Predestination

[AI translation] When reading this Word, most people involuntarily think of predestination. That awkward doctrine of predestination, about which there are so many misunderstandings and problems in souls today. The apostle Paul describes the way of man's salvation in these words: predestination, predestination, predestination, calling, justification, glorification. So, in fact, we are talking about a long journey which begins in eternity, in the idea of God, that God already knows his own, and has already predestined them to salvation. Then it continues in time by addressing them at some point in their lives, calling them to a life of fellowship with himself. Then, through their faith in Jesus, he declares them to be righteous, that is, justifies them. And it ends again in eternity by saving them, glorifying them.This is the way of every believer. For you too, for me too. What is already striking about all this is that the apostle tells the stages of this journey in the past tense, like this: "Whom he foreknew he predestinated, whom he predestinated he called, whom he called he justified, and whom he justified he glorified." But if we were to apply this to yourself, or to myself, that is, to a man living now, we should say: 'whom he has foreknown he has predestined - that is, in the past tense - whom he has predestined he will call and justify - that is, in the present tense - and whom he has called and justified he will glorify - that is, in the future tense. For our being made known and predestined by God is in eternity. He foreknows our faith in knowing God. Our calling and justification is in process now, when we hear the divine word coming to us, the gospel. And our glorification will only become actual after our death. But Paul tells us all this as if it had already happened, in the past tense! In other words, Paul is looking at this whole long process from God's point of view. From the eternity of God above time, from the timelessness of God, who sees our human past, present and future at the same time and holds them together in his hands. With God, there is no such thing as before and after, yesterday and tomorrow, millennia ago and millennia hereafter. It is only in our earthly, human lives. So only we divide what we call time into stages. Only we perceive our existence as taking place in a progressive process, in time, in successive minutes, hours, years. Our human life is embedded in a time process that has a beginning and an end. Where it begins and where it ends is another matter, but it does! This is our dimension, the dimension of human beings, here in this world that God once created.
But God lives in another dimension. In a dimension beyond time that we can only describe as "eternity". But this eternity is not imagined as a time extended to infinity (eternity - time - eternity), but as something like God's eternity surrounding, carrying, permeating the whole flow of time with its effects. In God's eternity there are no successive minutes, hours, millions of years. There is no a priori and no posteriori. To put it in our temporal terms, eternity is an eternal moment, a fixed now. And the time in which the first man appeared on earth is just as "close" to this eternal now as the time in which we are living at this moment, or in which our great-grandchildren will live in the centuries to come. The psalmist says this with great plastic simplicity when he prays, "The time of my life is in your hand, Lord." Together, at once, my past, present and future are in your hands! He holds all of time, which for us is a very long time, in his hands at once. That's why Paul tells us the long enough journey to salvation from our knowledge to our glorification in one time: past tense.
But if God does not have a foreknowledge and a hindsight, why does Paul say that those whom God has foreknown he has predestined? We are also forced to speak of it in temporal terms, in words appropriate to our dimensions. Does God predestine, predestinate someone? Yes, but let us not imagine him as knowing and predestining us before all time, but in the eternity of his holding the past, present and future in his hands. So, if I say that God has foreknown us and predestined us, then this foreknowledge is just as much a part of God's eternity as the moment in which I hear God's calling and the moment in which His heavenly glory will be revealed to me.
A well-known example from the Bible may perhaps shed more light on the whole train of thought. We are familiar with the story of Zacchaeus (see Luke 19:1-10). There he is, crouched on a strawberry tree, surrounded by a crowd, and suddenly Jesus stops in front of him. He looks over and says to him, "Zacchaeus, come down straight away, for I must stay at your house today." A few minutes ago, Zacchaeus had no idea that in a minute Jesus would be calling him. But with God there is no one minute before and one minute after, or even a thousand years before and a thousand years after. So Jesus - let's say God - knew Zacchaeus from eternity, from everlasting. From the eternity that was the same eternity before the creation of the world as it is now or will be in a thousand years. It was not Zacchaeus who sought Jesus, but Jesus who found Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus did not choose Jesus to be his Lord, but Jesus chose and ordained Zacchaeus to salvation. This knowledge, thought, and love of Jesus foreshadowed Zacchaeus' choice, but at the same time enabled Zacchaeus to make that choice. That he too would become a follower of Jesus. This is practically predestination! We can only express it as God's foreknowledge and predestination to fellowship with Himself, to salvation, but it is essentially the recognition that God has foreknown! His saving love has preceded my decision for Him. He did! How much did it precede me? Five minutes? Ten years? Millions of years? No! All eternity! What He has conceived and decreed for me in His eternal "now" is realized in my "now". Now, when I hear His calling, now, when I accept the truth of Jesus, and then when I share in His eternal glory.
Predestination is not to be understood as a logical doctrine that is well-contained in all its details, but to be lived as a happy truth! To realize and live that all things are ultimately traceable to the eternal grace of God. His grace is that it is precisely to me that He has addressed Himself, that it is precisely to me that He has told me that He forgives me, that He loves me, that He wants to save me. Moreover, it is also His grace that I have heard His call, that I can accept His love and reciprocate it by wanting to follow Him. It is also His grace that I can believe in Him. It is His grace alone that I can accept His grace at all! It is He who has known me and you, who has predestined, predestined, called, justified me, and it is precisely because I can count on the completion of His work of salvation, which He has so certainly begun, that I can say, almost in the past tense, what is still to come: He has glorified me!
In the matter of predestination, recognise and rejoice that it was not by your moral or religious efforts, nor by your willpower, that you found your way home to God's fatherly love, but by that calling voice, that guiding hand which reached out to you from eternity in Jesus and took hold of you! Behold, an eternal divine will, a decision of eternal love, has been realized in your life. God has embraced you! It is precisely the great joy and the great encouragement of predestination that God looks at us not according to our own excellence or any worthiness, but according to His grace in Jesus alone!
That Paul says: "Those whom he has foreknown and predestined..." does not mean that there are those, unlucky ones, who are not known and predestined to salvation. This is human speculation and logic. Let no one be afraid of missing out on predestination! This statement is precisely to show how deeply rooted our salvation is! In the eternal mind of God! So let us not see in it a divine arbitrariness, saying: if I am predestined to salvation, then I can do nothing for or against it! Rather, let us always see in him the infinite love of God, which is the very thing that impels us to repentance and faith! If it be so, "whom He knew He predestinated, whom He predestinated He called, whom He called He justified, and whom He justified He glorified," then you, "Zacchaeus," come down from the tree and receive Jesus into your house and into your heart! What are you waiting for? Jesus has already decided that He wants to dwell with you today, He has decided in "eternity" and made it known to you "in due time." So now it's your turn! Go with him! Be His! For behold, He wants to be yours!
So, the correct interpretation of predestination does not make us uncertain: alas, how has God decided about me? It is precisely to confirm me in the certainty that, despite all my unworthiness, God loves me in such a way that I can continue to move forward courageously on the road to salvation. See, throughout the rest of the passage, almost like a hymn, the apostle exults that there is no power, temptation, depth or height in the world that can tear him from the love of God! Surely and triumphantly his life is moving on to its final, glorious fulfilment! What Paul here tells us is not a beautiful theory, but a happy experience, tempered by the trial by fire of many sufferings and struggles! Predestination is not to be understood, but to be experienced and lived!
All that is due to you at this moment is that here he calls you! Now you are the "Zacchaeus" to whom the call is sounded from eternity: "Today I must abide with you." Receive Him, then, in the blessed assurance that thou art also ordained and called to eternal life by the gracious God!
Amen
Date: 10 January 1970.