3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:3 - 14 (NRSVA)
God loves YOU! That is the message of Paul in this passage. Me? He loves me? Yes, and He has done so much for us that we don’t deserve or even know about. It is His will, His nature.
Now, another big question is HOW; how does God love us? Having created everything, does God just sit back and watch us, hoping for the best? Or did God plan out everything that will happen to us, and everything we will do in our lives? In theological language those are somewhat competing doctrines. One is called free will, where everything is up to us in this life. The other is the doctrine of predestination, where God is controlling everything.
A popular dictionary defines predestination this way:
…the doctrine that God, a deity, or fate has established in advance everything that is going to happen and that nothing can change this. [1]
Now that may be consistent with our human rationale that a sovereign God can (and does) do what He wants. However, I think it is too incomplete to just leave it there; there are other issues to consider.
My grandson is about four. We were arriving back at the house after a walk around the block. He ran up the driveway, touched the garage door and proclaimed, “I won”! My thought was, “Nobody was racing except you, boy!” My grandson “won” his race based upon an incomplete understanding. In order for there to be a race, there must be more than one participant.
We tend to think that way about God; we assume that our understanding must be right, because it works for us. The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, had strong thoughts about predestination. But even with very strong conviction on the topic, Wesley treaded very lightly in his doctrinal sermon, calling this what the Apostle Peter mused about Paul’s writings….some things are really hard to understand. [2]
What Wesley pointed out was that we sometimes throw terms around without really applying them correctly. The prefix “pre” in predestination indicates some action or event in point of time. This is not relevant when you refer to God, as He is outside/above time and space. For God, a thousand years is as one day. Does He know our future? Of course; God sees all time at once, experiences all time as present, past and future. As Creator it is impossible for him to be less than what He created; He is not hemmed-in by time as we are.
The “other side” of predestination is “free will”. The equally popular train of thought here is that my relationship to God, and all my actions, thoughts and experiences are all up to me.
The author Isaac Bashevis Singer was once asked whether he believed in free will or predestination. “We have to believe in free will,” he replied. “We’ve got no choice.” [3]
The Debate
The debate is obvious…if God predestined everything, down to the indigestion you had when you added anchovies to that pizza, then nothing will change – it will all happen as He planned, and we are insignificant.
On the other hand, if there is free will, we are everything, and God is only a spectator.
The Dangers
Just as the debate is obvious, there are dangers in getting too far on one side or the other. (Everyone has an opinion…just how far you track to one side can have far-reaching consequences.)
Let’s consider the fringes of predestination and free will:
I. The foolishness of holding predestination and ignoring free will.
John Wesley said it most simply: if man were not free, he could not be accountable either for his thoughts, word, or actions. [4] Without some valid form of freedom to make choices that are consequential, we cannot be held responsible. And Scripture indicates plainly that there is human responsibility for our actions. Paul said, the wages of sin is death; that is plain!
The danger (or foolishness) in ignoring free will is that shedding all responsibility – with the excuse that it is all pre-planned and fate can’t be changed – leads to rebellion; we want to cast off the commandments to live a holy life before God.
I have been chosen many times. The first was when a little girl in the second grade decided I was her boyfriend. Girls were “icky” at the time, so I rebelled against the choice – she hit me with her lunchbox.
Uncle Sam “chose” me too; the letter began…You will report to the induction station at Fort Dix, New Jersey…. I rebelled there too, but Uncle Sam’s lunchbox was bigger than the little girl’s.
The sovereignty of God cannot be questioned by anyone seriously considering the Almighty. Yet, there is so much in the New Testament about freedom. Jesus said the truth would make us free. Paul’s letter to the Galatian church told them that they were set free to live free. It is foolishness to hold only predestination, to the exclusion of free will.
II. The foolishness of holding free will and ignoring predestination
Like my grandson who “won the race” which only existed in his mind, we have a freedom that extends only so far. The moment our “free actions” contradict the sovereignty of Almighty God the contest is over!
It is like a father who asks his six kids where they want to eat lunch. They all scream “McDonalds”; then Dad recalls he has coupons for Burger King. Dad’s commitment to keeping the family out of bankruptcy demands use of the coupons, so the “free will” of the six kids gets vetoed in sovereign favor of flame broiled Whoppers.
If holding to predestination alone leads to rebellion, holding only to free will leads to humanistic thinking – that we humans are the center of the universe. We can become apathetic to God if there is nothing but self-help and personal growth. God has never taken too kindly to being ignored.
One writer offered a unique perspective about the sovereignty of God in this Ephesians passage; all of the phrases begin with God doing something…He is the one taking the initiative; that’s what a sovereign God does:
Consider only the grammatical construction, with an eye toward who acts and who is acted upon, who gives and who receives:
• God "blessed us…
• God "chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world"…
• God "destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus…
• God "has made known to us the mystery of his will…
• In Christ, "we have redemption through his blood…
• In Christ, "we have also obtained an inheritance…
God is the one Who is active and in control in this passage. The writer also suggested that if you had to sum-up these twelve verses in one sentence “you might try this: ‘Christ Jesus is in charge (and you are not).’” [5]
Conclusion
So, Russell, which is it – predestination or free will? For me? Both! You cannot seriously or intelligently hold to one and completely ignore the other. Since both are valid and important, it is dangerous to ignore either; it is profitable to embrace the mystery that the relationship of predestination and free will embody.
One preacher told of hearing God’s sovereignty and human free will described as “…two ropes going through two holes in the ceiling and over a pulley above. If I wish to support myself by them, I must cling to them both. If I cling only to one and not the other, I go down. I read the many teachings of the Bible regarding God’s election, predestination, his chosen, and so on. I read also the many teachings regarding ’whosoever will may come’ and urging people to exercise their responsibility as human beings. These seeming contradictions cannot be reconciled by the puny human mind. With childlike faith, I cling to both ropes, fully confident that in eternity I will see that both strands of truth are, after all, of one piece. [6]
This is a good way to remember that the mysteries presented in God’s Word must sometimes be understood as not being able to be understood; we simply embrace the truth.
The bigger reality, (and more important, for life and our relationship before God) which flows out of this passage is that God chose us! He did not have to do anything. Sovereign God could have refused to create us, forgive us, love us or make a home for us in heaven…but he did!
God loves YOU! The appropriate response to love like that is to be people of praise – those who live in loving response to the love of a sovereign God who chose us!
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ENDNOTES
1] Encarta Dictionary
2] Sermon 58, On Predestination, (1872 edition, Thomas Jackson, editor)
3] © 2009 COMMUNICATION RESOURCES, INC.
4] Sermon 58, On Predestination, (1872 edition, Thomas Jackson, editor)
5] Hans Weirsma, TheWorkingPreacher.org commentary
6] Ibid.
7] Paul Fritz quoting R.B.Kuiper on SermonCentral.com
