Predestination Part II - Promises to One Descendant

Do We Know Predestination at all?

Part Two – “Predestined in Christ” - Promises Made to One Descendant.

Written by Dan McDonald

            This is the second of a four part blog on what I imagine to be at the heart of St. Paul’s understanding of predestination.  When St. Paul speaks of the doctrine of predestination he often includes the phrase “in Christ”.  In my opinion this is not a forced add-on ending to his description of predestination, but a focused summary of his understanding of predestination.

            I would suggest that for the Apostle Paul the doctrine of predestination was first and foremost the story of how God the Father chose from the very beginning to create, redeem and bring to final perfection the work of creation.  This was to be done in, by, through and for His Son Jesus Christ, who in turn would represent and present the completed work to the glory of His Father.  In this blog we look at the concept of a chosen people and how their being chosen is connected to God’s choice not of many seeds, but of one seed.  This viewpoint is expressed in the Book of Galatians, but also in Ephesians 2 where the temple is built around the chosen cornerstone and living stones are added into it always connected to the cornerstone.  Jesus described himself in Mark 13 as the stone chosen by God and rejected by the builders.  I believe what I present in this particular blog has the support of Holy Scripture.  There is specifically one person chosen by God from before the foundation of the earth and in him all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

I wage no battles against a scientific view of creation, but there is a particular view from the Christian tradition that I refuse to give up.  St. Bonaventure described God “as the one whose center is everywhere and whose boundary is nowhere.”  That is I believe an essential understanding of the cosmos for the Christian.  It is also a particularly important understanding for the Christian when it comes to predestination and our relationship to God’s love.  When we are predestined in Christ, when in Christ we know the love of God, God’s center is everywhere, it is everywhere that Christ is, and if we are in Christ we are in the center of God’s love.  And this love has no boundaries.  It is as the Psalmist perceived who could not escape God by ascending into the skies, nor in discovering the bottoms of the seas.  Wherever we go he is there.  This is something of what must have crossed St. Paul’s mind when he thought of himself as predestined in Christ, granted to be joined to the one predestined from before the foundation of the earth and to know the same love from God the Father that the Father extended to his eternally begotten Son.  It is a love where we are always in the center and never beyond the boundaries.

St. Paul’s understanding of predestination becomes clearer if we consider what Paul taught the Galatians.  In Galatians 3:16 the Apostle Paul wrote:  Now the promises were made to Abraham and his offspring (or seed).  It does not say “and to offsprings,” (or seeds) referring to many; but, referring to one, “And to your offspring,” which is Christ.”  The Apostle Paul tells us that God’s promises made to the patriarchs, to Israel, and for that matter to us, always were focused as promises for and towards one seed, our Lord Jesus Christ.  One of the ramifications of this teaching is that when God made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the patriarchs were being chosen not in and of themselves but on the basis of the offspring whom God would send into the world through them.  This brings a wonderful dimension to Jesus’ conversation with the religious leaders when he said “before Abraham I am.”  Abraham was not merely a historical figure to the second person of the Trinity but his friend for whom he would lay down his life.

            Do you see how what Paul describes to the Galatians should impact our view of predestination?  Predestination always has had as its chief focus the person of Jesus Christ, who would in fullness of Deity become fullness of humanity to bring together the above of heaven and the beneath of earth so that we pray unto the Father, “Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  A predestination that has us as Christians as the central focus of the doctrine of predestination surely is as mistaken as the predestination understood by many of Israel’s religious leaders who felt Israel was the focus of predestination.  In both instances there is the danger that our attempt to see ourselves as predestined might blind us from seeing Christ as the chosen one of God.  He is our predestination.  Predestination is all wrapped up from origin to destiny in the person of Jesus Christ.  There is but one blessed seed, one lone stone, one Lord and Savior through whom all the families of the earth shall be named and through which all the families of earth shall be blessed.  God has chosen this one descendant that all the nations might be blessed forevermore.