Daily Devos - Monday, December 17, 2007

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son..."
Romans 8:29a (ESV)

Predestination is difficult for many Christians to embrace. Many view it as an ugly, horrid idea...something that is opposed to the very idea of a loving God. All genuine believers want a close, affectionate relationship with the Father, but a relationship marked by warmth and love seems impossible if we think of God as having predestined some to heaven, and many to hell. Therefore, many Christians rely on mental gymnastics in a desperate attempt to redefine the word "predestination". Some say it simply means God foreknew what people would choose, but Romans 8:29 (which uses both words), doesn't allow that option. Predestination simple means "pre-determined". However, if Scripture clearly teaches that God predetermined who would be saved (and who would not), doesn't this damage the idea that God is fundamentally motivated by love?

The indefatigable J. Gresham Machen wrote on this very topic. Believing that Scripture clearly teaches that God predetermines who will be saved and who will not be saved, Machen couldn't help but notice how the Bible's emphasis is overwhelmingly on the former. He writes:

"Why then does it [Scripture] lay the chief stress upon the predestination of the saved to salvation? It does so because it regards the salvation of the saved and not the eternal loss of the unsaved as the really surprising thing. We are prone to look at the matter in exactly the opposite way. The thing that we regard as surprising is that any members of the human race, any of those excellent creatures known as men, who are supposed to be doing the best they can and be guilty, at the most, of merely triffling and thoroughly forgivable faults, should ever fall under the divine displeasure. But the thing that the Bible regards as surprising is that any of those fallen creatures known as men, all of whom without exception deserve God's wrath and curse, should be received into eternal life. We regard it as surprising that any are lost: the Bible regards it as surprising that any are saved. Naturally, it is the surprising or unexpected thing upon which the stress is laid."

- J. Gresham Machen, A Christian View of Man (Banner, 1999, p54)

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