Election – Predestination

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Heb 13:8)

Election – Predestination

I wish to extend heartfelt greetings to all of you with the “Thus saith the Lord” from Isa 46:10:

“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure …”

Before the foundation of the world, God purposed His Plan of Salvation. He made decisions about how His Plan of Redemption would come to fulfillment. Amidst the history of mankind, the Plan of Salvation is coming to pass, and it is imperative that we recognize what God has in mind for His Own and that we let ourselves be placed into this plan.

In his first sermon after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Peter explained how everything that happened with Jesus was part of the counsel of God and His Plan of Redemption. He said this about the Redeemer: “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain (Jn 19:16-37): Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” (Acts 2:23-27; Ps 16:8-11).

In his second sermon, Peter emphasized that God had declared His intentions in advance:

“But those things, which God before had shown by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.” (Acts 3:18; Ps 22; Isa 53).

Also in his third sermon the apostle addressed the subject of predestination once again:

“For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.” (Acts 4:27-28).

Not only the Jews, God’s chosen people, but also all of the believers from the Gentile nations are included in His Plan of Redemption. His election and predestination go far beyond what we human beings can comprehend.

“And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” (Isa 49:6).

Paul connected the promise to faith: “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” (Gal 3:8; Gen 18:18).

“That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” (Rom 9:8). “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” (Gal 4:28).

True faith is anchored in the promises of God. As Abraham believed what God had  promised him and then saw it fulfilled, so do all of the elect believe the promises of God and experience their fulfillment: “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal 3:14). The true children of God receive the full blessing of all promises by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Just as sure as the Word was manifested in the Son of God in a human body of flesh (Jn 1), so will every Word of God which is ordained for them also be manifested in all sons and daughters of God. In Him, all of the promises that God has given unto us are “Yes and Amen” – by their fulfillment in and through us, God is glorified (2 Cor 1:20).

From the beginning, God equipped human beings with a free will so that everybody could decide for or against Him. But because He knew who would accept His offer of grace, He could write their names into the lamb’s book of life before the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8; Rev 17:8; Rev 21:27).

“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will …” (Eph 1:4-5).

Furthermore, He “… made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself …” (v. 9). Amen!

The Apostle Paul repeatedly emphasized the fact of election and predestination. He wrote:

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Rom 8:28-30).

This is the appointment of the elect. Before there was an earth, a paradise, a fall of mankind, even before time began, God predestinated all of the elect and chose, separated, and sanctified them in Jesus Christ.

“And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” (Jn 17:19).

Whoever continues reading in Jn 17, from verse 20, is led into the depth of the divine counsel.

“I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (v. 23).

“I in them …” This is the realized mystery of God among the elect and predestinated ones. We have all things in Him, Who said, “… for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” (Jn 17:24).

The Redeemer and the Redeemed were already loved and predestinated before the foundation of the world. “… and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (vv. 25-26). Amen.

To sum it up, Paul wrote the following about this subject in Eph 3:1‑12: “How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery … as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ … To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God …”