8 Questions About Predestination

God’s Sovereignty and Our Personal Responsibility

The doctrine of predestination, including both election and reprobation, has long been controversial. The Bible clearly teaches that God is sovereign over all things. He saves sinners by his grace alone. God elects his people and rejects others. Yet the Bible also teaches that people bear personal responsibility for their actions.

People have many questions about predestination. Here are some of the most common ones.

1. Does God will the salvation of all people?

Paul says that God “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). However, this Scripture cannot mean that God chooses to save every human being. God accomplishes all his will (Ps. 135:6), but he does not save all mankind (Matt. 7:13–14).

It is better to understand “all men” to refer to people from every kind and category. God saves kings and subjects, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, women and men, young and old. Paul calls for prayer for “all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority” (1 Tim. 2:1–2). Therefore, we should tell the gospel to all kinds of people. We do not know whom God chose until, by his grace, they are saved by faith in Christ to the praise of his glory (Eph. 1:3–4, 11–14).

2. How could a good and loving God choose to damn some people?

It is certainly true that God is love (1 John 4:8). He is good to all people (Luke 6:35). But God is free to exercise his love as he chooses (Ex. 33:19). He did not choose to give eternal life to all sinners. Rather, he chose to save some sinners but to give others the punishment that their sins deserve.

God is the source of all good (James 1:17). Likewise, suffering comes as God’s punishment of sin (Rom. 5:12; 6:23). Thus, God damns sinners not because of any malice in him, but because of his justice against sin. Even in his wrath, God remains good. It is sinners who are evil. The Lord says, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help” (Hos. 13:9).

3. Why should we teach predestination instead of just preaching the gospel?

We should preach the gospel. But we should also teach predestination. It gives solid hope to those who believe the gospel. Paul says,

We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 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)

Since God chose whom he would save, he will bring his chosen ones to glory.

Paul then asks a series of questions (Rom. 8:31–39). If God is for us, who can be against us? If God gave up his Son for us, how will he not also grace us with all things? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? Who will condemn us? What can separate us from God’s love in Christ? Every one of these questions drives us to the same happy conclusion: those in Christ may rest assured that God’s love will never fail them. God will bring them safely through every sorrow to be “more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37). Therefore, election is a message of enduring hope.

Ultimately, it boils down to this: God is God. Predestination brings us to face the absolute and incomprehensible glory of God, and we must worship him.

4. Did God choose those whom he foreknew would trust and obey him to the end?

The golden chain of salvation begins with those “whom he did foreknow” (Rom. 8:29; cf. 1 Pet. 1:2). This might be taken to mean that he chose them because he knew they would believe—a doctrine called conditional election. But Paul rejects the idea that God’s predestination was based on man’s future actions. He says of Jacob and Esau, “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth” (Rom. 9:11).

What, then, does it mean that God “foreknew” those whom he predestined (Rom. 8:29)? In the Holy Scriptures, “to know” often means to love or to choose with approval and blessing (Gen. 18:19; Ps. 1:6; Jer. 1:5). Therefore, Paul means that God predetermined those whom he loved and chose beforehand to become like Christ. Augustine said, “He chose us, not because we believed, but that we might believe, lest we should be said first to have chosen Him, and so His word be false (which be it far from us to think possible), ‘Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you [John 15:16].’ ”¹

5. If God’s election cannot fail, then why did his chosen people reject Christ?

Paul was very sad that many of his fellow Jews did not believe in Christ (Rom. 9:1–3). He said, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved” (Rom. 10:1). We, too, must grieve over the lost and pray for their salvation.

But the sad condition of many Jews does not mean that God’s plan failed. Paul says, “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel” (Rom. 9:6). There are two Israels, the physical descendants of Abraham and his spiritual descendants (Rom. 9:8). The latter are Abraham’s descendants by God’s election. God chose Isaac but not Ishmael, though they had the same father (Rom. 9:7–9). God chose Jacob but not Esau, though they had the same father and mother (Rom. 9:10–12). Therefore, God’s election did not fail. He has always chosen some but not others.

6. Did God choose people for salvation as a group or as individuals?

Some people argue that Romans 9 is not about individuals but about groups. They say that God does not choose individual people for salvation but only the whole group of those who believe in Christ—whoever they might be. This idea is called corporate election.

But Romans 9 is about the salvation of individuals whom God chose. The main idea of Romans is salvation. In chapters 9 and 10 of Romans, Paul focuses on the salvation of Jewish individuals (Rom. 9:1–3; 10:1). He talks about being “children of God” (Rom. 9:8). God’s saving “call” is “not of works” (Rom. 9:11; cf. 2 Tim. 1:9). Paul speaks in terms of individuals, what each one does, and whether God has mercy on each one.

God predestined individuals, just as he calls individuals, justifies individuals, and will glorify individuals (Rom. 8:30). He did not choose an idea (“believers” or “the church”). He chose people (Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13). Paul can even say to an individual Christian that he is “chosen in the Lord” (Rom. 16:13).

7. Is God unjust in choosing to save some but not all?

Paul expects someone to ask, “Is there unrighteousness with God?” He answers firmly, “God forbid” (Rom. 9:14). Paul explains that God has total freedom to show mercy on whom he pleases. He quotes the Lord’s statement, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Rom. 9:15). God’s grace is a free gift apart from any human choice or effort: “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Rom. 9:16).

Paul also quotes what the Lord said to wicked Pharaoh: “For this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth” (Rom. 9:17).

God ordained Pharaoh’s defiance and disobedience to glorify himself. Paul concludes, “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth” (Rom. 9:18). This is not about God being just or fair, but about the absolute sovereignty and freedom of his mercy to sinners.

8. If God chose whom he saves, how can he blame man for his sin?

Paul again expects an objection: “Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?” (Rom. 9:19). Paul’s answer is breathtaking, for he makes no attempt to explain God’s ways. Instead, the apostle says, “Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” (Rom. 9:20 ESV). The greatness of God demands that we be silent in such matters.

Paul compares God to a potter who has the right to make different vessels out of the same clay (Rom. 9:21). Some people are “vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” for God “to shew his wrath, and to make his power known” (Rom. 9:22). Others are “vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory” so he could “make known the riches of his glory” (Rom. 9:23). God has the right to choose because he is God. He also has the right to judge because he is God. Ultimately, it boils down to this: God is God. Predestination brings us to face the absolute and incomprehensible glory of God, and we must worship him (Rom. 9:33–36).

This article is adapted from Essentials of Reformed Systematic Theology by Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley.

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