Grace Presupposes Predestination

Since man is dead in trespasses and sins, he is completely dependent upon God's initiative. "There is none that seeks after God; all have turned aside, there is none that does good, not even one." Such is the prognosis of man, man apart from God.

But in grace, it pleased God to reach down, to condescend to man, to command life unto him, just as he commanded light by the word of his power, "Let there be light." God makes himself known to man, through the mediatorship and redemption wrought by his Son, applied by the Spirit.

Evidently, not everybody is enjoying this high privilege. How come? What makes man to differ from another? Is it anything in him? Not at all. "One can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven" (John 3:27). "What have you that you have not received?" (1 Corinthians 4:7). A simple but devastating questions that admits of one answer: “We Christians have received everything.” All is of grace! But if it is of grace, then it is bestowed and shown to particular persons.

But is grace given because of anything done by man? Is it given because he believes? Quite the contrary! Our faith, our good works, our repentance, anything good that we do, we do it by the grace of God operating in us. We love God because he loved us first. He did not love his own because he foresaw something good or commendable in them. Believers were at one time children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:1ff). All Christians were at one time disobedient, rebellious, lost, God-haters, like the others.

Then what makes the difference? According to Augustine, and before him pre-eminently the Apostle Paul (Romans 9-11), it is because of God's love in predestinating those who should be saved. This is the fountainhead of all blessings, including the ineffable blessing of salvation itself. God manifests his grace, but grace is selective, "I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and will show compassion to whom I will show compassion." "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." Why so? Because God, the sovereign God, has the exclusive right to draw unto himself those he desires, having chosen them in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, having bestowed grace upon them from eternity (2 Timothy 1:9). Man has no right whatsoever to God's grace; if man can appeal to God for anything, it is only his condemnation that he can legitimately ask for. Nothing else: man has forfeited every right to any divine blessing. "God has consigned all men to disobedience that he might have mercy upon all."

So if God brings salvation to particular persons, then it means to God is determined to bring those persons to glory. "His gifts and his calling are without repentance." The Bible teaches that there is an unbroken and infallible chain of blessings reserved for God's elect. Those he foreknows (loves beforehand) he predestines and eventually calls and sanctifies and glorifies. No exceptions. "He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ." "I give them eternal life and they shall never perish."

Since God predestines (and his purpose is never thwarted) he also necessarily preserves his own. "The Lord knows them that are his." "We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." If any one of the elect, even one, fails to reach glory, then God's predestination is dependent upon the creature and therefore fallible.

But Augustine rightly asserted that salvation, from beginning to end, is God's sole accomplishment. In asserting this Augustine said nothing novel; Jonah’s testimony was virtually the same: "Salvation is the Lord's." In its conception (in eternity), its accomplishment (Christ's coming, particularly his death and resurrection), and its application in time (to particular persons, by the Spirit, to bring them to faith), it is God's work for man and in man: God working in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure.

Sinful man needs grace first and foremost; grace is given selectively, because God has already determined who will be partakers of Christ, and those who are appointed to eternal life not only believe but continue to the end. Thus the sinner, as Augustine explains it, is constantly cast upon the grace of God. The same almighty power which converts him is needed to keep him, and that alone infallibly secures him everlasting redemption.

If Augustine was correct in these affirmations, why has the church largely abandoned the heritage he left her? When we hold on to God’s predestination, we magnify his grace. In this we are humbled and, rightly believed, we become increasingly grateful to God who did marvellous things on our behalf.

In following Augustine in this matter we follow Paul, and in following Paul we follow Christ.

That is a wonderful web site.

Your post bring to mind the quote from the Prince of Preachers:

I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, "You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself." My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Grace does not presuppose Predestination, unless one attempts to argue that God simply doesn't care to, or doesn't have the power to allow each person to make his or her own choice (empowered by the Holy Spirit) as to whether to accept or reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. If God's Love for us includes allowing the use of our free will in the most important choice of all in our lives, then He is quite capable of Allowing it to work in that way.

The real distortion here is in the failure to fully understand that God exists everywhere and everywhen simultaneously, as well as outside of all space and (more importantly here)time. Therefore God knew from before Creation exactly what would happen everywhere and everywhen, including who, given the Choice He so generously offers to us humans (the only portion of His creation which is still allowed free will)would accept or reject the offer. In other words an over-emphasis on predestination at the expense of free will merely indicates the theology of the person claiming it is either limited, or incomplete.

The flaw in the thinking of those who hate Predestination is that they assume that God is impartial and utterly "fair" in His dealings with men. They have unknowingly super-imposed their own idea of what God "must" be onto the revelation of who He is in scripture, and have concluded that if He made salvation possible for one, then He "must" by definition, make it equally available to all, without exception or condition, other than belief. If man were able to believe on his own, apart from God's Grace, none would believe, because it is not in them to believe. It is not possible to believe savingly apart from God's Grace and dynamic intervention in the man's heart FIRST.

The Truth is, God has impartially concluded all under sin. The reason for that is so that His Grace and Mercy may be clearly seen in those whom He has chosen. God is under no obligation to choose everyone. Mercy must have Justice as a backdrop, or it is no longer Mercy, but expected obligation. Mercy cannot be seen except against the backdrop of Justice. In choosing some, and not others God commits no sin, no miscarriage of justice takes place, there is no wrongdoing chargeable to God. Those whom He has not chosen are rightly and justly condemned in their sin. Those whom He does choose are at His good pleasure, and by His own counsel, and are recipients of Mercy and Grace, unearned and unearnable gifts from God, bestowed on those whom He chooses.

The purpose of God's Grace, Mercy and Justice are to Glorify Himself, and not to save the human race. The salvation of those whom He chooses to save are a means to that end. The salvation of those whom He chooses brings Glory and Honor to the Most High, for the great things He has done. To insist that Christ died for men who ultimately wind up condemned and in Hell is an affront to God, because no one that Christ died for will fail to be saved. To say otherwise is to say that His Arm is too short to save, His Power can be broken and made of no effect, and His Blood Atonement is not sufficient. It is to say that something must be added to the Atonement, and the thing they want to add is man's "free will" choice. What utter blasphemy!

Hehe.

This is going to be another long argument where everyone is going to try to figure out God. Can an ant on the sidewalk figure out how to build the space shuttle?

We should all (whether we're going to hell or not) just adore and worship Him, do His works, fish for souls, live as Jesus taught us and pray constantly that His will be done on this earth.

Take comfort in the fact that if you're on this thread, you are in some degree in touch with Him and that HE REIGNS.

In following Augustine in this matter we follow Paul, and in following Paul we follow Christ.

And exactly why do you think Augustine 'got it all' right? Not only do we have to assume Augustine got it right, but that this author understands Augustine correctly. As any reasonable person can understand, it is not all that reliable to accept as true information and understands that are at least 3-4 times removed from the original source.

Why not just cite the Bible?

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