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Jesus perfectly fulfills the will of the Father in being a perfect Saviour, saving those who are given to him by the Father. Right. Okay, so I've got an email here that came in from Bishop Colin Crosby.
And he says, God didn't decide and fix ahead of time who should be saved and who would go to hell. He's not willing for anyone to perish, but that all should come to repentance. And it says, when scripture says God predestined us, it simply means that he set in place plans for our lives before we were born.
He's not just now trying to come up with a plan. These four ordained plans are good plans, the most important plan being to save us. However, God's plans for us don't automatically come to pass. They only come to pass if we choose to cooperate with them.
He's given us free will. And this is the crunch, isn't it? How much free will do we actually have?
I think God gave us free will in everything that we wanted to do, starting from the time of Adam. And I believe that it was a choice between life and death. And that has been presented right from the time of Adam.
If you eat from the tree of life, from the day you eat it, you are going to die. In other words, I've given you the choice. You may decide to eat it or you may decide not to eat it. And Adam went ahead and did it, and the consequences are there.
Now, that is what God has presented to us. It is either we choose good or we choose evil, but in any case, we are going to pay for it. Now, we are not robots. He has given us that free will to be able to operate.
And the moment we decide to choose what he wants us to fall into, which is his plan and his, what I call, destiny for us, we always fall into his will, so to speak. As a result of that, I believe strongly that when you are a Christian and then you have a particular choice, or a perfect or a permissive choice, so to speak, and you decide to fall into the permissive will of God, or you decide to choose the wrong thing, definitely you are going to miss destiny.
Whatever has been predestined for you is not compulsory or is not by force that you take it. You have a choice, but the consequences must be paid.
So, Tony, come on, where do you stand in terms of this choice? Well, I just, my instant reaction to that is that Jesus obviously said, no one can come to me unless they make the free choice to do so. Rather than the verse that was quoted, no one comes to me unless my father draws him.
So far, it seems to be implying that we've all got equal ability without any help from God just to turn to him. But you don't, I'm sure you don't really believe that. I mean, that's not the Arminian view, is it?
Yes, I believe that because God sees ahead of us, he knows the best. And I would rather say that he chooses us rather than we choose him. Of course, he's given us the choice to be able to choose him or we need to choose him.
But first of all, I believe that he chose us before we decided, before, you know, Jeremiah was born, like I said. He said, I knew thee and I called thee. So, he is the one that actually called him. And when he says, many are called, few are chosen, it is a decision that he makes.
Because of our free will, definitely, we are also allowed to make that choice. But one way or the other, we know that he is the person, the God that is calling us.
So, let's just earth it a little bit, because some of the folks at home may be thinking, well, what are we all talking about? Because we're talking quite theoretically. I mean, if there's a gospel service in the church, and you preach the gospel, and you give an invitation to people, is it entirely their will as to whether they respond to that gospel message or not?
It is totally their will. I know that, I mean, with experience and with preaching, I know that when the Spirit of God comes into the service, you have people that will be coming forward. Yes, it is by their own will, but I know that the Spirit of God moves them to be able to make that decision.
But the choice is always there. It is a will. People get up, people don't get up. Another person may decide that he will give his life to Christ the following week, or maybe, you know, but the Spirit of God, I still think, determines everything, those that come forward.
James, we have an example of this in Acts 13, verse 48, when Paul preaches the gospel. Acts chapter 13, verse 48. Right, and when Paul announces that he is now taking the gospel to the Gentiles, you'll notice it says that when the Gentiles heard these things, they rejoiced, began to glorify the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed unto eternal life believed.
Now, there are some who try to say, well, that should mean that those who were disposed to eternal life believed. That would be an incredibly unusual way of rendering this. You have here this idea that those who believe are those who have been appointed by God unto that end.
The reason being that, as Jesus said, unless you belong to God, you will not even hear the words of God. You are not able to come to Him unless the Father who sent draws Him. There is the fact that man is dead in sin, and he needs to be raised to spiritual life before he can engage in spiritual activities such as repentance.
Even Paul said in Romans chapter 8 that those who are according to the flesh cannot do what is pleasing to God. Well, certainly we wouldn't argue that repentance is not pleasing to God. And so those who are according to the flesh, they cannot do what is pleasing to God.
They cannot submit themselves in that way. So, something has to happen. We have to be freed from those bonds of slavery. We have to be given that capacity because we are the fallen sons of Adam. And so, I just want to point out that when the email you read said that the predestination is of a plan, that's not what the original language says.
The direct object of that verb is us, not a plan. Ephesians 1 does not say that God predestined a plan. Romans 8 does not say that God predestined a plan that will someday be glorified. These are all very personal things.
And I think when we start going into the theoretical realm, we lose the very personal aspect of the fact that it has been God's intention before eternity past to set his love upon me, not a plan, but upon me as an individual.
And I think it's one of the great glories of salvation is to realize that when Christ dies, I am not just a theory. I have been united with him. My union with him, Galatians chapter 2, I have died with Christ, is a true union.