love Paul had for them! But what does Paul say after that? He assures all that God has not failed in His promises.
If God held out His hands to them, why didn't He simply predestine them to repentance?
If God loved Israel so much, then why didn't He save them by giving them a new heart (Eze. 11:19; Deut. 29:2-4)?
So in the face of these questions, let's hold fast to one thing that is for sure so far: God DID predestine a people to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). Of this we can have no doubt. Now here's the danger were we can get into extra biblical ideas to answer these questions, and oh how many people do!
The Wrong Answer
One wrong answer that seems to satisfy these questions is that God looks into the future, sees who will choose Him, and then He predestines them. Again, that does sound reasonable, don't get me wrong! That sounds very reasonable! But... now where in the Bible is that taught even once? Referring back to my post on Foreknowledge, the Bible is very open that "no one seeks God" (Rom. 3:11), and that's only one of the many verses like it that we looked at. Consider all the men of the Bible:
Who chose who first?
Did Abraham choose God first, or did God choose Abraham first?
Did Isaac choose to be the promised child, or did God choose Isaac to be the promised child?
Did Moses choose God first, or did God choose Moses first?
Did David choose God first, or did God choose David first (Psa. 78:70)?
Did Jeremiah choose God first, or did God choose Jeremiah first (Jer. 1:5)?
Did the Apostles choose God first, or did God choose them first (John 15:16)?
Did Paul choose God first, or did God choose Paul first (Gal. 1:15-16)?
Paul's a great example. If God were to look into the future of Paul's life, what would He have saw? He would have saw Paul murdering His church. If God sat back and continued to look within the years, do you think Saul would have stopped murdering the church without God's intervention on the road to Damascus?
Now for you. If God looked into your life to see what you would do, what would He have saw? Do you accept Ephesians 2:1-3 as your condition outside of Christ or not? And if so, then what hope does Ephesians 2:1-3 offer that you would just suddenly turn to God some day apart from God initially making you spiritually alive from the dead (v. 4)?
We're starting to run out of excuses to explain away God predestinating us because of something we did. The Bible simply does not teach it. You will drive yourself mad twisting verses to get that kind of result (2 Pet. 3:16).
Scripture on Israel
Paul addresses this exact issue in Romans 9. In fact, the whole chapter is about this problem. If you've never read Romans 9, please do. This is hard to believe, but Paul starts out this chapter swearing with God as witness that he himself would go to hell if Israel would be saved! What passion and love Paul had for them! But what does Paul say after that? He assures all that God has not failed in His promises.
But it is not as though the word of God has failed.
For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.
and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring,
but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named."
This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God,
but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
(Romans 9:6-8)
For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.
and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring,
but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named."
This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God,
but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
(Romans 9:6-8)
His explination continues until the end of the chapter, so read Romans 9 sometime. But look at how the Spirit introduces the argument for God not saving Israel but condemning them at this time! He basically says, "they are not really Israel". In other words, God is saying "You have misunderstood Israelites! My promise of salvation wasn't to the promise of the physical offspring of Abraham, but the spiritual, the children of promise." If we Christians don't get this one point, then we will be confused about the rest of Paul's explination in this chapter. We, Jews and Gentiles, who believe in Christ are the children of promise (Gal. 4:28)!
So this answers the problem we addressed at the very beginning. That problem was, Why did God not predestine the people of Israel unto salvation? The physical tribes of Israel being brought out of the bondage of Egypt is a picture, a shadow, of the true things to come - just like the sacrifices of lambs were a shadow and picture of the Cross of Christ. However, the physical tribes of Israel were not all the actual children of promise, which God promised to Abraham. The Christians, and only the Christians, were the promised children. Old Testament Jews who trusted in Christ were the elected, promised, predestined children of God, but the others who rejected Christ where not.
There's so much to talk about on this subject - my goal is to get taste buds longing to study this out further. But if this sounds completely foreign to you; then you need to read the OT yourself, and you need to read Hebrews along side it. Also, check out Romans 9. These things should not be strange things to you; because as Christians, this is our heritage, our history. We need to understand these things.
Lordwilling, we'll talk about what being predestined to the image of Christ means, and then we'll move on to the next step of our salvation!
So this answers the problem we addressed at the very beginning. That problem was, Why did God not predestine the people of Israel unto salvation? The physical tribes of Israel being brought out of the bondage of Egypt is a picture, a shadow, of the true things to come - just like the sacrifices of lambs were a shadow and picture of the Cross of Christ. However, the physical tribes of Israel were not all the actual children of promise, which God promised to Abraham. The Christians, and only the Christians, were the promised children. Old Testament Jews who trusted in Christ were the elected, promised, predestined children of God, but the others who rejected Christ where not.
There's so much to talk about on this subject - my goal is to get taste buds longing to study this out further. But if this sounds completely foreign to you; then you need to read the OT yourself, and you need to read Hebrews along side it. Also, check out Romans 9. These things should not be strange things to you; because as Christians, this is our heritage, our history. We need to understand these things.
Lordwilling, we'll talk about what being predestined to the image of Christ means, and then we'll move on to the next step of our salvation!
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