Ephesians 1:3-11 Romans 8:28-39

This is the third in my sermon series about Biblical texts that defines who we are as Presbyterians. I first talked about Jesus as Lord, then justification by grace through faith. Today – predestination.
Presbyterians seem to be identified with predestination, more than with any other doctrine. For many the two seem to be synonymous. My son-in-law was raised in the Southern Baptist tradition, but has since abandoned the faith of his childhood. But no matter how hard I try, he will not consider being Presbyterian – because of predestination.
I try to explain to him that the predestination of his history books is not what we Presbyterians believe in today, but he refuses to be persuaded or converted. I think that's because the doctrine of predestination is very misunderstood, probably because it is so difficult to understand.

Today, when most people think about predestination, they typically think of one of two things – or both, neither of which is correct. So, before we try to understand what predestination is, let me try to explain what it is not.
First of all, predestination is not predeterminism. Predeterminism would be when you loose your keys and in the process of hunting for them discover your grandmother's heirloom necklace that had been lost 6 months before – and you say to yourself - God predestined that I should loose my keys so I could find the necklace.
Predeterminism is a way of saying that God has already planned out each and every move of our lives, that God knows, even determines ahead of time everything we will ever do or say.. Such a belief makes us little more than divinely preprogrammed robots and takes away the gift of free will – and is not a doctrine of the Presbyterian church.

Predestination is not a way to explain why we do what we do, but instead, refers to God's work in salvation.
But when most people associate predestination with salvation, they think about double predestination, which did indeed have its beginnings with John Calvin. Because Calvin was firm on his belief in the sovereignty of God – that is God's rule over all aspects of creation, including our salvation – and that salvation came, not from anything we did, but solely from the grace of God, he needed a way to understand why some people accepted the gospel message of Jesus while others did not. Double predestination was his explanation. Calvin's doctrine of double predestination is this. At creation God predestined some for everlasting life, while choosing others for everlasting death. Calvin estimated that God was “for” about 20% of the people, and “against” all the rest.

This means that Christ's death and resurrection was only for a select few who are given the gift of faith, whose sins are forgiven, and can live as children of God. These Calvin referred to as the “elect.” Those who are not among the elect do not receive God's mercy, are not counted among God's beloved and are condemned to eternal damnation.
Now to us this doesn't make sense, but for Calvin it was good news. We are, Calvin believed, all deserving of God's condemnation, and those who are not among the elect are only getting what they deserve. Those who are the elect, on the other hand, do not get what they deserve, but receive God's mercy and grace, in spite of their sinfulness.
I suspect that many, if not most of use, view double predestination as some kind of heavenly lottery, where some are lucky enough to win God's grace and the rest are losers – for all eternity.

And this particular doctrine may have its origins with John Calvin, but many in his time did not accept it, and it has not been considered part of the doctrine of our branch of the Presbyterian church since early in the 20th century, primarily because it is not scriptural. In scripture we read of a God who is a sovereign God, but is also a gracious God. The God we meet in Jesus Christ is not capricious in mercy and love, offering the good news of Christ for some and making it bad news for others.
In the reading from Ephesians his morning we heard : With all wisdom and insight God has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. All things, not just the fortunate few.

The God we meet in Jesus Christ is not a passive deity, an absentee God who passively watches the predestined world unfold and is not active in our lives. The God who comes to us in Jesus Christ is not a God who will love you– maybe – if, and only if, you are one of the elect.
If, then, predestination does not mean God electing some for salvation and condemning the rest, what does it mean? Paul struggled with this very question in his letter to the Romans. In chapters 9-11, those chapters that immediately follow the verses we heard this morning. Paul begins to wonder about the salvation of the Jews, most of whom have rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah.
They are his people and throughout these three chapters Paul debates with himself about their fate. In Romans 10:1 he says: Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them (the Jews) is that they may be saved.

A few verses later he has reached his conclusion: For God has imprisoned all (Jews and Gentiles alike) in disobedience so that God may be merciful to all.
Ultimately, it seems, that for Paul God's love will ultimately win out, that all things do fit together in God's plan for all people. We are all imprisoned in sinful disobedience in order that we all might know and receive God's mercy in Jesus Christ.
Predestination, then, is just another way of saying that it is God's plan that all are to be saved by God's grace, and God's grace alone. It is the gift of salvation that is ours because of what God has done, not by arbitrarily electing some and rejecting others, but by sending Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior. And this is done, as it says in Ephesians according to God's good pleasure, not in judgment, but in love.

So – given all that, what difference does it make? Why should we even care that Presbyterians believe in predestination? Perhaps this predestination thing is just another of those theological discussions that is best left to those who care about such things.
My theology professor Shirley Guthrie, in his book Christian Doctrine, suggests several reasons why the doctrine of predestination has meaning for us as Christians today.
We are, first of all, to look at non-Christians, he says, in the light of both God's love and God's judgment. We know that God loves them, wills their salvation, and is working in their lives for their good. If God loves them, so should we. But we must also know that they may still reject God's love and turn away from the salvation offered in Jesus Christ. Yet God alone, who is both just and loving is still the final judge, and we should never presume to know who will receive salvation.

But, that being said, we as Christians we still have the responsibility to bring the good news of Christ to those who do not believe. Guthrie says that Christians ought to worry less about what God thinks of outsiders, and more about what God thinks of us when God sees people who are still outsiders because of what we have said and done, or not said and done.
Another meaning of predestination for us is that as Christians, if we truly see God's grace in Christ as the basis for our election to salvation, it is impossible to look for the reason we are saved in ourselves and in our superiority to other people. We are all sinners who are saved by the grace of God, and not by our own goodness.
While many Christians do have this attitude of superiority, there are also those who, because of guilt and fear, continue to worry about whether or not they are saved, either because they do not feel good enough, or their lives are filled with problems, stress, and even sorrow.

They wonder - If I were truly saved wouldn't my life be better? But predestination teaches us that because the grace of God in Jesus Christ is the reason for our election, it is also the assurance of our election. The assurance of our salvation comes, not from any external evidence in our lives or our circumstances, but in the faith that God is with us, no matter what.
Our assurance comes in the belief that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Predestination also means that to be among those who are chosen to receive the saving grace of God is to belong to the community of God's people in the world. Contrary to what some people believe Christianity is not a religion that is self-focused and practiced in isolation.

Presbyterians theology today teaches that predestination has more to do with the election of a community to be God's people than just being about me and my salvation, but. When Paul was anguishing over the fate of his fellow Jews, he was not thinking about particular individuals and their salvation, but of the Jewish and Christian communities as a whole.
Shirley Guthrie writes: To receive the saving grace of God is to be set free from a private self-seeking obsession with my own present and future security and happiness. We are to expect God's saving grace where it is to be found – in a community of people who care not just about themselves, but about each other; who experience the love, forgiveness, help, and salvation that is given and received in their life together.

Along this same line, Guthrie adds this about predestination. If we understand the meaning of predestination in light of the biblical witness to God's grace in Christ, we will understand it is both a gift and a task. The Bible says that those who are chosen to be God's people, are not God's pets or privileged elite, but to be God's servants and to be instruments of God's grace so that others may also experience God's mercy and love.
Guthrie says that we are chosen not instead of, but for the sake of the world's outsiders. We are chosen so that those who are excluded from the benefits of God's loving justice and just love may be included. We are chosen not to be served, but to serve, and to be followers of the One who was crucified because he cared too much about the wrong people.

Last week at the Pastor's School I heard a sermon that talked about
M & M churches, churches that exist to give more and more for me and mine. A belief in predestination affirms just the opposite. As part of the chosen community of God's people we are saved not for ourselves and our own benefit, but for those who do not yet share in the blessings of God's grace.
Guthrie concludes his chapter on predestination this way. “The good news of predestination carries with it a warning: Be careful if you want to be one of God's elect insiders. It will make your life harder, not easier. It will not give you everything you want; it will demand everything you have.
“It will not put you on the side of the powerful and righteous of the world but on the side of the powerless and undeserving sinners. The privilege that it brings is not that of enjoying material and spiritual blessing denied others; it is the privilege of living in self-giving love for them.”

Ultimately, I think, the meaning of predestination can be summed up best by who else but Jesus, speaking in the gospel of Matthew: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.