The Importance Of God's Predestination

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God has chosen us. (v. 11) In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,. The main principle of this verse is Jesus is our source of eternal inheritance. In the first sentence “In him” refers to Jesus Christ. This means that Christ decides to choose whomever he pleases. This also means that believers do not make a choice to follow Christ. Rather, they merely respond to his predestined choosing of them. John R. W. Stott says about predestination, “Paul could hardly have insisted more forcefully that our becoming members of God’s new community was due neither to chance nor to choice (if by that is meant our choice), but to God’s own sovereign will and pleasure.”48 An interesting detail to note is, the believer’s predestination is part of God’s plan. It is never an accident or by chance when a believer
D When Paul talks about “we” in this verse he is speaking about the Jews. This is easily seen through the context around this verse. The people that were “the first to put our hope in Christ” were the Jews. In the Old Testament, the only way into the Kingdom of God was to be born into it under the covenant God had with the Jews. In the verses after this, Paul goes on to explain how the Gentiles are also able to be chosen by Christ to be regenerated. In order to properly exegete this verse it is important to know what the glory of God is. Stott states, “The glory of God is the revelation of God, and the glory of his grace is his self-disclosure as a gracious God.” This quote does an amazing job of showing exactly what God’s glory is. Believers must keep their hearts in an open position to allow God to reveal himself. When God is allowed to disclose himself as the gracious God he is, believers receive new understanding of the immense grace he

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