Predestination Does Not Override Free Will

 

There are a few things in Scripture that people have a hard time wrapping their minds around. A couple of these things are the nature of the Trinity of God and the notion of predestination. For some reason, I have never really had to wrestle with these things, so I hope that I can shed some light on one of these in this article; that one being the matter of predestination.

I think this is a fitting time for me to delve into this since my last article, "Do We Go To Heaven When We Die?", includes a section wherein I explain my understanding of God's relationship with time. I said that God is outside of and above time, and He views the entire timeline of earth's history at any and every moment, the same way we will see a string that we lay out on a table top. We can see the beginning, the end, and every point in the middle at all times. Because of this, God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).

The notion of predestination causes people to panic because they cannot reconcile it with free will. We only find the word "predestined" in the New Testament, and this is mostly in Paul's letters to the churches. There is one exception to this, in that we also see it in Acts 4:28; "to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur", the context of which is that Peter and John are rejoicing God after having been released from arrest by the Temple priests. They are saying that God is above all and they are asking Him to allow them to continue to preach and to heal all who will accept it. In particular, the use of the word "predestined" refers to the plan of salvation that God initiated and enacted, using Herod and Pilate to accomplish what God had predetermined was supposed to happen in order to bring the hope of salvation to the whole earth.

This same type of predestination is again mentioned in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, in 2:6-9, "Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; 7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 9 but just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him." So we see that Paul is referencing the pre-planned and enacted will of God. In this context and in both cases, the word predetermined could easily be swapped in for the word predestined. But this is not the case for the rest of the occurrences of this word.

We find this word, predestined, in four more locations in the New Testament, and these are all found in just two of Paul's letters.

In his letter to the church in Rome he wrote "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?" (Romans 8:28-31) This is the use of the word and the notion of predestination that perplexes people. It seems to go contrary to the idea of free will, which is a main theme throughout the Scriptures.

We see that God gave man the ability to choose for himself as early as the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent. God gave Adam one rule in the garden; do not eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This was not something that God enforced against trespassing, ie. He did not place an angel with a flaming sword to protect against Adam breaking that rule, as He did when Adam and Eve were later exiled from the garden and were not allowed to return to it. God allowed Adam to have the free will to either obey or disobey. God even gave Adam a warning about what would happen if he would transgress God's rule; "for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” Genesis 2:17b. So the boundary was set and the punishment was articulated, but there was no physical or other barrier erected to enforce the rule. This is the nature of free will. One is presented with an either/or option, the ramifications are noted, and the person has the opportunity to make a choice, outside of coercion by the rule maker, whether or not that person will comply with or contravene the rule.

God Himself places these options before the people of Israel which we read about in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is a book wherein Moses is about to die, and he calls the people of Israel forward to remind them of all that they have been through, from the slavery of their parents in Egypt, to the provision of their freedom, and all through the 40 years of provision in their wanderings due to the faithlessness of their parents. Moses is reminding them of the God that they serve and encouraging them to remain faithful to Him. The first 14 verses of Deuteronomy 28 list the blessings that Israel can expect "if you diligently obey the Lord your God" (v.1). This is followed by in verses 15-68 by the list of curses and struggles that Israel will face " if you do not obey the Lord your God" (v.15). The either/or option was placed before the people, the blessings for obedience and the punishment for disobedience were noted, and the people were left to make their own choice, both individually and corporately.

Later, just a little while after Israel crossed the Jordan River into Canaan, which occurs just after Moses dies, we see that Joshua again places the same free will choice of whether or not the nation of Israel will serve God before them. In Joshua 24:15, he says, "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” This has been the verse of my household for as long as I can remember. I made a commitment to God to follow Him wherever He would lead me, and that for as long as I would have dominion over my children, I would bring them up to choose to do the same, trusting that they would not turn away from their training (Proverbs 22:6).

That free will also pertains to the Law of Liberty, under which we are free in Christ to act as free men, not enslaved to the rituals of religion, but only constrained to act in the best interests of mankind; 1 Corinthians 10:23-24, "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor." Under Christ we have the choice of how we will act.

Now going back to Paul's letter to the church in Rome, though we all have the free will to make the choice whether or not to follow God, because God sees the end from the beginning, He already knows every person throughout history who will choose Him. As Paul points out in verse 29, God "foreknew" those who would choose Him, and because of His knowledge of their yet future choice, they were, from His perspective, predestined to make that choice. We are trapped in this timeline, so to our own perspective, we are not predestined to choose Him; our future is yet future to us, and we cannot know what it holds.

This is the same thing that Paul also talks about in his letter to the church in Ephesus. In verses five and 11 of Ephesians 1, Paul is again talking about the predestination of those who follow Christ,."according to the kind intention of His will". That kind intention is noted in Romans 3:25b-26; "This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." God has withheld the earned punishment of all humankind throughout history until such time that He provided the way to escape that punishment through Jesus. If He had not done so, He could have struck any of us down in the moment that we first disobeyed Him; whether we did so knowingly or not, and He did this "to demonstrate His righteousness" (v.25b). He still withholds that punishment, giving everybody every chance to come to Him before their life is over.

His will for us to be saved is not confined only to those who accept the gift of salvation, but He "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). The truth of the matter is that because God gave us all freewill to choose or to reject Him, there will obviously be those who make the choice to reject Him. Unfortunately, most will choose the wide path of rejection. In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus tells us to, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it."

I hope that I have been able to explain the relationship between predestination and free will for you. From our perspective and in reality, we all have the free will to choose how we will live our lives and whom we will live for. It is only from God's perspective that these choices are already known, and because of His foreknowledge, for Him, our future is predestined.

I would love to hear what you think about this. Please drop me a note in the comments section below.