(WCF 3.5–8) Double Predestination: Delightful, Directional, Dumbfounding, and Delicate - James Hakim
One of the most difficult doctrines for us is predestination. We simply don’t like how out-of-control it makes us that the Lord must be entirely in control of our salvation. We don’t like to feel so unable and so unworthy that our salvation must be entirely by His ability and His worthiness. But these are simply facts about us and about redemption.
We also find it quite unpleasant to admit or remember that every one of us entered this world willfully rejecting and despising God and that we deserve eternal torment for it. It is admittedly difficult to endure considering what the wicked will be unable to endure—suffering “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2Th 1:9). But these are the facts about those who are not redeemed.
So, we are not surprised that this doctrine of “Double Predestination” has been hotly disputed for centuries. The genius of our Confession on this point is not only that it states the doctrine accurately, but that it presents Predestination in its biblical beauty and balance.
Delightful Predestination (3.5). Of “those of mankind that are predestinated unto life” the Confession says: “God, before the foundation of the world was laid […] hath chosen in Christ.” The language is quoted directly from Eph 1:4, in which the apostle is laying down the first verses of a glorious, twelve-verse-long sentence of thanksgiving. It comes from God’s own delight to save. This is how the selection of election was made:“according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will.” They would be “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:13).
Our Confession goes on to say “without any foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto.” To put this in the exact Bible words, the selection of election is independent of the work of man, either “good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him Who calls” (Rom 9:11). This predestining is merely “according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph 1:5).
Glorifying and enjoying Him as His children is that unto which the elect are predestined: “everlasting glory.” He has predestined them “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren […] glorified” (Rom 8:29,30)!
Saving was not at all obligatory upon Him, and would be very costly to Him, but it has delighted Him to give life out of pure free grace and love. And this is just part of the way in which He presents Himself as the object of the believer’s delight. It is all very—literally—delightful, “all to the praise of His glorious grace.” Again, the confession directly quotes from Eph 1:6 (cf. Eph 1:12, 14).
Directional Predestination (3.6). Does predestination mean that it doesn’t matter what is done by the elect or the passed-by? Of course not! The Lord has not only destined the end but has directed the path by which He brings the elect to salvation—that they, “being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by His power through faith, unto salvation.”
God conducts the great symphony of His redemption, directing each believer through the movements through which His wisdom and mercy have determined to bring the elect to glory. “It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves […] for we are His workmanship;” and, all of the good works along the way were “prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:8, 10).
Our assigned route to predestined glory begins in Spirit-given belief and proceeds, by that belief, through sanctification unto the salvation forwhich we have been chosen (2Thess 2:13). Predestination is not unto a salvation regardless of what is dune, but rather unto every step by which God saves. This is why Scripture asserts a numerical identity between each group in the “golden chain” of Rom 8:29–30: “for whom He foreknew, He also predestined […]; moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
Dumbfounding Predestination (3.7). It is a mistake to think that people perish for being unchosen. “Dishonor and wrath” come not for being unchosen but “for their sin.” This doesn’t do away with the conundrum over how many God saves or why He doesn’t save more. But our inability to comprehend it doesn’t disprove the doctrine of predestination. It simply reminds us that God is further above us than men are above mud.
Our perplexity shuts our mouths with the reminder that God is God, and we are not. We are dumbfounded, silenced. “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have You made me like this?’” (Rom 9:20). Wisdom in this area demands humility, and our confession wisely acknowledges the “unsearchable counsel” behind this “passing by.” Even the difference between “predestined” and “passed by” acknowledges a secondary priority for the latter (cf. Rom 9:22–23).
Delicate Predestination (3.8). Handle with care. That’s the directive of the last paragraph of this chapter in our confession. The preceding paragraphs relate the doctrine in biblical balance and proportion. But many of us have heard the doctrine worn as a badge of superiority rather than humility, or an accelerant of self-delight instead of fuel for praise.How dreadful it would be to mishandle something so glorious and beneficial—to bring shame by that which is so beautifully designed to bring God praise! When a doctrine may be wielded either to much good or much ill, surely it must be handled with care.