The Bible has a lot to say about predestination and how we are dead in sin. Take for example these verses:
Ephesians 2:4-10
"4But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,5even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."
Those verses are saying that it was God who saved us, while we were still DEAD in our Transgressions or sins. If someone is dead, they have no way to respond to anything, so God raised us up out of this death of sin into His life. it was by the grace and mercy of God that we were saved. In Verse eight it says that we were not saved by ourselves, but by the gift of God.
Colossians 2:13-14
"13When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
14having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
While we were dead in our transgressions He made us alive with Him and forgave us our debt. A debt that we could never have repaid on our own.
John 6:37 & 44
"37"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
44"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day."
Notice the words there, "All that the FATHER GIVES ME..." and "NO ONE can come to Me unless the FATHER WHO SENT ME DRAWS HIM..." God is the one who chose us, and we will go to Him if we are among the chosen.
Romans 8:29-30
"29For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
30and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."
Notice the words predestined and foreknew in there. God chose us even before time began. He chose who would go and who wouldn't.
Ephesians 1:5-7 & 11
"5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
11also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,"
Again He predestined us and gave us life through his blood.
Those verses (and there may be more) make me believe, with my whole heart, that God predestined us from before time began. That He chose us and we did not choose Him. I have more to say on this subject, but that is all I will say for now.
Thanks for sharing the great Scripture verses. I always appreciate it when a person can show what they believe about God and the Bible by actually using verses in context instead of saying things like, "Well, I believe this and that because of the way I feel." Or they take verses completely out of context. Thanks for a great post.
ReplyDeleteSorry I'm so late on commenting here. Just wanted to add that one of the reasons I believe Calvinism to be true is because when I encounter arguments that are supposedly against it I have always been able to work my way through those arguments...in other words I can explain why the verses used are not actually proof against Calvinism. I cannot, however, for the life of me see how the verses you have used as examples (and countless others)can be explained outside of a Calvinistic framework.
ReplyDeleteGood job