Questions and Answers #2

July 26, 2026

            I had originally thought I would get to two questions today… until I started writing and realized this question required a longer answer, not a quick definition.  Because today’s question is specifically Presbyterian and really gets to the heart of our theology from which everything else comes.  So… today’s question is simply this: What is the meaning of predestination?

            The best place to begin is by saying what predestination is not. Predestination is not foreordination. Predestination is not the idea that everything has already been determined by God and set in stone so that there is only one way for anything and everything to go. Predestination is not fate on steroids where free will does not exist. It is incorrect to say that I was predestined to preach this sermon today. I could say it was predetermined that I would preach this sermon… because someone asked the question… but that’s not the same thing as God deciding the universe and time can only go one way and one way only.

            Predestination is also not about God having predetermined who is and who is not going to heaven. And honestly, to understand predestination at all, we have to let go of the idea that salvation… what it means to be saved… is primarily about whether you as an individual will or will not be going to heaven after you die. Salvation is so much more than getting… or not getting… into heaven. In fact, I believe we would become much healthier Christians if we got rid of this way of thinking about heaven altogether. Is that shocking for you to hear? Good.  Hopefully as I go along you’ll see why I believe that.

            If we get rid of the idea that predestination is about getting into heaven, then we can also get rid of the idea of double predestination. I mean, just on the surface, that sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn’t it? Double predestination. Sounds like something kids would have said on the playground. “I double dog dare you!” “Well, God’s going to double predestine you!” Double predestination is the idea that if God is solely determining who gets into heaven, then God must also be solely determining who goes to hell. And there is nothing anyone can do about it.

            That’s the biggest problem many non-Presbyterian Christians have with their misunderstanding of predestination: there is nothing you can do about it. If God… and God alone… is predetermining who gets into heaven or goes to hell, then confessions of faith don’t matter… any act you might take to secure your salvation through the church doesn’t matter… how good you are doesn’t matter… how bad you are doesn’t matter. Nothing you say or do matters because God has already made the decision about heaven before you existed. People… especially American consumeristic Christians… don’t like being told that they have no control or any say whatsoever in who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. It cuts against the way they think God is supposed to work… and for whom God is supposed to work.  Many of these Christians don’t like predestination because it takes away their power over others.

            That’s why I wanted to start today by clearing out of your minds of what predestination is not. These ideas are so ingrained that it’s hard us to think any differently… to make space for any new information.  So… take a second… and a deep breath… to clear the junk theology from your brains.

            Here is what predestination theologically means to me… and why I believe in it… and how it connects to the bigger picture of salvation.

            Yes, predestination is centered on the sovereignty of God. It is an act of God’s own free will. God has choice.  We forget that sometimes. And what God chooses rests on God’s reasons alone for making that choice.  Not our reasons.  God’s reasons. We have a grace‑centered faith, and our understanding of grace is that grace is God’s own free choice. God chooses to be gracious. Could God choose differently? Yes. Otherwise, grace is no longer free. It is hard for us to believe that God is not bound by our rules of religion or by how we think God should act. God will not be contained in the tiny little boxes we like to force God into.  God is not our puppet to control or manipulate.

            Because we believe Jesus Christ is God’s most complete revelation… because we believe Jesus Christ is grace incarnate… we believe it is right for us to have a grace‑centered faith wherever that might lead—even if it leads us down paths we would not choose. When we read Scripture, what we see and hold onto is the story of God’s ever‑widening grace… the types of choices God makes.  And that begins with election. God chooses people.  God chooses to be with and for people.  At this point someone will ask, does that mean there are some people God does not choose to be with or for?  That answer lies in God’s character… and God’s revelation in Christ.  I’ve put before many times the question… who did Christ not die for on the cross?  We who live by grace… cannot be judges of whether or not this person or that person is worthy of God’s grace.  Once we start defining who is worthy or not worthy of God’s grace, then we are taking from God the freedom to be God… and we’re putting God again into our constricting little boxes.

            Predestination sits right next to the word election… the two words meaning pretty much the same. With election… through predestination… God chooses people. God chooses to be gracious toward people and says, “You are my people, and I am your God.” God chooses to connect with us… to be with us. The sad story in scripture is that the people chosen by God then take that choice and deny the God who elected them. The sad story in scripture… and today… is that the people choose not the God who reveals God’s own self to them, but instead choose idols of their own making. Idols that reflect the ways they believe will bring them what they want. Idols that promise power, or vengeance, or prosperity, or national greatness. Idols that turn God into a transaction rather than a relationship.

            But God’s choice remains. God’s grace remains. God’s election remains.

            People are chosen through God’s free grace, and God calls them to become the people of God. There is a reason why we read so much from Isaiah at Christmas time… because the earliest Christians heard in Isaiah how a people chosen by God’s grace are to be… they heard through the words in Isaiah the same word that came to them through Christ.  Isaiah 1 says, “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Verses like these are not exhaustive lists of actions that God’s people must check off. They are meant to capture the spirit of what it is to be God’s people.

            Predestination is only the first movement of God’s saving work. It is the opening note of a much larger symphony. If predestination is God’s gracious choice of us, then justification… which follows that choice… is God’s gracious act of forgiveness for us, and sanctification is God’s gracious work in us. These are not separate. They are the unfolding of one relationship… God’s relationship with God’s people.

            Justification is God removing the separation between us and God. It is God clearing away everything… the sin… that keeps us from being in relationship. Justification is God saying, “I have chosen you, and now I will not let anything stand between us.” It is reconciliation initiated by God alone. We do not justify ourselves. We do not earn our way back. God does the work. God bridges the gap. God heals the breach.

            Sanctification is the people learning to choose the God who has already chosen them. It is grace becoming a way of life. It is the slow, sometimes painful, sometimes joyful awakening to the reality that God’s love is real, and God’s forgiveness is real, and God’s claim on us is real. Sanctification is not perfection. It is direction. It is the people of God learning to walk in the ways of God… not to earn salvation, but because salvation has already begun. Sanctification is the Spirit whispering, “This is the way; walk in it.” It is the people becoming what God has already made them to be through grace.

            Predestination, justification, and sanctification together is how we understand what salvation is… not as a ticket to heaven, but as a life lived reconciled to God. Salvation is God and people together, without separation. Salvation is union. Salvation is relationship restored and the fruits of that relationship spreading into the world as we love one another as God has loved us. Salvation is the life of God and the life of the people intertwined in grace.  This is what we understand as the kingdom of God… and it all starts with predestination… with God choosing us by grace.

            Now let’s return to that question of heaven… and why predestination is not about determining who gets in and who does not. We’re not so interested in what heaven is or what it means in our relational connection with God. We’re focused on getting in… on getting past the threshold of those pearly gates… as if that’s everything. And our joy at getting in is often tied to our joy at who doesn’t. The idea of reward… and the value we attach to that reward… is all that matters to our sinful, greedy selves. We would gladly step over the souls of the damned if it meant getting our deserved prize.  That’s why we always game the system in our favor.  This singular drive to get into heaven as a reward has had the effect of leeching all the grace out of God’s choice. We’ve made our theology solely transactional to give ourselves the power of God’s election… rather than our taking up our cross… rather than our being willing to die for the salvation of another… rather than our finding the true value in the one lost sheep.

            Predestination is not the whole of salvation. It is the beginning. God chooses grace. God chooses connection. God chooses us. And then our salvation unfolds as God and people move toward one another until nothing separates them.  God chooses us… that’s predestination. God removes the separation… that’s justification. God teaches us to choose the God who has already chosen us… that’s sanctification. And salvation is the life of God and the life of the people bound together in love, now and forever.  If salvation is reconciliation… union with God… then heaven is no longer a reward to chase. It is simply the continuation of a relationship already made whole. We are with God in life. We will be with God in death. The reward is always being with God wherever God is… and not in a place beyond.

And that… to me… is the meaning of predestination… and why it is something I believe in.  Amen.