Really? The News gets better and better!
There are thoughtful people who actually believe that God predestines some to be saved and predestines some to be lost, irrespective of their real wishes.
This is discouraging to those who find it hard to believe that God would choose them to be among the fortunate few. One who thinks he has been numbered among the unlucky ones will naturally do one of two things: (a) live in despair, or (b) abandon himself to a life of sin.
If such a doctrine of "predestination" were true, one can hardly imagine any Bad News that could be worse than to receive God's irrevocable rejection slip.
And to make matters worse, those who have believed in such predestination usually believe that the unlucky lost will roast and sizzle consciously in terrible flames for all eternity, writhing and screaming in endless horror, while the vengeful God who sent them there looks on nodding His head in approval.
The Bible Paints an Infinitely Better Picture of God Than That.
There is a Bible teaching of predestination, but when you examine it you find that it is quite different from the one many have assumed it to be. God has predestined everyone to be saved. And the only way anyone can be lost is to veto the vote that God has already given in his favor; in other words, they must undo the salvation that the Lord has already wrought out for him.
Let us look at some samples of Bible teaching on this matter:
1. "God our Savior" wants "all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3, 4). But He does more than sit idly by, "wanting" all to be saved. He does something to bring it about.
2. Jesus said that by His cross He would reach out and touch "all men.” “’I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.' He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die" (John 12:32, 33, NIV). He is doing something!
3. He is "the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world" (John 1:9). His drawing or pulling is gentle, for He will force no one against his will; but He is firm and persistent. There is no morally responsible human being anywhere in the world who can either read or hear these words who has not been enlightened somehow by that Light, or felt His drawing power in some way.
4. Thus "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ... chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will."
5. "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will" (Ephesians 1:3-5, 11, NIV). Paul gives no hint that anyone is excluded or predestined to be lost. He means all in the human race are chosen. Your job is to welcome the Good News.
6. God sees things before they happen, and He knows people before they are born. When Jeremiah came to understand how God loved him, the Lord told him:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet.
—Jeremiah 1:5, NIV.
You may not be called to be a prophet, but He has chosen you for a career of happiness now and forever.
7. In the same way, the Lord has "appointed" every person to be saved. His Holy Spirit is working to lead "all men ... to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4, NIV). This does not mean that everyone will at last be saved. Sad to say, many will be lost, but it will not be the fault of God, nor the result of His rejecting them. It will be their rejecting Him.
8. The Good News is set forth powerfully in these words: "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. ... And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. ... If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ... I am convinced that neither death nor life, ... neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love [agape] of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:28-39, NIV).
Is There a Hidden Catch Here, Some "Fine Print"
That Excludes Some People From This Good News?
No. Paul simply assumes that his readers join him in responding to this wonderful love (agape) of God. If we don't resist, we are included in the family. The happy thing is that those who respond are "predestined" to be changed into absolutely beautiful people "conformed to the likeness of his Son!" The predestination is progressive.
Don't the Scriptures say something about God's playing a dirty trick on Pharaoh and hardening the poor king's heart so he could not repent? If so, that disproves everything else!
Let's look at the evidence. In Exodus 4:21 we read that the Lord said, "I will harden his heart, that he will not let the people go." There are nine other similar statements, that the Lord would harden the king's heart, or make it stubborn. At first glance, it seems to be a pretty bad case against any Good News from the Lord.
But there are also ten statements that say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. For example: "When Pharaoh saw that there was relief [temporary relief from the plagues], he hardened his heart, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had said" (Exodus 8:15). Even the heathen many years later admitted that "the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts" (1 Samuel 6:6). When the Lord said, "I will harden his heart," He meant that He would withdraw the restraining, softening influence of His Holy Spirit and leave the king to indulge his chosen feelings of rebellion as far as he wished.
God focused His spotlight on Pharaoh to show all of us the awful reality of what we can become if we choose to resist His Holy Spirit. It's like a lump of clay in the bright sunshine. The only way to keep it soft is to keep watering it. Pharaoh was left to dry up because that's what he wanted. By rejecting God's rain, the clay of his heart was hardened. A natural process worked itself out as the result of the king's choice, in accord with universal laws that God has ordained.
The Apostle Paul Understood What Happened to Pharaoh.
"Is God to be charged with injustice? By no means. For he says to Moses, 'Where I show mercy, I will show mercy, and where I pity, I will pity.' Thus it does not depend on man's will or effort, but on God's mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'I have raised you up for this very purpose, to exhibit my power in my dealings with you, and to spread my fame over all the world.' Thus he not only shows mercy as he chooses, but also makes men stubborn as he chooses.
"You will say, 'Then why does God blame a man? For who can resist his will?' Who are you, sir, to answer God back? Can the pot speak to the potter and say, 'Why did you make me like this?'? Surely the potter can do what he likes with the clay. Is he not free to make out of the same lump two vessels, one to be treasured, the other for common use?" (Romans 9:14-21, NEB).
Let's not put words in God's mouth that He did not say. The potter never makes a vessel in order to break it or throw it away. Jeremiah says that a wise potter (and surely the Lord is wise!) will not discard a vessel that gets marred on the wheel, but shapes it into something else useful. One that was originally intended to be a treasure may end up in common use (see Jeremiah 18:2-6). But it was never the Lord's plan that Pharaoh be a lost man, but because he chose the way of rebellion, the Lord let him become an outstanding example of what people make of themselves when they do resist the Holy Spirit. Throughout the tragedy of Pharaoh's progression from initial stubbornness to rebellion and bitterness, the Lord was patient and merciful, as Paul points out:
"What if God, desiring to exhibit his retribution at work and to make his power known, tolerated very patiently those vessels which were objects of retribution due for destruction, and did so in order to make known the full wealth of his splendour upon vessels which were objects of mercy, and which from the first had been prepared for this splendour?
"Such vessels are we, whom he has called from among Gentiles as well as Jews" (Romans 9:24, NEB).
In the judgment day Pharaoh will never shake his fist at God and say, "You programmed me to harden my heart! It's your fault!" God would quietly answer, "You could have been a vessel for splendor, but I left you to have your own way which you chose."
The "Good News" tells us that God has given to "every man" a complete pardon and welcome into His family; it's already his. Let him choose to accept it. "God ... has saved us and called us with a holy calling ... in Christ Jesus before time began, ... who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:8-10). We cannot rewrite Paul's words for him. Christ has "abolished death," he says. That is, if any human being at last suffers the pain of the second death, it will be against God's will and action because that punishment is specifically "prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41). Any human who gets there does so only because he thwarted God's salvation already wrought out for him, like Saul kicking against the Lord's leading, or Pharoah hardening his own heart.
One of the Most Explosive Ideas in God's Good News Is Grace.
This is kindness shown to the most undeserving. That includes everybody. That "grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men" (Titus 2:11, NASB).
There are various translations of this passage that differ significantly from this rendering because some translators can't fathom how good the Good News is. However, that New American Standard Bible is true to the original meaning. Paul also said: "It follows, then, that as the issue of one misdeed [Adam's] was condemnation for all men, so the issue of one just act [Christ's sacrifice of Himself on the cross] is acquittal and life for all men" (Romans 5:18, NEB).
The King James Version says: "The free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." There are four ways by which people have tried to understand this text:
1. The "justification" means what it says, but the "all men" doesn't mean what it says. Christ died only for the elect. This is Calvinist predestination and must deny what the apostle said.
2. The "all men" means what it says, but the "acquittal" or "justification" don't mean what they say. Christ only made a provision fox justification or acquittal, while He keeps the cards stacked against "all men" like a prosecuting attorney, until they do something good first. But this also must contradict the gospel.
3. The "all men" means what it says, and the "'justification" means what it says: therefore everybody is going to be saved whether or not they want to be. This is Universalism, but the rest of the Bible contradicts this false assumption. The sad truth is that many will be lost at last.
4. In recent years, another understanding has begun to take root in many hearts. The "all men" means exactly what it says, and the "justification" means exactly what it says: acquittal was effected at the cross for everybody. But this acquittal can be resisted, rejected, and reversed by the perverse choice of the sinner not to believe. This has to be the true Bible understanding of this passage.
Could Paul's Enthusiasm Have Outstripped His Common Sense?
In case you are tempted to think that this "News" is just too good, let us see what Jesus Himself has to say. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish ... but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16, 17). His blood was "shed for many" (Matthew 26:28). He gave His "flesh ... for the life of the world"'(John 6:51). The Samaritans said He is "the Savior of the world" (4:42).
"Ah, yes," says someone, "you see the catch? You've got to do something terribly difficult for most of us—you've got to believe. God pretends to be ever so generous, but He still has His loophole; He keeps the cards stacked against those 'many.' They must do something first!"
What More Could God Do?
The King James Bible offers an encouraging answer to this objection: "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith" (Romans 12:3).
If God handed out this "measure" arbitrarily, it would confirm the predestination libel against His character, for He would be handing out tickets to heaven to His favorites and slamming the door in the face of others. But not only has He given the Savior to "every man," but with the gift He has also added "the measure of faith" to receive Him. This means that everybody becomes responsible for what he does with the gift of salvation already placed in his hands. "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8, NIV).
It follows therefore that the only way anyone can be lost is to reject that gift given by grace so freely. "Here lies the test: the light has come into the world, but men preferred darkness to light" (John 3:19, NEB). This "preference," says Jesus, involves personal choice. In other words, no one can be lost because of his past sins, for God has provided and given justification for us all. The lost reject it, having preferred to hang on to sin.
This "preference" may be a series of unconscious choices, but the judgment will at last disclose how each lost individual has again and again spurned that Light that brightened his or her dark soul.
All along the road that leads to death there are pains and penalties, sorrows and disappointments, warnings not to go on. God's agape has made it hard for the heedless and headstrong to destroy themselves. More than this, by the Holy Spirit the Savior is sitting beside each of us as we travel down that Freeway in the wrong direction, constantly nudging us to get into the right lane and take that blessed exit ramp to life eternal. His job is to be a parakletos, "one called to the side of" us and to constantly "convict" us of "sin and righteousness and judgment" (John 1 6:8, NIV). He will never tire of His job or leave us to our perverse ways unless we beat Him off persistently the same way Pharaoh did. Pharoah is our lesson-book in how to be lost.
An old song says something true:
And once again the scene was changed,
new earth there seemed to be; ...
I saw the Holy City beside the tideless sea.
The light of God was on its streets,
its gates were opened wide,
And all who would might enter,
and no one was denied.
In other words, God is voting for you. He has elected us all to be saved. Our job is to say, Yes, to believe, to let our hearts be softened by the sweet influence of the Holy Spirit, to show appreciation for the love by which we were redeemed.
The Lord Is a Divine Gentleman.
Remember, of course, the Lord will not force Himself on anyone who doesn't like Him and doesn't want Him around. He cannot use coercion. If He forced all to be saved, many would be miserable in an environment where the prevailing spirit is heartfelt gratitude to the Lamb for His sacrifice. If by accident one rebel found himself in the City, he would head for the nearest exit.
When you see what happened at the cross, the kind of love that pushed Christ to do what He did, all this talk about it being hard to obey, hard to give all to Him, hard to surrender, hard to persevere, becomes silly. It's only our pathetic blindness in the face of the greatest Light that ever shown in all eternity that makes us imagine for a moment that we are sacrificing anything when we give all for Christ. Justification by faith can never produce one whit less than total obedience. Let's look again at the dimensions of that sacrifice:
"If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:31, 32).
How can we who appreciate such love not also freely give Him all things? Wouldn't such devotion include keeping all of His commandments, including the Lord's true Sabbath even if the world disregards it? Any vestige of a self-caring motivation by withholding full obedience, will negate the truth of justification by faith. It has to, for it cancels out faith. If I withhold from Christ full obedience to any one of His commandments which contain "the whole duty of man," I program myself to stand before Him at last with downcast eyes in shame, for I will never be able to forget how He withheld nothing in His utter devotion for me. For one who accepts God's Good News, obedience that once may have seemed impossible becomes now a joyous principle.
The Good News Works!
It will accomplish something never yet done since time began: it will prepare a people from all over the world to be ready for Christ's glorious appearing. There will be no faces downcast with shame in that vast throng. To have let the Lord do something for them, and in them, will be looked upon as their greatest joy.
You can know today that you are expected to be there among the happy ones, not as a guest, but as one belonging to the Establishment. Heaven's computers are spelling out your name as one predestined to be saved. Even though there are so many billions of people on planet Earth, you don't have to be content with the fraction of one billionth part of God's loving attention. You get the whole of it, for He is infinite. It's like standing outside in the bright sunshine; you get as much as if you were the only person on earth. If you will simply believe it, you are like an only child to your heavenly Father.
If anyone cancels God's will for his salvation, He will feel the pain of the rejection even more than the sinner does. John the Revelator says that when the Lamb had "opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven" (Revelation 8:1).
That mystic quietness will be the first time since all eternity that silence has overtaken the music-filled vaults of the universe. Could that be the silence of God's infinite grief as He mourns for those who have insisted on dis-believing His Good News and thus choosing for themselves the way of self-destruction?