In this second of three posts, I discuss a
second crucial concept that is prerequisite to understanding God's grace better. There
are many others, but these three are most relevant in the conflict between
Reformed theology and free-will theology within the Appalachian territories.
They are in my experience the most frequent sources of error in the prevalence
of free will theology in West Virginia.
·
Predestination—According
to the previous post, we are sinners. Dead in our sins, deserving
condemnation. If we are dead in our trespasses
and sins, with no ability to save ourselves, then it stands to reason that no
one will be saved, unless God first chooses to save them. Ephesians 1 credits this predestination “to
the praise of his glorious grace (vv. 5-6).” Ephesians 2 stresses that because we are depraved, then our salvation can only be because of his gracious initiative (vv. 1-10).
- Note the language in Ephesians 1:3-14 that expressly speaks of God's choosing sinners for salvation-
o
Some try to get around the idea that God chooses
some for salvation and allows the rest to be punished for their sins by
suggesting that--
§
Since God knows the future,
§
He knows who will believe and be saved.
§
So God chooses them based upon their choice of
him.
o
This is called conditional election. It is election based upon the condition of
their first choosing salvation.
§
If
this were true, then predestination would not be to the praise of his glorious
grace.
§
Remember that grace is free.
It cannot be based upon something that we have done, or else it would
not be grace.
o The Bible
specifically states that God does not choose those who will be saved by basing
election upon what they will do during their lifetimes.
§ Romans
9:11--11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done
anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she
was told, “The older will serve the younger.”[d] 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but
Esau I hated.” 14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust?
Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will
have mercy on whom I have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
o
Grace means that God did it, and we did not. It was all of him and none of us. If we do not
believe that God chose us before the foundation of the world, then we must
believe that we somehow, someway had it within ourselves to choose God. And that is not grace.
o
The testimony of Charles Haddon Spurgeon: “When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was
doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the
Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of
this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in
my own soul—when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a
hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a
babe into a man—that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having
found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God. One week-night, when I was
sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher's
sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me,How did you come to
be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did
you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I
should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my
mind tomake me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked
myself, How came I to pray? I was
induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I
to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then,
in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the
Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and
from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this
my constant confession, "I ascribe my change wholly to God."”
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