Expert: Marilyn - 7/20/2009

Question
To what degree are we predestined to do God's will? I know, huge question. Surely we don't really know, I just wonder about your thoughts regarding the scripture: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." Rom 9:15. And, "...and He hardens whom He wants to harden." Rom 9:18b. And with that, if we are not to question the potter (Rom 9:21) and His plans for our lives then can it not be suggested that we do not really have choice? Kind of a slippery question, I think. Thanks for your time, Marilyn.

Answer

Hello Linda Sue;

The Apostle Paul is sometimes confusing. "His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction," II Peter 3:16. Paul opened this can of worms called "predestination" and it's been a hot-button issue ever since.

Did God know that Adam and Eve would sin? No, I don't think He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they would. He saw the probability, but knowing something is probable and knowing it will definitely happen are not one in the same thing.

If God created Adam and Eve knowing full well that they would sin, then He would have known that countless people would reject His plan of salvation and end up in hell. This kind of a God doesn't jibe with the God Jesus portrayed for us during His years here on planet earth or with what Peter tells us in II Peter 3:9...that God doesn't want anyone to perish but for everyone to come to repentance.

Often we are confused about what God knows and doesn't know. Because He speaks prophecy and it comes true we assume that He knows the future, but that's not the case. The future hasn't been created yet. For some reason, God permits us to be part of the process of creating the future--to be active in how it will look.

God speaks and the Word goes out and does what He commands, Isaiah 55:11. His Word will do this task around all the nonsense humans pull without intruding on our free will, except to put pressure on us to conform, as needed.

Yes, God puts pressure on us to conform to His will. If we belong to Him it's His job to transform us into the Image of His Son. "...He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus," Philippians 1:6.

God knows us better than we know ourselves. If His objective is to complete the good work that began when we received Jesus as Lord, then He will allow us to suffer the consequences for disobedience, for bad decisions, for lack of faith, for any number of stupid, thoughtless, selfish and ignorant things we do and also for the things we fail to do. This is one way to put pressure on us. From the outside and often from the inside, it looks like God is just plain mean.

Judas Iscariot could have been saved if he'd only repented and turned to God instead of feeling guilty and killing himself. Peter denied he knew Jesus three times. Elsewhere in Scripture we're told that if we deny Jesus on earth He will deny He knows us in Heaven. Unlike Judas, Peter's reaction was to bawl like a baby, pray and repent.

Jesus spoke over Peter saying that upon the rock of revelation Peter uttered He would establish His church. But it took Peter discovering that he was actually a weak, ordinary mortal for him to fully submit himself to the Father and be transformed by that prophecy. Peter chose to turn to God instead of turning on himself and in so doing became a pillar of the early church.

Jesus warned His Apostles that they would be tested and sifted. He said He'd prayed for them that they'd come through with flying colors and He spoke in faith saying that He'd lose none of those God had given him, except one, the one who betrayed Him. Part of their power as Apostles came from this sifting, from the trials and suffering they endured between the time when Jesus was arrested and when they received the Holy Spirit.

Look at Mary, Jesus' mother. The angel told her that she was "favored" of God. Yet, look at her life. The first thing that happened to her was everybody in town wanted to stone her to death, her boyfriend wanted to divorce her and you can imagine how her family felt upon learning that their daughter had come up pregnant. Next, she had to make a long journey while pregnant like a whale and then give birth in a barn or a cave or wherever it was--with a bunch of animals for midwives. Not long after that they had to run to Egypt and hide out, probably unable to talk to their families the whole time. Then they settled in the armpit of Israel. Remember how people said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Then her Son goes off the deep end. There's a scene where Mary and Jesus' brothers are outside the house where He's preaching and the Apostles come and say, "Your Mom is here and wants to talk to you." And Jesus replies, "Who are My mother and my brothers? Whoever does God's will are my mother and brothers and sisters," Matthew 12:46-50; Mark 3 (my paraphrase). Her Son becomes a huge celebrity and then He goes and gets Himself killed! Favored of God? UGH. I don't see any accounts of Mediterranean cruises or visits to spas or a bevy of servants waiting on her or any more chests of gold except the one they inevitably had to spend on the flight to and during their stay in Egypt.  

When I think of myself as favored of God, I think of vacations and nice clothes and pretty furniture. Apparently, that's not what God thinks of.

What about Paul? He's busy being zealous for God when he gets thrown off his horse and blinded. Then he has to wander into town and find A guy named Ananias who then tells him, "God's going to show you how much you are going to suffer for His Name," Acts 9:16. And suffer he did. I don't remember how many times he got run out of town, stoned, bad-mouthed, starved, frozen, sunburned, ended up naked, chained, beaten etc. etc.

Though God loves us more than we can imagine, like any good parent, He knows that Caribbean cruises, restaurant meals, servants and big fine houses aren't what make us into diamonds.  Heat and pressure make us into diamonds and He loves us enough to make sure we get the heat and pressure needed in order to transform us into diamonds.  

Diamonds are perfect, they cannot be altered by any outside force, they cannot be cut except by another diamond, yet they can cut just about anything in the universe. Diamonds are transparent, we are to be transparent, with no secret sins or hidden hurts. If a diamond has a flaw, it's clearly seen and thus easier to work with and around. We are to be fixed in Christ, unalterable in our faith, solid in our standing, immovable objects that the world cannot change. Instead of our being changed by external circumstances, we are to change the world.

In order to get a diamond God starts with ordinary carbon. Ordinary carbon isn't good for much except making black marks on things. God applies heat and pressure and a diamond is formed.

When God says He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and He will harden whom He will harden, I think He's talking about making diamonds. From the outside and from the inside too, diamond making looks like an unpleasant business. There's no lazing about with a glass of lemonade if you're the diamond in progress. It is agonizing, it is painful and sometimes looks like God is just plain mean.

The evening I watched a documentary on how diamonds are formed I knew God was talking to me. I felt He was unmerciful toward me, I felt He had hardened His heart toward me, I felt He'd left me in a miserable place for no good reason. When I realized He was talking to me through this documentary all I could do was cry.

Sure, being ordinary carbon is easy. You and I can insist on remaining ordinary carbon. Jonah tried to run away from God's will and ended up in a large fish--another version of diamond making. Jonah went to Ninevah and preached. The Ninevites repented, then he went and sat down hoping to see God zap Ninevah. Jonah's heart was hard. When God didn't zap Ninevah Jonah pouted. He hadn't learned enough from his time in the fish to understand what God was about. He admitted he knew God as compassionate, but in the case of the Ninevites, he wished He'd forget the compassion thing.

Saul tried to hide amongst the donkeys when Samuel went looking for him to anoint him as king of Israel, but it didn't work, he was anointed king anyway. After his initial reluctance, Saul became enamored of the luxury and trappings of kinghood and disobeyed God repeatedly. In the furnace of pressure and heat of failure, he never really repented, he continued in disobedience and eventually ended up committing suicide.

We do have a choice and it's a clear one. God's way or satan's way. If a person has accepted Jesus as Savior, he's ostensibly decided for God's way, but sometimes a person will decide he'd like to be neutral. There's a name for a person who wants to be neutral--it's "target." Once a person is sealed, marked as belonging to God, he'd better get completely in God's camp and comply with whatever God has in mind or he will be buffeted and pummeled by the enemy. A person might get buffeted and pummeled anyway in the course of diamond making, but if the person is submitted to God he can know for certain that it won't be for no good reason--God is in the business of making diamonds out of ordinary carbon. Submitted carbon will finish the diamond making process a lot faster than resistant carbon.

I think that's what it means to submit to the potter. Whatever vessel God makes of us, it's the one we were created to be. There is no greater fulfillment than achieving the goals for which we were created to achieve. Every person longs for that satisfaction, even those who do not know God.

We have a choice. Either submit to God or don't. If we don't, then if we've accepted Jesus as our Savior, it's God's job to put us under pressure and heat, allow us to suffer, so that we will submit. A person can resist, run away, remain disobedient as Saul and Jonah did, if he chooses, but it's a sorry way to go.

Ultimately the question comes down to this: Do you trust God or not? Do you believe God or not? If you trust Him, then let Him do His will in you and obey. If you believe Him, then believe. If you don't believe, then read the Word aloud and after awhile you will, Romans 10:17. God believes in us. God saw the person He intended for us to be the moment when He breathed into Adam the breath of every life that would ever be born. God sent Jesus to pay for sin so that the perfect Linda Sue He originally intended could once again be possible. Sin muddies it all up, clogs everything and gunks up the works. God knows this and works patiently in us to transform us into diamonds. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

God has a plan for each of us. We can go along with the plan or not. When we don't follow Plan A, God moves on to His next series of options. This is what He did with Adam and Eve. They rejected His initial plan--live in perfection in a beautiful garden and fellowship with Him--and chose a different path. God already had a contingency plan ready. Adam and Eve had a choice. Jonah, Saul, Judas and Peter had a choice. Mary had a choice, though if she'd told Gabriel she didn't want to carry God's Child, then we would have never heard of her. Paul had a choice, he could have spent the rest of his life blind and bitter. We make our choices, but God doesn't give up on us. He moves on to Plan B, C, D...however many plans it takes. We can resist Him the whole way if we choose. We always have a choice.

Most humans prefer to avoid suffering. God's Word promises many good things to His children, health, healing, long life, wealth, answers to prayers, companionship...but it's a fact that sometimes serving God involves suffering. It's a fact that often trying to avoid doing what God wants will bring on suffering. But God promises "all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose," Romans 8:28. When Jesus is our Savior, our suffering will result in something good, even suffering we bring on ourselves.

God's purposes are simple, to love human beings, to transform human beings into loving beings and for human beings to love one another. But love isn't always warm and cozy, sometimes it requires suffering and death. Jesus' death on the cross is the most obvious example. Paul's suffering as an evangelist and teacher; Mary's suffering as Jesus' mother--all were undertaken out of love, love for God and for others.

It's obvious Mary's suffering brought great good, her Son Jesus has changed the world! Paul's suffering brought great good, he brought Gentiles into God's kingdom, wrote two-thirds of the New Testament and established the church. There's no more certain way to be remembered, to have lasting fame and make a difference in the world than to serve God.

When God breathed into Adam the breath of lives, He predestined all humanity for a life in companionship with Him. Adam chose to disobey God and that destiny was blocked. Jesus' death and resurrection makes it possible for us to be reborn, to enter a new version of that destiny, Plan B, if you will. Plan B has the same objectives, for you to know God, for God to fellowship with you and for you to make a difference in the world. But every person has free will. Adam rejected Plan A, every person has the option to reject God's plan. You do have a choice.

Sincerely,

Marilyn

The article below is about Pharaoh and God hardening his heart:
http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2259