Paul’s discussion about predestination opens up another puzzle. If God has chosen to make people what He wants them to be, to suit His purposes, before they are born, how can they, then, be held responsible if He created them for judgment? 

Some people think that, because God knows beforehand what they will become, He chooses each one to be that person. This sounds like God’s being at the mercy of people. This cannot be! God is sovereign in all He does. 

So, how can we understand and marry God’s sovereignty and human freedom to choose…which sounds like an impossibility. 

God created the first human, Adam, with perfect freedom to choose good or evil. God did not create evil but…if Adam could choose, there must have been at least two alternatives.  When Adam chose to disobey God, he lost his freedom to choose the good. His frame of reference was narrowed to choices that were only evil. Why? He has lost the nature of God and had become evil by nature. Therefore, he could not choose the good. 

This means that no one can choose to obey God. So, God not only chooses a person’s destiny but He also gives him the responsibility of confirming His choice by obeying or rejecting Him.  

Paul uses the illustration of Pharaoh who rejected and disobeyed God’s instructions. In the story, Pharaoh disobeyed God five times…and God hardened his heart five times. 

“For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭9‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God’s plan was to judge and destroy the gods of Egypt and to reveal His glory by what He did to Egypt through the plagues. So, Pharaoh’s destiny was tied up with God’s purpose for Egypt. 

So, if we are evil by nature and can only make evil choices, how can we confirm God’s plan for us by choosing to obey Him without His intervention? If God chooses to create a person who will do His will, He must do something in that person to empower him to make that choice. This is where grace comes in. 

First, we were dead in our sins. This means that it was  impossible for us, dead people, to hear or respond to God. 

“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

That’s who and what we were…but then…

“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬ 

…God gave us life…He enabled us to respond to Him…

…and then…

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…God also gave us faith…

“Faith is considered a gift from God because it is not something humans can earn, invent, or conjure on their own. Instead, it is a spiritual realization—a divine spark and an unearned grace that God graciously places in a person’s heart to help them trust in His promises and understand spiritual truths.” (Source: Google AI)

God’s mercy initiated everything He did for us so that we could make the choice to believe in Jesus and to do His will. By grace, He restored His own image in us so that we are now able to make godly choices. 

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

‭‭2 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Would you look at that! God takes a lump of clay…decides to make a person who will do His will…then He breathes life into the clay…creates a human…restores His own image in him…gives him faith…and he chooses to obey God and do His will. 

It’s both a mystery and a reality. Can you see now, how predestination and free will can work in tandem when God is writing His big story…by weaving together each person’s individual story into the whole? The plot in God’s story is the redemption of all creation…natural and human. Every detail has been woven into the plot. Every person has a part to play in the story…every person must participate by choice…each choice confirms what God has already written before time began and each choice is made out of whatever nature rules in them…the evil nature with which he is born out God’s nature which He has restored through the “new birth”. 

Now that is God’s sovereignty!

To be continued