First of all, I just have to say how funny I think it is that I ended up with this passage! Several times this year, the reading I've had to write about has felt very personal. And given that RIGHT NOW I'm in the midst of working through a seismic shift in how I've believed God to work in this exact area, having to study this particular passage on predestination and unconditional election is just, well... amusing!!!
I will begin by saying I'm not done wrestling with it. Really, it flies in the face of everything I've grown up hearing and I'm having a really hard time understanding verses like John 3:16 in the light of Romans 9.
It's clear there are two distinct camps when it comes to this whole issue and there are wise, well-learned, well-respected men and women in both. Salvation doesn't appear to hang in the balance ~ meaning that believing one way or the other doesn't make you a true Christian ~ even though we're dealing specifically with the behind-the-scenes of salvation, but I think a large part of our understanding of God and grace DOES hang in the balance.
Paul teaches here in these verses that God chooses those who will believe and follow Him; that they existed in His mind along with everything else long before the foundations of time were laid. Paul gives the example of Jacob and Esau and reminds us that before they even had the ability to choose anything ~ good or bad, right or wrong ~ God said the elder would serve the younger. Paul reminds us that years later through the prophet Malachi, God also said, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
Now there are arguments that God was not talking about individuals, but entire nations descended from these two, and that He doesn't literally mean hate, as in doomed to damnation, just that Esau/Edom wasn't favoured by God. As far as I'm concerned, though, that's kind of beside the point. God still specifically chose one through which to reveal Himself to mankind and to redeem them. And you can't very well specifically choose something without specifically NOT choosing what's left! The Old Testament is FULL of instances where God chose one individual instead of another: Abel instead of Cain; Abram instead of Nahor or Haran, his brothers; Shem instead of either of his brothers; Jacob instead of Esau; Judah instead of any of his 11 brothers; Moses instead of Aaron; David instead of his older brothers; Israel instead of any other nation in the then-known world...
I'm sure we can think of many other instances where God specifically chose whom He would prosper for His glory, whom He would destroy to demonstrate His sovereignty, and whom He would use as cautionary examples. And NONE of them are FAIR! At least, not the way we humans view fairness. What I find curious is that we seem to be okay with it happening in Old Testament times, but not now in the New Testament church era. My guess is because now it hits home. Thousands of years ago, it didn't affect us personally. Now it does. Was I chosen or did I choose God? Why didn't He choose my neighbour? What if He hasn't chosen my children? Why do I need to care about spreading the gospel if He's already chosen who's going to believe and follow Him? How can John say God loved the WORLD so much He sent His only Son to die so that anyone who believed in Him would be saved, while Paul says God chose all who would believe in Him?
I'm not sure. But I do know that Christ's death is the only thing that makes it possible to eventually come into the presence of God, and that His sacrifice eliminated the need for ritual sacrifices. If Christ had not been provided as the ultimate sacrifice, even if just for a chosen few, those chosen would still be making animal sacrifices, and they would all be pointless. We could still never enter God's presence because only Christ could endure the wrath of God for our sins and not end up in hell for them.
And, I believe it is impossible to choose something that God hasn't already foreknown from before the dawn of time in a plan that has always existed in Him. Because we don't have the roadmap He does, because we can't see the future as reality the way He does, we can't help but view our lives as a series of choices for which we CAN be held accountable. We don't know the future plans for ourselves, let alone for anyone else, so we base those choices on what we know and believe about Him.
He is God. And Paul reminds us that He simply operates on a different plane than we do and that as the Creator of all things, He gets to make the rules and we have no right to accuse Him of being unfair. Whether He specifically chooses some and rejects others or whether He specifically chooses some and lets the rest decide for themselves, or whether there's something of a partnership between His choices and our choices... HOWEVER election and subsequent salvation come about, Paul reminds us of some key things: 1. Election is not by any merit in and of ourselves, but by God for His divine purposes, 2. Justification is not by works, but by faith in God, 3. Reconciliation is only through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, and 4. God reigns supreme over all of it. HE alone detemines how He operates and has every right to do anything that best serves HIS glorious purpose, whether we understand it or not.
"A proper understanding of this doctrine," says gotQuestions.org, "should not result in questioning the justice of God, but instead in marveling at His great mercy. The question we really should ask is not why God chooses only some to salvation but why He would choose any at all."
Tomorrow's passages: Romans 11-14
5 comments:
"He is God. And Paul reminds us that He simply operates on a different plane than we do and that as the Creator of all things, He gets to make the rules and we have no right to accuse Him of being unfair."
How true. I just learned of a parent at my school diagnosed with a brain tumour. It has hit me pretty hard and I can't help but think that it is unfair that this parent would have to go through this. But who am I to second guess God's divine plan for her and what this experience may bring. Why this parent was chosen is not clear to me but I know God knows.
Psalm 116:15 says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." I think that gives us a little glimpse into how God views us coming HOME to Him.
It's so hard to understand, but I truly believe that we will someday see God's glory better in this than if it hadn't happened.
It's kind of like the chicken and the egg, isn't it? Some people choose to believe that God chose, or pre-destined, those He knew would accept the Gospel and have faith, so His "choice" was based on the future choice of the person whether or not to believe. However, God created each person, knit him or her together in a mother's womb, and therefore created each of us a certain way, which has at least SOME effect on the way we make choices, so maybe it really WAS Him all along making the choice... so confusing.
I agree with what you said at the beginning - what we believe about pre-destination doesn't "make us or break us" as far as salvation goes. But it is an important aspect of who God is, and definitely something that bears at least some contemplation, even if we don't ever come to a definite conclusion.
I'm definitely perplexed on this issue.
I have to say that I do not like the idea of predestination. It seems, to my human mind, grossly unfair that God would simply choose who gets to be saved - like He's playing favourites.
It also seems to contradict other passages like John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 Timothy 2:4 and more.
How do we reconcile passages that seem to be saying the opposite thing?
We know God desires everyone to believe in Him.
We know that He sometimes prevents people from sinning (the King that did not sleep with Sarah). We know that He hates sin. But we also know that sometimes He ordains it (when Jesus was crucified).
It's very confusing.
Many of the OT incidences of choosing aren't necessarily whether people will be believers, but whether they will be used by God as leaders - which is also 2 very different things.
But they're still evidences of God's seeming "unfairness" and that He will do what He wants to serve His own purposes.
I have to admit, I have a whole lot less trouble reconciling John 3:16 with election/predestination than I did reconciling free will with all the NT passages that teach election and predestination.
Either way, it's a matter of faith ~ believing God is who He says He is and trusting His Word, even when we don't understand the how and why.
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