Does It Really Matter?

There are some Christians who sense or smell a doctrinal argument and almost instantly turn away…as if they are about to step into a pile of something that someone’s dog rudely left behind.
Some people conveniently ignore the doctrine of predestination…what does all this airy doctrine stuff have to do about everyday…practical life anyhow?

Is the gospel of God’s free grace important?

Does the gospel have to do with every day life…the stuff of practical living?

You better believe it!!
Let me show you how the teaching of predestination is very interlinked with the gospel of grace…as you look at the below test…don’t let yourself glibly brush off the conclusion of each answer.

Imagine…as you stand at heaven’s gates, about to enter in…you are asked by an angel, “why is it that you were saved, and your neighbor next door was not ?”
You answer…
Because I trusted in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior…and he did not…

The angel smiles and then asks…but “why did you trust Jesus and he did not?”
You realize that answering him is not an option…you can’t ignore the issue any longer.

You want to sound biblical, so you continue to answer him…“I trusted Jesus because I wanted to turn from my old way of life…I wanted to repent”, you say…hoping deeply that the interrogation is at its end…

Your smile quickly fades as you realize that the questioning is not finished… you also notice that as your smile has vanished from your face…the angel’s smile has widened slightly… “why did you repent…want to turn from your old ways…while your neighbor did not want to?”, he asks through his ever broadening smile.

You begin to feel somewhat frustrated, but do your utmost to hide this inner distress from the messenger before you… “I guess I trusted Jesus and repented of my sins because my heart was humble enough to see my need of salvation outside of myself, while my neighbor remained stubborn in his pride and sin”, you answer him, wincing at how boastful it sounded to hear yourself talk about how much more humble you were than someone else.


At this the angel’s smile vanishes and he merely stares at you with a bewildered look on his face…then you see his mouth begin to open, “And where did this extra humility come from, why was it that you had more humility then your neighbor?”, he asks while his eyes look deep into yours.

You do not answer him…you both simply stand there and look into each others eyes, your greatest desire is that you can find an answer that will stop all future questioning…

With this little game I hope we can see that with absolutely every aspect of our salvation we can ask the question…why did you have that certain quality, or perform that command, or trust that certain promise, while someone else did not?
Those who believe that the bible teaches that God has predestined all those who will be saved have an honest answer for that question.
A person’s faith, repentance, humility, desire to do good works, and the actual outworking of those good works are all results of God first choosing them, and working in them by His Spirit…giving them new life…giving them the new birth.

Those who believe in predestination believe that God chooses to save people NOT from anything that first comes from the person…
God did not look through the corridors of time and foresee that certain people would believe on Jesus…AND THEN…on basis of that information…on basis of their “works”…choose them.

No!
God saw that mankind was spiritually dead…Adam [the 1st representative of all mankind] chose Satan’s lie and at the same time chose death…and in this horrible choice…he plunged all of humanity into sins dark night…
…sin effecting every part of man’s being…his thoughts, his emotions, his will…everything!

The Bible doesn’t define fallen people as spiritually sick, or lame…it calls them “dead”.
Sin had separated man from God. God who is Spirit [John 4:24] and Life [John 14:6]…so man in essence was spiritually dead.

And as we ask ourselves the question…. “what can a dead person DO”, we already know the answer.