Did God Predetermine Our Salvation?
This question is especially relevant because millions of contemporary
Christians hold the once-saved-always-saved belief, based on the doctrine of
double predestination. This doctrine teaches that in the eternal ages before
the creation of our world God decreed that certain ones will be saved and
others lost. Those predestined to be saved are the elect to whom God gives His
irresistible grace. Once they have responded to this grace, which they
inevitably will, they cannot fall away from a right legal relationship with God
and be lost. Those who were predestined to be lost cannot respond to God's
grace and be saved.
The doctrine of single predestination has the same effect but teaches
slightly differently. God is supposed to have predestined only the elect to be
saved. The rest are lost, not because God decreed that they should be but
because He did not decree that they should be saved.
Every Christian believer wishes to have a settled assurance of
salvation. The Bible teaches that if we believe in Christ we enjoy the
beginnings of eternal life now (John 3:36; 1 John 5:11-13). But does it follow
from this that disobedience to God's laws does not change a person's salvation
status? Does it follow that no matter what professed believers do they still
remain saved? Some Christians seem to have a sense of security that nothing can
dispel. They regard obedience to laws as legalism. They declare that if the
so-called elect want to turn away from Christ, they cannot. And temporary
defection from a life of faith will inevitably be reversed. A once-saved person
will most certainly be an inheritor of the eternal Kingdom of Christ.
We can see at a glance that such a doctrine could produce very lax
Christians who do whatever they wish and still cling to the certainty of
eternal security. Does the Bible teach that God requires obedience to His law?
Certainly the Bible denies that we are saved by obedience (Rom. 3:20-22; Gal.
2:16). But does the Lord expect the saved soul to obey Him? Does He plan to
save us in our sins or from our sins? And can
a saved soul turn away from obeying God and be lost? Can a once-saved person
choose to reject salvation?
These are the questions to which in this chapter we will seek the Bible
answer. But first let us examine church history to discover the roots of
predestinarian teaching.
PREDESTINATION IN CHURCH HISTORY
The question of predestination did not become a
serious issue in the Christian church until the time of Augustine (A.D.
354-430), the famous Bishop of Hippo in North Africa. Augustine opposed
Pelagius, a British monk who taught that man's will can accomplish much toward
his own salvation without the assistance of divine grace. Augustine argued that
any change in fallen man is solely the work of God's grace. Before the fall,
Adam could do good because he had the help of grace. Since the fall, man's will
can choose only sin. It is not possible for him to choose God's will until
grace is active in his life. God gives His grace only to the elect, the ones
whom He decides should have His unmerited favor. God's grace given to the elect
is irresistible. A person who is predestined by God to salvation will receive His
irresistible grace and will inevitably be saved. Those who are not so chosen by
God are left in their perdition and will justly receive eternal damnation.Both Luther and Calvin, the great sixteenth-century Reformers, accepted
a thoroughly biblical definition of justification. Their views of
predestination, however, are highly suspect. First we will consider their
views; then we will turn to the Scriptures.
Augustine strongly influenced the thinking of the sixteenth-century
Reformers. They substantially accepted Augustine's doctrine of predestination,
modifying it and adding to it according to their own understandings. In his
1525 book, The Bondage of the Will Luther argued that all
things that happen, whether good or evil, are the result of God's unchangeable
will. There is no such thing as free will in humans. Luther contradicted two
then current ideas on the free will of man: (1) that human beings have the
power to choose what is right, and (2) that they have the power to put right
choices into action. Luther said that man does not choose God; he is chosen by
God. God chooses only the elect whom He has predestined to eternal salvation.
The rest of humanity are predestined to eternal rejection.
In Luther's view, everything that God foresees must occur just as He
foresees it. In fact, everything that He foresees to occur will happen because
He has willed it. Luther wrote: "From this it follows
irrefutably that everything we do, everything that happens, even if it seems to
us to happen mutably and contingently, happens in fact nonetheless necessarily
and immutably, if you have regard to the will of God." Therefore,
if God wills and foresees everything that happens, nothing is left to the free
will of man. Even the evil in the world has been willed by God. Yet Luther
argued that God is not responsible for evil. His omnipotence moves upon
imperfect, fallen natures, and the result is that these natures do evil works.
The evil is theirs not God's, and they are justly punished for their sins.
Even so, it is apparent that there is a contradiction in Luther's
thought. If all that God foresees happens of necessity because He has willed
it, in the final analysis He is responsible for evil. All Luther's attempts to
resolve that problem were unavailing.
Luther went so far as to suggest that Adam's fall was willed by God. He
wrote: "The same must be said to those who ask why he permitted Adam to
fall, and why he creates us all infected with the same sin, when he could
either have preserved him or created us from another stock or from a seed which
he had first purged. He is God, and for his will there is no cause or reason
that can be laid down as a rule or measure for it, since there is nothing equal
or superior to it, but it is itself the rule of all things."
Luther summed up his lengthy argument on the bondage of the will and
divine predestination by writing as follows: "For if we believe it to be
true that God foreknows and predestines all things, that he can neither be
mistaken in his foreknowledge nor hindered in his predestination, and that
nothing takes place but as he wills it (as reason itself is forced to admit),
then on the testimony of reason itself there cannot be any free choice in man
or angel or any creature." person who is predestined by God to salvation will receive His
irresistible grace and will inevitably be saved. Those who are not so chosen by
God are left in their perdition and will justly receive eternal damnation.
Both Luther and Calvin, the great sixteenth-century Reformers, accepted
a thoroughly biblical definition of justification. Their views of
predestination, however, are highly suspect. First we will consider their
views; then we will turn to the Scriptures.
Augustine strongly influenced the thinking of the sixteenth-century
Reformers. They substantially accepted Augustine's doctrine of predestination,
modifying it and adding to it according to their own understandings. In his
1525 book, The Bondage of the Will Luther argued that all
things that happen, whether good or evil, are the result of God's unchangeable
will. There is no such thing as free will in humans. Luther contradicted two
then current ideas on the free will of man: (1) that human beings have the
power to choose what is right, and (2) that they have the power to put right
choices into action. Luther said that man does not choose God; he is chosen by
God. God chooses only the elect whom He has predestined to eternal salvation.
The rest of humanity are predestined to eternal rejection.
In Luther's view, everything that God foresees must occur just as He
foresees it. In fact, everything that He foresees to occur will happen because
He has willed it. Luther wrote: "From this it follows
irrefutably that everything we do, everything that happens, even if it seems to
us to happen mutably and contingently, happens in fact nonetheless necessarily
and immutably, if you have regard to the will of God." Therefore,
if God wills and foresees everything that happens, nothing is left to the free
will of man. Even the evil in the world has been willed by God. Yet Luther
argued that God is not responsible for evil. His omnipotence moves upon
imperfect, fallen natures, and the result is that these natures do evil works.
The evil is theirs not God's, and they are justly punished for their sins.
Even so, it is apparent that there is a contradiction in Luther's
thought. If all that God foresees happens of necessity because He has willed
it, in the final analysis He is responsible for evil. All Luther's attempts to
resolve that problem were unavailing.
Luther went so far as to suggest that Adam's fall was willed by God. He
wrote: "The same must be said to those who ask why he permitted Adam to
fall, and why he creates us all infected with the same sin, when he could
either have preserved him or created us from another stock or from a seed which
he had first purged. He is God, and for his will there is no cause or reason
that can be laid down as a rule or measure for it, since there is nothing equal
or superior to it, but it is itself the rule of all things."
Luther summed up his lengthy argument on the bondage of the will and
divine predestination by writing as follows: "For if we believe it to be
true that God foreknows and predestines all things, that he can neither be
mistaken in his foreknowledge nor hindered in his predestination, and that
nothing takes place but as he wills it (as reason itself is forced to admit),
then on the testimony of reason itself there cannot be any free choice in man
or angel or any creature."
John Calvin (1509-64) placed the doctrine of double predestination at
the center of his theological system. Because of Calvin's strenuous defense of
the doctrine and its acceptance by leading European theologians in following
centuries, it has become a standard Christian teaching for millions of
Protestants.
Calvin summarized his teaching in the following terms: "We say,
then, that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and
immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one
day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his
pleasure to doom to destruction. We maintain that this counsel, as regards the
elect, is founded on his free mercy, without any respect to human worth, while
those whom he dooms to destruction are excluded from access to life by a just
and blameless, but at the same time incomprehensible judgment."
Thus Calvin taught that, in the ages before the creation of our world,
God decreed that certain humans would be saved (the elect) and others would be
damned. Nothing can change these decrees; man's will chooses only that which
God's decrees have previously decided. The elect receive the irresistible grace
of God to choose and perform His will. They are saved solely by His grace, not
by their own choice. The divine decree that others are lost is equally unchangeable.
Even the fall of Adam was decreed by God. "The decree, I admit, is
dreadful; and yet it is impossible to deny that God foreknew what the end of
man was to be before he made him, and foreknew, because he had so ordained by
his decree. . . . Nor ought it to seem absurd when I say, that God not only
foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his posterity; but
also at his own pleasure arranged it."
When people responded to Luther and Calvin by pointing out the injustice
of punishing the wicked who are as they are because of God's decree, they
responded by arguing inconsistently that the lost are punished justly because
of their own choice to sin. They said that we can never understand the hidden
mystery of God's will. Our part is to believe in Him despite our inability to
understand why He arbitrarily chooses some to salvation and others to
damnation. Both Reformers argued strenuously against the teaching that God's
decrees are based on His foreknowledge of human choice. To them, God
predetermined man's choice; He did not foresee anything that He does not cause.
Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), the celebrated Dutch Reformed theologian,
strenuously opposed the earlier Reformers' doctrine of predestination. He
taught that God foresaw who would receive Christ and who would not. Each
individual has been given the power to choose or to reject Christ. Those whom
God foresaw would exercise their free choice by receiving Christ as Lord and
Savior were predestined to salvation. Those whom He foresaw would reject Christ
were predestined to eternal rejection. God does not will all things that
happen. He had nothing to do with the origin of evil in the universe or in our
world, and He does not will the sins of human beings. Nor does He will that
anyone should be lost. His grace is given to those who choose to believe, and
it is kept from those who choose not to believe.
In opposition to the Arminians, the Synod of Dort
convened by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1618-19 decided in favor of the
Calvinistic doctrine of predestination, and the Arminians were then persecuted. The
English Westminster Assembly (1643-49), which produced the "Confession" that gave official expression to the Presbyterian
faith, also accepted Calvinistic predestination, but without the teaching that
Adam's fall was decreed by God. Since then
Calvinistic predestination in one form or another has been very influential in
many Protestant churches, even though Arminianism is more acceptable to many
others.
GOD DOES NOT WILL ALL THAT HE
FORESEES
If God willed all that He foresaw would happen, as the Reformers taught,
ultimately He would be responsible for all the evil in our world. It is true
that He foresaw everything that would occur. He declared "the end from the
beginning and from ancient times things not yet done" (Isaiah 46:10). But
He did not will or cause humanity's sin, suffering, and misery.
Even though God has always foreseen the destruction of the wicked at the
end of the world, it has never been His will that they should be lost. Peter
wrote that God is "not wanting any to perish, but all to come to
repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). Because our world is finally to be destroyed by
fire, Peter urges all to lead "lives of holiness and godliness"
(verse 11). So concerned was Peter that the believers to whom he was writing
should be saved at the Second Advent, he urged that they beware of falling away
into sin and of being lost at last (verse 17). Only God could foresee who would
be true till the end and who would fall away, but He did not will that anyone
should be lost. The point is that God's foreknowledge is not equivalent to His
will for mankind.
Paul emphasized the same message. God's design is that all humanity
should be saved. He "desires everyone to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). The Lord knows that, because not all
will choose Christ as Savior and Lord, not all will be saved. Only those who
"receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of
righteousness" will have "life through the one man, Jesus
Christ." (ROM 5:17, italics supplied). But God wishes that all would
receive, and He does all that an infinitely loving God can do to make it so.
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all
men" (Titus 2:11, KJV). God's grace has not been made available only to
those whom He has predestined to salvation; it is readily available to all. As
Jesus so beautifully explained it, "God so loved the world" that He
planned for "the world" to be saved through Christ (John 3:16, 17).
His grace and love were not reserved for a select class, while the rest were
left untouched and unmoved. God has no favorites in respect to salvation. All
people are His children, and He wishes to save them all.
This truth was forcefully proclaimed by the prophet
Ezekiel. The ancient Israelites were urged to put away their sins and turn to
the Lord precisely because God has "no pleasure in the death of him that
dieth" (Ezek. 18:31, 32, KJV). There is no suggestion in Ezekiel's
discussion that God's will in regard to humanity is fixed, with the righteous
being arbitrarily chosen and the wicked irrevocably rejected. Quite the
contrary, the Lord pled with His people on the basis of His willingness to
forgive their sins and grant them eternal life if only they would repent.
Ezekiel 33:11-16 teaches that if a righteous person turns away from the Lord
and lives in sin again, he will be lost. But the repenting sinner will be
saved. God most certainly did not will that some would be lost because He
foresaw that it would be so. Despite God's foreknowledge of the ultimate
damnation of the wicked (2 Thess. 1:7-10; Rev. 21:27), He moves upon their
hearts with earnest entreaties. In fact, He foresaw and rejoiced that some wicked
people would respond to His pleas and finally be saved.Isn't it a terrible insult to the Deity to argue, as the predestinarians
do, that all God foresees is His will for humanity? Did God will that Adam
would fall into sin, that pre-Flood mankind would live in moral degradation and
ultimately be destroyed, that the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah would become
so debased that He would have to rain fire and brimstone upon them, that the
Jews would reject Christ's love and subject Him to merciless torture, and that
the history of our world would be filled with the record of hatred, violence,
disease, and death? To credit all that to the will of God is preposterous in
the extreme! Such a doctrine drives people away from Christ because they cannot
believe that a loving God would will such evil.
What God foresees will happen in the future is often not His will but
the will of Satan and of
discriminating judge who, apart from human decisions, chooses some to
life and the rest to eternal destruction.
Praise the Lord, all classes, races, and nationalities have a Savior
from sin and destruction. Whoever you are, Christ offers you eternal life.
Every provision has already been made that you might be saved. The only
ingredient that the Lord awaits is your acceptance of His free offer of grace.
conviction and have received His justification. God predestined them to
salvation because he foresaw their faith response to His love.
Peter reiterates Paul's teaching. He introduced his first epistle by
writing: "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the elect (chosen) exiles
of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by sanctification of
the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1
Peter 1:1, 2, italics supplied). The
"elect (chosen) exiles" (verse 1) were chosen "according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father" (verse 2). God foresaw their genuine
faith (verse 7). He did not choose them because He foresaw their good works.
Faith is not a work. God foresaw that they would respond in heart to the
drawing, convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. On the basis of this
foreknowledge, God chose them for holiness, spiritual cleansing, and obedience
to Jesus Christ.
In Romans, chapter 11, Paul discussed God's
foreknowledge of the decisions of His people. When Paul wrote that "God
has not rejected his people whom he foreknew" (ROM 11:2), he did not mean
that the whole Israelite nation was still God's chosen people. This is very
clear from the context. The ones God "foreknew" were like the seven
thousand in the time of Elijah who had not bowed the knee to Baal (verse 4).
They were the "remnant according to the election of grace" (verse 5,
KJV). Even though the nation Israel generally was blind, the elect remnant had
received God's blessing (verse 7). The greater part of Israel was rejected by God
because of unbelief (verse 20). They would be accepted again, as the Christian
Gentiles were accepted, if they would believe in Christ (verse 23). Therefore,
the remnant of Israel who were accepted by the Lord were those who had retained
their faith. They were elect or predestined to salvation because God foresaw
that, unlike the majority of their fellow Israelites, they would be faithful to
Him. God's predetermination that the remnant should be saved was based on His
foreknowledge of their belief in Christ.Ephesians, chapter 1 must be interpreted in the light of what we have
already discovered. Paul did not contradict his message to the Romans by what
he wrote to the Ephesians. The earlier verses of this chapter are often taken
in isolation from the later ones. God chose His people "before the
foundation of the world" (verse 4). They were predestined to be His
children (verse 5). But these verses do not say that God's choice of His people
before the creation of the world was based upon His purely arbitrary decision,
quite apart from His foreknowledge of their faith. Verse 11 repeats the point
that Christians were "predestinated according to the purpose of him who
worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (KJV). But what was
God's will? The next verse says it very simply: "That we should be to the
praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ" (verse
12, KJV; italics supplied). It was God's will to make holy those whom He
foresaw would trust in Christ.
The Ephesian Christians trusted in Him after they had heard the
preaching of the Gospel (verse 13). Then they were sealed by the Holy Spirit.
They received the Holy Spirit only when they believed. It was then that God's
predetermined will could be carried out in their lives. The passage does not
say that God predestined their belief. He foresaw their belief, and, in view of
it predestined them to an eternal inheritance.
Ephesians 1:19 speaks of "the immeasurable greatness of his power
for us who believe." And the next chapter underlines the point. "For
by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it
is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). Salvation is a gift of God's grace, but it
must be received by faith (compare ROM 5:17). Faith does not earn grace; it
responds to it and receives it. There is no salvation for an individual unless
he chooses to receive God's grace. God does not urge His grace upon us so
forcibly that we cannot resist receiving it. This teaching of Augustine and the
Reformers was unbiblical. We must choose to receive grace; and that choice is
faith! Because God foresaw that choice He predestined us to salvation.
Peter wrote of Christ as "having been foreknown
before the foundation of the world, but revealed in the last times for
you" (1 Peter 1:20; compare 1 Cor. 2:2, 7, 8; Rev. 13:8). Some
interpreters have argued that Christ could not have failed in His divine
mission by choosing to sin because He was predestined to succeed. This
interpretation ignores the significance of the temptations confronting Jesus
(Heb. 4:15). Unless there was a possibility of failure, there was no contest,
and the fact of His victorious sinlessness would have no significance for us in
our battle with sin. Peter also wrote that Christ is our "example, so that
you should follow his steps" (1 Peter 2:21). Christ overcame in the same
way that we may overcome (Rev. 3:21). We are instructed to "walk just as
he walked" (1 John 2:6). Christ was "foreknown before the foundation
of the world" (1 Peter 1:20) in the sense that God foresaw that He would
not choose to sin. God did not foreordain that Christ could not fail; He
foresaw His victory. Christ was foreordained to be our Savior because God foresaw that He would succeed in His mission, that
because of the depth of His love He would prevail.
GOD GIVES EVERYONE THE POWER TO
CHOOSE CHRIST
The predestinarians argue that the only ones who can choose Christ are
the elect to whom God has given irresistible grace. In the final analysis, they
are saved because God chooses them, not because they choose Him. The rest of
humanity have no ability to choose Christ and salvation.
But what does the Bible teach? The many Old Testament calls for God's
people to choose Him and put away their sin imply that they had the power of
choice. The blessings and curses that God put before Israel would have been
meaningless unless the people possessed the ability to choose Him (Deut. 30:19;
compare chapters 28, 29). Joshua's command to Israel, "Choose this day
whom you will serve" (Joshua 24:15) would have been quite irrelevant if
they had lacked the power to choose. The people chose God, He came into their
lives, and they then had the power to obey. Of course, God's grace, in the form
of divine conviction, engendered their choice in the first place. But His grace
was available to all because all the people were invited to choose.
The book of Proverbs reminds us that failing to "choose the fear [reverence]
of the Lord" results in rejection by God. If we turn away from God,
rejecting His counsel and leading in our lives, we cannot expect Him to answer
us in time of need (Prov. 1:28-30). But if we choose Him and walk in His way we
will be blessed. The wise man added, "but those who listen to me will be
secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster" (verse 33). Such
a promise would be meaningless if the predestinarians were correct in
maintaining that human beings have no ability to choose God.
Isaiah completely shatters the idea that only the elect are called by
God. "I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to
the slaughter; because, when I called, you did not answer, when I spoke, you
did not listen, but you did what was evil in my sight, and chose what I did not
delight in" (Isa. 65:12). God's grace led Him to call these people, but
they chose evil rather than God's will. His grace was by no means irresistible!
They resisted God's call, and He rejected them.
The Lord has taught us through the apostle Paul that "the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ" is "for all who
believe" (ROM 3:22, italics supplied). We are not left in doubt about how
many are offered this gift, for Paul adds, "for there is no distinction,
since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (verses 22, 23).
The "all" who have sinned are offered without distinction the gift of
Christ's righteousness if they will believe and submit to His love. The passage
means nothing unless all sinners have the ability to choose to believe in
Christ.
Before his conversion, Paul had the capacity to choose what was right
but not the capacity to put into action the right choices he had made (ROM
7:18). Only when he invited Christ to come into his heart was he able to be an
overcomer (ROM 7:24, 25). When he chose the righteous presence of Christ by the
presence of the Holy Spirit in his heart, he had spiritual power and victory
over sin (ROM 8:9-14).
Savior because God foresaw that He would succeed in His mission, that
because of the depth of His love He would prevail.
GOD GIVES EVERYONE THE POWER TO
CHOOSE CHRIST
The predestinarians argue that the only ones who can choose Christ are
the elect to whom God has given irresistible grace. In the final analysis, they
are saved because God chooses them, not because they choose Him. The rest of
humanity have no ability to choose Christ and salvation.
But what does the Bible teach? The many Old Testament calls for God's
people to choose Him and put away their sin imply that they had the power of
choice. The blessings and curses that God put before Israel would have been
meaningless unless the people possessed the ability to choose Him (Deut. 30:19;
compare chapters 28, 29). Joshua's command to Israel, "Choose this day
whom you will serve" (Joshua 24:15) would have been quite irrelevant if
they had lacked the power to choose. The people chose God, He came into their
lives, and they then had the power to obey. Of course, God's grace, in the form
of divine conviction, engendered their choice in the first place. But His grace
was available to all because all the people were invited to choose.
The book of Proverbs reminds us that failing to "choose the fear [reverence]
of the Lord" results in rejection by God. If we turn away from God,
rejecting His counsel and leading in our lives, we cannot expect Him to answer
us in time of need (Prov. 1:28-30). But if we choose Him and walk in His way we
will be blessed. The wise man added, "but those who listen to me will be
secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster" (verse 33). Such
a promise would be meaningless if the predestinarians were correct in
maintaining that human beings have no ability to choose God.
Isaiah completely shatters the idea that only the elect are called by
God. "I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to
the slaughter; because, when I called, you did not answer, when I spoke, you
did not listen, but you did what was evil in my sight, and chose what I did not
delight in" (Isa. 65:12). God's grace led Him to call these people, but
they chose evil rather than God's will. His grace was by no means irresistible!
They resisted God's call, and He rejected them.
The Lord has taught us through the apostle Paul that "the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ" is "for all who
believe" (ROM 3:22, italics supplied). We are not left in doubt about how
many are offered this gift, for Paul adds, "for there is no distinction,
since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (verses 22, 23).
The "all" who have sinned are offered without distinction the gift of
Christ's righteousness if they will believe and submit to His love. The passage
means nothing unless all sinners have the ability to choose to believe in
Christ.
Before his conversion, Paul had the capacity to choose what was right
but not the capacity to put into action the right choices he had made (ROM
7:18). Only when he invited Christ to come into his heart was he able to be an
overcomer (ROM 7:24, 25). When he chose the righteous presence of Christ by the
presence of the Holy Spirit in his heart, he had spiritual power and victory
over sin (ROM 8:9-14).
Jesus said that after His death He would "draw all people" to
Himself (John 12:32). Jesus also said, "No one can come to me unless drawn
by the Father who sent me" (John 6:44). But He draws all to Himself! That
being so, all have the ability to come to Him by their own choice. That is why
Jesus' very comforting invitation to burdened souls is given to all humanity
(Matt. 11:28-30).
John the Baptist testified "that all might believe through
him" (John 1:7). Jesus is "the true light, which enlightens
everyone" ( verse 9). Those who respond to the light are given "power
to become children of God" (John 1:12). Isaiah had presented the same
truth. He extended God's loving invitation to all. "Turn to me and be
saved, all the ends of the earth!" (Isa. 45:22).
It is not Christ's will that only an elect group of arbitrarily chosen
people should believe in Him. He wants the whole world to believe, for He says,
"Let everyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift" (Rev.
22:17). Jesus prayed, ". . . so that the world may believe that you have
sent me" (John 17:21; compare verse 23). His prayer implies that the whole
world has the ability to believe.
ONCE SAVED BELIEVERS CAN FALL AWAY
AND BE LOST
The warning is all through the Bible that it is possible for believers
to apostatize and be lost. This is why we are constantly admonished to watch,
pray, study the Word, and daily surrender to Christ's loving will.
What did Paul mean by saying that he brought his fallen self into
subjection lest, having preached to others, he himself should become a
"castaway" (1 Cor. 9:27, KJV)? What is a castaway? The Greek word
is adokimos. It means "not standing the test . . .
unqualified, worthless, base." It is the word used in 2 Corinthians 13:5: "Know ye not your own
selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"
(KJV; italics supplied). People who have lost the presence of Christ in their
hearts are castaways or reprobates. The same word is used in Titus 1:16:
"They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being
abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate"
(KJV; italics supplied). This is the kind of person Paul did not want to
become. He knew it was a very real possibility if he did not keep his fallen
nature under the control of the Holy Spirit by daily yielding his will to
Christ's loving authority.
Hebrews 6:4-6 does not mean that there is no hope for backsliders. It
means that backsliders cannot be renewed again to repentance "while (as
long as) they are crucifying to themselves the Son of God, and exposing Him to
public disgrace." The
relevant point for our study is that people who "have once been
enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy
Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the
age to come" can fall away and be lost. Unless they cease crucifying
Christ by lives of sin, they cannot be renewed unto repentance and be saved.
Once saved people can be lost in sin, and backsliders can be saved only if they
repent by accepting Jesus as Lord of their lives.
Hebrews 10:23-38 makes a similar point. We are instructed to cling to
our faith "without wavering" (verse 23) because if we waver and
choose to live in sin again, there is nothing more the Lord can do for us.
"For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of
the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect
of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries" (verses
26, 27). Toward the end of the chapter comes the very clear statement: "My
righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who
shrinks back" (verse 38). Such people who revert to a life of sin
"are lost" (NRSV); they "draw back unto perdition" (KJV).
Then it is very possible for a once saved soul to fall away and be lost by
rejecting Christ's repeated overtures of love.
Peter, who knew what falling is all about, warned born-again believers
of the danger of lapsing into lives of sin. "For if, after they have
escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state
has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for
them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to
turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them. It has happened
to them according to the true proverb, 'The dog turns back to its own vomit,'
and, 'The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud'" (2 Peter 2:20-22).
Hence the instruction: "You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned,
beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose
your own stability" (2 Peter 3:17). By dependence upon Christ, we can
constantly "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ" (verse 18).
In the parable of the sower, Jesus spoke of some seed falling on rocky
ground. He illustrated the case of those who "in a time of testing fall
away" (Luke 8:13) because they lack a wholehearted relationship with
Christ.
The faithful servant of Christ who turns away from his faithfulness and
reverts to a life of sin will be eternally rejected unless he repents.
"The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him
and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him
with the unfaithful" (Luke 12:46).
Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:23-35) illustrates
the fact that when God forgives our sins, he expects us to forgive others. If
we refuse to forgive, He will revoke His forgiveness of our sins. The
unforgiving debtor was severely punished. "So my heavenly Father will also
do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your
heart" (verse 35).
Ezekiel 33:13, 18 specifically states that the Lord will reject and put
to death people who once knew Him, if they turn away from a life of
righteousness.
The Bible predicts that towards the end of world history "some will
renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of
demons" (1 Tim. 4:1). Some former believers will be lost "because
they have cast off their first faith" (1 Tim. 5:12). This is exactly the
message of Revelation 2:4, 5. Believers who have lost their first love and have
fallen into sin have rejected God. With tears of sorrow, God turns away, both
rejected and dejected.
King Saul was once filled with the Spirit of God (1 Sam. 10:6, 9). But
he fell into sin, refused to repent, and died a suicide (1 Sam. 31:4). His
experience proves conclusively that once-saved believers can apostatize and be
lost. Apostate believers are not always restored to their former position of
favor with God. Only as they respond anew to Christ's love, turning to Him for
forgiveness and spiritual power can they have salvation again.
THE MEANING OF ROMANS, CHAPTER 9
Predestinarians use this chapter in an attempt to establish their view
that, quite apart from any human choice, God decreed who should have mercy and
who should be lost. Is this what the chapter really teaches?
What is meant by the statement of the Lord, "It is through Isaac
that descendants shall be named for you" (ROM 9:7, NRSV; Gen. 21:12). In
speaking thus to Abraham, the Lord did not mean that He had chosen Isaac for
salvation and Ishmael for damnation. He meant that He had selected Isaac as the
father of the chosen nation and the forefather of the Messiah. God promised to
make a nation of Ishmael's descendants also, and He took care of Hagar and
Ishmael in a miraculous way (Gen. 21:13-20). But Sarah was Abraham's true wife,
and Isaac's birth when Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah was ninety was
a miracle. Therefore the Lord insisted that Isaac should be the one to have the
birthright, making him the patriarch of the chosen people. Abraham had prayed
that Ishmael might be the one chosen by God to inherit His special promises,
but the Lord declared otherwise (Gen. 17:17-21). Even so, the Lord assured
Abraham that He would make special provision for Ishmael (Gen. 17:20)--a
promise that He kept.
The point is that Paul's use of this story in Romans 9 was not intended
to establish that Isaac was predestined to be saved and Ishmael to be damned.
Because Isaac was a child of promise, conceived miraculously in a manner quite
contrary to normal physical possibilities, he is used in Scripture as a symbol
of salvation by faith. God promised Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, they trusted
Him implicitly, and God fulfilled the promise. Hence, Isaac is used by Paul as
an analogy of those who rely upon faith in Christ for salvation. Many of the
Jews tried to earn salvation by their works, as Abraham had tried to fulfill
God's promise of a son by taking Hagar in place of Sarah. Therefore, Paul uses
Ishmael, the child of human works, as an illustration of those who depend on
works for salvation (compare Gal. 4:22-24, 29-31). A remnant of the Jews, as
well as the Gentile Christians accepted salvation by faith in Christ. It is
these that Paul represents by his reference to Isaac (compare Gal. 4:27, 28;
3:28, 29).
Paul uses a second illustration to explain salvation
by faith/grace by contrast with salvation by works. Jacob, like Isaac, is used
as the symbol of those who are saved by grace, not by their own works. And Esau
is the symbol of those who are rejected by God. Paul's point is not that God
arbitrarily gave salvation to Jacob and denied it to Esau. The statement to
Rebekah at the birth of the boys, "the elder shall serve the younger"
(Gen. 25:23), meant that God had chosen Jacob to have the spiritual birthright
and to be the patriarch of the family. Both brothers would be guilty of serious
sins (see Gen. 25:27-34; 27:1-41). Jacob repented and by faith accepted God's
salvation, but Esau persisted in his rebellious way of life. Jacob was not
chosen by God because of his future good works, but because the Lord foresaw
(ROM 8:29) that he would be a genuine believer who would receive the free gift of grace. Esau was rejected
because God foresaw that he would not choose to receive divine saving grace.
God offered salvation to both men (compare Isa. 45:22); one responded to the invitation,
the other did not.
The passage does not teach that God's pre-election of Jacob was
independent of Jacob's choice of grace; it teaches that God's predestination
was independent of Jacob's good works (verse 11). Faith is not a work that
saves us; it is a response to divine grace. We are not saved by our own wills
(verse 16), but by God's grace. Even so, we must will to receive His saving
grace (compare ROM 5:17). Esau could have made the same response as did Jacob,
but he chose not to. God did not "hate" him (verse 13) in the modern
sense of the term. The Greek word (miseo) is sometimes used in the New
Testament in the sense of "to love less," or "to put to one
side" (see Luke 14:26; John 12:25; Matt. 6:24; compare Mal. 1:2-4).
The reference to Pharaoh (ROM 9:17-21) is interpreted by some to mean
that God deliberately hardened Pharaoh's heart because he was predestined to be
lost. Our study has revealed that the ones upon whom the Lord chooses to have
mercy (verse 18) are those who believe in Him. Pharaoh chose to defy God's
warnings. He refused to believe God or to acknowledge His loving authority.
Certainly God is often said to have hardened Pharaoh's heart (Exod. 4:21; 7:3;
8:15 etc.), but Pharaoh is also said to have hardened his own heart (Exod 8:32;
9:34; 1 Sam. 6:6). The paradox is explained by two facts: (1) In Scripture God
is often said to cause that which He allows, even though the real cause is the
devil; (2) God's loving appeals will soften one heart and increasingly harden
another because one will choose to accept them and another will not. Appeals
rejected result in deepening alienation from the Lord.
Romans 9:17 quotes Exodus 9:16. God said that he had raised up Pharaoh,
"to show you my power, and to make my name resound through all the earth."
In context, God's statement is part of His rebuke for Pharaoh's tenacious
unwillingness to respond to His appeals. The Lord added: "You are still
exalting yourself against my people, and will not let them go" (verse 17).
A little later Pharaoh admitted that God is righteous and that he and his
people had sinned (verse 27). The divine purpose would have been fulfilled
however Pharaoh had reacted to God's appeals. If Pharaoh had responded
positively surely God's name would have been exalted in the earth. When Pharaoh
chose to reject God, he separated himself from the source of life and was
destroyed. The Lord's name was exalted because of His miraculous deliverance of
His people from Pharaoh's power. There is, however, no suggestion that because
Pharaoh was predestined to be lost, he had no choice but to react negatively to
God's appeals. God wills to have mercy upon believers, and wills to reject
unbelievers. The vessel made for honor (verse 21) is the one who chooses to
believe; the vessel made for dishonor is the one who chooses not be believe.
The ones chosen for wrath (ROM 9:22) are those who, like the ancient
Israelites, sought righteousness by works instead of by faith (verses 31-33).
The ones chosen for mercy are the ones who, like the Christian Gentiles,
attained to righteousness by faith (ROM 9:30). Verses 30-33 provide the punch
line of the whole chapter. The elect are those who have faith in Christ; the
damned are those who do not have faith.
Romans 9 must be interpreted in the light of the overall
teaching of Scripture on the question of human choice and divine
predestination. The message throughout the Bible is that God hoped all would accept His love but in sorrow predestined to salvation only those
whom He foresaw would accept Him. He has given light and the power to choose to
every human soul. People are not lost who accept Christ and allow His Spirit to
reign in their hearts.
Have you chosen Christ as your Lord of your life? There is forgiveness,
power to become like Jesus, and eternal life with Christ available for you if
you receive Him as Savior and Lord.
