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Sometimes a term becomes so associated with a particular group that it is almost impossible to think of the term without the group entering our minds. For example, upon hearing the term tongues in its religious sense, many of us automatically think of Pentecostalism. When someone mentions tongues, or when we read about them in the Scripture, we think of the tongues of Pentecostalism. It’s hard to think about tongues in any other way. The same thing has happened with predestination. When we read in the Scriptures about predestination, we automatically think of Calvinism and Calvinistic-Augustinian predestination. Yet when we look at Biblical predestination without connecting it with Calvin’s and Augustine’s predestination, we may be surprised.

We find the English terms predestinate and predestinated in only two chapters in the King James translation, Romans 8 and Ephesians 1. Let’s look at each of these separately.

Romans 8 describes the work of the Spirit in a Christian’s life, showing how the Spirit gives man the power to live righteously. Those who have the Spirit walk in righteousness, and those who do not have the Spirit walk in unrighteousness. The Spirit gives the power that makes man able to live righteously. Paul clearly describes God’s great plan of redemption for a fallen world. Christ’s coming to earth gives us the Spirit. The Spirit’s infilling breaks man free from his fallen nature, so that now man can serve God. The Spirit makes man free of the requirement to follow desires of his body. But, Paul explains, someday even the body itself will be delivered from sin! The body will no longer desire sin, but righteousness! We are waiting for that time, but now, while we wait, the Spirit is working for us, and all things are working together for our good.

In verse 29, Paul explains the reason these things are working for our good. God foreknew who would be saved, and He planned that they would be righteous, like Christ—He predestinated them “to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” The sentence does not end with the word predestinate, showing us that Paul is not referring to a particular concept that he calls predestination; rather, he is showing us that God predestinated (decided ahead of time) that those whom He already knew would be saved, as shown by the word foreknow, would be made like Christ. This is the predestination that the Scripture speaks of here, further filling out the truth presented in the beginning of the chapter, that God had planned from the beginning that the Spirit would purify all Christians. “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” (I John 3:8) Jesus came to make people able to please God—God had predestinated this.

This is the Biblical concept of predestination. With this in mind, let’s move to the passage in Ephesians that refers to predestination.

Ephesians 1:3-12 (emphasis mine):

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

When we look at the first time that predestinated occurs in this passage, we can see that Paul’s focus is much the same as it is in Romans. He is explaining that God determined before (predestinated) that those who trusted in Him would have the adoption of children. The second time that predestinated occurs, it is apparently referring to the inheritance, to God’s plan to give us the inheritance. He defines who “we” means in the last verse of this section, “who first trusted in Christ.” He’s not telling us that God saw unrepentant sinners and forced some into repentance and salvation, and others into hardening and condemnation, but rather that God saw those who were willing to meet His conditions, and He took them and gave them the inheritance. He made them His children. He made them able to glorify Him. He made them able to live in uprightness.

God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9) Because of this, He sent His Son to earth to fulfill God’s plan for redemption, that He might be “the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” (I Timothy 4:10)