Article XVII
“Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour.”
Romans 9:6-16
It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.” Not only that, but Rebekah’s children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
John 15:13-17
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other. Because God chose us, we can have deep peace that he will guarantee we persevere in faith to the end of our lives.
Because God chose us, we can have deep peace that he will guarantee we persevere in faith to the end of our lives
We continue now in our series thinking about what it means to be an Anglican and we’re now thinking about the doctrine of election, which that doesn’t mean like general election. It’ll be clear as we go along what we mean by that.
But to start off with, I’d like you to think about when you get a plane somewhere, I think probably we’ve all gotten a plane at some point in our lives, some of our number relatively recently. And at some point you invariably hear the pilot, don’t you? When you’ve strapped yourself in and you’re starting to climb at some point, you’ll hear the pilot come over the radio and talk to you. And personally I like hearing the pilot speak because they always sound so incredibly laid back, don’t they? They were just taking it all in their stride, no matter how nervous you’re feeling, no matter how much you hate flying, it’s clear that the pilot is almost at the point of boredom. They’re very chilled out and that makes you chilled out. That’s because being calm like they are shows expertise and control.
I’m sure it’s no coincidence that the pilots do that, I’m sure they’ve learned over time that it really helps to calm people on the flight if you hear who’s in control of the plane and they sound like they know what they’re doing.
This is even more important when you hit turbulence, I don’t know if you’ve ever hit particularly bad turbulence, it’s always then just as you’re calming down, the turbulence hits, doesn’t it? And you start tossing around all over the place and it’s very unsettling when the plane starts to shake and judder. And then what you don’t want to hear from the pilot is something like this, there’s something happening with the plane, you don’t want to hear that over the radio. What you will most probably hear is, ladies and gentlemen, we’re hitting the expected turbulence, it should last around five minutes, something like that.
In many ways our Christian life is like such a plane journey. We have trusted God with our lives just like we have entrusted the pilot with our safe passage to our destination. And like the turbulence, there will be times in our Christian lives when things shake us.
So it would be helpful if you could grab a Bible nearby and turn with me to page 1136, if you’ve got a Bible nearby do open it up to page 1136 as we return to Romans chapter 9 beginning at verse 6 which was read to us earlier.
Now in this section of the book of Romans, turbulence has hit even the apostle Paul in his spiritual journey. He’s really shaken by the fact that he observed, has observed, that many of his fellow Jews have not believed in Jesus. He’s shaken up because if Jesus really is God’s special king, if he really is who he says he is, then he’s meant to save the whole nation of Israel.
That was the point of all the prophecies of the Old Testament and the Messiah will come and deliver the whole nation of Israel. But rather than saving them, Jesus has divided them. Many have not followed him like they were meant to. And this has shaken Paul’s faith. It’s a moment of worrying turbulence in his spiritual life.
But notice how our reading began in verse 6. He says it is not as though God’s word had failed. Paul has indeed been shaken up and down and for a while there was no reassuring voice from the pilot. There was the turbulence of doubt in Paul’s mind. This was his doubt: God made a promise to Abraham and his descendants. This promise involved salvation. The Jews are Abraham’s descendants. So salvation is promised to them, but so many of them in Paul’s day had clearly rejected it.
But Paul has now heard the comforting voice of the pilot in his life, the comforting voice of God. Paul, it’s all under control. Because Paul’s been carefully reading his Bible, and he’s come to realise something very important. This is what he says in verse 8: it is not the children by physical descent or in our Bibles. In other words, “it’s not the natural children who are God’s children, but it’s the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring”.
You see, Paul had worried that God had lost control. He thought something unexpected, namely many Jews rejecting Jesus, had thrown God off course. But then he saw it. The problem was not with God. It was with Paul’s expectations of God. So before we dive into looking at what Paul had in fact discovered, think again about the flight.
Now I heard once of one flight where the turbulence got so bad that somebody started screaming. Have you ever been on a flight like that? No, it would be pretty horrible, wouldn’t it? If somebody is so panicky, because then panic spreads, doesn’t it? Each of us will have turbulence in our life, and often it gets so bad that we feel like screaming. Perhaps it’s a worrying diagnosis for you or for a family member. Perhaps it’s a financial issue. What’s going on, you wonder to yourself, has God lost control? Perhaps it’s more like something that’s been a long-term turbulence in our lives, like a loved one who doesn’t seem at all interested in faith. Each of us will have things that threaten to make us panic, and we seriously wonder if we can trust God to be in the pilot seat of our lives.
So returning to Paul, let’s see what he has discovered. He explains it with some examples from the Old Testament, and he says this to the Roman Church that he’s writing to. Think about Isaac and Rebekah’s twin boys, Jacob and Esau. The twins are mentioned in verse 11. The verse says, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose in election might stand, not by works of i him who calls, he was told the older will serve the younger. Now, she is Rebekah, the children’s mother. Paul saying, even before any moral judgment could be made about Jacob being a good guy and Esau being a bad guy, Jacob was predicted as being on top.
Now that might sound strange, even unfair. How is it that God’s already said, before these boys have done anything, that Jacob is going to rule over Esau? Well, the point isn’t that Jacob was a better person. These two babies in the womb have not done anything good or bad yet. The point is that salvation was never about being a better person. It was always about God’s mercy. God had a plan for his people, and that plan involved Jacob not Esau, even though strictly Esau was the first born son of Isaac because he came out first. God’s plan through Jacob is not because Jacob was better or more worthy than Esau, but as Paul explained simply because God’s expert control of all history had ordained it. Paul spells out his important discovery in verse 16, a bit further down the page. He says, is that is salvation and God’s purposes do not therefore depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
So let’s return to the turbulence on your flight. Now imagine you’re in the plane, and the turbulence gets really bad. The plane is beginning to lurch upwards and downwards at an alarming rate. You don’t hear from the pilot five minutes past, ten minutes past. You don’t hear anything. And so as you recognise that the plane is starting to tip downwards, you think, right, somebody’s got to do something. You unbuckle your seat, you go into the cabin, and you see the loads of lights are flashing and alarms are going off, and nobody’s sat in the pilot seats. Instead of a pilot and copilot, you find a post-it note which says, good news, you’re in control.
Here’s the point. There are many things in life where it is good news that we’re not in control, but the expert is. I wouldn’t want to do my own surgery. I wouldn’t want to do my own dentistry. I wouldn’t want to have to fly a plane by myself. I like having the expert in charge in such situations.
So let’s return to Paul’s turbulence. He’s worried that because many Jews have not come to saving faith in Jesus, God has lost control. But he’s made an important discovery. The discovery is that when it comes to salvation, it is good news that the expert is in control and that humans are not.
Think about it for a second. If salvation is all up to human control and not God’s, it has very worrying ramifications. It would mean that those people who do choose salvation are better people. God’s put something on offer and something good or moral or worthy or better in them has led to them choosing it. And it means that those who don’t choose it are inherently worse. There’s something inherently bad or nasty or wrong in them so that when salvation is offered to them, they say, no, thank you, I don’t want that. What is it that the Bible really says? The good people are saved and bad people aren’t.
Did you get that impression from reading through the Gospels, the biographies of Jesus’ life? Did he say, well, I’m going to hang around with the good people and I’m not going to bother with the bad people? It was the opposite. He said, I’ve come to spend time with sinners.
So here’s another ramification of humans being in control of salvation. If that would be the case, then none of us would really know if we were going to make it to heaven. When you commit a terrible sin, that turbulence would make you desperate for reassurance. And so you rush to the cockpit of your life, the place of spiritual control, and you find a post-it note from God which says, good news, you’re in control. You sort it out. But that’s no comfort because it was our own weakness and failure which drove us to the comfort of a trustworthy pilot in the first place.
And so this doctrine of election, sometimes called, and I know this is a scary word for many people, predestination, found in the articles, is actually meant, as the articles say, to be a great comfort. This doctrine means that your salvation doesn’t ultimately depend on your skill, your goodness, or your performance. It doesn’t depend on your background. It doesn’t even depend on your initial desire for God, but on His mercy. That’s why you can trust Him in the turbulence. If it were up to you, you’d probably crash, but God holds the controls.
So let me say it again. There are many things in life in which it’s good news that the expert is in control. So let’s return to those turbulences we were considering earlier, a turbulence perhaps in your life. Do you think God is saying to you, good news, you’re in control. You sort it out. Do you feel like it’s up to you to solve the problem? That can be a great and almost intolerable weight upon us if we feel it’s all up to us.
Well, this morning, I want to say this, that the comforting voice of the pilot is speaking to you. He says, my beloved child, I know such turbulence can be painful, especially when some around you are screaming, but it’s no surprise to me. It will not last forever. I am in control and you are completely safe. If anyone is qualified to be responsible for this situation, it’s me. So this morning, can I encourage you to take a leaf out of Paul’s book? His worry was soothed by the scriptures.
There’s a verse that will speak to you, that will comfort you in your storm, just like it did for Paul. And the advantage of the internet these days is it can help you find that verse. And can I encourage you to give that turbulence to God? The joy of Christianity is that it’s not a one-way conversation. You can speak to the expert. He longs to hear from you. So this coming week, can I encourage you to do three things?
First of all, name that turbulence. Be honest with God about it. What is the area of life that’s shaking you up?
Secondly, find one verse that speaks to it. Ask the internet, ask a Christian friend, ask me. Pin it up, write it out.
And thirdly, every time that turbulence flares up, speak this truth to yourself that God is in control. I’m not the pilot, and that’s good news.
So finally, how do we know God is in control? What’s the guarantee, the evidence of it? Well, because he didn’t just steer the turbulence, he entered it.
Jesus faced the storm of sin, death and judgment, so you could know his love in your worst moments.