Romans 9, Predestination & Total Depravity

Acts 2:23 – “…this Man (Jesus) delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death…”

 

This doesn’t mean that Jesus or any of the other people involved had no choice, and that no other possibility existed. When we examine what Jesus Himself said as He was being delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, we find that Jesus COULD have chosen not to go through with it. The struggle in Gethsemane is evidence of that. Mark 14:36 – “Father, all things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.” There is an “I will” and there is also a “You will.” Jesus Himself implies that there is another possibility when He says, “Father, all things are possible for You…” There was more than one possible outcome, and God foreknew them all, even the ones that didn’t happen. Therefore, as I have argued previously, “foreknew” does NOT equal “caused”. In verse 53 Jesus says, “…do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” Jesus Himself here says that He COULD have done that. He CHOSE not to. God, and Jesus also, foreknew what would happen if Jesus had appealed to the Father. Jesus would have immediately had more than 12 legions of angels at His disposal. But Jesus didn’t appeal to the Father, and so the foreknowledge of what would have happened had He done so didn’t cause anything. So we see that there was more than one possible outcome here. On what does the outcome depend? God’s will? No, the outcome depends on Jesus’ human will, and His willingness to submit His will to the Father’s will. So the “Biblical” definition of “predetermined” does not involve the Reformed idea that God monergistically causes something to happen totally apart from any distinctive in man - as can be plainly seen when considering what Jesus Himself said as He was fulfilling what Peter calls in Acts 2:23 “…the predetermined plan…of God.” The Reformed notion that whatever is predetermined by God HAS to happen is also shown to be false when we recognize that something other than what God has predetermined is possible, i.e. Jesus appealing to the Father and having twelve legions of angels put at His disposal. There are many Biblical examples of God’s predetermining being thwarted. For example:

 

1) I Kings 20:42: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.’” So we see that God’s will was thwarted by man’s decisions and behavior and that God’s destiny for a man was changed.

 

2) Luke 7:30: “But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.” God had a purpose for the Pharisees and lawyers. God’s purpose for them was NOT what they wound up doing. It was a good purpose, but they rejected it, and so God’s purpose for them never came to pass.

 

I could also point to the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Why the temptation if Jesus was UNABLE to choose what Satan was offering? That would render the temptation of Christ a farce. Of what value to sinful humanity is Jesus’ sinless life if He couldn’t sin? He was tempted in every way like as we – that would not be true if it was impossible for Him to sin. There was another possible outcome. The validity of His substitution for us on the cross hinges on the fact that “He was tempted in every way like as we yet without sin.” Heb. 1:14-18 – “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same nature…He had to be made like His brethren in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people. For because He Himself has suffered and been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted.” (Emphasis mine)

 

Concerning the phrase in 1st Peter 1:2, “…chosen according to the foreknowledge of God…” Calvin says, “This is the fountain and the first cause…” (Calvin’s commentary on 1 Peter) Notice that Calvin defines “the foreknowledge of God” as “the first cause”. In Calvin’s mind, “foreknowledge” equals “caused.”

 

When Reform Theology defines the foreknowledge in 1st Peter, or the predetermination and foreknowledge of God of Acts 2:23 as an immutable, monergistic determination in eternity past of every detail of every individual’s life, it has defined those words in a DISTINCTLY UNBIBLICAL way. We must take into account how the Bible uses the word, and as can be plainly seen, God’s predetermination and foreknowledge of Jesus being delivered into the hands of Godless men did not mean that Jesus had no choice in the matter, nor does it negate the possibility that Jesus COULD HAVE chosen differently at any point in the process and we infer that the consequences of ANY choice that Jesus might have made were foreknown.

 

In spite of the word games Reform Theology plays with free will/free agency, the idea of immutable monergistic predetermination and the idea of man’s free will/agency ARE contradictory, they are mutually exclusive. My understanding, based on how the Bible uses words like “predestined”, “foreknown”, “chosen”, etc, is that God’s predetermination is His RESPONSE to man’s choices and behavior in relation to the decrees of God. God decrees, man chooses to obey or disobey, God determines. Furthermore, the fact that God has predetermined something does NOT mean that man can’t still choose contrary to God’s determination. God had a predetermined plan to have Jesus delivered over into the hands of Godless men. Yet Jesus COULD have appealed to His father and He would have sent more than 12 legions of angels, even though the Father had predetermined otherwise. God had a purpose for the Scribes and Pharisees, but they rejected it. Of course, God’s decree is monergistic and initiates the process, but man is free to obey or disobey that decree, and suffers the just consequences of his choices. As I said earlier, “We are free and able to choose any of the choices that God sets before us and those choices affect and include our eternal destiny.”

 

I want to point out something else from Calvin’s commentary on 1st Peter. (Quote) “However, he at the same time reminds us whence that election flows, by which we are separated for salvation, that we may not perish with the world; for he says, ‘ according to the foreknowledge of God’. This is the fountain and the first cause: God knew before the world was created whom he had elected for salvation…We have treated this subject more at large in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, and in other places.” (Close quote)

 

When he says, “God knew before the world was created whom he had elected for salvation” he is “comparing” the verse in Ephesians 1 – “…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…” with the “…chosen according to the foreknowledge of God…” of 1st Peter. He plainly states that that is what he’s doing, (quote) “…We have treated this subject more at large in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians…”(close quote). This is an invalid comparison - a false analogy. The verse in Ephesians applies to the NT apostles and prophets only. The verse in 1st Peter applies to the addressees of Peter’s letter and by implication all others who have heard and obeyed the gospel, i.e. the “you” of 1st Peter 1:12, as I stated above. It’s the same kind of invalid comparison as comparing Eph 1 with Rom 9.

 

The Bible does not use the words, “elected,” “predestined,” “foreknown,” “chosen,” “called,” etc interchangeably, nor does the same word necessarily mean the same thing in different passages, but Reform Theology, following Calvin’s lead, generally defines these words in a way that makes them more or less mean the same thing – i.e. “caused.”

 

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