Divine Predestination

Ephesians 1:11

When you run across the doctrine of predestina- tion in the Scriptures (as you will, if you read God's word), you can either ignore it,rebel against it, or submit to it. Believers submit to it, seek to under- stand it,and,as they understand it,rejoice in it. There is nothing evil about this doctrine. If properly under- stood, it is one of the most blessed doctrines of the Bible. Predestination is God determining from eternity what he will do in time. If you do not object to what God does in time, how can you object to him having determined to do it from eternity? If you rejoice in what God is doing now, you will rejoice even more to know that he determined to do it from eternity. That just makes sense! Here are four things which God predestinated and made infallibly sure from eternity:

1. GOD DETERMINED WHO HE WOULD SAVE BY HIS GRACE (II Thess. 2:13-14; I Pet. 1:2; Eph. 1:4-6). He not only determined to save an elect multitude, but also determined who would be in that multitude. This is God's election. God freely, sovereignly, unconditionally chose from eternity to save all who are actually saved in time. That means that God loved you from eternity and secured your salvation in Christ before he made the world!

2. GOD FOREORDAINED THE DEATH OF CHRIST AS OUR SUBSTITUTE (Acts 2:23; I Pet. 1:18-20). The only grounds upon which a holy God could save fallen sinners is the satisfaction of justice. And he devised a means to satisfy his own justice for the people he loved before the world began. He foreordained the death of Christ that we might be saved forever!

3. GOD DECREED THE MEANS BY WHICH HE WOULD SAVE HIS ELECT (I Cor. 1:21). It pleased God to bring the good news to sinners through the instrumentality of gospel preaching. He uses saved sinners to tell lost sinners the story of redemption accomplished by Christ. What a privilege we have!

4. AND GOD PURPOSED ALL THAT WAS NECESSARY TO ACCOMPLISH HIS DESIGNS OF GRACE (Rom. 8:28; 11:36; II Cor. 5:18). Nothing comes to pass in time but what God purposed in eternity.And all that he purposed, all that he does, was purposed and is done for the salvation of his elect.Everything that God does,he does for the sal- vation of our souls! Thank God for his predestination!

Don Fortner