Predestination a.k.a. My first college English paper...

ENG 102 - English Composition
Judy A Jowers, Professor
4/13/09


Writing Assignment #1
By Mike Ivaska


It is important that Christians find a way to be comfortable believing the doctrine of predestination. This is because predestination, more than many other Christian doctrines, brings glory to Jesus Christ. To "bring glory" to someone is to "shine a light" on that person. Predestination, if understood correctly, shines this light on Jesus by making Him the very center of the church's salvation. If this is true, Christians should learn to believe in it.

The Apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesians tells us that we, as believers, were predestined to adoption through God's son, Jesus (Ephesians 1:5). This means that it has always been God's plan to have a relationship with us, but not just on any terms. God's plan has always been to "adopt" us into His family through Jesus. To adopt us means to bring us into His family. Being adopted through Jesus means that this adoption only happens because of Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ paid the debt we owed to God on the cross, He made our salvation possible. Jesus made it possible for God to adopt us.

What is easy to miss in all of this is that for us to have a relationship with God through Jesus means that we do not, and cannot, have a relationship with God on our own. Our sinfulness is what makes it impossible for us to have a direct relationship with God. Despite His love for us, God cannot simply leave sin and its destructive consequences unpunished. He must exercise justice, not just love. What makes this so confusing, and possibly offensive, is that, if God predestined us to be adopted through Jesus, and if our adoption through Jesus is based upon our need for salvation because of sin, then our sinfulness is also, in some way, predestined.

When a sinful person like you or me comes to have a relationship with God through Jesus, our response always includes gratitude. Our focus ceases to be on ourselves. We are grateful to God for saving us. We are particularly grateful to Jesus for making our salvation even possible. In this way, Jesus receives glory in our salvation - in a salvation that God had planned before time even began.

If Jesus receives glory through our faith in Him, and it has always been God's plan to adopt us through Jesus, then predestination itself brings glory to Jesus. If predestination brings glory to Jesus, then we as Christians should find some way of becoming comfortable with the doctrine in our teaching, preaching, learning, and worship. It may be uncomfortable. It may leave us with more questions than when we started. It may not be popular. However, if it is God's way of glorifying His son, then believing it should be one of our ways of glorifying Him too.