A Very Merry COVID ChristmasSample

Praise God—You Are Predestined

In my 13-year ministry as a pastor, I’ve found few things harder to teach clearly than predestination. The idea that God has preplanned for some people to be saved raises a million hands with billions of questions/objections.

So what better topic to tackle today than that one!

Forgive me for avoiding a thorough theological explanation, but I’d prefer to cover the topic of predestination like Paul did with the Christians from Ephesus, in a way that’s bookended with praise and stuffed with good news. Check out Paul’s words from the longest sentence he ever wrote in the Bible: “In love [God] predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:4-6). Notice a few things:

First, God predestined us. While complex and often mysterious, the subject, verb, and direct object of this sentence is clear. God predestined us. Pre-Creation, God gave us a destiny.

Second, God predestined us for adoption. Every Christian’s destiny was to get into God’s family. Our Father wanted us back under his roof, back at his table, feasting with him in glory and filling our souls with the smile on his heavenly face. The end goal was God himself.

Third, God predestined us for adoption in love. The reason for God picking you to become his child was pure love. Not your spiritual potential or relative goodness. Not God looking into the future and seeing all the great things you would do to represent him well. No, the cause of him picking you was just grace. Amazing grace. Undeserved love.

Fourth, God predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ. The way we get adopted is by believing in Jesus, the Savior who made us worthy to sit at the table of a holy God. Essentially, God gave you the destiny of hearing the good news about Jesus, and then the Holy Spirit gave you the gift of believing it is true. Through God’s plan and the Spirit’s work, you became a believer! 

Fifth, everything I just said was in accordance with God’s pleasure. In other words, this made God happy. He smiled when he predestined you. God the Father grinned as he looked at the Son and the Spirit and said, “Let’s do this!” Turning you from his enemy into his child was God’s will, the goal that gave him great joy. I can’t prove this with a chapter and verse, but I picture the Trinity doing a giant high five the moment you heard the gospel and believed it. Mission accomplished! 

Finally, the point of predestination is praise. That’s where Paul ends up. Not with a thousand questions about people who don’t believe but with a thousand songs of praise from those who do. “To the praise of his glorious grace!” What undeserved love! What kindness! Wow, God, I don’t get why you picked me . . . but I am so glad you did.

I bet that you’ve spent much of the past year thinking about the pandemic. You’ve picked apart the number of cases, hospitalizations, causes of infection, and political debates. You’ve proven that your brain has the capability to think deeply about an issue. This Christmas, with so many of our beloved traditions being affected, I bet you haven’t stopped thinking about it.

What if you used that same brain to ponder your predestination? Maybe instead of wringing your hands over your plans that fell through, you would raise your hands to praise the plan that didn’t.

God planned it. Even COVID can’t change it.

Praise God for that!