Why is the doctrine of predestination relevant for the Christian life?
Group 1 – Read Acts 18:1-11
1) What happened to Paul in Corinth that God spoke to him one night in a vision, v9?
- Why did Paul need such comforting at that time, v6?
2) In what sense did God have many people in that city?
- Did the vision say this because Paul already had a large group of converts?
- Or did God intend to encourage Paul by telling him that God had predestined many in that city to become believers later on?
3) If God predestined certain people in Corinth to be saved, and if his immutable will must come to pass anyway, why was it nonetheless necessary for Paul to stay and work there?
4) How do God’s promises (incl. knowledge of predestination) incite Christians to good works rather than diminishing their efforts? cf e.g. Jn 1:42; Heb 6:11-12; 2Pet 1:4
Group 2 – Read 2Pet 1:1-7
1) Read v5 again: What does v5 ask us to do?
- How will this look like in practice?
2) Why will Christians do this, i.e. where are they told to find the motivation for doing good? Hint:
- v3 and v4 have one keyword in common: Which one?
- How can such ‘granting’ become the very reason for good works?
3) What does it mean to be “…called by his own glory and goodness” (NIV), v3?
- cf v1: How did believers receive faith if not through their own free-willed righteous decision?
4) Read again v4. What do the starting words “Through these…” refer to grammatically?
- Hint: To our own “life and godliness” or to “…his own glory and goodness”? ➔
5) Why did Peter teach his readers that they were called by God’s “own glory and goodness”? ➔
- How are these instrumental for some to “become partakers in the divine nature”, v4, while for others they mean nothing? cf Ro 5:5; Jn 14:15
- How do God’s glory and goodness make a calling more ‘effectual’ in some than in others? cf Jn 5:24-25; 6:45; 8:43; Ro 10:16-17; Eph 1:13
Group 3 – Read 2Pet 1:5-11
1) v5 reminds Christians what motivates their “every effort” to grow in virtue and brotherly love: What is that? What motivates them?
[Faith in God’s promise of (predestined) salvation that he himself rescues us from corruption caused by sinful desires]
- By contrast, the following verses (v8-11) now focus on the purpose and benefits of these efforts: What benefits can you find in these verses? (Hint: Peter named at least four of them)
2) v9: What limited the effort and growth in virtue of those addressed here by Peter?
- How does such forgetfulness differ from having no faith?
- Where does that insight lead you to obtain help with your spiritual ‘eye sight’?
4) Read again v10: If God’s will of predestination is immutable, what does it mean to “make your calling and election sure”?
- And what can make you more eager to do so? cf Heb 6:11-12
Group 4 – Read Heb 6
1) This chapter deals with two impossibilities: What are they?
- v4: impossible to restore them again to repentance
- v18: it is impossible for God to lie ==>
- consider the context: impossible to lie about what exactly?
- What was the “unchangeable thing”?
- Unchangeable for whom?
- What would it mean if Abraham could have changed it?
- Did God take a risk that Abraham might not be sufficiently “long-suffering” (v15) and instead lose faith in God and his salvation?
- What did God do when Abraham was about to give up, first in Egypt and then with Hagar, to mess up God’s plan of salvation by taking other wives? =>
- Was the promise only unchangeable for Abraham, or for all believers? vv18-19 =>
- How then is apostasy from the faith possible?
2) Heb 6 is notorious for conflicting interpretations among expositors. To quote one commentator (R. Bruce Compton):
The warning passage in Heb 6:4-6 continues to be a notorious crux in New Testament interpretation. The difficulty comes in harmonizing the description in Heb 6:4-5 of those who have “tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit” with the statement in Heb 6:6 about their falling away‚ and not being able to be brought back to repentance.
Compton then summarizes 4 conflicting views as follows:
- True believers falling away (apostasy), who therefore lose salvation;
- True believers falling away (apostasy), who therefore lose reward (though not salvation);
- True believers falling away hypothetically, who would lose salvation (only if this were possible);
- False believers who no longer deceive themselves to be believers and thus remain condemned.
3) What is your conviction what this text is saying? ➔
What difficulties do you find are associated with your own view? [If they see none, let others challenge them with one critical question that they can then try to answer, e.g. :
- In 1Jn 2:19 apostasy by definition reveals that there was never “true faith” (“they were not of us”) : They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One,…
- If apostates were never true believers (1Jn 2:19), they were never saved in the first place, hence they cannot lose a reward that they never had.
- cf the parable of the sower (Mt 13): If the soil where the seed could not grow a root were hypothetical, the parable and its warning (as well as Heb 6) would seem like empty threats
- The challenge of this view is that it judges apostates as condemned beyond all possibility of regeneration, no matter how sincere their faith appeared. This view implies that one can have a false assurance of salvation. Nevertheless, the same chapter Heb 6:19 and e.g. Heb 10:22 teach that genuine assurance is possible and important for our spiritual health.
4) In the parable of the sower (Mt 13; Mk 4), Jesus mentioned three types of infertile ground. Which one(s) resemble the group warned in Heb 6? Why? =>
- In what sense can this group be called “partakers in the Holy Spirit” even though they differ from the fertile soil?
5) vv 6:12 & 15: How can you know whether you yourself are a true believer with a solid reason to trust that you have been saved? cf Heb 3:6; 4:14; Col 1:22-23
[(Only) by patiently holding on to God’s promise of salvation]
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