Are we chosen or predestined?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘God’s Glorious Plan for Creation’ (2007).

The question is based on that phrase I called attention to in Ephesians, which says,

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. (Ephesians 1:4–5)

So we notice two phrases—two phrases that have caused a lot of argument and discussion among Christians. I'll give you what I think they mean myself.

Chosen

Some people think that God has chosen some people to be saved and others he's chosen to be lost, or he has chosen some people to be saved and just bypasses everybody else. These people think that faith is described in chapter 2 as the gift of God. And so the idea has come around that God gives some people faith to believe with and he doesn't give this faith to other people, and he does that of his own sovereign will. It's nothing to do with the people or their behaviour; this is just God deciding. He elects some people to be saved and then he gives them the faith to believe with. Other people, he doesn't elect. He doesn't give them the faith and, as a result, they can't believe.

Now that is not true, and we can know it isn't true because of what is said elsewhere in holy Scripture. In Romans 10, at the end of the chapter, Paul is discussing why so many Jews in his day were not saved. As a Christian preacher he had preached hundreds of times to Jews and then to Gentiles. Hundreds of Gentiles had got converted and received Christ, but so many of his own dearly beloved fellow national Jews hadn't been saved. And in Romans 10 he discusses the reasons why not, and he gives a number of reasons. That's a very important chapter, but he comes finally to this, and let that suffice for now. Is it that God wouldn't save them? Had he decided not to save them? Was it that they couldn't be saved unless God gave them the faith, as the idea goes, and he had decided not to give them the faith? Well if that were true, now watch what Paul says about God, quoting from Isaiah's prophecy:

But of Israel he says, 'All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.' (Romans 10:21; cf. Isaiah 65:2)

Can you see the image? Like a parent calling a little child, 'Come.' The parent doesn't just stand there and say, 'Come to Mummy.' She holds out her hands, stretches them out to the little chap, and he's got to try and take the step and try to come to Mummy. She wants him to come, of course she does. If not, those hands stretched out would be a lie, wouldn't they? But she's not pretending when she holds out her hands and says, 'Come.' And God says, 'All day long, I have held out my hands.' Did he want the people to come, or didn't he? Look at that gesture, arms outstretched, pleading with them to come. Will you say that he really didn't want them to come, because he hadn't elected them? That standing there, pleading with them to come, he knew they couldn't come unless he gave them the faith to come with, and he had decided not to give them the faith? To hold that view would be a very serious charge against the character of God. When God stretched out his hands, he wanted them to come and the Bible is quite clear: God gave Christ as a ransom for all. He would have all to be saved.

What God has decided in election is this, if you will notice the passage, 'He chose us in Christ'. That is God laying down the terms of salvation. Let's use the old illustration of Noah and his ark. God wanted to save people from the flood. How will he save them? Well he'll provide an ark and anybody in the ark will be saved. If folks don't get into the ark, they won't be saved. God has chosen to save and God has the right to lay down the terms. He elects to save those who will come to Christ and enter in through Christ. He lays down the terms. It is in Christ, and he has chosen to save all who will come to Christ and are in Christ.

Predestined

But having saved them, God doesn't have to say, 'Now I've got a lot of people on my hands. I didn't expect so many to believe in Christ: now what on earth shall I do with them all?' No, of course not. He thought out the destiny he would bring them to, before he put the proposition to them. The destiny he had for those who would receive Christ and be in Christ, would be that he, God himself, would adopt them as his sons and daughters. That's the predestined bit. So my answer is that the terms upon which God chooses and predestines are laid down in Scripture. He decides the term. 'Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved' (Acts 2:21). Come to Christ, receive Christ and you will be saved. You come without your works. You can't merit salvation. You must take it as a gift.

The source of 'faith'

If you try to gain it by your works, God says, 'No, thank you. You can't have it on those terms.' You must come on God's terms, for that's what election means. He elects—chooses—to save those who will come on his terms. If we won't come on God's terms then we won't get saved. But you say, 'Faith is a gift of God, isn't it?' Well, in a sense it is, of course. You're a businessman, and you have an acquaintance who comes unexpectedly on the scene. He's been given your name and he has a big business deal to propose to you. How do you decide whether to trust him or not? Well one of the things you do is to watch him as he's talking to you, and watch his body language and the tone of his voice and what kind of a man is he, and does he look a bit shifty, and is his proposal a bit dubious or something? You're making up your mind as to whether to trust him or not, partly by what he says and what you can judge of his character. If you judge him to be a sound man and he can give you examples of his reliability and validity and all that, you may well trust him. If you do, it's he that has convinced you, he that has produced the faith in you. 'If you want to be saved,' says God, 'come to Christ. Listen to Christ and let Christ convince you.'

'Whoever hears my word . . .' says Christ (John 5:24).

'Faith comes from hearing' says the Bible, 'and hearing through the word of Christ' (Romans 10:17).

Come to Christ and let him convince you, and if you take him seriously, you'll find your faith responding to him, as he draws it out from you.