Slides: Chosen and Predestined

Chosen and Predestined
By David Feddes

"the elect" = "the chosen"

•     Political election: people choose leader

•     Biblical election: Leader chooses people

And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect. (Matt 24:31)

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? (Rom 8:33) The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. (Rom 11:7)

I endure everything for the sake of the elect. (2 Timothy 2:10)

Appointed, chosen, book of life

As many as were appointed to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48)

God chose you from the beginning to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. (2 Thess 2:13)

The dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast. (Revelation 17:8)

Covenant of Redemption

In eternity before creation, each Person of the Trinity committed to do His part to save and bless certain humans.

•     Father: choose persons, devise plan, give a people to the Son, send Son as their representative, give Son all authority

•     Son: become a man, obey the Father perfectly, suffer and die, gather a people

•     Spirit: empower Jesus’ ministry, apply Christ’s benefits to his people

All that the Father gives me

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day… No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him… It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.”  (John 6:37-39, 44, 63)

My Father’s Hand

You do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:26-30)

I chose you

“All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you… I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:15-16,19)

You gave them to me

Father, glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him… I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word…  I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. (John 17:1-10)

Covenant of Redemption

In eternity before creation, each Person of the Trinity committed to doing His part to save and bless certain humans.

•     Father: planner, director, designer

•     Son: producer, worker, purchaser

•     Spirit: distributor, transporter, persuader

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸ which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight ⁹ making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ ¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹ In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹² so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. ¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:3-14)

"He chose us in him"

•     He: God the Father is the source, and it all depends on Him. Blessed be He!

•     chose: picked, selected based on His good pleasure, not our choices

•     us: unimportant, unholy, undeserving, dead in sin apart from His grace

•     in him: in Christ; God chose to see us in light of Christ’s merit and to pour out on us the love He has for His Son.

Before the foundation of the world

God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. (2 Tim 1:9-10)

“In love he predestined us… having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will”

•     In love: All depends on God’s love and grace, not our qualities or actions.

•     predestined: decided and planned in advance our destination/destiny

•     all things according to the counsel of his will: every detail serves his purpose

Threefold purpose for choosing

• High: “holy and blameless” as result of “redemption through his blood… forgiveness… wisdom and insight”

• Higher: “adoption as sons through Jesus Christ” with “inheritance” of “every spiritual blessing in heavenly places”

• Highest: “to the praise of his glorious grace… to the praise of his glory… to the praise of his glory.”

Blessed in the Beloved

… his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)

The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me… that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:22-26)

"according to the riches of his grace"

• God gives not just “out of” His riches, but “according to” his riches. The size of the gift matches the size of God’s riches.

• “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual [Spirit-] blessing in the heavenly places”

• “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined”

• “Will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

Eternal secret revealed

… making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Eph 1:9-10)

… a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory… these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. (1 Cor 2:7,10)

Sealed with the Spirit

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

• Seal: authenticity, ownership, protection

• Guarantee: earnest payment

Father’s choice is evident in Spirit-driven response to the gospel of Jesus

For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. (1 Thessalonians 1:4-5)

As many as were appointed to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48)

Bless and praise God, from whom all blessings flow!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us [and] predestined us … to the praise of his glorious grace… to the praise of his glory… to the praise of his glory.

How vast the benefits divine which we in Christ possess.
We are redeemed from sin and shame and called to holiness.
’Tis not for works that we have done; these all to Him we owe.
But He of His electing love salvation doth bestow.

To Thee, O Lord, alone is due all glory and renown.
Aught to ourselves we dare not take nor rob Thee of Thy crown.
Thou was Thyself our surety in God’s redemption plan.
In Thee His grace was given us before the world began.

Safe in the arms of sovereign love we ever shall remain.
Nor shall the rage of earth or hell make Thy sure counsel vain.
Each one of all the chosen race shall surely heaven attain.
Here they will share abounding grace and there with Jesus reign.