To connect the inability of man with the predetermined plan of God found in texts like Ephesians 1 and Romans 8, points to the fact that Jesus’ death was successful from eternity past to eternity future and that every last one of his people would be saved. That’s why the angel said to Joseph in Matthew 1:21 that Jesus was coming to save his people. He didn’t say that Jesus was coming in hopeful aspirations of saving his people. That’s also why Jesus cried out on the cross, “It is finished”—the payment for every last one of his people was complete (John 19:30).

It wasn’t long ago that I was sitting in a hospital waiting room and as I was reading, I overheard two young ladies talking about the subject of predestination. It was very clear that they were looking at the doctrine from a negative perspective rather than from a positive perspective. Why is it that so many professing Christians and church leaders approach predestination from a negative perspective rather than a positive perspective—if they approach it at all? It seems that God has other intentions by the way he delivers it to us in the pages of Scripture.

Predestination & Eternal Security

One of the grand truths of Scripture is the eternal security of God’s people. In John 10:28-29, we find some very comforting words from Jesus who makes it abundantly clear that all of God’s people are secured by the Father and the Son and that nobody can snatch them away!

In another text, in Romans 8:29-30, we find Paul expounding on the depths and riches of our salvation. In that text, he not only uses the term “predestination” as a means of describing God’s work of saving sinners, but he then describes every one of God’s children as having been predestined…and glorified. We all know that we have not been glorified yet, but the point is clear—since we have been predestined, we will certainly be glorified in the future, so much so that Paul uses an aorist indicative verb tense in order to describe something that hasn’t yet occurred as if it has already occurred—that’s how secure and certain it is.

Predestination & the Success of Jesus’ Death

If Jesus came and died on the cross without any degree of certainty that fallen sinners would be saved, what does that do to the doctrine of God? If salvation is determined by the free-will acts of man and if predestination is not a determining factor in the equation—Jesus would have died on the cross and not one single person would have been saved through his death. It’s obvious in John 6:44 that not one person could come to God unless God engages. To connect the inability of man with the predetermined plan of God found in texts like Ephesians 1 and Romans 8, points to the fact that Jesus’ death was successful from eternity past to eternity future and that every last one of his people would be saved. That’s why the angel said to Joseph in Matthew 1:21 that Jesus was coming to save his people. He didn’t say that Jesus was coming in hopeful aspirations of saving his people. That’s also why Jesus cried out on the cross, “It is finished”—the payment for every last one of his people was complete (John 19:30).

Read More