-But wait - there’s more! God choosing us actually means that He adopted us. He chose us to be part of His forever family, His children, His sons and daughters, no longer strangers or aliens or kids from next door. And what does it mean when you adopt a son or daughter into your family? You love them, the way you love your own son or daughter. They get a permanent place in your heart and in your home and at your table. You give them all the rights and privileges associated with being a member of your family. You give them your name, you give them your stuff, you give them a share of your estate. All that you have is theirs (cf Luke 15.31). And like the natural child, this relationship is permanent. They will always be a member of your family, they will always be your child. THIS is our new standing as God’s beloved son or daughter!
-And yes, God predestined us to this. He predetermined our destiny and locked it in. A difficult concept to get your mind around, this, and not without controversy. Most people instinctively balk at the notion that their fate is sealed and they have no choice in the matter. The word in the Greek means to determine beforehand. And how does God do this in such a way as to not be forcing us to love our adoptive Heavenly Father (because of course involuntary love is not love at all, being more akin to ‘love’ from a robot)? The quest to answer this question has challenged devout theologians and tragically divided the body of Christ for centuries. I believe the answer is found in the foreknowledge of God, His exhaustive knowledge of the future, everything that is going to happen (and even everything that COULD happen) - specifically, His ability to perfect prognosticate how people will respond to His grace. Paul mentions this in Romans 8.29 - before He predestines, He foreknows. Some suggest that this is more of an active knowing, that God’s arbitrarily foreknowing someone sort of puts things in motion and loads them into the chute where they are then locked in by His predestining and subsequently launched into believing by His irresitible grace. Theirs is thus no choice at all - it is compulsory, unavoidable, inescapable. In my humble opinion, God’s foreknowledge is not active like this. Knowing something before it happens does not include my involvement in causing or affecting that particular outcome, unless I am also rigging the result. But that would be cheating and frowned upon in most circles, and would certainly cheapen any supposed prognostic abilities. And even then, the outcome would be directed by my rigging the result, not in my foreknowing it. I would only foreknow because I had rigged it. And yes, we can say that predestination is certainly God rigging the result, but Paul tells us that God first foreknows and then predestines who He foreknows. This knowing-before comes first. I would suggest that what God knows-before in this instance is specifically HOW each and every person will respond to His offer of grace and forgiveness through His Son, Jesus Christ. He doesn’t force them to respond in a certain way, He simply sees how they will respond. To those who He sees will receive Christ, He predestines them to believe. Knowing their response in advance, He rigs it - He locks them in all the way to glory. One’s response of belief is in no ways meritorious, it is not a work. But neither is it forced. Each person will freely choose to either trust in Jesus' payment for their sins or trust in their own works to somehow save them. Their involvement in the journey of faith, of learning to love the Lord their God with all their heart, will be their voluntary choice, not compelled or coerced or forced in any way. At the same time neither is it something they can do on their own apart from God’s grace and the sanctifying power of His Spirit. It is a both/and. It is a good work which God works in me AND one which I work out in cooperation with Him on a daily basis (Philippians 2.12-13). It is for those who both love Him of their own free will AND who are predestined and called by Him (Romans 8.28).
-Some assert that God chooses man and that man has no choice as to whether or not he will trust in Christ for eternal life, while others assert that man chooses God. These also maintain that man therefore can unchoose God and is able to lose this eternal life, whereas the former maintain that since man has no choice in the matter that he cannot unchoose God or lose his salvation. Personally, I am convinced it is both. With the exception of being able to lose eternal life, which is both oxymoronic and contrary to Scripture, we find that the Word of God is full of both concepts. It talks over and over about God choosing His people (Deuteronomy 7.7, 10.15; John 6.70, 15.16; Romans 9.11; 1Thessalonians 1.4; 2Timothy 2.25) He calls and predestines those who become part of His forever family. And God’s Word similarly is full of language that makes it clear that each person has a choice in the matter (Deuteronomy 30.19; Joshua 24.15; Matthew 4.17; John 1.12, 3.16; Acts 2.38, 14.15; 16.30-31; Romans 10.9-10; Hebrews 11.6; James 2.23; 1John 3.23). And God is somehow able to choose me in such a way that does not violate or invalidate my ability and responsibility to freely choose Him. I have a choice in the matter, and God will hold me accountable for this. I may not be able to fully understand it or satisfactorily and exhaustively explain every facet of these incompatible truths, but neither can I deny that Scripture teaches both.
-Having said all this, it must however be acknowledged that this concept that God can see and know something before it happens and then lock it in is as far beyond our feeble finite abilities of comprehension as our own life is incomprehensible to a flea. For mere mortals to debate the fine points of God’s foreknowledge and predestining, to make dogmatic and schismatic assertions about what it is or how it works seems to border too closely on arrogance. No doubt God is way more involved in this whole process of faith and salvation than most humans would naturally give Him credit - it is only the counsel of Scripture that instructs us as to God’s work behind the scenes (as well as in and in front of them). But neither Paul nor the other writers nor even Jesus Himself go to any length at all to unpack these concepts for us. What they mention in brief is certainly true but that does not mean we must (or are even able to) exhaustively explain it and we must certainly not divide over it.
-Antinomy. I believe this is what we are discussing - two things which cannot BOTH be true AND which must both be true. Turns out there are several including this which are core tenets of the Christian faith (others include: the Trinity - God is both three and one; the Incarnation - Christ is both fully God and fully man; the Crucifixion - Christ is both eternal and He died). To deny any of these truths is to venture into heresy, yet to fully explain their co-existence is beyond the capacity of finite mortal creatures. Tragically, to debate (and divide and disparage) over them is certainly the lot of fallen man. Numerous early church councils were successfully convened over these other truths, yet the Body of Christ remains seriously fractured over this question of God’s choice vs man’s choice, beset with arrogance and division. There are sincere Christ-followers who will fracture the Body of Christ and disparage and divide from me (I know, because it has happened already) because my present position on God’s choice or on man’s choice may differ from theirs, mostly the latter - they insist that man either has no choice (because God chooses man), or that he is able to unchoose God (because man chooses God). I just don’t think it’s an either/or, but neither do I maintain any pretense of having figured out the mind and ways of the Almighty. And in the end, both camps, whether they are willing to admit it or not, have the exact same message, which is the ultimate tragedy. Whether to the unbeliever or the never-on-this-side-of-eternity fully obedient believer, they both prescribe the exact same thing - make sure you have trusted Christ, and follow Him. Sadly, those camps can be so divided as to be unable to even agree on the fact that they do have the same message. Oh, may God grant us the grace and humility to approach and know Him, to see His glory, to seek and grow in our understanding of these deep foundational truths as He has revealed in His Word and to extend to each other the same grace that God has shown each of us, to relate to one another with respect and love and oneness, as family, as equals, all we spiritual beggars in seach of heavenly manna, fellow pilgrims on the same journey, the shared quest to find the Bread of Life.
-Note that the way into God’s forever family is through Jesus Christ. He is the Way to eternal life with God, and there is no other Name under heaven by which we can be saved. Unpopular truth, this, especially in our day. So narrow, exclusive, intolerant. The spirit of this age insists on multiple paths to paradise, less condemnation and more inclusion, less judgment and more acceptance, less humilty and accountability and more comfortability. Generally speaking, fallen man wants to be able to come to the god-I-want on the terms I choose without having to be accountable for any wrongdoing. That is if I am even open to admitting there is anyone superior to me. But it is the one true God, the One Who made me, Who calls the shots. He sets the terms. To be a member of God’s family, much less to even stand in the presence of this thrice-holy supremely perfect King of the universe requires perfection. We have no ability to comprehend the terrifying beauty and majesty of this perfection. Mere glimpses recorded in Scripture have reduced mere mortals to extreme genuflection, fall-on-your-face pleas for mercy and cries of unworthiness. This is Who is calling the shots, but He is also the One Who wants us to be in His family. It’s His family, so yes, we are subject to His terms, but they are not beyond the grasp of a broken and contrite heart.
-This One we approach, or rather Who approaches us to bring us into His family - He so wants to do this. Paul says it is God’s good pleasure and desire to adopt us. Some translations sell God so short on this: “according to the purpose of His will”, “according to the kindness of His will’. No, no, no. No, that is not at all what Paul is trying to convey. It was not some cold calculated logic that moved God to adopt us. It was not some unfeeling divine compulsion or some benign polite sentiment, ‘oh, let’s be nice to the poor miserable creatures and do them a favor.’ Do not miss the emotion and desire behind what Paul is saying here. God. Wants. You. He made you, silly. You are a special, wonderful impossible, an amazing and unique miracle, wonderfully and masterfully designed by the Master Designer Himself, and He wants you. He wants you back. He wants you to be a part of His forever family, and has gone to the most extreme lengths to make this possible. He doesn’t want any to perish but for all to come to know Him. He totally wants you, and He wants me too. And yes, even that other person, you know the one I mean - He made them too. Does this not blow your mind?
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