“Predestination” = God’s predetermined sovereign will.
Westminster Confession of Faith to read (3.3) - “Some men and angels are
predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death.”
** In General, Predestination IS:
1. Salvation language – used ONLY about the Saved.
Note: The Bible calls this group of people, the “Elect”
2. Relationship language – all about God’s blessing and boundaries.
Note: The Greek word for, “Predestination” comes from the root, “to set limits”
3. a Precondition of human faith.
John 15:16 – Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”
** Predestination IS NOT:
1. a principle applied to the un-Elect.
2. a constriction of human choice.
3. Unfair.
** Because we are sinners, we all deserve DEATH = eternal separation from God.
· Romans 3:23 – “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
· Romans 6:23 – “The wages of sin is death...”
Point: Predestination is not UNFAIR because the Reprobate get exactly what they have earned = DEATH.
Jeff Robinson – “If God had given me what I demanded – justice – then I would be receiving the wrath my sins deserve this very moment. But he has given me – and millions of others along his unfolding timeline of history – something no human deserves: mercy.”
Life Lessons – “Predestination” and “Election”
Life Lesson 1 – Out of all of the people in history, God chose me.
Ephesians 1:4 – “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”
“Chose” = Gk: exelegato = “to call out” (literally) or “elect”/“choose”
Romans 11:17-20 -- “If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
Life Lesson 2 – Out of all the people in history, God loves me.
Ephesians 1:5 – “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”
Point: We find meaning when we fulfill God’s plans for our lives… “in accordance with his pleasure and will.”
Life Lesson 3 – Out of all the people in history, God works through me.
** God chose us to be great! ...but greatness come through godliness.
Ephesians 1:12 – “…so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.”
Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand (i.e., predestined) to be our way of life.”
Philippians 2:12 – “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”
Life Lesson 4 – Out of all the people of history, my salvation is secure.
** Since salvation is for the elect and predestination is God’s love language for his own...we rest confidently that He who saved us will complete his work in us!
Romans 8:35, 37-39 - 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment