Predestination
In our study of the "covenant of redemption" which
is set forth in Rom.
8:28 30, the second action of God listed in verse 29
is "predestinate."
The five actions of
God listed in v. 29 and 30 are foreknow,
predestinate, called, justified, and glorified.
According to Vines the
Greek word "proorizo," which is translated four
times into
"predestinate," once "ordained before," and once
"determined before,"
means to "mark out or determine beforehand." Thus
the English word
predestinate means to determine the final destiny
beforehand. The four
times predestinate is used in the scriptures it is
used to denote the
final destiny of those that God "foreknew" (Rom.
8:29) or "chose before
the world began" (Eph. 1:4). It is never used in
connection with anyone
other than those whom God foreknew or chose!
We will begin our
discussion of God's predestination of the "elect" by
considering to what God predestinated them. That is
what do the
scriptures say is the final destiny of the elect?
Rom. 8:29 reads, "For
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren."
Now when the verse says we will be "conformed to the
image of His Son"
it is not saying we will be "clones" of Christ. When
Adam brought forth
a son he was born in Adams image as Gen. 5:3 reads,
"And Adam lived an
hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own
likeness, after his
image; and called his name Seth." Now Seth was in
the image of Adam but
was not a clone of Adam. He possessed the same
characteristics,
qualities, and nature of Adam (a fallen nature) and
thus was in the
image of Adam. By nature we are all in the fallen
image of Adam. Part
of the final destiny of the elect is to be in the
image of Christ.
To understand what
that image is we need to look at the
characteristics,
qualities, and nature of Christ that is different
from our characteristics, qualities, and nature. In
Heb. 7:26 we read, "For such an high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from
sinners..." In contrast by nature we are unholy,
harmful, defiled, and sinners. Also the scriptures
describe God to be "love" (I John 4:8), "a spirit"
(John 4:24), and "light" (John 1:4) and this light
is defined as eternal life. By nature we are
completely selfish, having not the spirit of God,
and absent of eternal life. In addition, the Lord is incorruptible, immortal, powerful, and
glorious (I Cor. 15).
Again, by contrast our
natural being is corruptible, mortal, weak and
dishonorable. In contrast to what we are now, our
final destiny will see us conformed to the image of
Christ. At that time in body, soul, and spirit we
will be holy, harmless, undefiled, righteous, love,
spiritual, possessed of
eternal life, incorruptible, immortal, powerful and
glorious. It is in
keeping with God's predestination that our final
destiny will be
conformity with the image of His Son. Next, we read
in Eph. 1:4, 5 "According as he hath chosen us in
him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before him in love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to
the good pleasure of his will..."
Now we are according
to birth right in the family of Adam as we are all
the off spring of Adam. However, God has declared
that those chosen in Christ before the foundation of
the world will have as a final destiny membership in
the family of God. To accomplish this God has
predestinated to adopt us into his family by Jesus
Christ to himself. Adoption involves taking a person
out of one family and placing that person in another
family. We will discuss the mechanics of adoption in
a later issue.
At this point we note
that God has predestinated us unto the adoption of
children, thus it is our final destiny to be
children of God not only in spirit, but also in
body. This brings us to the third thing God has
predestinated the elect unto. In Eph. 1:11 we read,
"In whom also we (the elect VJ) have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of
him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will." Thus
being the legal heirs of God by spiritual birth,
adoption, marriage, and
will we have an inheritance from God. In nature, the
only lasting
inheritance we have is a grave. Yet according to
God's predestination
we have an eternal inheritance.
According to Rom.
8:16, 17 we read, "The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint
heirs with Christ..." Thus our final destiny is to
be a
joint heir with Jesus Christ. Therefore, we will
have by inheritance
all that our elder brother has. This is absolutely
amazing to consider
that we won't be possessors of just a little corner
of the glory world,
but will be possessors of all that Jesus Christ is a
possessor of! In
our next issue we will consider those things about
God that imminently
qualify him as the only one who can predestinate.
Jesus, the
Church's Husband
In Is. 54:5 we read,
"For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of
hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of
Israel; The God of
the whole earth shall he be called." As we have
before shown Jesus is
our Maker, our Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, and
the God of the
whole earth. Thus he is our husband. In Ephesians
chapter 5 we are
taught that the relationship between a husband and
wife is to be
patterned after the relationship between Jesus and
his bride, the
church: "Husbands love your wives as Christ loved
the church and gave
himself for it."
According to the
scriptures, the Lord's ways are not our ways, nor
his thoughts our thoughts, but as the heavens are
high above the earth so are his ways above our ways
and his thoughts above our thoughts. According to
man's ways, man seeks out the most beautiful and
desirable woman he can find who will have him and
selects her to be his bride. When the Lord selected
his bride (church) he did not select one that was
perfect, but rather as Israel of old when the Lord
entered into the law covenant with her, she was
polluted in her own blood, so also the church and
her members are sinners which have no righteousness
of their own.
According to Rom. 3:9
18 God describes the whole mass of humanity as
having no righteousness, no understanding, no
profitableness, no goodness, no fear of God, as none
seeking after God and not knowing the way of peace.
Out of this mass of humanity, the Lord chose his
bride. Furthermore, we did not choose the Lord to
enter into covenant with him, but rather he chose
us.
According to Eph. 1:4
he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world and according to Rom. 9:11 this choice of a
people is according to the "election of grace." In
addition the Lord's people were under a curse as
stated in Gal. 3:10, "For as many as are of the
works of the law are under the
curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that
continueth not in all
things which are written in the book of the law to
do them."
In the next few essays
we will explore the covenant the Lord entered
into with the church, how the Lord groomed his
bride, the wedding feast,
and the daily marriage relationship he has with the
church. We will
examine this, not so much on a subject matter basis,
but by examining
several passages of scripture that speak
specifically to the Lord as the
Church's bridegroom.
The Lord's
Marriage Covenant
In the sixteenth chapter of Ezekiel, the Lord spoke
of his marriage to
Israel thusly: "Now when I passed by thee, and
looked upon thee, behold,
thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt
over thee, and
covered thy nakedness: yea I sware unto thee, and I
entered into a
covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou
becamest mine." Thus
we see that the Lord entered into a marriage
covenant with Israel. The
description in Ezek. 16:9 13 identifies the time of
that marriage
covenant as the time of the making of the law
covenant with Israel.
Thus the "marriage covenant" was the "law covenant."
The following passages show that Israel willingly
entered into that
"marriage" or "law" covenant with God:
1. Ex. 19:5, 6, 8, "Now therefore, if ye will obey
my voice indeed,
and keep my covenant, then shall ye be a peculiar
treasure unto me above
all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall
be a kingdom of
priests, and an holy nation...And all the people
answered together, and
said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do."
2. Ex. 24:3, "And
Moses came and told the people all the words of the
Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people
answered with one voice,
and said, All the words which the Lord hath said
will we do."
3. Ex. 24:7, "And he
took the book of the covenant, and read in the
audience of the people: and they said, All that the
Lord hath said will
we do, and be obedient."
4. Deut. 5:27 29, "Go
thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God
shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the Lord
our God shall speak
unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it. And the
Lord heard the voice
of your words, when he spake unto me; and the Lord
said unto me, I have
heard the voice of the words of this people, which
they have spoken unto
thee: they have well said all that they have spoken.
O that there was
such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and
keep all my
commandments always, that it might be well with
them, and with their
children forever!"
Next, we see that this
marriage covenant was sealed with blood: Ex.
24:6 8, "And Moses took half of the blood, and put
it in basins; and
half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he
took the book of
the covenant, and read in the audience of the
people: and they said, All
that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.
And Moses took the
blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said,
Behold the blood of the
covenant, which the Lord hath made with you
concerning all these words."
Subsequently, we read in Ezek. 16:15 59 of the
harlotry, fornications,
and adulteries that Israel committed with the
nations of the world and
their false idol gods.
Notwithstanding, we
read in verses 60 62, "Nevertheless, I will
remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy
youth, and I will
establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. Then
thou shalt remember
thy ways, and be ashamed...and I will give unto thee
for daughters, but
not by thy covenant. And I will establish my
covenant with thee; and
thou shalt know that I am the Lord."
Jeremiah spoke of this
new covenant in Jer. 31:31 34 which is quoted in
Heb. 8:8 12 as follows: "For finding fault with
them, he saith, Behold the days come, saith the
Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day when I took them by the hand to lead them
out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not
in my covenant, and I regarded
them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into
their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I
will be to them a God and they shall be to me a
people. And they shall not teach every man his
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to
the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more."
Under this new
covenant we find that the Gentiles are brought as
prophesied in Is. 60:3, 5, 11, "And the Gentiles
shall come to thy
light, and kings to the brightness of thy
rising...Then thou shalt see,
and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and
be enlarged; because
the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto
thee, the forces of the
Gentiles shall come unto thee...Therefore thy gates
shall be open
continually; they shall not be shut day or night;
that men may bring
unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their
kings may be
brought."
In this new covenant
age the bride is known as the Lord's church and is
known as the house of God: 1 Tim. 3:15, "But if I
tarry long, that thou
mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in
the house of God,
which is the church of the living God, the pillar
and ground of truth."
Isaiah prophesied of this time and of the bride as
follows: Is. 62:3 5,
"Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of
the Lord, and a
royal diadem in the hand of they God. Thou shalt no
more be termed
Forsaken; neither shalt thy land any more be termed
Desolate: but thou
shalt be called Hephzibah and thy land Beulah: for
the Lord delighteth
in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a
young man marrieth a
virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as a
bridegroom rejoiceth over
the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee."
Finally, this second
or new covenant was also sealed with blood as we
read in Heb. 9:11, 12, "But Christ being come an
high priest of good
things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with
hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither
by the blood of
goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in
once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."
