Predestination

Predestination is the eternal plan by which God orders his elect to eternal life and prepares for them the graces that lead them there. It is a part of his providence: before he had even created them, God destined them to live with him.

A plan formed before the world

Paul has summed up the whole plan of God in two verses, at the heart of a page written to sustain believers in trial. “Those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers; those he predestined he also called; those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.” Romans 8:29-30

The first word carries the rest. In Scripture, to know someone is to attach oneself to him: the Hebrew word rendered “to know,” yada (יָדַע), unites knowledge, choice and love. To “foreknow” his own thus means to elect them from all eternity.

God predestines his own to the likeness of his Son: to become sons in the Son, a brotherhood of which Christ is the eldest. Those who answer his call, he justifies by the cross; and these just ones, he glorifies, giving them a share in the glory of the risen Christ: a glorious body in the image of his, for “we shall see him as he is” 1 John 3:2. The Greek verb rendered “to glorify,” edoxasen (ἐδόξασεν), is in the past like the others, while this glory is yet to come: Paul speaks of the future as a thing already done, so sure is God's plan.

A gratuitous election

This election is gratuitous. God loves and calls first, and all the rest, the call, the justification, the perseverance, flows from that liberality. “He saved us and called us with a holy calling, not because of our works, but in virtue of his own purpose and grace.” 2 Timothy 1:9 Paul illuminates it by the image of the potter: salvation is not claimed as a due, it is received as a gift. “Is the potter not master of his clay?” Romans 9:21

God wills the salvation of all

The election of some does not make God the author of the loss of others: he offers to each the grace of salvation. “God wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4 His will reaches even the sinner himself. “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he turn from his way and live.” Ezekiel 33:11

The freedom that grace awakens

Predestination is accomplished through the freedom of man. Grace moves the heart without forcing it, and man answers by an act truly his own. It is man who wills and who acts; and it is God who brings it about that he wills and accomplishes it. The same act is wholly of man, who is its author, and wholly of God, who is its source. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who produces in you the willing and the doing, according to his good purpose.” Philippians 2:12-13

No one is destined to be lost

No one is predestined to evil or doomed in advance to damnation. God drives no one to sin: the one who is lost is lost by his own refusal, turning away from God and persisting in it to the end. Damnation is the work of the man who rejects the love offered, not a decree pronounced against him. “Let no one, when tempted, say: It is God who tempts me; for God tempts no one.” James 1:13

The hope of salvation

No one knows with certainty, in this life, whether he is among the elect; this assurance is not given to us, and to believe oneself sure of it would be presumption. What God gives is a firm hope, resting on his faithfulness. It falls to man to answer by his life. “Strive to make your calling and election sure.” 2 Peter 1:10 And final perseverance is itself a grace. “He will sustain you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 1:8

Chosen in Christ

The whole of predestination holds in Christ. It is in him that God chooses us, in him that we are called, justified and led to glory; he is the first of the predestined, and no one is chosen except united to him. To know oneself loved by God from all eternity calls to confidence and thanksgiving: the initiative comes from him. “It is not you who chose me, but I who chose you.” John 15:16