The biblical doctrine of predestination has perplexed Christians for generations. The common confusion comes from this single point. How do we balance God's sovereignty with personal responsibility?
Well, today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl cites Romans chapter 9 for the answer. Along the way, he'll warn us against two dangerous extremes. Taking too much credit for our success and blaming God for our failures. Paul's teaching in Romans 9 isn't abstract theology. It's life-changing truth that brings both comfort in trials and motivation for godly living.
Chuck titled his message, Straight Talk About Predestination. Let me give you four truths of predestination that I think you will find in making sense. Number one. Predestination begins with the sovereign choice of God. It all begins with the sovereign choice of God.
That will take us from verses 6 through 13. It is not as though the Word of God has failed. For the Jews not to be in the family doesn't mean the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel. You see the reason now.
Just because you're born of Abraham's stock doesn't mean you're in the faithful family of the Israelites. That takes faith in the Messiah. Here's the second fact. We're going to see this now in verses 14 to 18. Predestination upholds the perfect character.
Yeah. God is omnipotent, meaning all-powerful. God is eternal. He never had a beginning. He will never have an ending.
God is omniscient. There is nothing He ever learns or discovers. God is omnipresent. Able to be everywhere at one time and no more at one place than at any other. Look at 14.
Here we go. What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be. I mean, he can't be unjust.
He's just. And now he illustrates it through two other people from the Old Testament, Moses first, then Pharaoh. God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. Let that sink in.
That's God's sovereign right. It's God's sovereign right.
So then? It does not depend on the one who wills. It does not depend on the one who runs. But on God Who has mercy. That's the key verse of the chapter.
It's all about God. It's all about upholding his character. Scripture says to Pharaoh, on the other hand, unlike Moses, for this very purpose I raised you up. To demonstrate my power in you, that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole. Earth.
So then, says Paul, He has mercy on whom he desires. He hardens. whom he desires.
Now, I'm giving you a moment to let that sink in because you're not going to read this in the Wall Street Journal. You're not going to get this from the media. You're not going to hear about it from the Civic Center. Or the lower schools, the middle schools, the upper schools, secondary schools, graduate schools, you're not going to get it there. Because it's all about humanity.
It's all about humanism. It's all about how great we are, how great we can become. Just wish it and will it and it's going to happen. This is a postmodern era. And in that world, there is no such thing as right or wrong.
Who has the audacity to call wrong right or right wrong?
So the lines are blurred. until you come back to theology. And then the lines get clearly defined. That's why you must teach your children and you must learn yourself theology. You must learn it.
And you must give up, in your own mind, the American style, which is, the majority is always right. Arnold Toynbee was right when he said it's doubtful the majority has ever been right. We got a whole system based on the majority. Who said the majority is right? Haven't you been in groups where the majority was wrong?
When it comes to theology, the majority is wrong. Biblical theology fights for existence because only the remnant communicate it. Only the remnant believe it. That's why it's so hard to shape yourself to think like God thinks. His perfect character gives him the right to make the choices he chooses.
If it's Moses on whom he will show mercy, it's Moses. If it's Pharaoh on whom he will show wrath, it's because Pharaoh has made those decisions that resulted in that wrath. Which brings me to the third great truth. The third truth is in verses 19 through 23. Predestination identifies the specific responsibility of God.
It identifies the specific responsibility of God. Follow the logic of verse 19. You will say to me, then, why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? Where is he going with this?
Well, I'll tell you. If you say that God's sovereignly in charge, and you take that to the extreme, you're going to ultimately say, God's in charge of my sin. If he's in charge of everything, then he causes me to sin. Wrong? Remember, God is holy.
That's why his character fits so beautifully in the overall plan. When it comes to sin, you calling, you're on your own, you're making your own choice. You're deciding it. He has nothing to do with that. And when you decide, there are consequences that he has a lot to do with.
But you're left to make that decision just like you're left with the gospel. You can choose or reject it. You'll take the result of it. You'll have to live with the results of it. Let me show you a verse of scripture that'll help you.
Three of them, in fact, James 1. Go back, hold your place here and go back to James 1. Beginning of verse 13. Come on now, some of you are getting a little sluggish here. Let's get to James 1, verse 13.
It's going to help. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. I am being tempted by God because, after all, He's sovereign. He's in charge of everything.
So, when I am greedy, God's responsible for that. I'm not responsible for that. When I am selfish, God's responsible because He made me like I am. I mean, that's the way it knows it says. God cannot be tempted by evil.
He himself does not tempt anyone. Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. You're on your own there, baby. The bait is dropped. You are drawn to it.
You decide you're going to go there. The lust is yours. And by that, he means the evil desire. You're carried away. You're drawn into it.
You're tempted. And you yield and you sin. You're on your own. In fact, when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is accomplished, brings forth death. Those are the consequences that come.
Back to Romans 9.
Sounds like it's what he's getting at here. Who will say then, why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? So he's going to clarify what that means. On the contrary, who are you?
I love this. Who are you, Claude? Who are you, old man? Who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, Why did you make me like this?
Will it? Isn't that love? little funny moment. I think Paul is kind of going. Right, when he writes that.
You know, elbow at the side of the person listening. The lump of clay isn't going to say, wait a minute, I didn't want to be a vase. I want to be a bull. Maybe a vase. It doesn't do that.
It just Just I'd try to look like a lump of clay. And he says, I'm going to make a face out of this one.
Okay, and I'm going to make a bowl out of this one. Uh Because that's my sovereign choice. I'm the potter. Look at the next verse. Does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use?
and another for common use. Yeah. He's got the right. That's the artist's prerogative. And by the way, he can only work with what the clay is made of.
He's working with sinful stuff. Which we got from Adam. Not from God.
So, linking us back to our federal head, living with this contamination called sin, we're prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love, prone to run away from him. But what if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared unto destruction? And he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy. And that's us. which he prepared beforehand.
for glory even us. Whom he also called, not just from the Jews, but from the Gentiles also. I said this section identifies the specific responsibility of God.
So let me get more specific. There are certain things you choose and you're on your own to choose. You make a choice whether Jesus Christ is going to be your Lord and Savior or not. That's your choice. Nobody pushes your arm back between your shoulder blades and forces you to say, I give up, I trust Christ.
Nobody can follow you around and fix you spiritually so that you trust Christ. You're on your own. You've got to make that decision. When you make that decision, there are consequences that will follow, especially if you die in that condition. It's called eternal separation from God, hell.
You made the choice and the result is there.
Now there are other things you choose that God isn't. really is not involved with. I made a list of a few. What to eat? That's your choice.
What to fix for lunch? That's your choice. What to drink? What to wear? Where to drive and what to drive.
Where to live and how to live. You can be lazy or industrious. You can be miserly or you can be generous. You can be thoughtful or forgetful. You can be proud or humble.
You can be loud or quiet. You can be hard to get along with. are kind and gracious. There are some things you can't choose. If you're old, you can't choose to be young.
If you're sick, you can't just choose to be well. If you're dying, you can't choose to just live. When death comes, you got it. If you're slow and uncoordinated, you're not going to be a champion athlete. You can't choose to be that.
You could even choose to take your life. God has nothing to do with that. You're so miserable you decide you're going to jump from the 14th floor.
So Halfway down, you can't decide otherwise. You can't say. That was not a good decision. This is not going to have a good ending. Because you're going to have a sudden and very, very abrupt and painful landing.
And God's not going to stop it because there are certain things that are in motion that God doesn't change. You say, oh, I can't put it all together.
Well, welcome to the club. Nobody can put it all together. The names I just read off to you, they didn't put it all together. The prophet I learned from at seminary, they didn't put it all together. The honest ones would say, and that was all of them that I studied under, you come to this point.
Uh nobody can explain it. You can't reconcile all of this together.
So don't try. Stay away from people who do.
Okay. They're goofy. They're goofy. They're spooky people. They carry around tracks that unfold, look like a world map, and they've got charts for everything from blowing your nose to going to bed at night.
Stay away from people like that. Where did that come from? What about say something? From his perspective, we are chosen. He is sovereign.
When we believe there's a magnificent plan that unfolds, when we don't believe it's horror on earth and in eternity, that's part of the plan. That's his plan. And by his grace, he works with you and works with me and brings us to the place where we have the opportunity to become what he would have us be. That explains why there's such variation, because there's cooperation with some and there's not with others. It isn't that complicated.
People get all hung up on what right does God have?
Well, He is the potter if you don't mind. He is sovereign and you ain't. He is in charge and he doesn't stop to ask permission. You know why? Because you wouldn't give a good answer.
And I wouldn't know how to counsel him either. There's the last of the four. Predestination defines the consistent plan of God. It defines The consistent plan. Of God.
That's verses 24 through the end of the chapter. He's called us even among Jews and Gentiles alike. He says also that in Hosea, I will call those who were not my people, my people. And her who was not beloved, my beloved. That's God's sovereign choice.
Isn't it great He included Gentiles? If He hadn't, most of us would have never been able to hear. Most of us were not born into Jewish families. We knew nothing of tradition. We were born in Gentile homes that have no spiritual roots whatever, not even religious.
And by his grace, He entered into our ranks. And chose us. Jesus himself said, You've not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you. Moses said to the people of Israel that God did not choose you because you were more in number than any people, you were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you, He set His love upon you.
Deuteronomy 7, verses 6, 7, and 8. Check it out for yourself. The reason God chose you, He loves you. Why does He love you? Beats me.
Beats me. Why do you love me? That really beats me. Why would he ever, ever, ever want me? It's called grace.
It's called grace. Thank God he didn't number my bad stuff against my good stuff. because it'd always come out in the losing end. He saw me as trusting his son for righteousness, and he accepted me. And he's now left me.
with choices that are either healthy or unhealthy. And if they're unhealthy or healthy, he sovereignly steps in. with the blessings or the consequences. To me, there are two responses that are extreme. teaching like this, okay?
Let's get these down. There are two extreme responses. The first is the more common of the two. I do it all myself. I'm a self-made man.
I got my own education. I've been on my own since I was three. I was on the street working my way. When I was five, I walked uphill to school both ways. In the snow.
I've done it all on my own. I'm going to keep doing it on my own. Because I'm going to show God that I am fully responsible. Very active. and very wrong.
Because in the final analysis, you're not going to spend eternity with him. He doesn't care how hard you work or how much effort you've put forth. He cares that you go with his plan.
Now the other extreme is really pious. I do nothing. God does it all. He does it all. Really?
Who dressed you to day? If you say God, they're going to put you in a funny farm. You dressed yourself. Who put gas in your tank? You did.
Who balances your checkbook? You do. Who mows your grass, you do or somebody you hire does? Who makes you disciplined and not you do? You don't sovereignly make you discipline that you do it.
How come you're fat? Because you eat too much. How come you've done these things that are wrong? Because you like it. You like to do that.
You're a sinner. I'm a sinner. I mean this whole idea of God That's it all. And I just wait for him. You know there's a name for people like that called unemployed.
Hungry. You don't have a job? Get your buns out there on the road and work up your resume and get another job. Why? Because you're responsible for that.
Don't hide behind sovereignty or predestination. I'm not predestined to have a job. Really? Well, I'm not predestined to support you, I'll tell you that. We have a little fun with all of this.
You got to, or you crack up. Let me tell you about my experience. Years ago, I was a I was an intern at Dallas Seminary. I was out with Ray Stedman at Peninsula Bible Church. We were between our second and third year.
In a four-year course. I remember we brought along, we lived with a guy named Gibb Martin. Gib was a buddy of mine, and Gib was a sovereignist. to the max. I mean, every time he spit, God led him to spit.
And every time he. Belched. God led him to belch it. Every time he. Sin that was God was in it was ridiculous, Gib.
You're out to lunch.
Now, I'm on the other hand, I was more Wesleyan. Mine was all about what I do.
So I struggled and I struggled and we argued. Oh, did we argue? Cynthia was in the middle. Saying at times, please, couldn't we just have supper rather than solve the sovereign issue of the universe? And um Well, Gibbs, great.
He's balanced out today, and I'm still trying to get there. Anyway, I said to Ray one day: Ray, I'm going nuts. He said, Oh, you just now found out. No, no, Ray said. Ray said to me What are you afraid of?
Which is a great question. I said, I didn't say I was afraid of. He said, No, what are you afraid of? How come you're afraid of the doctrine of God's sovereignty? And I blinked and I looked out the window and looked down and looked down.
looked back up and I said, I'm afraid I'll lose my zeal for the lost. I'm afraid that I If I really do believe this. I'll go through life as a minister and I'll just get real passive. And I won't care about the laws because after all, they're elect. And he said, you need to remember it's Spurgeon.
who said if uh God had painted a stripe down the back of the elect. I'd spend my days walking up and down the streets of London lifting up shirttails. But because he said, whosoever will may come, I preach the gospel to everyone. And I rely on him to lead those. to faith.
Better his. That was a great help. It was a great help. You know what? I'm going to tell you something, folks.
To this day, I believe right along with the grace of God, one of my favorite doctrines. I love the sovereignty. of God. But d d does it make me passive? Do I look passive?
I'm active when I sleep, so I'm not passive. But you know what? I don't know how many times this summer I took Synth in my arms. And I said to her through tears, God is sovereign even In This. And she said, and let's never forget it.
Let's never forget it. What we are going through is not an accident. It's part of the plan. And it's mysterious. It's mysterious.
You think you got it all figured out? You're surprised. It's like Habakkuk, the prophet. Ministering to a group of people who were so honory, he says. Lord, look how terrible things are.
Justice is not found, and priests are going nuts, and there's greed, and there's lust. And the Lord says, You know, relax. Habakkuki have a plan. I know, Lord, but when are you going to do something? How long do I have to wait?
Why are you doing it? The Lord says to him, You know, if I told you. You wouldn't believe it. Bacchuk says, Oh, no, tell me. He says, Okay, I'm sending the Chaldeans who are worse people than your people, and I'm going to wipe them out.
He says, I don't believe it. I can't believe it. Why? Because it's God's mysterious, sovereign plan sometimes to use a worse situation to deal with a bad one. That's not what we do.
We don't like worse. If I had my way, all of you would win the lottery. If I had my way, all of you would be healthy. If I had my way, all of you would be wonderfully generous, gracious, kind people. I don't have my way.
Furthermore, I'm not like that. in God's sovereign plan. Through all the mystery of his will, he's working it out. for his glory and for our good. Rest in that.
Time. Relax.
Okay. Unless you're not a Christian. And I hope you never rest. Until you are. Hope you find no sleep.
No relief. Hope your food doesn't digest. I I hope your dreams don't happen. I hope you will find misery until You discover his mercy. Let's bow together.
If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, Uh nobody here is gonna corner you or embarrass you. See, we can't tell by looking, so all of you look saved. to everybody else, but You know if you're lost. you know if you've never trusted Christ. I'm not talking about doing good.
I'm not talking about earning your way in. I'm talking about trusting Christ. If you've never trusted him, You're a big part of this subject today. Because you're missing out. in a plan that's too good for words.
And somehow, in God's mystery, He's let you go this far. But it's getting tighter and harder. Your misery is intensifying. Today's the day. Trust him.
Believe on the Lord Jesus. you will be saved. Thank you, Father, that you're not in a hurry. Thank you, Father, that you are in charge of it all, not just the good stuff. Thank you that, like a good father, you'd let consequences run their course.
Thank you, Father. for being our father.
Now, there are some with deep wounds and bleeding. bruised bodies and hearts.
Somehow, Lord, I pray that you'll use the bruises. the bleeding, the brokenness. to bring them to faith. And Lord, please. Keep people out of their way who would be offensive.
Pushy. Let's Yeah. Let you do your work. You're able to do that. Through sleepless nights.
Heartbreaking. Moments now, Lord, we rest our Souls with you. We're so grateful you're the potter.
So grateful you're the shepherd. You're the king. In the name of Jesus. We worship you. As our God, Savior, everyone is amen.
God sovereignly chooses whom He saves based on His grace alone. not on human merit. This truth should humble us, increase our evangelistic zeal, and provide comfort knowing that our salvation rests entirely on His unchanging character and perfect plan. You're listening to Insight for Living. Chuck Swindahl titled this study in Romans 9: Straight Talk About Predestination.
Did you realize that in addition to his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote nearly half the books in the New Testament? And many believe that Romans was Paul's finest work because it describes God's character and the gospel of Jesus Christ with depth and clarity. This is an essential book for believers to understand. both seasoned students of the Bible and brand new Christians. To guide you in your personal study of Romans, Insight for Living offers an interactive spiral-bound Bible study workbook.
It's part of our popular Searching the Scriptures Bible studies. and because of the scope of Paul's letter, our Bible study comes in two workbooks. You'll find all the details for ordering both volumes at insight.org/slash offer. or call us at 800-772-8888. And that I'd like to draw your attention to a new book from Chuck called Looking in All the Right Directions.
Drawing from Paul's wise counsel to his protégé Timothy, This book features the final five sermons Chuck delivered to the congregation that he shepherded for more than 25 years. From his heart, Chuck spoke about mentoring, enduring hardship, and using your God-given gifts. you'll want to absorb the biblical wisdom that's captured in this book. It would also make a thoughtful gift for your pastor. Again, it's called looking in all the right directions.
To purchase a copy, call 800-772-8888. or go to insight.org slash offer. Insight for Living is made possible not through the sale of books and resources, but by the generous gifts of grateful friends just like you. To give a donation today, go to insight.org slash donate. Are you still fuzzy about the meaning of predestination?
I'm Bill Meyer. Don't miss Chuck Swindahl's clarifying message Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Straight Talk About Predestination, was copyrighted in 2007, 2010, and 2025. and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl Incorporated.
All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
