Tuesday 21 January 2014

The Meaning of Predestination

Predestination.

Believe it or not, Paul wasn't discussing the question which Calvinists and Arminians debated.

Paul was defending the premise he'd just finished presenting.

He'd just finished presenting his premise that salvation is for Jews and Gentiles by grace through faith without the works of the Law and irrespective of ethnicity. And he was implying that unbelievers would miss out.

Now he anticipates the question, "If many Jews are missing out, doesn't that mean God's promises to Israel have failed?"

They hadn't failed, but the remnant had obtained them. And Paul proceeded to prove this concept from the Prophets themselves.

Then he anticipates the objection that if God refuses Israel because of their unbelief, there is unrighteousness with God.

Paul then defends God's right to set His own condition for mercy - and the condition God chose is not ethnicity, not the works of the Law - but faith.

Paul defends God's right to have chosen the nation of Israel, to have spoken His promises to them, and to have kept the nation alive for His own time and purposes, despite them later becoming worthy of judgment - and then to show mercy on all, on His own conditions, with consequences for those who don't meet the conditions.

Before the foundation of the world, God set His own condition for mercy: it was to be through faith in Jesus Christ. Afterwards, before Jacob and Esau had done good or bad (although they were already demonstrating some characteristics even in the womb), God chose the descendants of Jacob to be the custodians of the promise. The house of Jacob, like all others, became fitted for judgment. Nevertheless God kept them alive for His own time and purpose. Then the promise came - Jesus Christ. And God saved all who believed, just as He'd always planned. And the rest missed out, even if they were of the house of Jacob.

There's no unrighteousness in that! There is no failure of promise in that. And there's no delay or postponement of promise in that. Despite the ramifications for unbelievers - even unbelieving Jews - it's all according to plan.

Paul was defending His Gospel against charges of attributing failure or unrighteousness to God's promises and to God - by appealing to God's sovereign right to have chosen natural Israel for His own temporal purposes.

His temporal purpose for Israel was not due to any goodness Israel had. It neither added to nor took away from God's real promise - which was to save all who believe.

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