By His Spirit

If any Biblical doctrine can be said to be a mind-twister, certainly "predestination" would fit the category for lots of folks. I have heard many ask questions connected to predestination. Often times the questions are backed by a presuppositional attitude that says, "Go ahead. Tell me I'm wrong." One of the questions I have seen raised has to do with whether or not it is actually necessary to pray for people to respond to the message of the Gospel, if in fact God has already determined that they will respond.

I would consider these things when trying to answer that question:

1) We can observe from God's Word that salvation is a work of the Spirit.

2) We are to pray for an effective witness.

We can't really bring either one of those things about by any power of our own, and Satan makes effort to blind men's minds, "..... lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them," 2 Cor. 4:4

It is our own inability that demands that we pray, just as Paul for example, prayed for his own countrymen. Should we do less? Our God is sovereign, but as believers, we have a relationship with Him. In that relationship, and of His sovereignty, He has ordained that we should be used (and our prayers to Him) to go where He wants us to, reaching hearts for Him to bring them to the Savior. I don't fully understand the process, but I understand that it exists.

John 6:44 reads: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." For some that is a mark of favor for the ones who "chosen," by God, and the rest of humanity is just out of the salvation picture. I don't read it that way at all. Such a restrictive view of God must be contrasted with the verse which Jesus quotes next, from Isaiah 54. "It is written in the prophets, 'AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me."

Jesus said that all shall be taught of God. I believe that in one way or another, our merciful God draws every man to Him. The word used in John 6:44 for "draws" is "helkuo." What is literally in view there is the sense of being dragged, but it is up to man to respond to Him. God gave us the Law to show us that we cannot be perfect and holy without Him. He gave His only begotten Son on the Cross to make the way for us to be perfected in holyness. Mankind sees God's very creation all around them as proof of His very existence, only to have that evidence ignored daily.

The Bible shows us that men have a volitional responsibility that exists to glorify the elective work of a sovereign God. If that seems self-contradictory it really isn't. We have a free will, given to us by God. He is good and unchanging. Those two things work only in the way that His perfect mind could come up with. I don't have to fully understand it. I just get to love Him for it.