Please comment on predestination. Do we become a Christian only because we are born as a Christian or because it is God who has predestined us as His children?
Answer:
A Christian is someone who has made a decision to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. By this, we can say that nobody is born a Christian. However, before we were born, God has already determined whether we will choose Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. He has predestined those of us who will become His children.
We gain assurance of our calling from the bible, which tells us in Romans 8:29-30 that “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
We also read in Ephesians 1:3-6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”
It has not been revealed to anyone, however, whether they or anyone else has been saved. Predestination then only serves to assure those who are saved that this is God’s unchangable will. It does not make us fatalists since we do not have any knowledge to act on. We simply hear and respond to God’s calls to choose and act according to His will.
Leave a Comment