Q: What is your explanation for predestination, election, and free will as it pertains to salvation?

A: We will do our best to give you some basic views on these subjects. Please keep in mind that Christians disagree on these topics, and that’s OK. We’re not debating the nature of salvation, which is by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. Rather, these are topics that deal with how these things came about, and honestly, we may not know for sure until we see Jesus face-to-face. Still, forming views on these crucial issues is important because thinking Christians are concerned about these things, and it’s good to have an informed opinion.

Our view would follow along the lines of Reformed theology. That is, we hold to the view that God, who is completely holy and just and sovereign, initiates the process of salvation. This is based on the biblical idea that all have sinned and come short of God’s perfect standard (Romans 3: 23). In fact, sin has affected and infected humanity to the extent that no person seeks God (Romans 3: 11). Rather, God works through the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin and to bring us to a point of realizing that we need a Savior, and we move toward God. Before that, we’re mostly running away from God. To repent of sins means more than being sorry. It means to stop going in the direction we have been going (away from God) and then turning completely around and going in the opposite direction (toward God). In our view, this doesn’t happen until God works in our lives and gives us the faith to believe.

The idea of election—that God chooses those who will respond to him—is a pretty big idea in scripture (see Romans 8 and Ephesians 1 for starters). Yet election doesn’t automatically eliminate free will. Even though God initiates salvation in our lives, we must respond by an act of our wills. The responsibility is ours.

Why God chooses some and not others is a mystery. It certainly isn’t on the basis of good works, ethnicity, or geography. It’s completely God’s sovereign work. And God doesn’t simply look ahead in time to see who will respond to Him and then elect those people. According to Ephesians 2: 8-10, God saves us so that we can do those things He planned for us long ago.

Evangelism is still important in our view because none of us know who will respond to God’s election. We need to follow Christ’s Commission to take the good news message of the Gospel throughout the world. God is the one who saves, but we have been commissioned to be His witnesses.

If God saves us in this way, then scripture is clear that nothing in heaven or earth can separate us from His love (Romans 8: 38-39). The idea that we can somehow lose our salvation means that God isn’t powerful enough to save and keep us. Honestly, people who wrestle with this issue—and a lot of people do—don’t have a proper view of God’s sovereignty. They believe that salvation is completely up to us. God is just hoping that we respond to the Gospel, but He has nothing to do with our choice. Well, if our salvation is up to us, then probably we can lose it. But our salvation is not up to us. It’s up to God. If He is the one who saves us, we can have complete confidence that He will not let us go.

Like we said, these aren’t easy issues to wrestle with, but we’re glad that you are. Don’t expect to get everything down in a neat little package of understanding. Trust God for His perfect love and grace, do your best to work through these issues, and then be loving in the way you discuss them with others.

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Relevant Scripture

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 38-39)

there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. (Romans 3: 11)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2: 8-10)

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 38-39)

Reference

Bible Answers 101 by Bickel & Jantz