Step by step through this series, I have tried to lead you and myself into a deeper understanding of who God is before we begin to look at the question of predestination versus free will. Please bear with me to the end of this writing before making a conclusion or closing your mind. The first verse for which this series began was found in Ephesians 1: “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:4 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:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
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God existed in His same state of love before the idea of time was created. Indeed, when asked the question is it free will or is it predestination; my answer is yes.
The very thought of predestination for many believers and non-believers brings an outcry of what they might say is an unjust nature within God. The crowds might say, “How dare He not choose all or by what criteria would He choose one while condemning another!!” Then why was freewill a necessary part of being able to see God’s beauty and to seek after Him as one’s greatest treasure or to be able to experience loving Him because of experiencing the grace of being adopted though unworthy? If I was unable to look into the depths of darkness within my own selfish, self-exalting heart, would I be able to experience the joy that grace brings? Would I be able to experience the magnitude of
beauty, joy, and love that is God had I not seen or understood the void within my heart without Him? After all is that not the emptiness and void we see in the writings of the existentialists such as Jean Paul Sartre who wrote, “The existentialist says at once that man is anguish.” Despite Sartre being a staunch atheist who could not accept God’s existence in his failed search for hope; yet, he had to admit, “That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.” Or if we look at a quote from Albert Camus (another atheist and existentialist) we find that same despair. “Ah, mon cher for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.” It is that despair and lack of hope found in our inner most soul when separated from God that makes the beauty of God and His Grace so magnificent—for in Him lies all our hope and our joy as we relish in the Love He so poured out upon us. This question of whether God choosing was an unjust or unfair act is one that goes back to the beginning of man’s creation and is not a question only raised by modern philosophers. That is why Paul wrote, “20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” This would lead us to say, “Because He is the Creator, He has the right to choose. We are all unworthy, so it is mercy and grace that He should choose anyone; as all are worthy of condemnation—He should have chosen no one were it not for His love and compassion.” Look at the price He has paid and the criticism, hatred He has endured to even save one. Still, I don’t think the answer is that simple since no attempt to understand God can be that simple within the complexity of God’s Being. Indeed, when asked the question is it free will or is it predestination; my answer is yes. It is both. When we try to define it within our finite minds that are trapped in a time/space continuum we demand it to be either or; but God is not trapped in that same time/space continuum that we are. God existed in His same state of love before the idea of time was created. That is a concept that we have little ability to understand; yet, God reveals a glimpse of that in Revelations where He reveals that all of the salvation plan existed before the world was created.(Rev. 13:8) God pleads with mankind, “choose you this day whom ye will serve” Joshua 24:15. So within the confines of the finiteness of our time/space continuum resides the choice; yet, God outside of the time space continuum already knew who would choose and also knew the “depth of sorrow and rejection He must endure” to provide salvation to the remnant. I do believe Romans 8 helps to clarify this picture. “29 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.30 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.”
So, this leads us to the more important questions today?
1. Is there within you a sense of void, something missing?
2. Have you seen even the tiniest glimpse of God’s Beauty and desire to know more?
3. Do you feel a sense of despair or loneliness that draws you to want to find hope, love and joy?
If you can say yes to any of these three questions, then God is bidding you to come and follow Him. Please, pick up your Bible and search for Him. Seek out a church or a Christian friend to talk to. You are welcome to write me or to call me if you want to come to know Christ as your Savior.
This song I want to be my life song and I pray it becomes yours. "I Will Love You" by Robert Pierre.
©2014 Effie Darlene Barba
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