Romans: Theology for Everybody (6-11)ናሙና

Question #4: Does predestination make God unloving (Romans 9:30-31)? 

Some will protest that the doctrine of predestination makes God unloving because not everyone is predestined. Furthermore, if God does not care about non-Christians, why should Christians care about them either? 

Predestination shows how loving God is. When we did not love Him, He loved us. 

Because God did the work to save us, it was also very loving as it relieved us from the burden of “works”. In love, Jesus Christ met all the demands of the law doing all the work that was required for our salvation. In love, He gave us His righteousness as a free gift. All of this was done in love as we were God’s enemies when He loved us, and His love changes us to love Him. 

Predestination, when rightly understood, should also make Christians more loving toward non-Christians. After all, if we know that we are no better, smarter, holier, or more deserving of salvation than anyone else, then we should be compassionate toward non-Christians. It is precisely the sovereign and free nature of God’s predestining grace that should cause us to lay an ax to the root of any religious pride, smugness, and condemnation. When we understand that people are lost because they are sinners, we are compelled to care for them because their condition reminds us of the terrible fate that would be ours had God not freely saved us. We are also compelled to love them in hope that, through our love, they would begin to see something of God’s grace in their lives. 

Again, the Scriptures are clear on this point. Paul was so aware of his sin that throughout his letters, he repeatedly says that he is the worst of sinners and that by saving him, God demonstrates the fullness of his merciful love. Rather than being smugly religious and unloving toward lost people, the man who more passionately argued for predestination in all of Scripture also labored tirelessly to lovingly evangelize lost people and plant churches despite his own poverty, shame, beatings, and imprisonment. Indeed, for Paul, a correct understanding of predestinating election is actually an impetus for fervent evangelistic ministry because no matter how dark and bleak someone’s heart may be, there is always the possibility, so long as they are breathing, that God could do a miracle and save them. 

By way of analogy, if a group of people committed themselves to a mass suicide pact and then gathered in a home and set it on fire, no one would claim that their neighbors were unloving if some of them died in the fire. However, if one of the neighbors ran into the blazing inferno to try to rescue them, only to be met with resistance as he threw them one at a time over his shoulder, kicking and screaming, and ran out of the house, and he did this over and over until he saved some people before he himself died of smoke inhalation, he would be lauded as a hero and not criticized as a villain. No one would accuse him of being unloving because he did not get every suicidal person out of the home. Rather, he was obligated to save no one and gave his own life to save some as the greatest act of love. 

Likewise, we sinned and lit the proverbial house on fire, and it was Jesus who came to lay down His life to save those who were not seeking to be saved or crying out for help. Everyone who goes to hell can blame themselves, and everyone who goes to Heaven can thank Jesus. In response, we should not accuse God of being unloving but rather thank him for such great sacrificial mercy. 

Contrary to the erroneous thinking of some people, predestination reveals how loving God is, for three reasons:

1) God predestines some unlovely people that no one else would ever choose to love. God did not choose only the beautiful, smart, funny, or successful people. In fact, He often chooses the exact kinds of people that no one else would ever choose to love. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 says, 

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

2) Because God saves through election, there is hope for those who have never heard about Jesus, for the unborn, for those who died young, and for the mentally challenged. I am in no way encouraging universalism—hell will be filled with unrepentant sinners. But if God chooses who goes to Heaven, then I know the result will be more loving than if Satan or sinners made the choice, because God is love. 

3) The Bible declares that God predestines us not because of anything merit-worthy in us but solely because of the caring love in Himself: “In love he predestined us.” (1)

Reflection:

1. Be honest and spend some time considering all the reasons God should not have chosen you, then prayerfully thank Him for choosing to save you. 

2. How do the doctrines of predestination and election give you hope for people who may not have heard about Jesus, the unborn and young children who die, as well as the possibility of last-minute death-bed conversions for some loved ones? 

3. Honestly, how would your life be worse right now if God had not inserted Himself in your life and chosen to love, forgive, save, and serve you? 

Notes:

Eph. 1:4–5.