PREDESTINED DOESN’T MEAN THERE IS NO FREE WILL
Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
I see this as a very important verse from the standpoint that many people see predestination as God’s absolute control over his creation. Much of this goes back to Calvinism. These people see creation as being without free will, and are simply living out a script that God has instore for them. If they are killers, then this is what God has intended. If they have a car wreck, God made it so. The result of this thinking is that bitterness is often formed against God, by the people that have had sorrow and misfortune.
They see God as unfair, and that there is little use in trying to change things or hope for better. They see as God as unrighteous, because he has given us laws that we will be judged by and have no hope in living up to if God has not predestined us with the life of obeying them. We see this line of thinking with Job. He even sees himself as more righteous than God. He even goes so far as to say if he only knew where he could find God, he would state his case before him and would be delivered for ever.
(Job 23 :3-7) Of course at the end of the book in 42:3 Job says that he spoke of things he did not understand , things too wonderful for him to know. Then he adds that he despises himself and repents in dust and ashes.
Sometimes it is easier to think this way and blame God for everything, so we don’t have to blame ourselves or even try to do better. But for people that feel this way they will have no love for God or will ever be able to trust him. If fact they see God as more of their enemy than a God that loves them and wants the best for them. These people will have fallen into the exact trap that Adam and Eve fell into when they believed what Satan said regarding that God did not have their best interest in mind for them. Infact the opposite is true. God always has our best interest in mind for us, and that even if we ask wrong in a prayer God will always do what is best.
As Romans 8:29 clearly points out is that our predestination that God created us for was to be conformed into the likeness of Jesus. This is just what we see in Genesis 1:26 at the creation of humanity. It tells us that God man humanity in their likeness. God did not created humanity with a flaw, or with the intent that we would have an uncontrollable life of sorrow that God would even bring about. Now this is something that Satan might do , but not the Lord God. This rebelling led to the inherited carnal nature of more rebelling from God. It was passed down from Adam and Eve. and will be until humanity no longer reproduces. This is not to say that just because we were born with the carnal nature to rebel from God that there is no hope of change. Just because we think about something doesn’t mean that we have to do it. This is why God tested Abraham and he does us. Our free will can over ride our carnal nature if we want to. While a demon possessed person may do things against their free will, usually they did something to invite that demon into them either consciously or unconsciously. One of the ways to become demon possessed is by simply rejecting Jesus, and building up a hatred for God. For some it may be a matter of turning to occultic means for something, and demon possession will be the cost that it comes by. There is hope in all this, and it comes through Jesus’ atonement. When we seek forgiveness of our sins through the grace of Jesus’ atonement, the Holy Spirit will come in us and set us free of our carnal nature. (Romans 7:5 & 8:9,10) This means that the frustration of wanting to rebel from God is taken, and a desire to do God’s will replaces it. This is not to say that we will never sin. But when we do, we will sad the it happened. The Holy Spirit will help us to return to that Christ-like perfection in our spirit that God predestined or intended us to be like when he created Adam and Eve. But because of our free will, we have an obligation to live our life in light of being as Christ-like as possible. (Rom 8:12-17) Granted we can not do this on our own, but with the help of the Holy Spirit we will daily become more and more like Jesus until at last when we died we will be transformed into perfection. When this happens we will have become all that we were originally created to be like. This of course doesn’t mean that we will become God. What it does mean is that we will have the same perfect love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control as God. We will have attained being the person that God predestined us to be from the very beginning. This is not only a good thing, but something to look forward to happening in us.
Prayer: Holy Spirit have your will and your way in us to perfect us into the Christ-like person that you, the Heavenly Father and Jesus predestined us to be like from the beginning. Thank you Lord.
