Predestination

August 10

The word ‘predestination’ sends a shudder through the spirit of Christians who firmly believe in the ‘free will’ God has given to mankind. We are empowered by the One who holds all power to exercise total control over the way we will live our lives and the place we will spend eternity.

Then we read that word and suddenly we’re not sure how to reconcile it to what we believe. Paul, in Ephesians 1:11, 12 says, “In Him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory.”

May I pose a suggestion that might set the matter to rest—at least in some hearts and minds. What Paul might be saying is that his generation of Jewish believers were predestined to be given the honor and privilege of ‘jump-starting’ the new religion of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Until that time, Jewish scholars and scribes had meticulously kept the words of God— the law, the poetry, the prophecy—in their minds and chronicled in their scrolls, but none had been given the admonition to go “into all the world and preach the gospel of Christ to every creature,” Mark 16:15. That was predestined for Paul’s generation to do.