At a Disciple-Now weekend, a speaker became frustrated with two seventh-grade boys who were acting out as he tried to teach the Bible. With a scowl, he reprimanded them and said, “Do you know why you all cannot focus on what I am teaching? You are not the elect. You can’t get it because you are destined for destruction.” While I am sure he now had their undivided attention, I had serious concerns about his strategy. I was not happy with message or method. Do you believe in predestination? Are some predestined to be saved and others predestined to be lost? Is this predetermination irrevocable?
As Paul dialogued with the Jewish leaders, he met with mixed success. Some of them believed in Jesus. Others were not convinced. Paul took that moment to get their attention. He pointed to Isaiah’s encounter with God in the temple, recorded in Isaiah 6. When God asked, “Who will go for us?” Isaiah answered, “Here I am. Send me.” Then God told him that his work of persuading would be difficult. Isaiah was commanded to tell the stubborn people of his day, “You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; ever seeing but not perceiving.” Does this mean that the ancient Israelites and the Jews in Rome had no chance?
Let’s listen to the rest of God’s words to Isaiah which Paul quoted to the crowd. God said that some people’s hearts had become calloused. They covered their eyes and complained that they couldn’t see. As they plugged their ears they complained they couldn’t hear. The best part begins with “Otherwise . . .” They might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts and turn, and God would heal them. It sounds to me like Isaiah was saying they had a chance. God wanted to heal them. What if the reprimand is intended not to judge the destiny of the listeners but to provoke them to believe?
Paul’s work in Rome clarifies our evangelistic motives. God does not will for any to perish, but all to come to eternal life (2 Peter 3:9). If people resist God for long enough, their hearts may become desensitized to the Spirit’s plea. A woman listened to her new pastor for a year and thought she complimented him when she said, “Pastor, I am so grateful that you do not tell us we are going to hell if we do not believe in Jesus.” The Pastor shrugged and said, “But I do preach that.” She pondered his words and said, “True. But you don’t sound like you want us to go there.”
Nowhere this side of heaven can you and I declare definitively who the elect ones are. Those who believe are the elect. As long as we are alive, there is still a chance for us. It is not too late for people to believe. Neither is it too early! Once we believe, we are predestined irrevocably to become like Jesus (Romans 8:29). We have not yet reached that goal. But we will.
