Thursday, November 24, 2022

Adam Harwood on Predestination

  

 

PREDESTINATION IN THE BIBLE

 

The word “predestine” occurs only six times in the Bible, all in the New Testament. Predestination is not a prominent theme in the Scripture. By comparison, the verb translated “believe” (pisteuō) occurs 241 times in the New Testament alone. The Greek word behind “predestine” is proorizō. A standard Greek lexicon defines the verb as “to come to a decision beforehand—to decide beforehand, to determine ahead of time, to decide upon ahead of time.” Another lexicon defines the word in a similar way: “decide upon beforehand, predetermine.” Do the six New Testament occurrences of the word indicate precisely what was decided beforehand? Every New Testament occurrence of the word proorizō is considered here in its context to determine what was decided, or determined, in advance.

 

ACTS 4:28

 

They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

—Acts 4:28

 

Acts 4:28 is part of Peter and John’s prayer spoken upon their release by the religious authorities. Verses 25–26 quote from an Old Testament text, which states that people raged against the Lord and the Christ. In verse 27, Jesus is identified as the Christ, who was rejected by both Herod and Pilate. Verse 28 continues the prayer by referring to the actions of the people: “They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” In this verse, the action predestined was neither every event in history nor the salvation of certain people chosen by God from eternity past. Rather, the action predestined—or decided in advance—was the cross of Christ.

 

ROMANS 8:29–30

 

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

 

Romans 8:29–30

 

Paul has already established in his letter that all people are sinners (Rom 1:18–3:20). Thankfully, God justifies sinners through the atoning work of Christ on the cross. People are justified, or made right with God, by faith in Jesus (3:21–5:11). Adam’s transgression, which resulted in death and judgment, was answered by Christ’s gift, which resulted in justification and life for those who receive God’s grace (5:12–21). Chapters 6 and 7 address a believer’s relationship to sin. Chapter 8 deals with many important themes, especially the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. The Holy Spirit is mentioned nineteen times in the chapter, as God reveals his glory in and renews his broken creation (vv. 18–30). Romans 8:27 states that the Holy Spirit intercedes for saints, a common biblical term for believers. Verse 28 contains the well-known promise that all things work together for good for those who love God. The following terms in verses 27–28 describe the same group of people: saints, those who love God, and those who are called according to his purpose.

 

Verse 29 states those whom God foreknew (“to know in advance”) God also predestined. Who is predestined, and for what purpose? The verse refers to people “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” In verse 29, predestination does not refer to God from eternity choosing certain people for salvation. Instead, the verse promises that believers are predestined to, one day, be glorified and thus conformed to the Son’s image. In other words, God decided in advance that those who believe in Jesus will one day be like Jesus.

 

Verse 30 refers to the same group, “those whom he predestined,” and states they were called, justified, and glorified by God. Other texts also reveal that believers will be glorified. Paul writes, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). John promises, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Predestination in Romans 8:29–30 is a promise that believers in Jesus—those who are called, justified, and glorified—will one day be conformed to and remade to be like Jesus.

 

1 CORINTHIANS 2:7

 

No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

 

1 Corinthians 2:7

 

In this verse, Paul refers to God’s wisdom as a mystery, “a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory” (CSB). What was the hidden wisdom that God predestined? Paul uses the same phrase at the end of his letter to the Romans. He refers in his doxology to “the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith” (Rom 16:25–26). In the doxology of Romans, the hidden mystery is that through faith in Christ, the gentiles were included among God’s people. Paul teaches the same concept in Ephesians 1:9; 3:2–9; and Colossians 1:26–27. According to 1 Corinthians 2:7, God predestined that the boundaries constituting God’s people would expand in Christ to include the gentiles.

EPHESIANS 1:5, 11

He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

—Ephesians 1:5

 

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.

Ephesians 1:11

In the Greek, Ephesians 1:3–14 comprises one extended sentence of praise to God. The emphasis is union with Christ, as demonstrated by the ten statements in these verses, such as “in Christ,” “in him,” or “in the One he loves.” For example, Paul states, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Eph 1:4). God chose believers, a group, in Christ. William Klein comments on Ephesians 1:4, “The ‘chosen ones’ designate the corporate group to whom Paul writes with himself (and presumably all Christians) included: God chose us. The focus is not on the selection of individuals, but the group of those chosen.” In other words, Ephesians 1 concerns corporate election, God’s choice of a group. Those who define election as God’s choice of certain individuals for salvation also affirm corporate election. However, their definition of election renders their corporate view as a reference to the group composed of those individuals chosen by God for salvation.

 

Herschel Hobbs commented on Ephesians 1: “ ‘Predestinated’ translates a verb meaning to mark out the boundaries beforehand (see v. 11). But note also that God has chosen ‘in him.’ Thus God’s election was in Christ. And he marked out the boundaries of salvation in love, not by an arbitrary choice.” Hobbs concludes, “God has chosen ‘in the sphere of Christ.’ He elected that all who are ‘in Christ’ shall be saved. ‘In Christ’ is the boundary that God marked out beforehand, like building a fence around a field.” He adds, “Man is free to choose whether or not he will be in Christ.” Hobbs writes, “Simply stated, before the foundation of the world God elected a plan of salvation and a people to propagate that plan.” Chadwick Thornhill’s explanation is similar: “God intends to accomplish the plan through his previous decision to adopt the elect as children through Jesus Christ.” He clarifies how predestination in Ephesians 1 should not be interpreted: “We need not read this as God marking out certain individuals for salvation and thereby rejecting others, but rather God determining the sphere and the means by which his people will be identified as his children.”

 

Predestination is mentioned twice in Ephesians 1. In verse 5, believers are predestined for adoption. Romans 8:23 refers to adoption as a future event: “the redemption of our bodies.” In Ephesians 1:11, believers are informed they have been predestined to obtain an inheritance. In both verses, predestination refers to what occurs to believers and what they receive, not how they become believers. Verse 13 clarifies how a person becomes a believer, stating: “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” According to Ephesians 1:13, believers are those who hear the gospel, believe in Jesus, and are sealed with the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1, predestination refers to what occurs to believers and what they receive as a result of trusting in Jesus. (Adam Harwood, Christian Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Systematic [Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Academic, 2022], 583-89)